Japanese Game Industry Insiders Blame Endless Sequels for Declining Sales

[New Troll]

Personally I believe the decline in sales is due to no new consoles coming out these past years. When everyone who wants a console buys it the first year it's out, it's going to be at it's highest sales. The next year when it drops in price and friends talk friends into buying it, sales will be lower but still high. Then the next year.. and the next year.. and, well, who's left? Sure there will always be those people just behind the times, or just now coming of age, or having to replace broken consoles, or buying thier alternative choice system, etc... but that's a much smaller margin of consumers than the fanboys and thier friends.

Blaming it on sequels alone is kind of ignorant in my opinion, especially considering sequels make up the big majority of gaming sales. Can't think of a single non-sequel to come even close to selling as many copies as Call of Duty 7. Not to mention FallOut 4, Assassin's Creed 3, Final Fantasy 13, Halo 5, need I go on? Hell, the only game I can think of to make good sales was Red Dead Redemption, which could easily be argued to be Grand Theft Auto 5 (techniquely 9!).

 

[VirusHunter]

Personally I think it's because a lot of great Japanese games aren't brought to North America. But then again they don't englify them because they don't sell well here...I guess we have only ourselves to blame...

 

[Sevre]

Just to ponder: Could it be possible that there are simply too many companies and games out there at the moment? That there's only so much time and money to go around and this is a natural shrinkage given the period we're currently in? People may naturally go with what they know and love--and companies happy to cater to them--until there's a period when people feel more willing to explore.

Well then you have to ask yourself, do you want to compromise on your choice to give the gaming industry more money? Plenty of great games are coming from new companies (Look at Torchlight), if there were less companies, then you'd have less choice in what to buy.

If I was King of the World, I would give all companies all the means necessary to produce every game they could and spark a digital renaissance. Unfortunately, whether a game company lives or dies depends on the buying habits of people. There is a subculture--I am assuming like you and me--who appreciate the variety and exploration the medium of games offers and explores it as such. However, the size of this group pales in comparison to the public at large, who is not as involved in games and chooses to buy more upon what is popular and what they know.

It happens over and over: we demand innovation and new IPs from major companies, yet when they come out, the majority have disappointing sales numbers. I think we are in an exciting age of smaller studios producing independent projects, and that it doesn't seem to take as much to support them; but in terms of the big guys, it doesn't look like they have much reason to change their tunes anytime soon.

In that case we're in a good position. We get our choice whereas the majority gets its triple AAA titles. If the industry is looking for more money then it has its Kinects and its Moves to attract a new audience and we have smaller game companies to cater to our every need. However the problem here is localised in Japan where new IPs are scarce and we see an overkill in sequels. And sometimes it's just ridiculous, remember Knights in the Nightmare for the DS two years ago? That was the 4th game in that series not counting spin-offs. Or the Megami Tensei series which has over 20 games?

I agree with you that the industry needs its CoDs more than its Sly Raccoons, they know every time they make a new IP they are taking a huge risk by not having a fan base to guarantee some success, but in Japan it's overkill on some sequels. That's being cautious to the extent that you're alienating a new audience.

 

[BlackWidower]

From where I stand, this is the same problem comics have. The major comics all have 50-80 year back stories that would be impossible for anyone new to catch up on.

 

[Shawn Schwickerath]

Yes, this is a problem...No, it isn't the Japanese at fault, it's all of us. Other art forms (Movies, Books, and Music) have this same problem to an extent (lack of truly original ideas), but for some reason in the video game industry along with the derivative, we get tons of outright sequels in the name of "franchises"...to the point of some months/years feel like that is all that is coming out. The trend is not new at all, and like I said really hard to blame any particular person for it.Myself, about 5 years ago I stopped buying most games and started playing MMOs...why play a game for a while and then wait for the sequel to come out so I can play the same game (slightly improved) when I can play the same game in the first place and wait for the devs to roll out new patches and expansions.

 

[josemlopes]

True, we can only blame on the publishers

 

[brazuca]

Okay, I'll be a jerk this time. I'm an action video game junk. I like things to remind me of Hollywood, I like violence, not so much tough. My caracters need to be straight forward and simple. I hate anime androginous and... How many J games are like these? RE series and MGS series so far. ¬¬

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

But what about a good Sonic game for once?

