Games In Japan: Market Morphing

Joseph Laszlo | July 19, 2004, 04:45 PM

Having spent more hours than I care to say on Sunday finishing off "Legacy of Kain: Defiance," wreaking bloody havoc on hordes of people (and things) less bad than me, I've been thinking about games a bit today.

So it was good to come across (via Slashdot Games) a great 1UP piece on the implosion of the Japanese game market.

Our coverage of PC and console games provides us with deep insights into the US game market, and it's fascinating to compare and contrast the US games boom with the problems Japanese game-makers are finding themselves in.

To wit (quoting):

"The Japanese games industry would appear to be screwed at this point. That is the basic message delivered by the latest CESA White Paper, the annual report of the Computer Entertainment Suppliers' Association. CESA's survey chronicled a third consecutive year of steady decline in Japanese hardware and software revenues, down 11% in 2003 and nearly 40% since the peak of the PlayStation generation in 1997."

"In Japan, 1997's big hits were Final Fantasy and Pokemon. 2003's big hits, six years later, were Final Fantasy, Pokemon, and Dynasty Warriors 4. Times, they change."

The piece blames a stunning failure of new/original Japanese franchises to find market acceptance, and a shift toward mobile gaming (based on the CESA data reported by 1UP, of the 34.4m or so fans of games in Japan, 9m are fans of cellphone based games).

An optimist might look at the variety of portable game devices coming soon and the next console generation right around the corner as a panacea for this. But given the analysis of the piece, one has to wonder if Japan's undergoing a permanent transition away from the upward spiral of complexity, learning curve, and long, involved narrative, and toward smaller and simpler games.

And that can't mean good things for devices you buy specifically because they are bigger and more complex and more powerful.

One also has to wonder whether the US market will follow Japan's lead in what might come to be seen as "high-end game fatigue."

I might be okay with that, as long as there was still bloodthirsty violence involved...