The game dev crisis in Japan and the entry of Chinese investors into these areas
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2024 10:57 am
considered the birthplace of video games, but the sector is currently going through tough times. Meanwhile, Chinese giants are actively opening their own studios and hiring Japanese specialists. It seems that the balance of power in the gaming world could change forever.
This year brought an amazing number of game releases, but it Bulk SMS Kuwait was a disaster for the gaming industry: after a boom during the pandemic, the market went into decline, studios were forced to lay off staff and close.
In September, Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, laid off 870 employees; Electronic Arts (Sims, Fifa) cut 6%; California-based Ascendant Studios lost almost half of its team, and Volition, the creator of the Saint's Row series, was shut down.
And these are just a few examples.
At the same time, Chinese investors remain optimistic and are focusing their attention on the Japanese gaming industry. And this is a rather surprising choice.
The Chinese gaming industry — the largest in size and revenue in the world — is strikingly different from the Japanese and Western ones, as it developed in different cultural and technological conditions.
In China, the most popular are competitive online games, usually played in internet cafes, or free-to-play mobile apps where users can spend money to speed up progress or improve their results in their favor.
Additionally, local society has different rules and expectations regarding gaming.
While in Japan, teenagers can play as much as their parents or guardians allow, in China, since 2019, there has been a restriction: people under 18 can only spend 90 minutes a day playing games or 3 hours on public holidays.
In 2021, the rules were tightened: now children and teenagers can only play for an hour every Friday, weekends, and holidays. All this is to combat gaming addiction.
However, cultural differences have not stopped Chinese conglomerates like Tencent and NetEase from establishing studios in Japan and hiring some of the most famous Japanese game directors. Now, Goichi Sudu (creator of the No More Heroes series), Toshihiro Nagoshi (creator of the Yakuza series), and Ryutaru Ichimura (a veteran of Dragon Quest games) work for NetEase.
The Chinese company recently opened two Japanese-led studios to create Japanese-style console games that would appeal to Western audiences.
For many, Japan remains the creative hub of the games industry—not just because of Nintendo and PlayStation, but also because of the exceptional number of creative teams and studios that have created so many of the trendsetting games of the past 50 years. Today, many of them are well into their 60s and 70s, and their role seems more symbolic.
Meanwhile, the industry is home to unrecognized teams of full-time or outsourced employees: Shigeru Miyamoto with Super Mario, Hideo Kojima with Metal Gear, Yuji Naka with Sonic the Hedgehog.
This creates a misleading impression: Japan remains the creative leader in the industry, but the money and power have largely shifted overseas. This year, more than half of the roughly 700 exhibitors at the Tokyo Game Show were international companies.
This year brought an amazing number of game releases, but it Bulk SMS Kuwait was a disaster for the gaming industry: after a boom during the pandemic, the market went into decline, studios were forced to lay off staff and close.
In September, Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, laid off 870 employees; Electronic Arts (Sims, Fifa) cut 6%; California-based Ascendant Studios lost almost half of its team, and Volition, the creator of the Saint's Row series, was shut down.
And these are just a few examples.
At the same time, Chinese investors remain optimistic and are focusing their attention on the Japanese gaming industry. And this is a rather surprising choice.
The Chinese gaming industry — the largest in size and revenue in the world — is strikingly different from the Japanese and Western ones, as it developed in different cultural and technological conditions.
In China, the most popular are competitive online games, usually played in internet cafes, or free-to-play mobile apps where users can spend money to speed up progress or improve their results in their favor.
Additionally, local society has different rules and expectations regarding gaming.
While in Japan, teenagers can play as much as their parents or guardians allow, in China, since 2019, there has been a restriction: people under 18 can only spend 90 minutes a day playing games or 3 hours on public holidays.
In 2021, the rules were tightened: now children and teenagers can only play for an hour every Friday, weekends, and holidays. All this is to combat gaming addiction.
However, cultural differences have not stopped Chinese conglomerates like Tencent and NetEase from establishing studios in Japan and hiring some of the most famous Japanese game directors. Now, Goichi Sudu (creator of the No More Heroes series), Toshihiro Nagoshi (creator of the Yakuza series), and Ryutaru Ichimura (a veteran of Dragon Quest games) work for NetEase.
The Chinese company recently opened two Japanese-led studios to create Japanese-style console games that would appeal to Western audiences.
For many, Japan remains the creative hub of the games industry—not just because of Nintendo and PlayStation, but also because of the exceptional number of creative teams and studios that have created so many of the trendsetting games of the past 50 years. Today, many of them are well into their 60s and 70s, and their role seems more symbolic.
Meanwhile, the industry is home to unrecognized teams of full-time or outsourced employees: Shigeru Miyamoto with Super Mario, Hideo Kojima with Metal Gear, Yuji Naka with Sonic the Hedgehog.
This creates a misleading impression: Japan remains the creative leader in the industry, but the money and power have largely shifted overseas. This year, more than half of the roughly 700 exhibitors at the Tokyo Game Show were international companies.