 

[ckam]

However, I do enjoy Persona 4 more than I did 3.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Instead of copypaste of the same shit....why not...like Western Sequels...


IMPROVE ON WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!

MAKE THE GAME MORE AND MORE PLAYABLE THEN ONE NONENDING ANIMECGIMOVIE!

37,0000 Final Fantasy games...and it all plays the fucking same...

Walking thru Woods -> Encounter -> MrEvilBunny Dance -> Start Hit Each Other In the Face-

REPEAT....

I would love for Japan to produce a game that didnt include a whining emo kid for my backup...

Think of it in Call of Duty... "Jones get up there and defend us" "I cant...my mother died in the war...I cant go on!"
/rant/

/Terminate Rant

 

[The Lunatic]

I eager await Nintendo to completely ignore this and continue spewing out Mario games.

 

[JonnWood]

Funny. That's exactly what Western developers keep blaming.

Western developers can be blamed too for... well... every single thing they say!

Our game devs are nowhere near as bad, most western franchises run for no more than 3 games or at least change up the mechanics now and again. Compare that to the East, where you have obominations like Final Fantasy that have gone well into the teens without actually improving or trying anything new (well, anything new that doesn't suck balls) since the early 00's.

FF12's gambits and complete lack of random battles springs to mind. And X-2's dress-spheres. And FF13's chain counter. And FFX's CTB. And Kingdom Hearts. And...

 

[adamtm]

Well no shit japan, i could have told you the same around 2005...

Next, you are going to tell me that the japanese market is oversaturated with jRPGs and partygames.

-u mad!?

 

[Tim Latshaw]

Just to ponder: Could it be possible that there are simply too many companies and games out there at the moment? That there's only so much time and money to go around and this is a natural shrinkage given the period we're currently in? People may naturally go with what they know and love--and companies happy to cater to them--until there's a period when people feel more willing to explore.

Well then you have to ask yourself, do you want to compromise on your choice to give the gaming industry more money? Plenty of great games are coming from new companies (Look at Torchlight), if there were less companies, then you'd have less choice in what to buy.

If I was King of the World, I would give all companies all the means necessary to produce every game they could and spark a digital renaissance. Unfortunately, whether a game company lives or dies depends on the buying habits of people. There is a subculture--I am assuming like you and me--who appreciate the variety and exploration the medium of games offers and explores it as such. However, the size of this group pales in comparison to the public at large, who is not as involved in games and chooses to buy more upon what is popular and what they know.

It happens over and over: we demand innovation and new IPs from major companies, yet when they come out, the majority have disappointing sales numbers. I think we are in an exciting age of smaller studios producing independent projects, and that it doesn't seem to take as much to support them; but in terms of the big guys, it doesn't look like they have much reason to change their tunes anytime soon.

In that case we're in a good position. We get our choice whereas the majority gets its triple AAA titles. If the industry is looking for more money then it has its Kinects and its Moves to attract a new audience and we have smaller game companies to cater to our every need. However the problem here is localised in Japan where new IPs are scarce and we see an overkill in sequels. And sometimes it's just ridiculous, remember Knights in the Nightmare for the DS two years ago? That was the 4th game in that series not counting spin-offs. Or the Megami Tensei series which has over 20 games?

I agree with you that the industry needs its CoDs more than its Sly Raccoons, they know every time they make a new IP they are taking a huge risk by not having a fan base to guarantee some success, but in Japan it's overkill on some sequels. That's being cautious to the extent that you're alienating a new audience.

You make a good point about the situation in Japan. I actually didn't know how extensive either of the series you mentioned were.

You can not even imply that the industry needs any fewer Slys, though. That's just sacrilegious (yes, I know you were just tossing up some names XD).

 

[mattttherman3]

I would say it's not so much sequals, as playing a game with soo many similarities it's shocking, look at the Tales games for instance(which I love) practicly the same spirits in both vesperia and symphonia, same attacks, same basic characters.

 

[Antari]

If this is how long it takes for them to realize the blatently obvious ... well then theres your reason why they are in trouble.