The Decline of the Japanese Gaming Industry

[Barciad]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/22/playstation-4-muted-japanese-launch-shows-how-industry-has-changed
Here is an interesting article looking into why the once all powerful Japanese Game Industry has gone into relative decline these past 10 - 15 years.

 

[The_Scrivener]

JRPGs were the most rich narrative experiences 15 years ago. Now, I get more immersion in any given hour of an organic-feeling WRPG than in the entirety of another androgynous bad dialogue parade of purple haired nonsense. Many of my favorite games ever are JRPGs. But none of them were released within the last 6 or 7 years. It's like the JRPG devs have kept every stupid, tired thing about the genre and held it dear while throwing out the things that the games did well.

 

[Racecarlock]

To be fair, their arcade games are still way better than most games we have here.


I want to play that so bad.

 

[kilenem]

Its nintnedo fault. Mario 64 3D environment opened Pandora's box which killed so many game developers Nintendo tried to close it with their line of Handhelds because that's hte only Place japan is dominating.

 

[beastro]

Its nintnedo fault. Mario 64 3D environment opened Pandora's box which killed so many game developers Nintendo tried to close it with their line of Handhelds because that's hte only Place japan is dominating.

So you are saying, in a nutshell, that Japanese devs didn't progress with the advancement in technology? They were to slow to move forward with the industry?



I would say it has more to do with the fickle tastes of the Japanese public. At first, the Japanese were making games that they thought the Japanese would love, and the rest of the world enjoyed them too. As more of the world moved into the game development space, they catered their games more to their respective audiences to the point where the Japanese weren't the dominant force anymore. So Japanese devs games aren't as "mass appeal" as they once were.

I did not read the linked article.

I agree and this is just one aspect of the decline in the influence of consoles. Back the day consoles were the only easily accessible gaming medium and the Japanese had dominated consoles from the very beginning. That left foreigners (predominantly Westerns then and now) to make due either with purely Japanese games or Western products heavily influenced by Japanese tastes.

Those that stood out were Western games that were, if not in intent, but purpose, dumbed down, restricted computer games, the medium where Western gaming was and has remained strong. All that's changed is consoles are becoming more computer like and more and more "Western" developers are breaking out, that being in quotation marks because more and more of the best games the West has to offer are coming out of Eastern Europe.

The increasing Western dominance comes the increasing dominance of Western tastes, which anyone on this board who isn't a complete newbie already knows: We like our games, if not gritty and realistic, then above all more grounded whether that be in more convincing worlds or in fantastical elements that are more in keeping with our general, European based culture.

With that said, if you're at a loss as to why a Western dominated medium is being forcing a decline in Japanese gaming, then just ask yourself what Westerner would produce such an eccentric game franchise as one centered around a chubby Italian plumber, his wafer thin, tall brother and all the other crazy, and yet completely Japanese shit that is Mario and His World, let alone teenagers running around wielding swords larger and heavier than themselves or cute, plush toy like cats with demonic features and a pom popping straight out of the top of their head?

 

[Nadia Castle]

There are a lot of people who will just blame the rise of the FPS but there is a lot more to it than just that. Japanese gaming just seemed to completely loose its bottle post PS2. Look at almost every major genre and it's almost certain that a western developer or franchise has snatched the crown.

Nobody thinks of Ridge Racer or Grand Turismo as the untouchable kings of the racing genre anymore, Burnout, Need for Speed and Forza have all rivaled or overtaken them. Pro Evo was once the standard for a great football game and now it's stumbling in circles whilst Fifa rides high. The third person action game that ballooned in popularity after Devil May Cry is now overshadowed by superior efforts like God of War. Even the Mario Bros games seem that little bit paler against the imaginative, vibrant colour pallets of Rayman Legends. Japan had all the lead in the world and they threw it all away.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Japanese games are fine. There's just a whole new group of people gaming now and they have different tastes that the western game market caters to and through it they have become more successful than Japan with its smaller fanbase. It's never about objective quality but rather about popularity and image and shallow meaningless things.


PS4 launched late cause there's no games worth buying a ps4 for yet nor were there any in September and they knew not nearly enough people would buy it and they didn't wanna have that bad press of failing in their home soil.


A good 80% of my games are Japanese, as my favorite genres are Jrpgs and fighting games. There's a whole lot of good stuff out there, people just have this stigma in their heads and they refuse to look at a reality that contradicts it.

 

[kilenem]

Its nintnedo fault. Mario 64 3D environment opened Pandora's box which killed so many game developers Nintendo tried to close it with their line of Handhelds because that's hte only Place japan is dominating.

