Interesting take on the Japanese market from a PSN developer.
Japan not the gaming mecca it once was
Insider believes games carry less respect than before
by Luke Guttridge
10 december 2007
Speaking to Level Up, Q-Games boss Dylan Cuthbert, creator of the PixelJunk series, has stated his belief that Japan isn't the gaming epicenter it once was. Speaking as a westerner with intimate knowledge of regional business, the former Nintendo staffer said that games aren't as culturally important as they once were.
Cuthbert recently released PixelJunk Racers in Japan via the PlayStation Network, but the designer revealed that the download service as a whole has so far failed to take off in Japan, partly because of the country's skepticism about credit card purchases. "Pre-paid cards are definitely the way to go forward to solve these problems, but they only rolled out recently, so we'll just have to wait and see," he told Level Up.
He also believes that the importance and 'seriousness' of games in Japan has fallen, affirming that "over here the gaming culture was affected adversely by advancing mobile phone tech."
"In reality though, gaming has become less central and more a standard commodity; the Wii and DS have proved this with their huge demographic range. People want to play games, but without the huge investment of time and money games used to take up," he explained, stating that the industry now circles around a handful of "God-like presences".
