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1Up: Why Japanese Games are Breaking Up With the West

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
http://www.1up.com/features/japanese-games-breaking-west

"It's not you, it's me." That's the message the Japanese gaming industry is telling the world this week at TGS. "Our games are as good as ever, they're just not for you anymore."

Critics in the west have been crowing about the supposed death of the Japanese industry for years. And while their critiques have a certain degree of truth to them, they're missing the point. Japanese game development did run into trouble during this console generation, but their issues are so removed from the average gamer's experience (workforce and labor management) as to be meaningless. The games themselves are as good as they've ever been, but they're just not made for the entire world anymore. Japanese games are now by and large made to appeal almost exclusively to Japanese gamers. Rather than this being another piece that focuses on the alleged downfall of the Japanese industry, we thought we should focus on why Japanese games and western tastes have diverged so much in recent years. There's no single cause that can explain the phenomena -- the possible reasons range from the social and economic, to the practical and mundane. Regardless, the fact remains that Japanese gamers are now seeking different experiences from North Americans and Europeans.

Gamer taste in both regions underwent a massive sea change in recent years. While the slow takeover of the AAA console space by former PC heavy-hitting franchises, genres and studios like Fallout, FPS games, and BioWare changed the tastes of the western market in the past decade, other forces have been working on Japan in the same time. The reasons for the shift in Japanese gamer taste are numerous, but there are three that western gamers in the country continuously note -- a peculiar emotion called moe, the Japanese concept of hobbies and adulthood, and a tradition of disparaging foreign games.

moe

The concept of moe (pronounced MOH-ay) is incredibly important amongst Japan's indigenous nerd population, otherwise known as otaku. While there are train otaku, military otaku, and otaku of all kinds, a great many of them focus on the geeky triad of anime, manga, and video games; the three media influence each other and are often linked together. Moe is a word that Otaku will often use at the sight of a cute, large-eyed juvenile character, but when asked point blank "What does moe mean?" most are unable to offer a coherent answer. It is an amorphous concept.

The word is often used by westerners familiar with Japan to describe the lolicon (short for Lolita Complex) art style which focuses on young, often pre-pubescent girls, and seems to feature a disturbing mix of childlike cuteness with subtle and not-so-subtle sexual overtones. This definition is not quite right according to Patrick Galbraith, a researcher of otaku culture at the University of Tokyo. "Moe is an affective response to a fictional character or representations of a character. There are two things that are important to note about this definition. First, we are talking about a response. Moe is used not to describe a character type or style, but rather characters that are likely to trigger a response or are designed with that in mind. This implies that there are a range of different characters that appeal men and women or various ages and orientations. Second, moe is a response to fictional characters, not actual people. Without this distinction, moe is conflated with descriptions such as 'cute' or 'sexy.'"

Moe describes the emotions that otaku feel upon seeing, thinking of, or interacting with a certain kind of character. Depending on the person, this character may or may not fit the little girl image that western game critics have come to associate with the word. It may be used by female anime, manga, or game fans that enjoy "Boys Love" media which feature homosexual pairings between popular characters for example.

So what exactly does this mean for games? It actually depends on which ones you're talking about -- for the biggest titles it means nothing, but it means everything to smaller publishers and developers. The business model for small games in Japan can only be sustained by catering to a small yet rabid fan base that's willing to pay a premium for content. AAA titles normally sell for between the equivalent of $40-$60, while smaller niche titles are usually priced at $80-plus. Small developers make their money by selling less at a higher profit margin, while major publishers sell more for less. If you publish small games in Japan you have to give your fans what you want, and since your fans are otaku who revel in moe, you'll give them games filled with the characters that elicit that response -- which are usually young, childlike girls. Between August and December of this year there are a total of 35 games set for release in Japan which follow this exact model. There are more games like this than there are FPSs in the west. By catering to their fan base, smaller publishers have alienated many western fans.

Moe's effect on AAA games has not been as direct. If you want to make a massive hit, you can't sell it only to the small crowd who wants to ogle 2D characters, as Galbraith points out. "What moe game has as many players as Monster Hunter? What franchise has been as successful as Pokémon? What moe characters have had the cultural impact of those of Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball? The point is that they are not the majority of the audience, and the most popular and bestselling works in Japan are not those targeting moe fans."

