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Japanese Survey Shows Tricky Market For Western Games

Posted by simoniker on from the rising-sun-falling-hopes dept.

Thanks to GameSpot for their article discussing the results of a survey of over 1,000 Japanese gamers, conducted at this year's Tokyo Game Show. Among the more telling trends was a definite lack of interest in Western-developed games: "The percentage of respondents currently own non-Japanese software? Just over 1 percent. And only 4 percent expressed interest in buying such software in the future." The survey also revealed the true dominance of the RPG in Japan, as "...39 percent of respondents identified it as their favorite genre. This is far ahead of every other genre: strategy gaming, the second most popular choice, tallied only 7 percent of the votes." Finally, although it may be that Tokyo Game Show attendees "tend to be hardcore gamers", thus skewing the results, "ownership of [Xbox] ranked lower than five consoles that aren't even in production", including the Dreamcast and Saturn.

1 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. The japanese make the best RPGs by Stormwatch · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Recently I got a game that I had heard much about, a game that got some really good reviews: Baldur's Gate 2. Then I started playing it...

    *click*click*click*click* Goddamn that's BORING! This game is even more pretentious and uninteresting than Diablo or Ultima. Unintuitive interface, ridiculous combat, awful control, poor graphics, dull sound... everything in this game is awful.

    After less than an hour I turned off my computer, turned on my Dreamcast, and resumed playing Grandia 2. Good-looking, good-sounding, fun, well-written, with characters about whom one actually cares.

    Then I looked at my other RPGs - Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online. And I remembered other RPGs I had played - Final Fantasy VI, Phantasy Star IV, Chrono Trigger. All japanese. All far better.

    Is this just an exception? I don't think so. I can't recall any good american RPG (there's Pathways into Darkness, but that stretches the definition of RPG a bit. Oh well, so does Shenmue). Therefore, I must assume the japanese know how to make the best RPGs.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.