statistics : half of america are gamers

C'mon. Let common sense rule for once. The question was "Which nations have contributed the most to gaming?" There is the whole history of console gaming to look at here.

How the hell can the UK be No.1. They produce no console and without a console what are you gonna play console games on.

It has to be Japan because they took the industry to another level and got their consoles in tens of millions of homes. Gaming is where it is at now mainly because of their developements. The country produces hardware and software.

USA got the ball rolling but Japan stole the game. US is a much respected second. Again they produce HW and SW.

The UK does SW pretty much like everyone else and if you want to put them in third because the have more developers or sell more games or whatever then fair enough.



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Yeah, but that's just this gen, really.  I'm talking cummulative.  Japan is the clear number 1 I believe, with PS1, PS2 and years and years of big selling Mario, etc titles and with Nintendo really dominating this gen.  However I feel US has really grabbed the lead recently for oveall software sales (which I understand is your point) and if it keeps us current trends then there may well be a point where cummulatively US would be number 1.  Also, the Xbox/360 should be given credit as a big factor in this - who would have thought a US console would get anywhere?

Japan has to be first, as far as I'm concerned. On a personal level thanks to things like Zelda, Metroid, the Mega Drive Sonic games, Treasure...
But in terms of the Japanese contribution to the games industry, nothing matches what Nintendo did in the 80's/90's with NES rebuilding the games industry followed by the SNES (which of course, was in heavy competition with another Japanese giant, Sega and their Mega Drive-great games were had by all), which then brought Sony into the market. The success of the PS1 and PS2 brought millions of gamers into the market and popularised older franchises like Metal Gear and Final Fantasy, while bringing us new franchises. Then of course comes the Wii, which has again opened up gaming to even more people. On the software side, the impact of franchises like Mario, Resident Evil, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Zelda and now the Wii Series can't be ignored. And that's only a handful.

And let's not forget the portable industry Nintendo have dominated with Game & Watch, Game Boy, GBA and now DS.

America has to be number 2, of course. And I need my dinner so I won't be able to ramble on any more...

For console gaming:

1) Japan (easy one. While Atari may have been American, Nintendo (who brought gaming back from a crash), Sony (who won two generations), Sega (considered to have the best first party of all time), Capcom, Konami, the list goes on.) EDIT: Square (and Enix I guess). I can't not mention the company who made upwards of 30 Final Fantasy games, Super Mario RPG, the Mana series... also Namco.

2) America (also easy. Atari, Microsoft (Windows, the Xbox), Blizzard, Activision, EA, the list goes on again)

3) The United Kingdom. For all the reasons you mentioned. And Criterion (Burnout), of course.

PC Gaming:

1) America. Not only are both Windows and Mac American, Blizzard are American, Valve are American. Deus Ex and System Shock were both developed in America.

2) The UK. Bullfrog, Lionhead, Creative Assembly, and Eidos (or Square Enix Europe as they are now named, I believe)

3) Nobody. Really, nobody else comes close.

Handheld Gaming:

1) Japan. Nintendo. Sega. Sony. And all the games that came with Nintendo (Pokemon, Zelda, Kirby, Mario, etc.), and many of the Sega ones.

2) Nobody else comes close

3) See above.

So overall, it would still be

1) Japan

2) USA

3) UK

In my opinion.

what the hell is UK doing in OP instead of Canada?

(yeah i m from Canada,,,u got a problem with that? :D )

Firstly, Ubisoft is French. Most of their quality games are made in Canada, though, so I'll give you that. Secondly, look at your list. Now look at the list in the OP. Now think of all the developers and companies in Japan and the USA.

Do you really think Canada can make the top three? Maybe 4th. A distant 4th.

that's beacause ubi soft is in montreal,canada. french speaking canadians.

it has over 120 game developing studio and compare to its 30 million population(1/10 of the USA population)I think it's doing amazing.better than UK for sure.

My thoughts exactly.

Before posting I hadn't realized that Canada had all those studios, I wasn't even aware that Bioware was Canadian, which is a big plus for Canada. But take another look at my list of titles from the UK. The UK still deserves third more than Canada. I don't think it's contentious. Canada seems like a safe and respectable 4th place to me though.