Wednesday, Jan 31, 2007
The videogame industry is a very fascinating history. We are at the midst of a burgeoning industry whose history is still being written. There is a wealth of information as primary sources and a mutitude of interpretations. The videogame industry is at the crossroads with the emergence of the Western Gaming Companies. It seems that Japan is staring to notice with articles like this.
Jun Takuechi argues that the Japanese Companies are slow to adapt to the growing market, that they don't try to make enough games that appeal to a global market. He states that the Western companies borrowed and improved many mechanics and even surpassed the Japanese. If that wasn't enough, the Japanese Companies are waning in influence because less and less Japanese games are selling very well. He then says that the Japanese can't compete if American studios if they make games aimed for the Japanese Market.
He should be very well alarmed because this generation is the first time a company like EA studios is making games that appeal to the Japanese. The EA Japanese studios are making Wii games like the Sims Wii, especially for the Japanese market. They are also making games like Sim City, which has a loyal fanbase in Japan. If these Japan only products sell well, you can see many Western Companies start opening divisions in Japan just to develop games for the Japanese market. They don't need to worry about profit in Europe and the USA because they dominate those markets the same say the Japanese had for over 3 generations.
There are lots of parallels with the growth of the Japanese Car in America and the world. America made the car popular, they made the car mainstrean. We looked at the Japanese small cars and laughed at them. Then they came into the market with a focus on reliability and started to take back the industry. It was enhanced with the oil shortages in the 1970's. The American Car industry ignored the Japanese and relied on it's loyal buyers to keep them afloat. Now we see that Toyota is on the verge of becoming the number 1 car company on the planet, ending the 50 year dominance of General Motors.
What lessons can be learned?
The Japanese Gaming industry is focusing on making less games that appeal to a worldwide audience. That is a fact because every year they are selling less and less in the Western Markets. In the same time, in the Western Markets the Western Companies are domiating and getting more and more marketshare. There are many people who argue that the Japanese instead of learning and adopting the Western Game Studios are running away to the Japanese market. This has become apparent with the Release of Tales of the Abyss. Sure it sold 700,000 in Japan, but the best selling tales game was Tales of Symphonia that was released on the Cube. They completely ignore this market and then just release it on the PS2 getting abyssmal sales of 28,000 copies. If they had a more global view, they would have ported it to the Gamecube for the Western Markets. That shows the insular view they are starting to adopt.
While Nintendo is making huge inroads in markets that forsaken them just 2 short years ago, they seem to be the ONLY developer who is making huge strides. SquareEnix has done pretty good but they continue to lose the massive market they once had thanks to games like FF7. It seems every generation that they do less experimenting and they in turn get smaller and smaller markets.
What is funny is that American Companies do have the ability to make Japan-centric games. All they can do is to hire a bunch of Japanese people, add an anime artist, and incorporate western gameplay to make for a high selling game.
The encroaching American Companies can take over the entire gaming world, but first they need to learn a thing from history and try to learn the ins and outs of the Japanese Market. It seems that the ever increasing isolationist beliefs of these companies make Japan ripe for the picking. It is starting to sound like the 1960's all over again.
Jun Takuechi argues that the Japanese Companies are slow to adapt to the growing market, that they don't try to make enough games that appeal to a global market. He states that the Western companies borrowed and improved many mechanics and even surpassed the Japanese. If that wasn't enough, the Japanese Companies are waning in influence because less and less Japanese games are selling very well. He then says that the Japanese can't compete if American studios if they make games aimed for the Japanese Market.
He should be very well alarmed because this generation is the first time a company like EA studios is making games that appeal to the Japanese. The EA Japanese studios are making Wii games like the Sims Wii, especially for the Japanese market. They are also making games like Sim City, which has a loyal fanbase in Japan. If these Japan only products sell well, you can see many Western Companies start opening divisions in Japan just to develop games for the Japanese market. They don't need to worry about profit in Europe and the USA because they dominate those markets the same say the Japanese had for over 3 generations.
There are lots of parallels with the growth of the Japanese Car in America and the world. America made the car popular, they made the car mainstrean. We looked at the Japanese small cars and laughed at them. Then they came into the market with a focus on reliability and started to take back the industry. It was enhanced with the oil shortages in the 1970's. The American Car industry ignored the Japanese and relied on it's loyal buyers to keep them afloat. Now we see that Toyota is on the verge of becoming the number 1 car company on the planet, ending the 50 year dominance of General Motors.
