Does America dictate the direction of the video game industry?

First and foremost, I am American, and this is in no way trying to belittle Americans.

Secondly, I'm pulling all these numbers off of VGChartz. I've heard complaints about this website and how it isn't 100% accurate, but I'm sure it is accurate enough to get a general point across. If not, point me in the right direction.

Lets start by looking at sales for consoles.

The Wii has sold 94.9 million units worldwide. Out of those 94.9 million units, 42.4 million (45%) were sold in America, 31.0 million (33%) were sold in Europe, and 12.4 million (13%) were sold in Japan.

The PS3 has sold 61.2 million units worldwide. Out of those 61.2 million units, 21.8 million (36%) were sold in America, 23.8 million (39%) were sold in Europe, and 7.8 million (13%) were sold in Japan.

The Xbox 360 has sold 64.3 million units worldwide. Out of those 64.3 million units, 36.3 million (56%) were sold in America, 20.1 million (31%) were sold in Europe, and 1.5 million (2%) were sold in Japan.

Just based on these numbers, it is clear to me that America has the biggest impact on video game console sales and Japan has a very negligible impact on video game console sales. It is also clear that the Xbox 360 is the console of choice for Americans.

So now that it is clear that Americans have the biggest impact on video game hardware sales, what about software sales?

One of the biggest gripes in this generation has been the immense success of the Call of Duty franchise. Every developer and publisher has the same common goal, make money and increase revenue. They have to make money to make more games and keep their jobs, right? Developers see the incredible success that Call of Duty has, and they try to emulate it, because that is where the money is. This ultimately results in "Call of Duty Clones" lining the walls of your local game store.

Who is buying Call of Duty? Lets take a look.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold a total of 8.59 million units worldwide. Out of those sales, 5.42 million (63.0%) were sold in America, 2.21 million (25.7%) were sold in Europe, and 0.13 million (1.5%) were sold in Japan.

Call of Duty: World at War has sold a total of 6.67 million units worldwide. Out of those sales, 4.32 million (64.7%) were sold in America, 1.72 million (25.8%) were sold in Europe, and so few copies were sold in Japan that they didn't even list a number for them.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has sold a total of 12.69 million units worldwide. Out of those sales, 8.11 million (63.9) were sold in America, 3.26 million (25.7%) were sold in Europe, and 0.08 million (0.6%) were sold in Japan.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has sold a total of 13.28 million units worldwide. Out of those sales, 8.71 million (65.6%) were sold in America, 3.18 million (23.9%) were sold in Europe, and 0.07million (0.5%) were sold in Japan.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has sold a total of 13.07 million units worldwide. Out of those sales, 7.97 million (61.0%) were sold in America, 3.65 million (27.9%) were sold in Europe, and 0.06 million (0.5%) were sold in Japan.

It's obvious to me that Japan doesn't give a damn about Call of Duty, and America is almost single handedly fueling the Call of Duty success train.

I'm starting to get tired of looking at statistics, so I'm just gonna throw this out there. I think for all the bad things happening in gaming, you can point the finger at me, us, the Americans. It's our fault that motion controls took off, we fueled the Wii to where it is now. It's our fault Kinect is taking off, we're buying those things like candy. It's our fault that Call of Duty is as popular as it is, just put Call of Duty on the box and us Americans will buy it, no questions asked. Americans single handedly put Microsoft where they are today in the gaming industry. We are the reason why DLC is so popular now adays, we are the people that blindly pay all the hidden fees without question like Xbox Live, we are the people that don't care if a console breaks 6 times in a row, we'll just buy another one, no questions asked. Americans generally don't research their purchases, what does Facebook say I should buy? What does the media say I should buy? What is the current fad, what is popular? Americans generally don't think for themselves, and this stems much further out than just video games.

In the home console space America dictates

I think a part of the big western influence now is partly because Japan didn't take Xbox seriously, so MS then introduced a lot of western PC developers to the console market.

I mean Japanese games on the PS3 are now a minority.

