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Iwata: Japan “Least Robust” Games Market in the World
Nintendo company president Satoru Iwata has voiced his concerns regarding the health of the Japanese games market.
Following Nintendo’s poor financial posting last week, in which the company cut its Wii sales forecasts, Iwata took part in a QA session with attending members of the press.
When asked to elaborate on Nintendo’s business strategy for Japan, Iwata said: “[One] thing I would like to explain is the home console market. Perhaps, the Japanese market is the least robust market in the world today with regard to home console systems.”
“In the US the home console market is very robust,” he said. “If the US sold two or three times as much as Japan, it would be tolerable. Yet, I feel that something is wrong when the US is selling ten times as much as Japan on a weekly basis.”
Iwata said Nintendo should not be content with the current situation in the Japanese game market, and proceeded to outline how Nintendo was hoping to address the problem. He said that – compared to a time when home consoles were selling better in Japan – the lifestyle of the Japanese public has changed, “getting busier” for a number of reasons.
“So we are seeing an overall lifestyle shift,” he said, “where many forms of entertainment are enjoyed while on the go, or during spare time. In these times, we need to provide the Japanese market with entertainment that only a home console can realize.”
In this context Iwata admitted that two exclusive Wii titles, Animal Crossing and Wii Music, had not lived up to the company’s expectations. He said Nintendo released them with the hope that the Japanese consumers “would appreciate them and revitalize the Wii market in Japan.”
“While Wii had very strong momentum in the overseas markets, the Wii market in Japan (during the year-end sales season) showed a slow start, did not show sharp trajectory in sales, and ended up moving back to the sales level of non-sales-season level quickly.”
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Here check this game out it's all in game no CG. It is also made my non western game devs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUKM_qpzjQc&eurl=http://news.bigdownload....
However I don't how good the game play is, because it's a new game. Ncsoft has some really good games.
Agin it's not the just the west that is better, this is where japanese game devs are wrong. It is pc game devs that are better at games than the japanese . Can I ask has any japanese game devs ever played games like stalker clear skies or Crysis. Have japanese game devs ever tryed other genres other than action, fps or rpg's. Can I ask how meny ocean or space genres are there on consoles.
Here is a fighting game that is more adavanced than any fighting game on console. Yes there is fighting games on the pc. It's not made from western game devs. However it's made by a pc game devs. it's made by Ncsoft made they are in koriea, Ncsoft only does pc games. It's a fighting MMO the next step in cutting edge gaming. This in game footage not cg by the way.
http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/14242855/ncsoft-mmo-project-1/videos/Blade...
No offense but final fantasy 13 doesn't look that great. The CG or cut sees in the game don't look that great as well. There is CG out there that looks better than FF 13 CG.
I would also like to note pc gaming has always been biger than console gaming.
"Here is a fighting game that is more adavanced than any fighting game on console"
You talk like you played the game already, the funny thing is that it's actually a MMORPG. On the graphical side, it can be done on PS3 and 360 easily.
"Yes there is fighting games on the pc"
Appart from some ports, no there aren't, like it or not fighting games are a console speciality.
"it's made by Ncsoft made they are in koriea"
As far as i know, korea its not in the west, they just have a very different market from the rest of the world, they love MMORPGs and Strategy games more than anything.
"Ncsoft only does pc games"
Not for much since the signed a contract with Sony to develop/port games to PS3, and there are rumors that this one actually could be ending on PS3, but for the time it's a PC exclusive.
"No offense but final fantasy 13 doesn't look that great "
You can say whatever to a Final Fantasy, but they are next to never look bad. You might end up not liking character designs or whatever, but from a technical standpoint they always look excelent.
Sorry, but could not hold up on this :P
Advanced technologies in the PC platform doesnt mean a thing with the Japanese problem. You do have a point, we all know that PC has always pushed the games in interesting ways (to what extend its open to debate), but cmon, japanese don't even know that PC runs games, maybe Koreans, but not the Japanese, aside from hentai games.
So, i can't see any relation betwen PC and the fall of the Japanese Videogame Market.
'Have Japanese game devs ever tried any other genres than action, fps or rpg?'
FPS is not a genre that Japan trades in. There have been plenty of genres the Japanese have refined and invented even. Rhythm action, for one, was largely started by the Japanese.
Then we have Seaman, Shenmue, Vib Ribbon, Electroplankton, Odama, Brain Training, Wii Sports, and so on.
And PC game developers should be the last ones to lay claim to innovating when it comes to gameplay. About 80/90% of the entire PC games market is first-person shoot 'em up. Ocean and space combat games together make up about 5/10% of the entire PC games market, if even that. Silent Hunter and Eve Online are not exactly topping the charts now are they...
Stalker is from an Ukranian developer, so it's not really a WESTERN outfit by any yardstick - more like Eastern European.