If smaller games are catering to an almost exclusively Japanese audience, that still leaves mainstream titles for the rest of the world to enjoy, right? Well, not as many as there used to be.

Japanese Attitudes towards Gaming

Japanese culture has developed a reputation for being more accepting of traditionally geeky pursuits than the west. Because so many amazing games came from Japan in the past, many imagine Japan to be a place where being a "gamer' is accepted and considered "normal." In reality it's anything but. The west is far more accepting of adults playing games. While people will often play games on their cell phones, and though the DS made major in-roads into the casual market, particularly with women, admitting to playing games still carries a stronger social stigma in Japan than in Europe or North America. As such, many adults willingly give up games, keeping the market much younger overall than elsewhere.

Japanese work habits encourage this trend. Traditional corporate culture allows very little free time for their employees. A worker is expected to stay at work until his boss leaves for the day, putting a limit on family and leisure time. Since the bosses themselves have long since adjusted to such a schedule they stay late, forcing their subordinates to stay late with them and putting a stress on both their social and family life. Younger employees are expected to work long hours. Thirteen-plus hour days are not rare.

This leaves precious little time for hobbies, including gaming. However, it's societally expected that an individual will have one, and there are a limited number of socially acceptable options. When asked, Japanese men will often say that their hobby is golf, fishing, or gardening; women will often respond with shopping, English, and, in more recent years, golf. These activities tend to fall along strict gender lines and most people tend to name only a single hobby. While it's not unheard of to name gaming as one's hobby, to do so at a typical work place would make one stand out -- something that is discouraged in group settings.

Adult gamers exist in Japan, but they're fewer in number for various reasons, including peer and work pressure. When Japanese adults do play games they do so more often than not on portable devices, and don't self-identify as "gamers." It's not a hobby, but rather something they do to kill time on a commute. In the past that meant the DS and to a lesser extent the PSP (the handheld's core market in Japan was always teenage boys, though Monster Hunter expanded the audience.) Today it means the iPhone and other smart phones. The 18-35 year old demographic that's hungry for HD experiences on their television doesn't exist outside a small group of dedicated gamers. That particular group overlaps to a large extent with those that are so fond of feeling moe. This has resulted in a market where the mass market audience plays on handhelds and the hardcore plays on consoles, which is quite different than most other markets in the world. Monster Hunter on the PSP is to Japan what Call of Duty on the 360/PS3 is to the west.

As Japanese gamers lost interest in console games, production dipped. At the same time, market forces prompted western PC heavy hitting developers to change their focus to consoles. Suddenly the console market was dominated by the west, and Japanese audiences have never liked western games. There's an old Japanese gaming proverb, yo-ge kuso-ge: literally, "western games are shit."

Gaming Xenophobia

The role and influence of western games on Japan after 1983 is minimal. While it's true that games like Pong and Spacewar did make it over to Japan, and that these were the first video games that Japan encountered, the country had a long tradition of producing traditional mechanical games for arcades, and these games (from companies like Nintendo and Sega) influenced early Japanese video games as well.

While Japanese arcades were blowing up in the '80s and the machines were becoming popular in America, a burgeoning home gaming market appeared on Japanese PCs. This period in the early '80s marks the only time where PC gaming was a force to consider in the Japanese gaming scene. Prior to the appearance of the Famicom in 1983, Japanese role-playing games were getting there start on these machines. Designers would liberally borrow from the Wizardry and Ultima series in their games. Wizardry in particular remains a cult favorite series in Japan, and the recent iterations of the franchise have only been released in Japan.

After this early era western games fell by the wayside. The rise of console gaming prevented Japanese gamers from seeing the best titles the rest of the world was buzzing about, and Japanese games developed in their own isolated ecosystem with Japanese publishers treating their popularity in the rest of the world as a bonus. At the time it seemed that video games were immune to what the Japanese call Galápagos syndrome, a phrase used to describe products made in Japan that fail to perform elsewhere. The term draws its name from the specialized adaptations sported by species of finches observed by Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands. These birds were only suited to life on their particular island. Likewise, products -- particularly consumer electronics like cell phones -- in Japan are often designed to suit the specific needs of Japanese consumers, and don't always perform well outside of the country despite being superior in many ways.

