Japan gaming

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Meanwhile in Japan… Thoughts on gaming in Japan gaming, and how it got that way

GTA mods: http://hamoge.blog18.fc2.com/blog-category-10.html

Andy Hall Gaming Evangelist


Agenda

§  The past/present: arcades, consoles, PCs §  The present/future: social, mobile §  How things got this way §  Further rambling §  QA


Once upon a time...

“Japanese video game” was redundant.


Whence this success?

§  1983 US video game “crash” §  Market was driven by arcades

§  Japan’s economy and high tech/manufacturing industries were ascendant

§  Japan dominated home hardware (see: “console wars”)

§  Quality driven up by console makers putting controls on 3rd party content

(today we’d call it a “walled garden”...)


Flash-forward to today: Top-selling titles of 2012, US/EU

US Europe

1 Mass Effect 3 FIFA 13

2 Diablo III Diablo III

3 Just Dance 3 FIFA Soccer 12

4 Pokemon Black/White CoD: Modern Warfare 3

5 CoD: Modern Warfare 3 Mario Kart 7

6 Kinect Adventures! Super Mario 3D Land

7 Madden NFL 13 Mass Effect 3

8 Borderlands 2 Just Dance 3

9 NBA 2K12 FIFA Street

10 Zumba Fitness 2 Uncharted 3 http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2012/USA/

http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2012/Europe/


Top-selling titles of 2012, Japan

Japan

1 Pokemon Black/White

2 New Super Mario Bros.

3 Dragon Quest Monsters

4 One Piece

5 Biohazard 6 (aka Resident Evil)

6 Monster Hunter 3G

7 Mario Kart 7

8 Super Mario 3D Land

9 Dragon Quest X

10 Mario Party 9

Note - Japan’s highest selling...

§  XBOX360 game was #162 (Biohazard 6)

§  non-Japanese game was #156 (FIFA 13)

In other words the market is very different here.

http://geimin.net/da/db/2012_ne_fa/index.php


So how much have things changed?

Japan’s approximate share of global video game market:

2002 50%

2010 10%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_gaming_in_Japan


This sums things up:

“Everyone's making awful games - Japan is at least five years behind.

Japan is isolated in the gaming world.

If something doesn't change, we're doomed."

Keiji Inafune, Capcom (2010)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9159905.stm


Meanwhile in mobile...

Statistics on market size vary, but here are two:

http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000073104.pdf http://business.time.com/2012/01/19/why-mobile-gaming-changes-everything-or-is-mobile-gaming-facebooks-achilles-heel/

Mobile Games - Market Size

Japan US

$1.06B $1.53B (JP gov’t) (Gartner)


Mobile Games - Market Size

Japan (2007!!!) US (2011)

$1.06B $1.53B

Meanwhile in mobile...

Oops, forgot the dates!

pre-iPhone!

(JP gov’t) (Gartner)

http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000073104.pdf http://business.time.com/2012/01/19/why-mobile-gaming-changes-everything-or-is-mobile-gaming-facebooks-achilles-heel/

So how did Japan have a billion dollar mobile game market before smartphones came along?


The explanation:


Why i-mode was revolutionary:

§  A “separate internet” based on C-HTML

§  Official portal leading to 2nd party sites, apps, stores, etc. (i.e. walled garden)

§  Parallel access to unofficial content outside the garden

§  Carrier-driven, manufacturers were along for the ride

§  Carrier payments! In 1999-2000! Seriously!

§  And later: NFC (FeLiCa), digital wallet, TV tuners...


Oh, and did I mention?

Biggest feature of all:

Flash Lite 1.1! (HHOS)


So why didn’t this go global?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode (duh)


The result: Galapagos-ization

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1084712/Darwins-Beagle-sail--5m-replica-survey-oceans-help-NASA-craft.html


The other result:

now

SP users

http://webdacapo.magazineworld.jp/top/70161/

FP users

SP %


The other other results:

§  Users still have good reasons not to move to smartphones

§  Some social games here go back 5-7 years

§  Social-casual is a long-established genre, players are used to IAP and avatar goods sales

§  Facebook? What’s that, does it taste good?

§  Carrying FlashLite 1.1 assets over to smartphones is kind of a big deal in gaming

§  Social platforms are kind of an even bigger deal in gaming


On social platforms..

http://www.serkantoto.com <- awesome site

Facebook- shaped

hole


FlashLite -> SmartPhones solutions

These are just the two best-known ‒ there are many more.


Developing trend: platform-free games


One more trend...

http://www.edge-online.com/news/complete-gacha-disaster-historic-proportions/


So getting back to the original question:

§  Popular theories on the Japan-West Gaming Divide

§  Genre gap ‒ space marines vs. girls with enormous swords

§  Mechanic gap ‒ FPS vs. RPG

§  Localization gap ‒ English vs. イングリッシュ

§  Culture gap ‒ Japan’s gamedevs became too Japanese

§  Culture gap ‒ Japan’s gamedevs tried to become too western (i.e. mimicking US AAA games but without the speed, middleware...)

§  Hardware gap ‒ living room w/ Xbox vs. commute with phone

§  Motivation gap ‒ XBLA trash-talk vs. moe


Or maybe it’s just random disparate evolution?

http://gamingwithscissors.com/reviews/monster-hunter-freedom-unite/


Thanks! Questions?

Andy Hall [email protected]

@fenomas

Technology

Japan gaming