Japan gaming

Meanwhile in Japan… Andy Hall
Thoughts on gaming in Japan gaming, and how it got that way Gaming Evangelist

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Conﬁdential.
GTA mods: http://hamoge.blog18.fc2.com/blog-category-10.html

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
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Conﬁdential. 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
Note - Japan s highest selling...
8 Super Mario 3D Land §  XBOX360 game was #162 (Biohazard 6)

9 Dragon Quest X §  non-Japanese game was #156 (FIFA 13)
In other words the market is very different here.
10 Mario Party 9
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:

Mobile Games - Market Size

Japan US

$1.06B (JP gov t)
$1.53B (Gartner)

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Conﬁdential. 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/

Meanwhile in mobile...

Oops, forgot the dates!

Mobile Games - Market Size

Japan (2007!!!) US (2011)

$1.06B (JP gov t)
$1.53B (Gartner)

pre-iPhone!

So how did Japan have a billion dollar mobile game market
before smartphones came along?
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Conﬁdential. 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/

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:

FP SP %
users

SP
users

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

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..

Facebook-
shaped
hole

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

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
andhall@adobe.com
@fenomas


Japan gaming

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