Without PC games Japanese gamers were only exposed to western console games, which were by and large inferior to their Japanese competitors. Given the skewed sample size, the conclusion was obvious: Western games were universally terrible, and the phrase "western games are shit," became self-evident.

The state of affairs slowly changed, but Japanese perceptions of western games hasn't. While there's a small group of hardcore gamers who import the latest titles from America, and designers like Suda 51 have acted as champions of foreign games, there are still many gamers and members of the industry who still cling to their old beliefs. One designer at a high-profile JRPG maker told us of the time he brought Bioshock into the office. While the younger members of the company were impressed, a high-ranking and well known producer played the game for thirty seconds, declared, "This game feels cheap," dropped the controller on the desk and walk away without another word.

The issue isn't that Japanese games aren't like western games. Japanese attempts to mimic western titles rarely meet with success, and when a developer in the country produces a worldwide hit, it's usually because they deliver an experience not found elsewhere. This issue is that many (but by no means all) influential Japanese designers refuse to examine western games at all. The result is that the Japanese gaming industry is currently suffering from its own version of the Galapagos syndrome, and the famed "Monster Hunter Claw" is its own specialized adaptation. While the west was busy fine tuning dual analog control from movement in a 3D space, designers in Japan were experimenting on their own methods of control that had to work on the single analog PSP. Monster Hunter's particular scheme required players to twist their hands into a very uncomfortable claw like shape. This claw eventually became the gold standard for 3D action games in Japan, and gamers expected and demanded its inclusion. So when Konami produced Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker they had to offer western players pseudo-dual analog (using the face buttons) and Japanese players "the claw."

It's not that Japanese games are bad and western games are good or vice versa, the problem facing fans of Japanese games outside of the country is that the tastes of Japanese gamers are diverging from the rest of the world, thus limiting the commercial appeal of even the biggest titles in Japan. The specialized habits of Japanese adult gamers have left the console space in the country to otaku and their moe. Meanwhile, the Japanese consumers are perfectly content with this state of affairs, because as far as many are concerned they're not missing out on anything. The gamers have changed more than the games, and while that leaves a lot of old-school fans in Europe and the Americas out in cold the vast majority of consumers around the world seem to feel just fine about the current state of affairs.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
So they are xenophobic lolicon lovers that are embarassed to play once they reach adulthood. Well then...
 

Skilletor

Member
zoner said:
That seems both arrogant and ignorant all at the same time.

I see tons of people on gaf who say japanese games aren't appealing. I don't see how it's different. Definitely a cultural thing.
 

fse

Member
Maybe those games are shit and not that good? Some of the games coming out of Japan are just kinda weird.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
Skilletor said:
I see tons of people on gaf who say japanese games aren't appealing. I don't see how it's different. Definitely a cultural thing.
There's a difference between not appealing and calling an entire region's output, 'shit'. And this has become a more recent sentiment. Where as, from this context, they've always felt this way.
 
I think the issue that's best to bring up here is that Japanese adults simply don't have the free time at home that Westerners have - and thus, their games are meant for commutes, for children, or for obsessive geeks.
 

klee123

Member
zoner said:
That seems both arrogant and ignorant all at the same time.


You're basically describing like the majority of the casual western gaming audience nowadays as well. I see tons of gamers giving crap to Japanese games with the words "animu", "weaboo" and etc. It's no different.
 

Zeal

Banned
this entire article is fucking garbage.

they're right, it's not that japan's games have changed, that's the root of the problem. they haven't changed and the west continues to evolve and get better and better. at this point, we are so much better, the japanese game industry has no one to blame but themselves.

so let japan to be stubborn and refuse to change, that seems to be the only thing they're good at. and i am especially proud of the fact that western countries refuse to accept this fucking 'moe' or lolishit. call it whatever you want, but it is borderline pedophilia in disguise.
 
zoner said:
That seems both arrogant and ignorant all at the same time.