What lessons can be learned?
The Japanese Gaming industry is focusing on making less games that appeal to a worldwide audience. That is a fact because every year they are selling less and less in the Western Markets. In the same time, in the Western Markets the Western Companies are domiating and getting more and more marketshare. There are many people who argue that the Japanese instead of learning and adopting the Western Game Studios are running away to the Japanese market. This has become apparent with the Release of Tales of the Abyss. Sure it sold 700,000 in Japan, but the best selling tales game was Tales of Symphonia that was released on the Cube. They completely ignore this market and then just release it on the PS2 getting abyssmal sales of 28,000 copies. If they had a more global view, they would have ported it to the Gamecube for the Western Markets. That shows the insular view they are starting to adopt.
While Nintendo is making huge inroads in markets that forsaken them just 2 short years ago, they seem to be the ONLY developer who is making huge strides. SquareEnix has done pretty good but they continue to lose the massive market they once had thanks to games like FF7. It seems every generation that they do less experimenting and they in turn get smaller and smaller markets.
What is funny is that American Companies do have the ability to make Japan-centric games. All they can do is to hire a bunch of Japanese people, add an anime artist, and incorporate western gameplay to make for a high selling game.
The encroaching American Companies can take over the entire gaming world, but first they need to learn a thing from history and try to learn the ins and outs of the Japanese Market. It seems that the ever increasing isolationist beliefs of these companies make Japan ripe for the picking. It is starting to sound like the 1960's all over again.
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Posted Feb 1, 2007 12:28 am PT
ZOMG we're all gonna be the same shade of brown!...in video games terms I mean, lol.
Games like Lost Planet I think exemplifies an instance of worldwide convergence and if we see a reciprocation from western developers then the convergence will be mutual.
I'd have to agree with tailoring games to the Japanese market being a niche, I mean how hard can it be? Developers have done it for some releases.
Interestingly your comparisons see this as a American market against Japanese market distinction, if that was just the case Japan wouldn't have too much of a problem, the case is it's rapidly becoming Japan vs the World.
It's not all gloom and extinction though, the Japanese style does have an outlet and potential re-emergence in something like the DS (Which you mentioned), this has worldwide appeal minus the convergence, it's a shame that so few developers seem to be pursuing this route (and even bigger a shame that publishers won't push in such a direction despite being shown it works).
Games like Lost Planet I think exemplifies an instance of worldwide convergence and if we see a reciprocation from western developers then the convergence will be mutual.
I'd have to agree with tailoring games to the Japanese market being a niche, I mean how hard can it be? Developers have done it for some releases.
Interestingly your comparisons see this as a American market against Japanese market distinction, if that was just the case Japan wouldn't have too much of a problem, the case is it's rapidly becoming Japan vs the World.
It's not all gloom and extinction though, the Japanese style does have an outlet and potential re-emergence in something like the DS (Which you mentioned), this has worldwide appeal minus the convergence, it's a shame that so few developers seem to be pursuing this route (and even bigger a shame that publishers won't push in such a direction despite being shown it works).
Posted Feb 1, 2007 2:07 am PT
Interesting read. It seems the Japanese market is leaning towards the hand-held systems in a bigger way for some reason. The sales of all Nintendo hand-helds and the PSP to a lesser degree seem to point this out.
I was somewhat amazed to hear that the next installment in the Dragon Warrior series was going to be on the DS ! That says something in my mind. This maybe part of the reason we are seeing console games like Dead Rising and lost planet being made for a western audience on a system that comes from a western company by a Japanese company. It is all very interesting to me.
I was somewhat amazed to hear that the next installment in the Dragon Warrior series was going to be on the DS ! That says something in my mind. This maybe part of the reason we are seeing console games like Dead Rising and lost planet being made for a western audience on a system that comes from a western company by a Japanese company. It is all very interesting to me.
Posted Feb 1, 2007 10:07 am PT
I would argue that Capcom, a Japanese game company, has done an excellent job of capturing the Western market with the Resident Evil and Dead Rising series. We can also look to the success of games like Animal Crossing and Disgaea in the Western World and see a Japanese influence.
The reality has become that certain genres Japanese game companies focus on, are simply outdated. Look at the "Point-and-Click Adventure" game, when was the last time a King's Quest, Myst, or Monkey Island was topping sales charts? The genre existed because of hardware limitations - the exact reason that games like Hotel Dusk or Phoenix Wright were built for the DS is that they provide fun in spite of limited hardware.
