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Japanese Not That Interested In Online Videogaming?
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."
Yet FFXI has how many subscribers just in Japan alone? Far more people than this survey covered. Data == flawed.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
(See subject.)
Game companies were all going nuts over the obscene amount of money they could make via MMORPG subscriptions. Why Americans can put up with that crap, I'll never know.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
And how many gamers are there total in Japan? Far _far_ more people than this survey covered. Your understanding of how surveys work == flawed.
And as for FF11, last i heard it was a few hundred thousand subscribers at most, which is pretty damn small for a Final Fantasy game. The franchise as a whole has sold about 50 million units, and the later titles were selling more than the early ones i'm pretty sure. Unfortunatly i can't remember where i saw a chart that breaks down sales by title.
Squarenix may be making tons of money from that comparitively small group of people because of the recuring subscription charges so it might by a huge financial success (or it might not, i don't know,) but as far as reaching a large percentage of the gamers in Japan goes FF11 is an abysmal failure.
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If anything, it is actually cheaper, this as an example keeping in mind that $1 = 108 yen about(though usually that number is higher), also they offer a lot more options in case you really don't need a ton of speed.
However, I dont' know how many houses actually have broadband. I'm not sure on this, but I do believe that a smaller percentage of Japanese own computers versus Americans. With the advent of relatively decent data services on one's cell phone(email, entertainment listings etc) I don't think a lot of Japanese are actually interested in computers.
Also keep in mind that Japanese age demographics are also different from the US. Due to a very low birth rate and very restrictive immigration, as a percentage, there are a lot less youths and a lot more elderly people in Japan than there are in the US.
I'm a bit bewildered by how we got from the figures in the article to the conclusion that "the Japanese aren't interested in online gaming".
When you couple the results of the survey with the sales results of online games in Japan, I don't think it's a real stretch.
Final Fantasy XI has a huge Japanese player base, despite broadband being pretty much essential for it.
People keep saying this. What huge player base? FFXI sold 180,000 copies in Japan. As a percentage of the population, this is similar to the 400,000 player base of EQ in the US, but as a percentage of average FF sales over the past 10 years, it's miniscule. I don't think a numbered FF game on a major console has ever sold fewer than 1 million units in Japan, going back to FF1 on the Famicom.
FFXI is considered a dismal failure in Japan, as others have pointed out whenever someone else brings up the "huge userbase". It's not something Square is considering doing again anytime soon.