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Interviews On Gaming Scene In Japan Wrapped Up
Thanks to GameSpy for completing their feature interviewing major Japanese gaming figures, following several interviews excerpted on Slashdot Games throughout the week. Steven L. Kent, author of The Ultimate History of Video Games, "spent most of the month of March in Japan doing research for a book about the games industry", and among the unreferenced interviews are a look inside Namco Japan, a discussion of the state of the Japanese arcade, and a chat with Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, with Kent concluding: "In the early '80s, while the American home console business almost ceased to exist, the Japanese console market flourished. The reverse could happen."
"In the early '80s, while the American home console business almost ceased to exist, the Japanese console market flourished. The reverse could happen."
No, it couldn't. I know it's a stupid point to focus on, but when the author comes to such a stupid conclusion after weeks of "analysis" (which seems to consist 100% of listening to what certain hand-picked industry people have to say), some background is helpful.
In the 80s, American game companies were running themselves into the ground, simply because the industry was young here and they didn't know what they were doing. American game companies were being run Hollywood-style, going big with every release, and playing a constant game of one-upsmanship against their competitors. The crash happened because every corporate monkey in and out of the industry was trying to get filthy rich in games, instead of focusing on things gamers would actually want to buy - like good games. Pure game companies, toy companies, appliance companies, movie companies, and computer companies were fighting amongst each other for dominance like idiots, all in this new, magical, "profitable" video game market. A little market stagnation, prior to everybody jumping head-first into the industry, wouldn't have been quite so bad in comparison to the crash itself.
After all, in such an environment, it's easy to see why everybody involved would just collectively get bored of games and give up completely. This certainly doesn't sound like modern Japan, it sounds much more like modern America....again. Only here and now it's not just a bunch of American and European companies screwing themselves, we now have two major Japanese companies pitted against one major American console newcomer, amongst many pretenders (Nokia, Apex, Infinium, etc.) with dollar signs in their eyes. Notice that, outside of Nintendo (the only traditional games hardware company in the console market), these are mostly companies that have nothing to lose in a potential modern-day crash. Why WOULDN'T they try their hand at games?
The same corporate foolishness that led to the crash didn't happen in Japan, where conservative progress led to continued success, and companies weren't trying to leapfrog each other so much as gain and maintain a share in the market, which obviously belonged pretty much to Nintendo from the very start of the Famicom. Sure, Japan had their fair share of failures, but the industry there didn't have the equivalent of Hollywood scrutinizing their business from afar, trying to find a profitable angle or potential partnership. The Japanese games industry was left mostly to game companies (with backing from computer and electronics companies, to be sure), and games were allowed to create their own market, as opposed to feeding on (and being fed upon by) trends in other forms of media, like movies.
So, while this guy goes traipsing around Japan in search of pro-American soundbites from Microsoft reps like Mike Fischer about what Japan needs (when the only real problem right now is a temporary lack of buying power), or crazy Kojima (who is really just a B-film director at heart but doesn't seem aware of the fact), it doesn't change the fact that Japan has never, and does not now, suffer from the same negative influences that have traditionally affected the American games market. The guy brings up only two potential factors, along with one red herring (cellphone games, which he himself mentions the game companies aren't worried about): the used games market, and lack of innovation. Perhaps what he claims about innovation not driving sales is currently true in Japan. But nebulous ideas like "GTA is violent, while Japanese games aren't, so American games are better" (to paraphrase crazy Kojima) are simpy not credible, not when thinking globally. GTA3 isn't even a million seller in Japan, and such stupid, popular statements are supposed to mean something about Japan collapsing under the quality of the Western game industry? I'll believe it when Xbox, the American console, breaks out of fourth place worldwide OR in Japan, from behind Nintendo's and Sony's platforms.