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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."

19 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. What? by Kethinov · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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!
    1. Re:What? by bugbread · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And yet note that Final Fantasy XI is considered a terrible flop in Japan. Sure, it's a successful MMORPG, but sales (and even income taking into account monthly fees) are horrible for a Final Fantasy game.

  2. That makes sense. MMORPGs cost too much. by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    (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.
    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 Eivind · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Actually, I'd be satisfied with a open, available server so that there'd be free competition in making servers ("worlds) available. That way the market itself would set fair prices.

      I refuse to pay money to tie myself to a monopolic service-provider that overcharges, and that I have to pay to to have any use of my purchase.

      Yes, that'd kill the wet dreams of many game-companies, "let's make an MMORPG, and then we can collect not only $50-$70 for the box, but an additional $15 every month from every player !"

      Aslong as it stays like it is though, the large majority of gamers will not play MMORPGs. I personally know atleast two dozen people who spend considerable time gaming and buy atleast half a dozen games a year. I don't know *anyone* who has an account with *any* MMORPG. And this despite the fact that many of them like online gaming and frequently play stuff from Starcraft to Counterstrike online.

    3. Re:That makes sense. MMORPGs cost too much. by Trejkaz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No shit. Charging $100 for a box and then $10-20 each month for further entertainment is like selling you a house and then charging you rent once you already own it. I vote with my wallet, but not every consumer seems to care. MMORPGs which follow the Ragnarok Online payment scheme have my respect, as they charge only the monthly fee. Likewise, Guild Wars has my respect, as they will charge only the box fee.

      But as far as Sony goes, fuck them in the eye.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
  3. Title a little misleading by cgenman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The survey actually says that 50 some odd percent of japanese are disinterested in "premium" online games. "Premium" online games include Evercrack, Unfair Online, etcetera. This does not include XBox live, by far the best thing that has happened to online gaming. You'll note that XBox live is also not as successful in Japan as it is in other places, largely due to the XBox not being as successful in Japan. *

    Overall, though, I can't say that I disagree with the assertion... The American MMPO premium game (with a few exceptions) was refined perfectly into The Sims Online: a game where social interaction collides with repetitive, trivial tasks to produce something roughly devoid of fun... certainly not fun enough to warrant a monthly fee. Now, if you take a Japanese consumer and put them down in front of Everquest, a largely english RPG appealing to American sensibilities about personal responsibility, bootstraps, yadda yadda, do you think it will resonate with them? Do you think it will resonate with them enough to convince them to pay A: 50 dollars for the application, B: 15 dollars every month, and C: 50 more dollars every 6 months for the expansion pack?

    Furthermore, if you look at Japanese RPG's vs American RPG's, the American RPG's are about hard work and character building through self-improvement. Japanese RPG's on the other hand are about fulfilling the destiny of becoming the savior of the world. I've played a lot of Role Playing Games in my day, and I can't think of a single Japanese developed game in this genre where the character wasn't pre-ordained to become the savior of the would through birthright or destiny... A Superman complex, if you will. American RPG's are filled with characters that rose to heroism in the face of adversity. Like Batman. Characters that are normal people who do extrordinary things because of the circumstances they find themselves in. This distinction, while slight in a movie or single-player realm, is significant in online RPGs. You can't have 100,000 characters running around who are all Jesus. Even in City of Heroes everyone is just a normal, hardworking crime fighter.

    I'm not saying that no games have cross cultural appeal, but delivering what the Japanese normally want impossible in a MMPORPG. Add in the fact that MMPORPG atrophy is high (most of the people I know have played a MMPORPG, and gave it up due to waning interest), and we can't even get right what "we" want. I'm sure that Japan will someday become a bastion of online gaming equivalent of Korea, but they need more Japanese developers than just SEGA and Square trying to push the boundaries and explore what makes the games appeal to the Japanese gamer.

    * Full disclosure: I've come to respect the XBox, but I would hate to see my favorite pastime handed to a serially convicted monopolist.

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    The ______ Agenda
  4. Bizarre conclusion to draw... by RogueyWon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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".

    54.3% wouldn't be interested in a "premium" online game. I can only assume this refers to subscription based titles such as Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies and Final Fantasy XI. This leaves 45.7% who potentially would be. These figures do not sound massively out of line with the figures in the US and European gaming markets. By their very nature, as well as their reputation, subscription-based massively multiplayer games are going to exclude a pretty large section of the gaming market. In particular, penniless students are going to be put off by the price, under-18s are going to be put off by the fact that many of them require a credit card for subscriptions (which usually then involves getting dad to pay) and then you've got the people who just plain prefer another genre.

    Final Fantasy XI has a huge Japanese player base, despite broadband being pretty much essential for it. I've said for some time that the reasons that the Japanese don't tend to play online games as much is that they just don't get online games marketed at them. The PC and the X-Box, which are far and away the most popular (and in my opinion, the best) platforms for online gaming have a negligable presence in the Japanese market, by virtue of the nature of the games sold on them. When Sony/Squenix finally sold a game that both appealed to Japanese tastes and required online play, the results were spectacular. For Nintendo to continue to ignore the potential of online gaming in Japan is nothing short of madness.

    1. Re:Bizarre conclusion to draw... by badasscat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

  5. Do you know what a survey is? by Daetrin · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Yet FFXI has how many subscribers just in Japan alone? Far more people than this survey covered. Data == flawed.

    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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    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  6. Simple explanation by mivok · · Score: 2, Funny

    the people who do like the online games are too busy playing them to answer a survey.

