Slashdot Mirror
Why Are Japanese-Developed Games Less Popular?
Thanks to GameSpy for their 'Sole Food' editorial discussing the decline of the Japanese-developed videogame in the U.S. console charts. The article doesn't deny there are still big Japanese-developed hits in the West, but suggests: "It's not uncommon for there to be only two or three Japanese games among the top 20 sellers each month; this would have been unheard of less than ten years ago." As for explanations, it's argued that "Western developers are doing a better job of servicing core genres that are popular in the U.S.", but a "financial and creative slump" in the Japanese games industry is also blamed - "A quick glance through the games shown at last weekend's Tokyo Game Show reveals little that is truly new."
Perhaps it's for the same reason that US developed consoles aren't popular in Japan:
It's cultural
If you could be anything you want, I'll bet you'd be disappointed.
Gamers being U.S. are of not text liking schoolchildren by translated?!
MOVE ZIG!
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Japan:
Epic RPGs
Music games
Platformers
Fighting games
Wacky/insane games
U.S.:
Sports
Extreme sports
FPS
RTS
Anything online
This is a gross oversimplification, but the fact is different genres have different degrees of success in different territories. Plus, Japanese developers have no concept of how to not offend western media (I'm sorry, SEGA, a game that lets kids join a gang and spray paint anything in sight while running from the law is just not a very good idea, no matter how good it could be if you'd just fixed a few usability issues).
a lot of it, for me at least, is the look of japanese games. Seems like every time I check one out, they look very cartoony/anime looking (especially on the GC). It's not that I value graphics over gameplay, it's just that certain styles of graphics turn me off enough that I don't care if it's a fun game to play because I simply hate looking at it.
Don't leave your mind so open that your brain falls out. Don't close it so much that you cut off the blood.
in which case almost all of the top selling games are by a japanese developer (namely Nintendo themselves). Here's an interesting chart listing the gamecube's best selling games.
... of 15 year old girls in miniskirts casting spells? That's the main reason why I stopped playing Final Fantasy games. Every other Japanese game is about some teenage girl where the camera occasionnaly makes a close-up of her breasts or gives off a camera angle that let's you see under the skirt. Okay, okay, maybe I exagerate, but still, I've found Japanese games more and more about great FMV's and girls in miniskirts and less and less about, well, games. I'm not saying there are no good Japanses games. Of course there are good Japanese games, but the one I always see on TV or people talk to me about seem to be these kind of games. Which makes me wonder if people play anything else on the PS2 in Japan...
That why I couldn't care less if Japan doesn't dig the Xbox or produce game for it.
One reason for this could very well be the funding behind the games. Here in the states, even though our economy isn't exactly doing the best, people still find the time/money for games. It's a huge industry, and is still encroaching on the film business. Because of this, those who fund games are willing to put more money behind them, and thus create better, longer, and more 'American Aimed' games.
Meanwhile, in Japan, their economy is doing much much worse than in USA. Worse to the point that people are buying less games, thus the funding is going down. Obviously, with a drop in cash, you take a hit in one way or another (shorter games, less-pretty graphics, etc.).
The other main reason, and this is totally my opinion, is that american game developers have finally caught on. No longer are we limited to the FPS genre. We have become masters of all genres, from RPGs (KOTOR) to inventing our own (GTA3). In part, we have Japan to thank for this, as they pretty much started the industry. We've just taken their ideas, run with them, and we are now beginning to surpass them. Metroid for the GameCube is a great example. A very terrific game, with a new spin on FPS mechanics, created by an American develompent team. What was once Japanese is now American. Maybe it's time that Japan start 'borrowing' some ideas back from us?
Go here for teh [sic] funny.
His words, not mine:
"I'll always be a Japanophile gamer at heart, though, so I can only hope that Japan's gaming industry figures out a way to escape from its financial and creative slump. Only then I can get back to being an elitist, Japan-loving snob."
Well, I guess if he's happy with his own self-image, then the more power to him. Still seems kinda sad, though.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
However, blaming it on a lack of variation in Japanese games seems a little unfounded... New and groundbreaking concepts are pretty damn rare in both markets.
