japan gaming
DESCRIPTION
Rambling thoughts on the history of the Japan game industry, how it got so disconnected from the rest of the world, and where it's goingTRANSCRIPT
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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
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Agenda
§ The past/present: arcades, consoles, PCs § The present/future: social, mobile § How things got this way § Further rambling § QA
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Once upon a time...
“Japanese video game” was redundant.
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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”...)
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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/
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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?
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The explanation:
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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...
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Oh, and did I mention?
Biggest feature of all:
Flash Lite 1.1! (HHOS)
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So why didn’t this go global?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode (duh)
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The result: Galapagos-ization
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1084712/Darwins-Beagle-sail--5m-replica-survey-oceans-help-NASA-craft.html
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The other result:
now
SP users
http://webdacapo.magazineworld.jp/top/70161/
FP users
SP %
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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
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On social platforms..
http://www.serkantoto.com <- awesome site
Facebook- shaped
hole
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FlashLite -> SmartPhones solutions
These are just the two best-known ‒ there are many more.
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Developing trend: platform-free games
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One more trend...
http://www.edge-online.com/news/complete-gacha-disaster-historic-proportions/
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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
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Or maybe it’s just random disparate evolution?
http://gamingwithscissors.com/reviews/monster-hunter-freedom-unite/
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Thanks! Questions?
Andy Hall [email protected]
@fenomas