It's also not true. Hasn't DKC:R sold close to a million copies in Japan? Crash 2 and Crash 3 sold over a million copies there. It has more to do with Western developers rarely making games that actually appeal to Japan than Japanese gamers just flatout not liking Western developed games.
 
Dali said:
Wasn't this the status quo for the majority of console gaming history?
I'd say so.

Games across each have always had different mechanics, and artistic stylings. An early 90's American RPG is different on some very fundamental levels from an early 90's JRPG. Shooters too.

The differences among east and west developers has just gotten more pronounced as time has went on.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
SolidSnakex said:
It's also not true. Hasn't DKC:R sold close to a million copies in Japan? Crash 2 and Crash 3 sold over a million copies there. It has more to do with Western developers rarely making games that actually appeal to Japan than Japanese gamers just flatout not liking Western developed games.
I believe the Rockstar games do really well over there as well.
 

Skilletor

Member
zoner said:
There's a difference between not appealing and calling an entire region's output, 'shit'. And this has become a more recent sentiment. Where as, from this context, they've always felt this way.

Again, same threads on gaf with people going, "Oh, Japan."
 
I can't help but to think this is nothing more than an article to get some stupid Japanese vs. Western war riled up again.

I already have to deal with this crap as a JRPG fan, there's no need to make it worse. Why can't we just learn to get along and accept that people from different regions may have different things they like? And that not everyone in a certain region likes the same types of game, so you can have a Japanese person love dudebro shooters and an American person love their moe dating sims?

It seems like such a simple concept that people on both sides just can't seem to get through their thick skulls. It's like some sort of pissing war between the region's most obnoxious fanboys.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
But, I like JRPGs and FPS? What now, 1up!?
 

Cartman86

Banned
Dark Octave said:
This is true as well. CoD gamers don't like that Japanese games too often.

I'd say an incredibly large amount of people in the west love Mario, Pac-Man, Zelda etc. All Japanese games. What western game has done that in Japan?
 
NotebookJ2 said:
I can't help but to think this is nothing more than an article to get some stupid Japanese vs. Western war riled up again.
I think this article is trying to explain why Japanese developers are abandoning consoles and flocking to handhelds.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
zoner said:
I believe the Rockstar games do really well over there as well.
That's kind of a relative standard to other Western console games. RDR is at 114,671 on PS3 and L.A. Noire is at 63,231 on PS3. GTA IV did make this chart however.

ps3japan2jkm.png
 

DiscoJer

Member
While Japanese arcades were blowing up in the '80s and the machines were becoming popular in America, a burgeoning home gaming market appeared on Japanese PCs. This period in the early '80s marks the only time where PC gaming was a force to consider in the Japanese gaming scene. Prior to the appearance of the Famicom in 1983, Japanese role-playing games were getting there start on these machines. Designers would liberally borrow from the Wizardry and Ultima series in their games. Wizardry in particular remains a cult favorite series in Japan, and the recent iterations of the franchise have only been released in Japan.

After this early era western games fell by the wayside. The rise of console gaming prevented Japanese gamers from seeing the best titles the rest of the world was buzzing about, and Japanese games developed in their own isolated ecosystem with Japanese publishers treating their popularity in the rest of the world as a bonus. At the time it seemed that video games were immune to what the Japanese call Galápagos syndrome, a phrase used to describe products made in Japan that fail to perform elsewhere. The term draws its name from the specialized adaptations sported by species of finches observed by Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands. These birds were only suited to life on their particular island. Likewise, products -- particularly consumer electronics like cell phones -- in Japan are often designed to suit the specific needs of Japanese consumers, and don't always perform well outside of the country despite being superior in many ways.

Without PC games Japanese gamers were only exposed to western console games, which were by and large inferior to their Japanese competitors. Given the skewed sample size, the conclusion was obvious: Western games were universally terrible, and the phrase "western games are shit," became self-evident.

Maybe they just have different tastes? I used to be a huge PC gamer until the late 90s, mostly because they almost literally stopped making the games I liked to play - turn based RPGs and strategy games.