  7. Re:Broadband and the like by foidulus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  8. Arcades by Blackwulf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The few people I know that are in Japan (not enough to make any scientific study or anything) don't do online gaming because arcades are still popular.

    If given a choice between:

    1. Sitting at home on their couch and playing a game online against someone else

    -OR-

    2. Going down the street to the local arcade and playing a game against someone else face-to-face where the social interaction is there and you can actually see the person

    They would choose #2 every time. (Here in America, we have chosen #1, because it's less hassle then actually getting dressed and going to an arcade, hence why the industry is dying over here.)

    That's not to say online gaming will NEVER be a success over there, but it's just taken longer than normal, because they're more hesitant to lose the social aspect of gaming. But now that Broadband is getting more and more available in Japanese homes, that might shift.

    But even in Korea, where PC Gaming is ruling the day, they still go to LAN Centers to play them rather than play them from home. (But, admittedly, this is more of a money issue than a social issue - it's expensive to get your own rig and a Broadband connection over there!)

    But I can understand why people like Nintendo aren't concentrating on online. There really is only a small portion of the audience, even in the US, that plays online. The last number that I heard was that only 10% of Xbox owners also have Xbox Live, and a less percentage of PS2 owners have PS2 online. Out of all of my friends here, I am the only one with any kind of online gaming connection - they're more than happy just to play Halo on Friday nights with their friends...They could care less about online play. So Nintendo's trying to focus on the experience that all 100% of their userbase can enjoy, rather than just the 10% of us hardcore nerds that go online.

    If I want a great online multiplayer experience, I'll go on XBL. If I want a great singleplayer experience, I'll play my Gamecube games.

    1. Re:Arcades by MilenCent · · Score: 3, Interesting

      2. Going down the street to the local arcade and playing a game against someone else face-to-face where the social interaction is there and you can actually see the person

      They would choose #2 every time. (Here in America, we have chosen #1, because it's less hassle then actually getting dressed and going to an arcade, hence why the industry is dying over here.)

      Actually, I think the arcade industry's dying here is because most arcade games are knockoffs of a previously existing game, even more so than in the computer and console markets. Arcade games were most popular in the U.S. during the 80's, a time when people from all walks of life played video games.

      Fighting game fanatics may still run out to the arcade to plunk quarters into SoulCalibur 2 and Tekken What-#-Are-They-Now, and DDR junkies are a relatively recent addition to the arcade population, but overall, arcades in both the U.S. and Japan cater to the hardcore gamer community, which is invariably young, male, and obsessive.

      It just so happens that there are more Japanese young males who are that hardcode about gaming than American, and their higher population density means arcades can make money more easily. Meanwhile arcades haven't been seen as cool in the U.S. since the early 90's; the last non-pinball arcade game I was really obsessed by was Rampart.

      Not to discount your point, that's certainly part of it, but there's a bit more at work here I think.

    2. Re:Arcades by binaryspiral · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Arcades are dying because one reason - the games suck.

      All the U.S. arcade game makers have shifted to console - because they can make a lot more.

      Our local arcade has a smattering of what I would call real honest to whatever god you like" arcade games. The rest are those quarter sucking ticket spewing light boxes that suck in every 4 year old from all four corners of the mall. And that makes the whole trip to the arcade even worse.

      queue flashback music

      I remember when an arcade was a place. A dark room, jumping with sounds and lights. It had rows and rows of arcade games. Some were single or two player stand up machines you could lose yourself in a game for an hour or two with nobody messing with you. Or maybe ask if they could challenge you and jump in.

      It was also a place you could meet gamer chicks. You know, girls who also enjoyed (and often kicked my arse) at the very games I enjoyed.

      It had rows of pinball games. Really real pinball. Made by the best pinball manufacturers. A true art under glass and yours for the playing.

      Some upscale arcades even had consession stands where you could buy sodas and snacks. And you could rent the place for an hour or two for a birthday party with a group of teens and be thought of as the coolest.

      A trip to a large city wasn't complete until you checked out a major arcade. Because those were the "test markets" for new and never before seen video games. And they also would keep around old classics that the smaller arcades couldn't. So it was a trip for old and new!

      Ah, those were arcades... I miss those arcades.

  9. Last time I checked... by TechniMyoko · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Most of the world is not japanese.
    Just because they dont all want it doesnt mean the rest of the world doesn't either.

    On a side note, I am japanese and I do want online games

  10. Re:Broadband and the like by Taulin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While I lived in Japan, it only costed me about $40US to get an 8 mega bit connection. I was connecting to US server based games with a lower ping than my friends could back in the states.

    Almost everyone I knew had a connection, and 12mb were just starting to be advertised. Japan is wired and rocking.

    The problem is, most people don't have time to play online games. Kids in school are usually taking after school courses prep'ing for college entrance exams, and salary men usually don't get home until 8 or so.

  11. 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.

  12. offline online by Allison+Geode · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i used to play a few games online, but the behavior of online people just kills it for me, even in rpg's (i was a subscriber to phantasy star online for a year.) and i can honestly say, aside from the behavior issues, multiplayer with a few friends on the couch next to me is scads more fun than online (i still occasionally pull out phantasy star online for gamecube and play that, not online, but with a few friends, split-screen, and have more fun than I did playing it online.) the difference betweeen online or split-screen/lan multiplayer is significant: its just more fun with people in the same room as you! thats why halo is so popular: it sets up a good activity to design a get-together around.