So you are saying, in a nutshell, that Japanese devs didn't progress with the advancement in technology? They were to slow to move forward with the industry?



I would say it has more to do with the fickle tastes of the Japanese public. At first, the Japanese were making games that they thought the Japanese would love, and the rest of the world enjoyed them too. As more of the world moved into the game development space, they catered their games more to their respective audiences to the point where the Japanese weren't the dominant force anymore. So Japanese devs games aren't as "mass appeal" as they once were.

I did not read the linked article.

If the Japanese didn't know how to make games to appeal to a audience why is the 3DS Printing money. The whole street pass system is set up for Japan. The 3DS is a less powerful system that cost less to develop for.

 

[LaoJim]

I would say it has more to do with the fickle tastes of the Japanese public. At first, the Japanese were making games that they thought the Japanese would love, and the rest of the world enjoyed them too. As more of the world moved into the game development space, they catered their games more to their respective audiences to the point where the Japanese weren't the dominant force anymore. So Japanese devs games aren't as "mass appeal" as they once were.

It seems to me that this is a big part of the problem. Look at the best selling games of 2013 in Japan (from Famitsu)

01. [3DS] Pokemon X/Y ? 3,976,829
02. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 ? 3,293,312
03. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf ? 1,730,182 / 4,017,159 total sales
04. [3DS] Tomodachi Collection ? 1,580,067
05. [3DS] Dragon Quest VII ? 1,227,377
06. [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons Z ? 1,005,697
07. [3DS] Luigi?s Mansion: Dark Moon ? 982,737
08. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto V ? 605,882
09. [WIU] New Super Mario Bros. U ? 584,479 / 965,794 total sales
10. [WIU] Wii Party U ? 518,766

Compare that with the chart from the USA (from NPD).

01. Grand Theft Auto 5
02. Call of Duty: Ghosts
03. Madden NFL 25
04. Battlefield 4
05. Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag
06. NBA 2K14
07. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
08. Just Dance 2014
09. Minecraft
10. Disney Infinity

The Japanese, for the most part, are playing hand-held based JRGPs, while the Americans are playing console based shooters, sports and big-budget open world games.

I'm not going to risk suggesting which list is better on this forum...

 

[stroopwafel]

I think the Japanese game industry was lacking from say beginning to mid of last console's life span. They espescially had difficulty making the transition to HD games, whether due to lack of funds or understanding of the technology. Japanese devs always had a penchant for stylized games and an approach to game design 'stuck' in tradition and routine. Not that this is a bad thing per se considering many devs have experted their craft but its too conservative and too void of new ideas(see Nintendo).

This is probably also why handheld gaming is so massively popular in Japan and outranking the home consoles there. The best handheld games still come from Japan not only b/c its the biggest segment of the market but also b/c its tailored to their design philosophies(which haven't really been 'updated' since the PS2). Games for consoles are often 'westernized'(to increase market potential) so becoming neither distinct Japanese games nor genre classics here, but rather some watery offshoot(usually in the form of a third person shooter).

It also doesn't help that some of Japan's biggest franchises have become victim of their own success, like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy. The first one wants to emulate the success of Call of Duty through the brand recognition of their survival horror franchise(?) and the second is so stuck in a rut and out of ideas that 17 years later people are still clamoring for a remake of Final Fantasy 7.

Will Japan ever create genre defining games again than corporate influence on game design needs to go(Shinji Mikami, one of the best game designers of all time in my opinion, even lamented how this changed Capcom for the worse). They espescially need to get rid of the 'EA model' of doing business. What makes great games is new talent, new ideas, new IPs and not try and make risk-averse, unoriginal, cloned games from what is popular and have absurd sales projections. Obviously there is an overlap with western game development here.

Though I like to add that espescially recently the Japanese games industry is bouncing back with expected titles like Dark Souls 2, Evil Within and MGS5. These are the kind of games that can only be made in Japan, games they excel at in terms of subtlety, atmosphere and melancholy. It's no surprise that with the exception of MGS5 none of these games come from the major, established gaming companies in Japan. One has been niche since its inception, the other is from a studio established out of discontent with a major company and only MGS5 is from Konami, but even here by a guy who has his own studio in said company and has the creds to pretty much do as he please creatively.

Needless to say, I hope these games become huge commercial successes as well.

 

[Dragonbums]

Honestly I want to say part of it is just how alienating the types of games they are making nowadays and the the increasingly lower birth rate of the population. There are more aging game industry professionals than new ones, and that will serve to be very problematic not only for the consumer base but for the working industry as well.