As the article points out, Wizardry is still being made in Japan...but there don't even seem to be indie wizardry style games being made anymore in the West. Some Ultima style (Spiderweb's stuff), but about the only Wizardry clone in the works is Grimoire, and that's vaporware.

Ditto for strategy games. 4x Space games used to be a very popular genre. They still exist, but almost all fo them are in real time. Even traditionally turn based series have gone over (Space Empires). Turn based tactical games like Panzer and Perfect General are basically gone. So are tactical combat games like JA and X-com - most are now real time or that phased stuff.
 

Azure J

Member
That article is interesting and depressing as all fuck. There's too much to highlight and talk about but at the same time.
 

Ratrat

Member
If only:

Ps3 sold more
Wii was more powerful
Japan bought 360s

I think if one of the above had actually happened we'd have seen more "next gen" games on consoles.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
There is a good point about the 'premium' charge for niche games, and the ridiculously costly limited editions for said games. They keep making them(and keep offering risque bonuses at select retailers), so for better or worse, it's working.

I just wish they'd make more 999 and Umineko and less 'My Sister Can't Possibly Be This Cute'.

Japan games can be distinctly Japanese without being fricking creepy.
 

Cartman86

Banned
NotebookJ2 said:
I can't help but to think this is nothing more than an article to get some stupid Japanese vs. Western war riled up again.

I already have to deal with this crap as a JRPG fan, there's no need to make it worse. Why can't we just learn to get along and accept that people from different regions may have different things they like? And that not everyone in a certain region likes the same types of game, so you can have a Japanese person love dudebro shooters and an American person love their moe dating sims?

It seems like such a simple concept that people on both sides just can't seem to get through their thick skulls. It's like some sort of pissing war between the region's most obnoxious fanboys.

Or you know people find this topic interesting and they want to write about it? Is it really that obvious or concrete that Japanese games are the same as they have always been and they don't need to change to match certain western design. Western games weren't always amazing. They changed to match certain Japanese designs.
 

Man

Member
Ineffectual development process seems to be the main problem. Western devs work hard and create technical marvels while many Japanese devs practically kill themselves and make decent material. Seems like western devs have better resources / intel for multi-core cpu / programmable gpu pipeline architectures. I believe that is about to even out though with the Fox engine, MT framework etc.
 

Derrick01

Banned
I agree with the overall idea of the article I guess. They make games for their people which is radically different from what I want now, so I don't play any japanese games. I used to want that, but my tastes changed when I grew up.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
They make some good points here, some of which I've made myself before, especially the part about Western PC developers "suddenly" flooding the console space (with, imo, the result of decades old experiences appearing fresh to a new crowd, a crowd who will inevitably move on at some point and potentially go back to Eastern games again, until it evens out with gamers acknowledging the issues of both equally instead of hyping what they currently prefer and condemning everything else), but wtf @ the Monster Hunter Portable claw mention? The thing was on PSP, how else could it be? And no, it's not required, and I'm pretty sure it's the "invention" of the players rather than the intention of the developers (since the game's fully playable without it), though this I could be wrong on. The series has been on home consoles with proper dual analog control as well, that doesn't suddenly make it West-friendly. Dual analog was popularised in the last home console generation, and it was used by the East just fine, before they flocked to handhelds to the detriment of consoles and before the majority of Western PC developers moved over, so, again, wtf? And are they sure Japanese developers aren't looking at Western efforts? Maybe there was a period that they didn't, but lately many of them seem to do so, while even series like Final Fantasy were reportedly inspired by titles like Ultima, so they clearly do now and they clearly did during the industry's birth. Not doing so in periods doesn't necessarily show xenophobia, maybe they found what clicks with them.

Also, Nintendo.
 
SolidSnakex said:
Hasn't DKC:R sold close to a million copies in Japan?
Not a very good example. After all, it's not like it trumpets the fact that it was made in the west. It's Nintendo's IP, and Nintendo's name is front and center. Even on the US box, Retro's logo is only on the back, in a tiny section.
 

cvxfreak

Member
Other Western companies find success in Japan. I actually think videogames are an anomaly in this situation. Western publishers/developers rarely make a game that appeals to Japanese gamers the way Louis Vuitton makes purses that appeal to Japanese women.