Don't forget about Europe studios, Minecraft is swedish game ;] Japan is also still good, don't know hy poeple say they are irrlevent now... go see what other asia countries produce if you want see irrelevent stuff

It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often. I can't even count how many times I'd talk about Stalker or The Witcher 2 to someone new I met and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even some PC gamers I met don't know about them, they only knew about counterstrike and Starcraft.DragonfireXZ95

[QUOTE="DragonfireXZ95"]It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often. I can't even count how many times I'd talk about Stalker or The Witcher 2 to someone new I met and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even some PC gamers I met don't know about them, they only knew about counterstrike and Starcraft.mems_1224

Well, America has the most people that buy games (many Eastern European countries and Asian countries are still developing). And because of this America has the biggest impact on the industry. Microsoft has also change the market quite a bit by introducing genres and devs that used to be on PC only to consoles, which in turn caused a domino effect of PC devs going multiplat. 10 years ago, Japan was the king of console games. Now, since MS brought FPS (Halo) big WRPGs (Morrowind with Bethesda, and Bioware), the market has changed. Because Japanese games are not the forefront anymore, the Xbox 360 was able to succeed despite its faults. People on System wars always act like Americans have such bad taste because of Cod, but the reality is Americans just as a whole don't enjoy turn based JRPGs as much anymore. I think its been shown by Cod, Skyrim and Mass Efect that Americans care more about action, gameplay, and multiplayer than a really good JRPG story. Guess the reasoning behind it is that America already makes great stories in movies, so even the best game stories sometime seem awful. Plagueless

You bring up some pretty good points. It's pretty amazing to see just how much Microsoft has been able to change the gaming industry with the help of American wallets. Like you said, they basically single handedly brought WRPGs and PC exclusive developers over to console, and those developers and the games they develop are now the forefront of the entire gaming industry. Microsoft has had more of an impact on gaming than I ever could have imagined.

Japanese consumers certainly don't. I would say it's a healthy mix of North America and Europe, European and American tastes are quite similar.

[QUOTE="DragonfireXZ95"]It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often. I can't even count how many times I'd talk about Stalker or The Witcher 2 to someone new I met and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even some PC gamers I met don't know about them, they only knew about counterstrike and Starcraft.mems_1224

I just used this:

http://uk.gamespot.com/forums/topic/26986920/picture-guide-to-computer-building-and-hardware-installation-56k

Bought all my parts, any questions I had I just asked in the hardware section. 1 hour after my parts arrived I had a new gaming rig.

Of course we Americans dictate the direction of the Video game industry.

We're just cooler than all other people. :cool:

:P

[QUOTE="DragonfireXZ95"]It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often. I can't even count how many times I'd talk about Stalker or The Witcher 2 to someone new I met and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even some PC gamers I met don't know about them, they only knew about counterstrike and Starcraft.mems_1224

Take some of the free time you spend here, and instead focus it on learning to build a PC.

It literally took me about an hour to learn how to build my first one, and then I ordered some PC parts and within a week I had build my own gaming computer.

There are probably a billion tutorials on the web that will tell you what key things to look for to match compatible hardware together.

It does have a major influence on the blockbuster market, although we mustn't forget that a lot of Western big boys are also from Europe. Battlefield (Sweden), GTA (Britain) and Crysis (Germany) are but a few examples. Odds are there's still American publisher money behind it somewhere, but there's a lot of creativity in Europe that inspires the rest of the market.

That's not even mentioning the more niche PC games. I can't imagine enjoying PC gaming as much as I do now if I'd have ignored the Eastern-European market (Eastern-European as in the countries behind the former Iron Curtain). Arma, Stalker, The Witcher, Metro, Cryostasis... such a wealth of great games to be found in Eastern-Europe alone.

[QUOTE="DragonfireXZ95"]It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often. I can't even count how many times I'd talk about Stalker or The Witcher 2 to someone new I met and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even some PC gamers I met don't know about them, they only knew about counterstrike and Starcraft.mems_1224

I got a prebuild and only handpicked my graphics card and had it put into my PC by the guys at the store. Cost me €670 in total (excluding the monitor and mouse, which I already had). I was totally oblivious to how PCs worked back when I got it, and even though I have since learned some things, I'm still no expert by any means. PC gaming really is a lot easier than people think.

It does have a major influence on the blockbuster market, although we mustn't forget that a lot of Western big boys are also from Europe. Battlefield (Sweden), GTA (Britain) and Crysis (Germany) are but a few examples. Odds are there's still American publisher money behind it somewhere, but there's a lot of creativity in Europe that inspires the rest of the market.

That's not even mentioning the more niche PC games. I can't imagine enjoying PC gaming as much as I do now if I'd have ignored the Eastern-European market (Eastern-European as in the countries behind the former Iron Curtain). Arma, Stalker, The Witcher, Metro, Cryostasis... such a wealth of great games to be found in Eastern-Europe alone.

