Japanese Game Industry is Feeling the Pinch

[The Wooster]

Japanese Game Industry is Feeling the Pinch

Things have gone from bad to worse for Japan's game industry, according to a recent survey.

The survey, conducted by Mirko Ernkvist of the University of Gothenberg, was mailed to every CEO with a company with at least 3 years of business experience. Only 25% of the CEOs contacted responded, and some neglected to fill out the survey in full, but the picture painted by those who did respond is grim indeed.

Of the companies that responded, only 52% claimed to have made a profit during 2011, and 89% reported that they'd outsourced parts of their own projects.

Of course, 2011 was a pretty tough year for most Japanese businesses - tsunamis and nuclear meltdowns do not, as a rule, stimulate the national economy - but the software industry was hit particularly hard. Software revenue dropped by 8% during 2011.

Almost 58% of respondents reported using third-party graphics engines in the past three years, which Ernkvist argues is a sign that they're less technologically sophisticated than their western counterparts. Only 36% of respondents reported using a commercially available AI program, and 41% admitted to using a third party physics engine.

You can browse the entire report, which is actually quite stimulating for a document that uses the word "median" more than once, here. [http://www.gdconf.com/news/2012/02/16/Survey/Survey%20Report%20February%202012.pdf]


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[valkeminator]

Well this is disappointing... I can only hope the Japanese game market can find their shines back, but if any I think its mostly because of how there probably has been a change of consumer taste as well.

If not we can always point at how they often keep the GOOD titles to themselves... No exports for you indeed.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Maybe this'll provide the right stimulation for them to innovate more.

Which reminds me, the Japanese gaming industry is so weird in that respect. On one hand you have crazy-awesome innovation with games like Katamari and Catherine, but on the other hand you have the ever-popular JRPG genre which is hopelessly outdated, especially in terms of narrative design, because seriously who the hell designs something for an interactive medium almost like a movie.

I never really got that duality.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Man, I'd hate to have to rely on the western market (and its seemingly burning hatred of the consumer) more for games. Come on, bounce back!

 

[Nazrel]

Also JRPGs have now become pretty stale IMO.

How so?

and don't mention that pathetic shell Square-Enix. I'm sick of people using them as the measuring stick for all JRPG's.

 

[Baresark]

I'm not really surprised. I love when people announce something as recession proof, because that proves how utterly useless they are. It's mind blowing actually. First, there is no such thing. Even in the instance of it's a non-profit and people volunteer. People end up having less time to volunteer, so that isn't even recession proof. And anyone who thought tech was recession proof... I have nothing to say that can express how stupid that is.
/endrant

Also JRPGs have now become pretty stale IMO.

How so?

and don't mention that pathetic shell Square-Enix. I'm sick of people using them as the measuring stick for all JRPG's.

I hear you there. There are usually a decent amount of good JRPG's, but they are always overshadowed by Squenix as if they are the gods of the genre. It's mind numbing. While they make competent and decent games, they are not JRPG's, nor should they be thought of as that. My only real problem with them at this point Final Fantasy XIII. I am trying to beat it though because I understand XIII-2 is a better all around game. It's a big pain in my ass.

 

[Siege_TF]

Japan has grown notorious for not exporting a lot of games that show promice, and if we aren't good enough to give them our money they don't deserve to recieve said money.

 

[Strazdas]

the software industry was hit particularly hard. Software revenue dropped by 8% during 2011.

why contradict yourself? a 8% drop in revenue when your company is in loss and your country is pretty much a big disaster fair isnt being hit hard. if anything, remembering the late sony hack and whatnot they have dropped ONLY 8%, which is extremely low compared to how other industries bare (for exampel car manufacturers).
Also outsourcing, buying graphic and physics engines and so on is the norm now. it is far cheaper to do so. why create an engine from scratch when you can buy one and modify it to your needs. especially when there are so many good ones out atm.

 

[kouriichi]

Well, maybe if they brought the Monster Hunter MMO to the US....

No, no... Thats just me being selfish. They should bring it to the rest of the WORLD!
Im serious though, a lot of games that people enjoy are going to be japanese only. And they think that its not going to hurt its sales. >.>; Quite the opposite. If they said "Fans raise the money for the English transaltion", every game they produce would come over seas the month after its Japanese release.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Also JRPGs have now become pretty stale IMO.

How so?

and don't mention that pathetic shell Square-Enix. I'm sick of people using them as the measuring stick for all JRPG's.

Love em' or hate em', Squeenix is STILL the most mainstream Japanese RPG company for the global market; everything else teeters on or falls firmly into the realm of "export-niche'", and that alone is going to skew the public's perception of jrpgs...

OT: Based on their publishing and distribution schedules, Japan seems to be floundering in indecision when it comes to exporting titles. Nintendo's baffling rejection of Project Rainfall, Capcom's continued moon-logic scheduling and marketing (hey guys, lets launch a redundant version of our own game!!..In the same year of the original's launch!), Konami's mass-withdrawal from, well, everything...and all of these companies used to be GIANTS in the global gaming market (well, Nintendo still is, but the gimmicky Wii is thankfully dead, and until the 3DS picks up more momentum, Nintendo goes back to being the semi-relevant "sleeping giant" they've been for the previous 15 years).

Personally: I wouldn't mind a return to Suikoden's core-continuity (and not that ear-raping kiddie shit they shoved out of their rectums for the DS...there's a problem with your game when you want to mute it every time the main character speaks), but even among jrpgs that franchise is very niche'.

 

[grigjd3]

Hmm, slow to innovate much. Though really, tons of American companies use externally developed graphics and physics engines and what-not. That's simply the direction the industry is headed in right now.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I'm not even a fan of Japanese video games, but if I was shown this data and told that it represented North American developers I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. It doesn't seem far off from what I expect of the game industry in general.

 

[Zipa]

Maybe if Japanese companies were not so snobbish about releasing games to territories outside of Japan itself then they would have more success. Plus some of the games just do not appeal to the West because of cultural differences.

 

[dimensional]

especially in terms of narrative design,because seriously who the hell designs something for an interactive medium almost like a movie.

I never really got that duality.

Pretty much every game with a script of any length is designed like a movie including action games especially third person and first person shooters, adventure type games in the style of zelda (ok not that many but hey are in there) in fact Ill just put almost everygame ever in there reason being scripts that are interactive are a hell of a lot of work, too much work for even all but the shortest text adventure game to pull off successfully beacuse they increse exponentially fast,so the solution at the moment is just to craft one story yeah you can have a few factors in there but its always the same story mostly a straight line with a few branching bits for sidequests and character interactions and maybe a single true branch at one point like Ar Tonelico so you can actually play two different sides but generally you may get a few endings based on some flagged short side paths and even then its usually divided into good ending and bad ending because as I have said you are only playing along a narrow path so it cant diverge too much.

I would be surprised if Japan was doing great after this year in particular but its far from dead ironically a JRPG in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the freshest games I have played in years and will hopefully get more makers of JRPGS/WRPGS to buck their ideas up and create something of similar worth.