WC: Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, Japanese gaming was all the rage. But when the Xbox 360 and PS3 ushered in the HD era of gaming, Japan quickly found itself knocked into niche status. During the eight year life span of the last gen consoles, only a handful of Japanese games ever got widely advertised releases in the west.
Japanese gaming companies have also been the target near constant criticism from western developers and even Japanese devs like Keiji Inafune. But the biggest snub so far is the February release date of the PlayStation 4. Not only is it a sign that Japanese developers are behind the curve when it comes to PS4 development, but it shows that Sony doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the Japanese market to move consoles with games played by the rest of the world.
While there have been some positive trends in Japanese gaming recently, the question of whether Japan can be relevant this generation remains (outside of producing the PS4, of course).
So here are seven things that can keep Japan relevant this generation.
A gorgeous real-world Miraidon from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has been created in Japan by the Toyota Engineering Society.
JDR thinks the gaming industry needs more licensed IPs. It's basically a cry for Firefly: The Game, and why not? JDR delves deeper into why more isn't adapted for the interactive screen.
Nah. Video games are their own thing they wouldn't be improved by leeching off Hollywood more.
Read the article and it gives no mention of the many problems prevalent with licensed IPs, such as games and dlc being delisted when their licenses expire, Adult Swim games being the most recent example.
Only if they're good, if its going to be a 2D sprite art game, you can get away with a small team and small budget. But if you're going to make it a 3D polygonal game, you're going to need a large team with a large budget, and often times these licensed games are quickly pushed out the door, unpolished, rough, boring, bland, snorefest at best, and downright broken at worst.
We have an Indiana Jones and James Bond game currently being developed by two veteran teams with I assume fairly sizeable budgets. Let's hope they turn out to be worthwhile.
A new Mad Max game to coincide with the upcoming film would have been awesome. I loved the first game, I'm guessing it didn't sell too well as they never bothered following it up.
"The Game Music Foundation are today very proud and pleased to announce an additional concert, circling back to the roots of Game Muisic Festival in Poland. On April 28th, 2024, the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw will once again become a place to celebrate the art of video game music, featuring scores from The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II." - The Game Music Foundation.
I think it's their obsession with handheld gaming that has caused them so much. Too much emphasis on handheld gaming and lets not forget how they want to appeal to western gamers. They are forgetting that Western gamers loved Japanese games because they were... wait for it... Japanese games!
They should stick to their roots, stick to their strengths and they'll earn their respect back.
Remember Ni No Kuni? Valkyria Chronicles? Yes, that's what I am talking about.
How the world has changed when i was at school Japan ruled the games industry, i used to drool over screen shots of games that were a good 6 months to a year before being released in the UK. Because of this the import market for the games and consoles was huge, i guess they now order consoles and games from here, very weird. These new consoles have all the flashy graphics etc but there has been something really missing since the megadrive/snes days just great gameplay and trying to get a higher score than your friends. Side scrolling beat em ups were huge back then what happened to them? has there been one since streets of rage 3?.