It would seem someone else remembers all the C&C & Warcraft clones from back in the mid 90s. (Along with all the Quake wannabes that plagued the industry at the same time.) And before that there were all the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat clones that we put up with for years in the arcades.
Hell, if you want to go all way bacl the beginning then look at all the Pong clones that appeared shortly after its release.
Or, for those who don't remember/care about those, how about all the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater clones and variations that we had a few years ago?
"Nothing-new-here" is the way that many video game companies make money, by riding along on the success of someone else who took risks with a new concept. Saying that the Japanese game market is less innovative than the N.American/European game market shows a profound disregard for the history and habits of the latter.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
"It's not uncommon for there to be only two or three Japanese games among the top 20 sellers each month; this would have been unheard of less than ten years ago."
I'm not even sure if this is completely true. Maybe we're questioning the fact that more western games are in the charts than before, but the last charts I saw showed more like 9 Japanese games in the top 20 (though 3 were the different versions of Soul Calibur 2, 3 US titles were the different versions of Madden NFL 2004).
As for questioning matters like originality in the titles, there are problems on this front on both sides. After all, 4 of the top 11 games are football games (Madden for GC was #11, NCAA Football was #5), and who would you get to develop an American football game outside of the US? 5 of the top 20 are US-centric sports games (the above 4 and NBA Street), with Mario Golf making 6 sports games in the list (though obviously not in the same realm of sports games as the others). The best selling soccer (football for the non-US people) game in Japan is a game made by a Japanese company, while the best selling soccer game in Europe is an EA title. Would anyone in the US be likely to play a Japanese-developed baseball game today? Well the Japanese certainly are, and it's right up there in the Japanese top 10, too.
Something else to note would be the longevity of titles on the US charts. Games rise and fall on the Japanese charts in a matter of weeks. In the US, we still have Vice City and Halo in the top 20. Pokemon Ruby & Saphire's combined sales keep it in the top 20 in Japan, while in the US they're listed individually and both still on the top 20.
The article's author even takes the time to say that Nintendo's part of the problem, even though Nintendo has 4 games in the US top 20, surpassed only by EA's 5. The only other company with more than 1 is Namco, and that's the 3 listings for SC2 (as EA's listing is for 2 games + 3 listings for Madden).
-PainKilleR-[CE]
The examples they use in the article make the argument that N.American/European game markets are more original a real joke.
Prince of Persia: Okay. A reimagining of a really old game, that is yet another platformer.
Sly Cooper: A platformer, with a little stealth mixed in. Not much new.
Deus Ex: Invisible War: FPS with plot and some RPG elements. System Shock 1, 2, Deus Ex 1, Thief 1, 2.
Tony Hawk 3: I hope I don't need to explain why a third in a series isn't original.
Now I am not criticizing the games, and I will agree that N.American/European developers have come a long way and are putting together good games. But the lack of originality claim came off as unfounded, and nothing in the article backed it up in the least. In fact, the article almost read as an example of how the non-Japanese developers were pounding out the same old same old games(particularly of the sports category).
Yeah, maybe I'm being nitpicky over a one line claim that wasn't the brunt of the article, but it really struck me as flagrantly inaccurate(probably in part due to the use of that quote in the slashdot article blurb)
I'd say that one line was more than just one line. When reading the article I couldn't help but get two things out of it:
1) Japanese companies are producing games for Japanese gamers (Well duh!)
2) Japanese game companies are somehow less innovative than their Western counterparts.
We both agree on the latter, so I won't go into it again. But I find it odd that he in the paragraph before he mentions the Tokyo Game Show he makes a reference to EA's Madden series.
Just a hint to the author over on GameSpy, if anywhere in the article you are going to bring up one side being more innovative than the other then you definitely don't want to be bringing up sports games for any reason at all.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
I posted this months ago, and it still seems relevant to this article:
I pulled up the TRST Data from last year, and I counted how many of the top titles for Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 were made in Japanese top 10, top 20, top 30.
On PlayStation 2, two of their top 10 were made in Japan, and two of the next 10, and three of the next 10. That's got to be a record for low games from Japan.
On Xbox, there were none in the top 10, two in the next 10, and none in the last 10.
On GameCube it was six, five, and a few more in the last 10. (Almost all of them were Nintendo 1st/2nd party titles as you prolly guessed.)