PC gaming is huge in Japan now! (unstoppable PC growth continue ?)

Famitsu estimates there are 15 million pc gamers vs 23 million console gamers in Japan. More interesting is it says there was a 50% increase in just one year. That's unbelievable growth if the numbers are accurate.

https://s.famitsu.com/news/201806/11158825.html

Here's another article about a 80% increase in gaming PC sales at one location compared to last year:

https://www.bcnretail.com/market/detail/20180420_58606.html

Unrelated - https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-11-valve-approves-uncensored-porn-game-for-steam

this is gr8 , hope we see more optimized PC ports

pc will always be a niche platform for gaming.

Oh oh! Somebody doesn't know what niche means. ?

Yeah I've noticed a lot of Japanese people I follow on twitter talking about their first PC builds. It's an interesting trend. Japanese indie development has seen a huge increase, too. It's gone from mostly doujin games to a much more diverse and western-style of output.

Unrelated - China has resumed video game approvals after 9-month freeze. Now PC revenue will be on fire.

About time. Japanese publishers used to be super afraid of the PC scene because they thought they were going to be giving away free games. If anything, piracy should be less rampant in Japan than most other nations. Now, the only thing they have to improve on is to stop making straight ports of console games and utilize these machines. Work on your resolution options for freak's sake!

Noice. Hopefully that means more japanese games on PC. I really like the upsurge of this lately. Nioh, Nier, Dark Souls, Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter. Very awesome.

Yeah, there's a lot of Japanese gamers using PC out there. Playing MHW already proves that.

PC gaming revenue dwarfs any single console revenue to the point that it generates almost as much as all consoles combined. That's one hell of a niche!

Great news! Tencent’s shares have increased by 4.5%.

They're getting better at PC ports. Good times ahead.

It's growing. I just got back from Tokyo, and it was surprising to see there are now eSports cafes and dedicated PC gaming shops littered around. Saw one huge PUBG stand in Akihabara. There didn't seem to be much of anything like that back when I was there in 2015, so it seems things are changing.

Japan's league of legends league is the first major region to become a franchised league and often has viewership equal to the English broadcast of the Korean league on twitch. The playerbase may not be huge but they do seem dedicated. The Maru Cup for Dota2 is another example. Games like path of exile and dota 2 have dedicated Japan servers/gateways.

In fact, throughout most of the 1980s computer games were the larger and more popular market in Japan. Only at the tail end of the 1980s did console gaming overtake gaming on home computers. The NEC PC-9801, Sharp X68000, MSX and MSX2 were some of the more popular computers in Japan with a strong focus on gaming performance.

As a matter of fact, even console gaming is no longer the dominant way of gaming in Japan, handheld and mobile gaming is.

Sony is currently censoring AA games might lead to more PC ports of regular JRPGs.

Sometimes they release PC port because of CERO(game rating). Game must be rated by CERO in order to release game for console but CERO has really bullshit strict rules that they refuse to rate pretty much every M rated games. So they censor those games for console and since game on PC doesn't need this, they release uncensored version for PC.

The non-violent PC games such as Flight Simulator X were popular in Japan, at least among the JASDF folks I used to work with.

The final domino has fallen. Japanese support for pc has seen a sharp rise this generation. This is a truly great develppment for gaming and its likely due to ps4 being so close to pc architecture.

Yea just cant have real food compete with fast food.

lulz.

i think that dude once said that keyboards were too complicated for him

@GarGx1: if PC revenue is so good why are there not many if any big budget PC exclusives? Where are these exclusive games to show off the platform fully including DXR?

You can see it for yourself (this isn't 100% accurate, it's from a mid year estimation)

As for your question, that's simple. No one owns PC, so why is there a need for AAA games to be exclusive to it? If a game I enjoy sells well on every device then the developer has more money to spend on their next game, hopefully improving the experience. With Multi-platform. we all win and no one is penalised for not supporting corporation X.

What you're talking about is it doesn't get PS4 exclusives, which is what 3 or 4 games a year if you're really lucky. Why the heck you're bringing up ray tracing when consoles can't even get close to it and it's likely not going to a feature of the next set either, I have no idea.

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I think some devs could be focusing more on arguably "gamble type games" like F2Ps/mmos/freemium/pay2win. Maybe some gatcha elements here and there on other popular pc games.

PC is the birthing place of microtransactions thanks to mmos afaik, way before "horse armor dlc". Bled straight through to mobile and thrived there perhaps even better.

Not saying that's the only thing going on for PC gaming. I love PC gaming myself but consoles are still nice with their exclusives.

There is only one console with games that can't be played on PC and those are limited.