[QUOTE="mems_1224"][QUOTE="DragonfireXZ95"]It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often. I can't even count how many times I'd talk about Stalker or The Witcher 2 to someone new I met and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even some PC gamers I met don't know about them, they only knew about counterstrike and Starcraft.DraugenCP

I got a prebuild and only handpicked my graphics card and had it put into my PC by the guys at the store. Cost me €670 in total (excluding the monitor and mouse, which I already had). I was totally oblivious to how PCs worked back when I got it, and even though I have since learned some things, I'm still no expert by any means. PC gaming really is a lot easier than people think.

Agreed. Europe has been amazing to us PC gamers. Isn't Stalker dev GSC Russian though?

EDIT: NVM, just looked it up, it's in Ukraine. Never knew that before.

Agreed. Europe has been amazing to us PC gamers. Isn't Stalker dev GSC Russian though?

EDIT: NVM, just looked it up, it's in Ukraine. Never knew that before.

DragonfireXZ95

Yeah, it's Ukrainian, and over here (in Western Europe), Russia is largely considered to be a part of Eastern Europe anyway.

I think one would have to consider the fact that the largest market (US/NA) has an incredibly large "to do" with the success of a console in the world wide perception of success... ie, if youre not successfull in America then you're probably not going to be relevent world wide by comparrison.... That said, the PS3 has done well gloabaly without overwhelming success in America, however the playstation name has had two generations of incredible success making it a brand name elsewhere... one could argue before this generation the playstation name was the industry standard.

Going forward, I know I'll be watching the global ramifacations of how the world outside the US reacts to the new consoles when they release... Nintendo had a resurgance, Microsoft became a global player with lots of momentum and the Playstation name has been knocked down a peg or three in America. Obviously there are man factors that will play in this, like WHAT the actually next gen consoles are and how people will accept them, but don't kid yourself the old saying, "when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold" has meaning for a reason...

North America is the largest market, so most companies are going to direct their marketing towards it, but I can't imagine that there is that much of a gap between preferences of Americans and those in other regions. The games that sell well here sell well everywhere else.meetroid8

Actually, the Japanese and American markets are so different, they're practically polar opposites. The only games they really have in common are Nintendo 1st party games, everything else is pretty different. For example, no one in Japan buys Call of Duty, they make up less than 1% of CoD sales. Xbox 360 is by far the most popular console in America, and Japan has only contributed 2% of the total 360 sales.

America's console of choice is the Wii by quite a few million units sold...

Hold on? What's this I hear about other countries? I thought America was the only country in the entire world and everyone lived on different spectrums of the country. :o

:P

Hold on? What's this I hear about other countries? I thought America was the only country in the entire world and everyone lived on different spectrums of the country. :o

:P

Goyoshi12

This comes closer to the truth than you may realise, sadly.

[QUOTE="meetroid8"]North America is the largest market, so most companies are going to direct their marketing towards it, but I can't imagine that there is that much of a gap between preferences of Americans and those in other regions. The games that sell well here sell well everywhere else.arkephonic

Actually, the Japanese and American markets are so different, they're practically polar opposites. The only games they really have in common are Nintendo 1st party games, everything else is pretty different. For example, no one in Japan buys Call of Duty, they make up less than 1% of CoD sales. Xbox 360 is by far the most popular console in America, and Japan has only contributed 2% of the total 360 sales.

America's console of choice is the Wii by quite a few million units sold...

Frostbite24

You're right. What I meant to say, was that America is almost entirely responsible for the success that Microsoft has had with the Xbox 360.

[QUOTE="Frostbite24"]

America's console of choice is the Wii by quite a few million units sold...

arkephonic

You're right. What I meant to say, was that America is almost entirely responsible for the success that Microsoft has had with the Xbox 360.

I don't really feel like America and Canada/Europe have all together different tastes in gaming to be honest.

Japan is the odd one of the group.

US of A is the largest consumer in the world. So in a way, it somehow dictates the direction. Not everything though.

[QUOTE="Frostbite24"]

America's console of choice is the Wii by quite a few million units sold...

arkephonic

You're right. What I meant to say, was that America is almost entirely responsible for the success that Microsoft has had with the Xbox 360.

North America - Very Important

Europe - Important

Japan - Insignificant

Australia - lol

North America - Very Important

Europe - Important

Japan - Insignificant

Australia - lol

Stevo_the_gamer

It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often.DragonfireXZ95

Americans don't venture outside the box??? Which planet do you live on? Some of the greatest inventions and enterpenurships of the past century came from here.

