The Fall of Japanese Gaming Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

It's not the first I've heard the sentiment. I've heard many a games journalist in 2009 complain they just weren't into Japanese games anymore. That they were more of same. That every JRPG  and anything else from Japan seemed like the same thing they played last generation. Of course, many of the same critics proclaim their love for shooters or sports games that don't change drastically from what they loved in the previous games. Usually I just leave it alone. People tend to gloss over the flaws in what they love and exaggerate flaws in what they don't. The psychology makes sense; Sigmund Freud asserts people commonly project what they don't like about themselves onto as a defense mechanism. Fans often extend that projection onto musicians, movies, sports teams, and other things in which they fault things in what they aren't fans of while glossing over the same mistakes in what they're invested in. There's a certain point after studying fan culture where I've stopped getting worked up over it, roll my eyes and move on.

Then tonight I caught a rather annoyed tweet from Daniel Feit whom directed me to Armando Filgueiras Jr.'s piece "Is Japan Still Important to Gaming?" I'll admit, on title alone, my initial reaction was to not even bother. Which wasn't fair. Any bold statement or question deserves to be heard out. So, I did give Armando a fair shake to explain the prospect of Japanese games becoming a dying breed and…well…

…really?

I'm dumbfounded how people can't seem to comprehend the idea the growth and expansion of an industry allows for more companies/countries to come in and stake a claim without it somehow simultaneously meaning the downfall of the company/country that has the stranglehold over the industry previously.

The drop in market-share by percentage is very much a valid discussion. Japan has definitely loss ground. But let's not lose perspective here. This isn't like Japan went from having half the market-share in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras and has fallen into obscurity. Western-influence on gaming now has nothing on Japanese in terms of domination at the peak of Japan's hold on the industry. If you want to take words at actual definitions as opposed to using words for dramatic effect, the West isn't even in the neighborhood of domination. 

Much of that had to with the crash in the 80s and that migration to PC in the West. Japan had the console market to itself for a while. PC's, at least in America seemed ruled by Western development. This led to different lineages in game development and audiences that for many didn't even touch what the others were playing. For instance, as influential as Halo was in breaking first-person shooters as a staple in the console space, there was actually nothing new about the FPS to the PC gamer. For people that grew up on console RPGs from Japan that mostly follow the lineage of Dragon Quest, Western RPGs from that follow the lineage of table-top Dungeons & Dragons games seemed deceivingly new and innovative when they came to consoles. Actually, the base gameplay of a disguised die-roll, more directly self-chosen attribute paths, and non-linear storytelling were old hat that predated video games.

This isn't to diminish many of the incredible innovations to come out of the West in recent generations. They have been plenty of industry-changing innovations to come from the West. That's undeniable. But I did want to cite what's a common PC gamer complaint in often innovations in console gaming weren't necessarily new.

Now to upset PC gamers -not that I care- but while PC games were influencing and still influence game development as a whole, if we're using the metric of sales and mainstream acceptance as a gauge, there's a reason most of the top-selling games of all time were developed in Japan for consoles and handhelds. And even looking past Wii Play (i.e. Wii mote with $10 mini-game collection), a great number at the top are Wii and DS games. Just within the VGChartz tracking of the top 50 in worldwide sales for 2009 and even taking out Wii Sports (pack-in) and Wii Play, Japanese games outsold Western games by 34.3 million units. Japanese games penetrate the top of North American and European sales charts far higher than the West does Japan.

Surely, these figures probably don't account for MMO subscriptions, Steam, free indie games, or social networking gaming but that's irrelevant in the context of the debate. With that gap just in sales, it is ludicrous to present the idea the Japanese game industry is becoming irrelevant or that Western development is dominating the industry.

I also find it funny with console makers scrambling to make motion controls, with the DS in its touch screen as well as mobile gaming in the Japan being light years ahead of the West before iPod or iPhone did either, that people proclaim there's a lack of innovation that's coming from Japan. And while I'm as equally excited for the upcoming slate of Western games in 2010 that Armando lists, from what we actually know of them most of that list are arguably not that innovative and may lean more toward the iterative problem for which many Western games decry Japanese games. The one that might truly be innovative in Heavy Rain is still arguably a mix of old tricks (QTE's, context-sensitive controls, non-linear storytelling) with a death mechanic that's may be more interesting in theory than in practice.  I'm as hopeful for the critical darling as anyone, but it's probably leading candidate for 2010 hyped game most likely to actually flop.

But sales aren't everything. History shows sales figures are as much a result of access, audience and promotion as anything else. It's no small wonder that once Microsoft released a successful console in the Xbox (and then the Xbox 360) that, like one the PC, the top selling games for it would be Western games. People tend to buy things produced with their sensibilities in mind. Those things are often created locally as often someone native to a city, region or country understands the cultural nuances better than someone from outside.

So while it's easy to point to Square Enix president Yoichi Wada's "prejudice" in the Japanese market line, an American would have to be in complete denial to make a claim Americans don't do the same thing with many products. "Buy American" is a popular economic slogan and there are plenty of people in this country that won't try a food, watch a movie, buy a car, read a book, and yes even buy a game if they perceive it too "foreign." Heck, we can often be tribal with products between different regions within the country. So that's not remotely a mindset problem unique to Japan and aren't keeping games from being sold there

I don't believe one region, barring another industry disaster will probably ever be truly dominate again because of that. Japan the rest of the Asia, North America, and Europe all have their own markets with several things that stay within each and that cross-over into other markets. And all have developers within those regions that understand their regions and will often cater well to them well remain strong in their own foothold.

But rest assured, the rumors of Japanese game development's downfall have been greatly exaggerated.

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Gerren LaQuint Fisher, like Japanese gaming and hip-hop, has been presumed dead. When he shows signs of life he contributes to The Game Reviews, tweets @gerrenlaquint, and runs a humble little blog called The Underscore