In the same way, I feel traditional JRPGs have become somewhat of a faux pas to the western gamer. Why did we play FF7 so heavily? Because the graphics, sound, storyline, and gameplay were a leap forward - essentially Square took advantage of the hardware to speed up and beautify the JRPG world.
FFX sold well for the exact same reason - it was a graphical leap forward. When viewed from this perspective, it's easy to see why FFXII took the "western" (in all honesty "eastern" as PSO used this style as well) approach to running a world map... it could not offer a graphical improvement, so it attempted to offer sped-up gameplay. Sadly, this has been offered before with Grandia series....
We could even go so far as to argue that the Final Fantasy series (and many other JRPGs) have become *worse* games over time. I blame the removal of the world map for this. Instead of exploring a vast world, we're reduced to hoping around locations linked by points on a map. Frankly, this is *terrible* design, it shows utter laziness on the part of developers.
When Bethesda is offering the ability to explore every nook and cranny of a vast world, one that always has something new to explore, I'm inclined to take their offering over *yet another* linear JRPG. The fact that Oblivion has graphically outdone the JRPG (partially because pre-rendered cutscenes are so scarce these days) is another nail in the coffin.
Frankly, what I see is an industry that has become glut with doing things cheaply. Oblivion is a flawed game - the level up system is retarded at best, combat is cheesy to the point where it's hard to ignore it's "an FPS with swords" and the non-linearity can lead to the gameplay becoming horribly off-track...
Sadly though, the genre is excellent, and games like Mass Effect are demonstrating that advances are continuing to be made. At the same time, Microsoft, of all people, are revitalizing the JRPG market by pouring funds in companies like Mystwalker. I never thought we'd see the day an American-made console was "the JRPG" platform of choice...
The reality has become that certain genres Japanese game companies focus on, are simply outdated. Look at the "Point-and-Click Adventure" game, when was the last time a King's Quest, Myst, or Monkey Island was topping sales charts? The genre existed because of hardware limitations - the exact reason that games like Hotel Dusk or Phoenix Wright were built for the DS is that they provide fun in spite of limited hardware.
In the same way, I feel traditional JRPGs have become somewhat of a faux pas to the western gamer. Why did we play FF7 so heavily? Because the graphics, sound, storyline, and gameplay were a leap forward - essentially Square took advantage of the hardware to speed up and beautify the JRPG world.
FFX sold well for the exact same reason - it was a graphical leap forward. When viewed from this perspective, it's easy to see why FFXII took the "western" (in all honesty "eastern" as PSO used this style as well) approach to running a world map... it could not offer a graphical improvement, so it attempted to offer sped-up gameplay. Sadly, this has been offered before with Grandia series....
We could even go so far as to argue that the Final Fantasy series (and many other JRPGs) have become *worse* games over time. I blame the removal of the world map for this. Instead of exploring a vast world, we're reduced to hoping around locations linked by points on a map. Frankly, this is *terrible* design, it shows utter laziness on the part of developers.
When Bethesda is offering the ability to explore every nook and cranny of a vast world, one that always has something new to explore, I'm inclined to take their offering over *yet another* linear JRPG. The fact that Oblivion has graphically outdone the JRPG (partially because pre-rendered cutscenes are so scarce these days) is another nail in the coffin.
Frankly, what I see is an industry that has become glut with doing things cheaply. Oblivion is a flawed game - the level up system is retarded at best, combat is cheesy to the point where it's hard to ignore it's "an FPS with swords" and the non-linearity can lead to the gameplay becoming horribly off-track...
Sadly though, the genre is excellent, and games like Mass Effect are demonstrating that advances are continuing to be made. At the same time, Microsoft, of all people, are revitalizing the JRPG market by pouring funds in companies like Mystwalker. I never thought we'd see the day an American-made console was "the JRPG" platform of choice...
Posted Feb 2, 2007 2:43 am PT
[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]
Posted Nov 21, 2009 12:17 pm PT
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However, it is true that this shows they don't seem to be paying attention to the rest of the world, although I don't think they're going to have the rug pulled out from under them that easily. After all, if it were merely a question of hiring some locals to add a Japanese flavour to games, why haven't the big name western studios started doing it already? Then again, it's not like they haven't tried - the xbox's lackluster sales is probably a good indicator.
Still, if this means publishers will start paying attention and putting out more great games, fine.