 

[Dragonbums]

Its nintnedo fault. Mario 64 3D environment opened Pandora's box which killed so many game developers Nintendo tried to close it with their line of Handhelds because that's hte only Place japan is dominating.

What in the heck are you even talking about dude?

That doesn't even make sense. 3D environments were going to come eventually.

I mean really now. How does an advancement in technology such as 3D hinder devs?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

the article is basically saying being trying to turn the situation of the Japanese gaming market into a soap opera need to get more interesting lives. They directly cite how the freaking British industry was starting to wind down but then bounced back. Furthermore, the Japanese industry doesn't operate on the same kind of razor-thin margins their Western counterparts do and thus hearing about Japanese company having financial troubles is actually quite rare as opposed to the West where layoffs and closures happen every other week it seems.

As for the PS4 launch it cites, this is what I have to say: no freaking shit, Sherlock. Did they not see the launch titles list? Those are slim pickings, especially when it comes to stuff that would appeal to Japanese tastes. And with no other big titles on the way for them, the PS4 is probably NOT going to take off over there for awhile. It's hard to sell something when there's not a lot for it.

 

[Hades]

I think the decline has a lot to do with a loss of prestige for many big name Japanese Series. A loss of prestige caused by them trying to do something different and failing horribly.

Final Fantasy is the most obvious example. A Final fantasy was a game everyone was exited for but ''meh'' would be the best term to describe the FF's of this generation. Final fantasy didn't fall from grace because they refused to innovate but because they failed at it. SE did try to look at the West but as a result made a product that didn't feel like a Final Fantasy and thus it disappointed a lot of people. Personally I think Final Fantasy completely wasted this generation by trying to keep the western styled XIII series running rather then start over with something more traditional.

Same with Resident Evil. They tried to look at the west and decided ''GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!'' Was the way to go and like final fantasy they created something that wasn't resident evil.

The decline likely did start earlier otherwise those companies wouldn't have thought they needed to copy the west to succeed but I do feel that the poor decisions that damaged the appeal of once highly valued franchises did just as much harm to the Japanese industry as more people embracing western styled games.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

I think that what has become noticeable and is a thing I conceive as bad regarding Japanese games,is that aside from a few exceptions,(e.g. Metal Gear,Mario) they all seem to share the very specific style.
It's that feeling when you see a few screenshots or seconds from a video game,and immediately you understand it's Japanese,without anybody ever telling you that it is.
Oversexualized objectified skimpy dressed female characters,black guys depicted with stereotypical fashion,males that look like women,and everything having disproportional sizes..
I understand Manga is a national art and tradition,but imagine if the same devotion to national traditions was applied to developers from other countries too. If for example in all American games player characters where dressed like cowboys and graphics were done in an art style derived from the Apache tribe or something.
I'm not saying that Manga is bad or something. In fact there are many Anime movies I loved watching. But while the style itself is good,having almost all of the games sharing the same style is bad. Because simply variety is good and same-ness is bad.
The almost exclusive attachment to a single specified style that is derived by a particular nation is what seems to be keeping many J games from becoming more relevant in the West.
Another thing is that J developers just seem to not let franchises die when they should.
Come to think of it there are numerous series in the West that while they were initially good,then they became bad. And many of them died.And devs moved on into making new stuff.
Sega keeps making Sonic,and even though they obviously can't make good games any more they just don't let the franchise die,and make something new. And Nintendo... Has been re-re-releasing the same 3-4 games for 2 decades. I just think they need to start trying new things and make new series.

 

[The Lunatic]

Come to think of it, the indie market seems pretty much entirely absent in Japan.

I guess with the lack of the PC platform as a viable start-up for small development companies, it doesn't leave many places for indie designers to go.

 

[Eve Charm]

Well first off japan is a tiny country. when video games are becoming main stream Everywhere of course the amount of Japanese players when accounting for all the gamers in the world will go down.

Now the problem with Japanese games however is a lot of developers committed "The Capcom Sin" And started to believe the audience for there games aren't there anymore... Now while some casual games and markets hit it off like the wii did, A lot fell flat on there face like "Making the target audience for Resident Evil 6 teenage boys that are into fashion..." And final fantasy 13, Hallways and waifus cause towns and world building are boring.

There still is a lot of good stuff like Bravely default a new IP. Selling a crapload everywhere and soon to be a new ip, And beneath kid main characters you have that old school Final Fantasy battles and job systems people thought the market was to old for, or young players wouldn't like it.