Oh, so that's why the gaming industry is in the state it's in ! :P

We (the US) are the biggest consumers, that includes electronic entertainment, gaming is an electronic entertainment industry.

I love my country, but we have mainstream-ized (lol not a word I know) gaming too much, PC gaming, quality oriente-developers, and innovators in the industry are now found more often outside the US, which is sad, the consoles are damaging the progress of games, and that's because the casual gaming market in America is steering the industry, and taking the focus away from the hardcore.

Seems only fair since the 1st fifty years was dictated by Japan. :P

North America - Very Important

Europe - Important

Japan - Insignificant

Australia - lol

Stevo_the_gamer

.

We're just cooler than all other people. :cool:

keybladegamer

Totally bro!! woohoo go America!!

[QUOTE="keybladegamer"]

.

We're just cooler than all other people. :cool:

Kandlegoat

Totally bro!! woohoo go America!!

Lol, nice pics. The sad thing is, when you go to the grocery store or something here in America, that is seriously what the average person looks like. It disgusts me, and it motivates me to stay in tip top shape just because I refuse to ever become that stereotypical American. It's so unhealthy.....

[QUOTE="Kandlegoat"]

[QUOTE="keybladegamer"]

.

We're just cooler than all other people. :cool:

arkephonic

Totally bro!! woohoo go America!!

Lol, nice pics. The sad thing is, when you go to the grocery store or something here in America, that is seriously what the average person looks like. It disgusts me, and it motivates me to stay in tip top shape just because I refuse to ever become that stereotypical American. It's so unhealthy.....

[QUOTE="Kandlegoat"]

[QUOTE="keybladegamer"]

.

arkephonic

Lol, nice pics. The sad thing is, when you go to the grocery store or something here in America, that is seriously what the average person looks like. It disgusts me, and it motivates me to stay in tip top shape just because I refuse to ever become that stereotypical American. It's so unhealthy.....

The american food industry as a whole makes me sick.

You go into a grocery store,there's maybe only a small section dedicated to natural organic foods that are better for you,while the rest of the store is filled with fatty junk full of chemicals that could seriously f*ck up your health down the road.

I look down on the stereotypical American pig,but sometimes I pity them alittle bit.It's kinda hard for the average person to not eat that stuff when you have a Mcdonalds on every street corner as well as commercials on the idiot box consisting of corporations forcing their unhealthy chemical sh*t onto the masses.

Capitalism and Corporate Greed FTW

Generally yes. I haven't seen many trends starting from Japanese studios of recent times

EDIT: forgot Nintendo was in Japan.

It has more influence than I'd like, but American people don't really venture outside the box too often. I can't even count how many times I'd talk about Stalker or The Witcher 2 to someone new I met and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even some PC gamers I met don't know about them, they only knew about counterstrike and Starcraft.DragonfireXZ95

I'm quite the opposite.

I meet more PC gamers than I do console gamers, but it's just a different market. No one thing is all that popular in the grand scheme of things, so it's not really surprising if they don't know about STALKER or Witcher.

I have one friend who tends to just plays Dota/LoL, another who plays Battlefield Heroes and Diablo 2 with his friends (they're all like 40 years old), and another who plays Counter Strike.

Then of course there's me who would know what The Witcher, and STALKER are, and I have a friend, as well as my brother, who would also know all about that.

My most recent acquaintance actually began talking about his love for indie games, as well as games like Portal.

And my cousins are also apparently PC gamers too. They'll play games like Fallout, and Metro.

I guess I'm just lucky. I'd say I know a good 15 or so people who PC game almost exclusively. Most everyone else I know don't game at all.

[QUOTE="arkephonic"]

[QUOTE="Kandlegoat"]

Totally bro!! woohoo go America!!

SAGE_OF_FIRE

Lol, nice pics. The sad thing is, when you go to the grocery store or something here in America, that is seriously what the average person looks like. It disgusts me, and it motivates me to stay in tip top shape just because I refuse to ever become that stereotypical American. It's so unhealthy.....

Redmond, Washington. Right next door to Nintendo and Microsoft headquarters.

I thought gaming made most money in europe, if you count PC+handheld+consoles.
What does it matter anyway? Don't you think there are many europeans in america buying games and working for game companies? The USA government is less popular every day. I don't think they dictate much, unless through other countries.

I dont think any region dictates any type of direction..Surely larger markets like US have more impact on sales, but as it always happend great Systems & games always do well in all regions...

What's interesting is that in Europe, where there are more PS3's sold than 360's, Call of Duty sells more on 360.