I personally don't play F2P, Freemium (what ever that is) or Pay2win games at all and haven't played proper MMO in years. Yet at least at least half the games I play are PC exclusives, for example at the moment I have play throughs going for total War War Hammer II, Stellaris, Dawn of War III and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Shadow maybe the prettiest (it's a graphics king contender) but it's not the best game of the 4.

It's the biggest system in the world at the moment. That's literally the opposite of niche.

Joking?

1. Not if. PC revenue is so good. Poor framing of question.

2. Firstly, because PC isn't run by a single company and isn't in competition with the consoles. There is zero reason to keep PC designed AAAs (Overwatch, ESO, Diablo, Witcher, etc.) exclusive. Both for the gamer and developer. It would make no sense. The only exclusives it has are because they wouldn't play well on consoles (RTS/TBS/SIM/Mouse MMO). Secondly, there are big budget exclusives in those genres I just listed. Thirdly, XB1X has even less big budget exclusives than PC, and N/S have less than any generation before.

3. The insane revenue being good results in something you haven't mentioned, and something far more important to gamers, most raw AAA/Big-Budget games period. Sony and XB don't see it as competition, hence they toss tons of AAA titles on PC that they won't share with each other. It's quick and easy profit. Also most multiplats being substantially better on PC, and with PC only gfx features.

Now anime is showing appreciation for PC gaming.

Chris Roberts smiled like a Cheshire cat after reading that article.

I love that he says "why are there no big budget exclusives?" Yet, PC has the most expensive big budget exclusive in history, Star Citizen.

There's the switch but I don't really play Nintendo games anymore.

Biggest reason I'm keeping a console right now is for exclusives and rentals.

If Sony and MS starts doing a $ 200 / year all free pass for all games as a sub service and available for PC, I'd never touch a console ever again.

Does anyone happen to know that 28.6b breakdown? Is it mostly coming from f2p/p2w/freem or paid games with some dlcs?

That's actually an interesting take on it. I just wish space sim was close to my jam. I love their face over internet implementation though. Need more of that for games in general. should be fun.

Japan is dead.

And the second most expensive big budget exclusive is also on PC: SW:TOR. On another note, if the trend continues SIE will have to change its name back to SCE. :P

You can't be that oblivious?

@rzxv04: The reason I didn't mention The Switch as having exclusive games is down to the simple fact that it can be easily emulated. It's actually arguable that games like Breath of the Wild are better on PC than they are on Switch, with higher resolutions and modding being available.

That’s really weird considering PC hasn’t had a superb exclusive in 5 years

@propermotion: DoS 2 last year and multiple indie titles every year. Also, objectively having the best versions of multiplats and being the indie king helps a bit.

Dos 2 is on consoles

Best indie games are on switch thanks to mobility

@propermotion: DoS 2 was on consoles last year? News to me. Most Indies, best rated Indies. PC is king.

Who cares how long it’s had it, it’s not exclusive.

its been 5 years

@propermotion: I care, also anyone who enjoys facts cares. Did you make a new account just to be wrong?

I’m wrong that PC has no Superb Exclusives In 5 years ?

Let me double check Metacritic

1. Why are all troll accounts anti-PC. I'm thinking it's all the same handful of users.

2. That's not weird. PC has the most high scoring AAA, AA, and Indy games. People don't leave PC because a PC game like Overwatch, Diablo, Divinity, or Witcher went to consoles. PC has the most revenue because it has the most high scoring games and most popular games. I repeat, PC "losing" an exclusive to consoles does not result in lost revenue or gamers. That isn't how PC works, it isn't in competition with consoles.

3. You are most assuredly going to run from this post.

@propermotion: Yes, its wrong. Am I wrong that you made an alt account just to be wrong?

I’m going thru Metacrtic Must Play Games.

I dont see any esclusives for PC.

when was the last one ?

I'm going through the Metacritic games list.

I see PC has 109 more high scoring games than the second next best system this gen, which coincidentally is the 2nd next system for gaming software revenue (PS4).

It's as if having the most good/great games results in the most $$$.

@propermotion: Oh geez, you wont last long.

I’m at 2014 and still haven’t seen a”Must Play” PC exclusive.

How far back do I need to go ?

I'm at 2014 and I see PC ahead by 80 more high scoring games vs. PS4. Objectively winning System Wars.

How far back do I need to go?

(P.S. Losing exclusives to other systems doesn't hurt PCs revenue, it isn't in competition against Consoles).

Why do you keep answering my questions with questions ?

@propermotion: Why do you keep asking questions?

Is that Calvin on new acc?

@howmakewood: Calvin = recloud