Is the Japanese gaming industry in crisis? (BBC article)

[Scoobes]

Mr Khan said:

Scoobes said:

As others have pointed out, Japanese publishers are still making more money than the Western publishers. Smaller Japanese devs may be struggling and the perception that the Japanese industry is struggling is more to do with the fact that much of Japanese development has migrated to handhelds. Console (software) sales are down overall but they still manage to make money.

The other issue is that in terms of technology, Japan is very far behind the West. Even the best looking Japanese games are only average on a technical level.

But that also comes into the issue of the West and Japan largely catering to two different segments. The consoles the West has focused on are themselves more technologically advanced, so it makes sense that the West has the edge there because the primary realm they're engaged in is itself more technologically advanced, so they have more expertise there

Someone could point to the grand, technologically ambitious The Old Republic from BioWare, a PC MMO, and compare it to the clumsy FFXIV from Square Enix and talk about Japanese regression, but put BioWare on the DS and you get Sonic Chronicles. Put Square Enix on the DS? You get Dragon Quest IX

It's not just that though. I mean Japanese devs could produce some pretty advanced stuff in the past. I think in recent years and in particularly this gen, PC devs have migrated and brough techniques such as shader effects and normal mapping that Japanese devs don't utilise as well as their Western counterparts. 

I think it's just as much to do with more PC devs moving into the consoles space as it is different design philosophies and market segments.