Zero-Crescent said:
Not a very good example. After all, it's not like it trumpets the fact that it was made in the west. It's Nintendo's IP, and Nintendo's name is front and center. Even on the US box, Retro's logo is only on the back, in a tiny section.

If that's what it takes, then more companies need to try that.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
The moe thing is pretty silly (Yes, the visuals and theme wouldn't fly in the west, but even with a complete overhaul, the gameplay would still crash outside of Japan), but I do agree with xenophobia and isolationism being a real problem for game development in Japan.

And they forgot the biggest heavy hitting PC franchise that changed gaming this gen: Call of Duty.
 
The business model for small games in Japan can only be sustained by catering to a small yet rabid fan base that's willing to pay a premium for content. AAA titles normally sell for between the equivalent of $40-$60, while smaller niche titles are usually priced at $80-plus. Small developers make their money by selling less at a higher profit margin, while major publishers sell more for less. If you publish small games in Japan you have to give your fans what you want, and since your fans are otaku who revel in moe, you'll give them games filled with the characters that elicit that response -- which are usually young, childlike girls.
The Japanese pricing model is just as fucked up as ours but in reverse. 0_0
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
The stigma of being an adult gamer here is very true. I have a coworker who I play 3rd Strike with at night but when we get into the office if I even try to bring up the topic of, say, yesterday's session he will run for the nearest hill and just outright ignore me. Minus a few obvious places it really isn't a "gamer haven" here, at least not in the business world. Still, I see more guys in suits at game centers than I do kids. /shrug
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Man said:
Ineffectual development process seems to be the main problem. Western devs work hard and create technical marvels while many Japanese devs practically kill themselves and make decent material. Seems like western devs have better resources / intel for multi-core cpu / programmable gpu pipeline architectures. I believe that is about to even out though with the Fox engine, MT framework etc.

I think Catherine is proof positive that original-minded developers can still pull of wondrous things, regardless of region.
 

Jin34

Member
Zeal said:
this entire article is fucking garbage.

they're right, it's not that japan's games have changed, that's the root of the problem. they haven't changed and the west continues to evolve and get better and better. at this point, we are so much better, the japanese game industry no one to blame but themselves.

so let japan to be stubborn and refuse to change, that seems to be the only thing they're good at.

It's more like PC devs brought to consoles the things they had been doing for years and a lot of people think that's new because they ignored PC gaming.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
Wow, there really is almost zero western games on that best seller list. The US list is probably mostly US devs, but I'm sure RE, MGS, DMC games are sprinkled about.
 

Jarlaxle

Member
Interesting article. I found it to be a pretty good read. It doesn't appear that things will be changing any time soon. The only thing I can see as starting to make a dent would be for both the Vita and 3DS to fail miserably (because of iphone/ipad type of gaming) and maybe the more traditional developers will shift their focus back to the consoles.
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Jin34 said:
It's more like PC devs brought to consoles the things they had been doing for years and a lot of people think that's new because they ignored PC gaming.
Zing!
 

7Th

Member
Lyphen said:
The moe thing is pretty silly (Yes, the visuals and theme wouldn't fly in the west, but even with a complete overhaul, the gameplay would still crash outside of Japan)...

Exactly. It's also not nearly as widespread as people would like to believe, at least not more so than it was in the past.
 
Japanese devs are far behind when comes to consoles and with handhelds selling so good i expect it to be that way also in the future.
Then there only a few publisher that can give them they same budget as the west .
Japanese games are still made on the cheap .
I still enjoy Japanese but the gen it really show how far behind they were on the tech side and how less important console gaming is to them.
 

klee123

Member
Cartman86 said:
I'd say an incredibly large amount of people in the west love Mario, Pac-Man, Zelda etc. All Japanese games. What western game has done that in Japan?

Crash Bandicoot series have actually done close to a million in Japan during the PSone days. Nowadays the COD and rockstar games do over 100K easily.

Also, the franchises that you've mentioned tend to appeal to all cultures due to the nature of their design and of course they've been around for decades. Compare that with a lot of designs from jrpgs nowadays and etc you'll get a very different response.
 
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