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Japanese Not That Interested In Online Videogaming?

Posted by simoniker on from the land-of-the-singleplayer-sun dept.

Thanks to Video-Fenky for its weblog entry detailing the results of a Japanese survey about online gaming. When asked: "Have you ever played a premium online game?", 54.3% of the 300 Japanese net users surveyed said "No, and I have no plans to", increased from the previous year's survey and "now the majority." In addition, the question "What do premium online games need to become more popular?" elicits 56.0% suggesting "Better prices", and 20.3% want "Better payment systems." Apparently: "The [Nikkei-relayed report] concludes that while Japan's net infrastructure has improved greatly over the course of a year, work remains to be done on more useful payment systems and more interesting content."

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That makes sense. MMORPGs cost too much. by ctr2sprt · · Score: 2, Informative
    Most of us can't, and don't. Which is why every new MMORPG is predicted to become wildly popular, and every new MMORPG is a big disappointment.

    It's not like it needs huge tweaking, either. Drop the box or the monthly subscription, either one, and I'd be much more interested. But I'm not sure it's possible for publishers to swing that in terms of the need to make money. The only real solution I can see is some sort of massive peer-to-peer server solution. It would sure solve the cost problem, but man, would it ever be tough to build.

    Still, if you managed to get a working platform, you could make buckets of money licensing it to other games.

  2. Re:That makes sense. MMORPGs cost too much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    No, it's not. It's like making a down payment of $50 (what game costs $100?!) then making regular payments.

    Dumb shiat.

  3. Re:Broadband and the like by bugbread · · Score: 2, Informative

    Broadband here (in Japan) is cheap. If you're lucky enough to live in a house (instead of an apartment), or your apartment is relatively new, you can get a 100 Mb fiber connection for around $50 per month. Even without, if you live in a city (as most gamers do), you probably live very, very close to your telephone exchange (yay population density), so you get 12 Mb DSL for about $20 or less a month.

    You're right, fewer Japanese own computers than Americans, but in the last 5 or 6 years, the gap has narrowed immensely. I think if you do a "total number of computers / total number of people", you'll still get a lower number, but that's because it's pretty common in the US for a single household to have more than one computer. If you do "number of households with one or more computers" comparisons, your numbers will be closer together.

    That said, because the spread of computers came so late, PC gaming is regarded as a weird hobby of uberdorks. Normal people have PCs for email, chat, the internet, word processing, etc., but not gaming. That's what consoles are for (I'm not agreeing, I'm just noting the mindset here). So, with XBox being nonexistent, Nintendo not offering online, people not using PCs to game (much), and PS2 having a smattering of online games at best, I'm not too surprised at the lack of online gaming enthusiasm.