If you don't think FInal Fantasy 13 looks great, then I must say you must have very, very high standards. Bordering on graphics fetishism, even. Ever heard of 'art design'? That was what made all the difference in games like ICO and Shadow Of The Colossus. You don't need to throw 'good tech' or an engine to turn out a good game or even a pretty one.
In fact, show me a videogame even half-way approaching ICO and Shadow Of The Colossus in terms of atmosphere. I can think of very few credible ones.
Iwata has consistently been realistic about facing challenges since he became Nintendo's CEO. Let's not forget that it was under his leadership that Nintendo came back on top of the console makers. I think he's just stating a fact in the gaming industry. It was strange though that Nintendo didn't give out much in terms of software in 2008. Being such a secretive company, Nintendo makes wonder more what they've got in store for 2009.
My reaction to dreamhunk:
I agree that PC developers that are migrating because of the Xbox are really great game designers but that doesn't mean that they're dominating the market because Japanese developers are not some of the best in the world. If you read carefully into Mr. Iwata's statement he said that the Japanese market has changed which explains the decline of the home console market in Japan. It's an internal problem and not brought about by western dominance. Furthermore, PC developers are western developers giving them a great advantage winning over a western audience. Hideo Kojima recognizes it as such and said recently that he's adapting western tastes. So we can't say that Japanese developers aren't as good as western developers it's cultural differences that give western developers and advantage. I remember that since the Playstation days Japanese developers have been trying to make games that cater to both Japanese and Western tastes. We can see this evolution in the character designs from the first Final Fantasy to the Final Fantasy 13. This has probably put them at a disadvantage. From what Hideo Kojima has been implying lately some Japanese developer will be focusing more on a western audience. What'll come out of that will probably what we can weight against the best the west can bring.
This what I have to say to japan and japanese game devs, you were never the best! The must important platform you walk right by and that is the pc. Now that alot pc game devs have move over to consoles your now having a hard time. If you had strong pc game devs this would never be. Your so far behide in tech and gaming it's not funny.
I agree completely. The NES era of game journalists/bloggers have a skewed perspective on gaming history. Western PC developers have been over 5 years ahead of Japanese dev's throughout gaming history. Strictly console gamers were blown away by pseudo-3D singleplayer games like Onimusha and Resident Evil, while guys like Carmack, Sweeney and Newell were making fully realized 3D environments with online play (and you could even move, look and shoot at the same time - imagine that!).
Today you still see the insular legacy of Japanese dev's and console makers with their struggles to fully understand and integrate online into their games and systems although they're finally heading in the right direction.
Sorry but they were the best which is why the completely dominated console gaming for decades which also consistently outsell PC games by a large margin.
This is also why most popular gaming imagary come from console games, japanese console games. People in general have always liked what they Japanese have done more. Unfortunately they start doing things to much like the American style of game develop (ie produce shit).
I can't say I fully agree with you. While it is true that Japanese game developers no longer have the technical edge, there are still plenty of examples where Japanese videogames look just as good as your average blockbuster US game. Examples include: Resident Evil 5, Virtua Fighter 5, Soul Calibur IV, Final Fantasy XIII, Lost Planet, and so on. And there has still yet to be a US videogame like Shenmue that equals it in terms of detail, scope, and vision.
And I still have a particular affinity for Japanese videogames. Overall, I find that they have better gameplay, better structure, and better art design overall. And when we go back to the '80s and '90s, there's no contest really. Name me one example of a US-developed action RPG that betters Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past or Secret of Mana. How about a US/UK-developed platform game that equals Super Mario World or Yoshi's Island? You can't. There's none. You have Commander Keen and Great Giana Sisters, but those can't even hold a candle. It's almost an insult to the former two Japanese videogames to even have to compare them.
On the other hand, there's no good Japanese FPS (well, perhaps Out-Trigger, but that's dated by now). But the Japanese just don't like that perspective. Most of them get motion sickness if they play it for too long, others just don't like the in-your-face killing.
Anyway, it's true that Japanese videogames no longer dominate the charts like they did in the '80s and '90s, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that Japanese game devs were never the best - they clearly were, and US/European devs had a lot of catching up to do to come even close.
lol! At first, I thought you were dreamhunk disagreeing with himself. You two have the same avatar. lol! Ok, carry on....
Well this is odd isn't it. Nintendo are always the first to boast about how well their products have been recieved in Japan. Its usually the Western gamer that is left to gripe about how the eastern market is far better than that of thier own.
Nintendo has become a power-house in the west thanks to Wii's casual angle and this was always going to affect the Japanese market. Its a market comprised of passionate gamers, did Mr. Iwata really believe that the likes of Wii Music and Animal Crossing were really going to revitalize the market?
The Japanese and US markets are two entirley different arenas and therefore require two entirely different approaches. In order to successfully move forward Nintendo will have to adopt and furthermore adapt to the changes and challenges that each market will inevitably throw thier way.