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.
Toyohashi, Japan is set to host a large-scale Monster Hunter event to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary, complete with themed hotel accommodations.
Shaz from GL: "Acting is a difficult craft to master, and what many don't consider is just how hard it can be to perform across different mediums of entertainment."
Interesting article, it doesn’t surprise me because some people are better all a-rounders than others. Regardless of fame or how good they are in their specialty.
This is why I feel like the live action stuff in Alan Wake 2 especially is pretty bad. It also looks really cheap and amateurish.
Chatting with the Face behind Quan Chi Mortal in Kombat Shahjehan Khan: Actor, Musician, Podcaster
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?.