DoctorFinger
09-28-2008, 08:43 AM
Ever since a former playing card company by the name of Nintendo released the Famicom, aka the NES, onto an unsuspecting public, Japan has been a huge force in console gaming. But in recent years - especially when it comes to Microsoft's console - Nippon's dominance in the field has been waning. Things have reached the point that Edge-Online (http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/is-japan-becoming-marginalized) used the occasion of a pair of press conferences in Japan - one by Sony and one by Microsoft - to ask the question: "Is Japan Becoming Marginalized?"
It did not go unnoticed that, excepting the new screen, many of these improvements directly target western proclivities, or use services that are as yet unavailable in Japan. Japanese media were unmoved by the potential for Skype communication, or in-game voice-chat – seen as a predominantly western facility associated with first-person shooters and contrary to the kind of face-to-face socialisation that has made PSP such a success in Japan.While this situation is beginning to come to the forefront now, it's been percolating quietly for a while now. The fact is, a console is no longer just a console - they're media centers, entertainment hubs and retail portals. That changed the game, to the point that the Western gamer - those in North America and Western Europe - became more important than the Asian gamer. When it comes time to make decisions about hardware and software backbones, their preferences and needs are going to take precedence over those of the gamers in Sony and Nintendo's backyard. Plus, in this case the weakness of the 360 actually hurts the gamers there. Sony and Microsoft both know that it would take an act of God for the 360 to make even a dent in the market there, so they both take their limited resources and spend them in markets that are more competitive.
It doesn't help that we tend to focus on the 'sexy platforms': the PSP, PS3, 360 and to a lesser extent the Wii. Once you factor in the PS2 and the DS, the Japanese market doesn't seem nearly as marginalized, but once again, that's part of the problem. Neither of those systems have the capacity to sell you the digital content which the Big Boys are currently salivating over.
Source - Edge-Online (http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/is-japan-becoming-marginalized).
It did not go unnoticed that, excepting the new screen, many of these improvements directly target western proclivities, or use services that are as yet unavailable in Japan. Japanese media were unmoved by the potential for Skype communication, or in-game voice-chat – seen as a predominantly western facility associated with first-person shooters and contrary to the kind of face-to-face socialisation that has made PSP such a success in Japan.While this situation is beginning to come to the forefront now, it's been percolating quietly for a while now. The fact is, a console is no longer just a console - they're media centers, entertainment hubs and retail portals. That changed the game, to the point that the Western gamer - those in North America and Western Europe - became more important than the Asian gamer. When it comes time to make decisions about hardware and software backbones, their preferences and needs are going to take precedence over those of the gamers in Sony and Nintendo's backyard. Plus, in this case the weakness of the 360 actually hurts the gamers there. Sony and Microsoft both know that it would take an act of God for the 360 to make even a dent in the market there, so they both take their limited resources and spend them in markets that are more competitive.
It doesn't help that we tend to focus on the 'sexy platforms': the PSP, PS3, 360 and to a lesser extent the Wii. Once you factor in the PS2 and the DS, the Japanese market doesn't seem nearly as marginalized, but once again, that's part of the problem. Neither of those systems have the capacity to sell you the digital content which the Big Boys are currently salivating over.
Source - Edge-Online (http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/is-japan-becoming-marginalized).