Which country is more relevant to the VG industry today, UK or Japan?

For me personally, probably the UK... But even though I've never been a big fan of Japanese games, I think Japan adds variety to the industry.

Well japanese consoles are the top sellers and always have been... If you add in all the developers from there as well it's not even clsoe

Japan by a large margin.

Well said.

I like how TC says that Japan is stupid irrellevent but we get stuff like Metal Gear Solid V, Bloodborne, Captain Toad, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Final Fantasy XV, Splatoon, and Persona 5 made by Japanese developers.

Op be MAD irrelevant.

Japan is the only one thats making consoles worth getting otherwise there would be no reason to buy consoles since they are nothing but a poor man pc.

My opinion: Japan.

Objectively: Japan.

Japan for sure.

Damnit, I accidentally clicked Uk.

Anyway, Japan is way more relevant...., no offense.

As Markets, I think they are about the same.

As "relevant" in the industry, Japan by a mile (even with the heavy decline of the last 10 years).

Generally speaking it goes like this:

US > UK > Japan

Personally speaking it goes like this:

Japan > nothing else matters

Except the PS4 was mostly made by Americans.

Interesting video (I skimmed through however will find time to watch it properly). The UK had a great scene in the 80s with the 8 and 16 bit home computer market - some iconic programmers and musicians (nice to see Rob Hubbard pop up on the vid). These guys were kind of celebs in their own right (albeit within the confines of geekdom) however I'm not sure of their influence outside of the UK/Europe, and certainly the Japanese had and continues to have a greater impact in the global market.

*goes back to playing wizball*

UK lol thats a funny joke

I voted the wrong thing by not reading the whole comment first.

I thought it meant sales wise so i voted UK since it has the biggest potential to grow. But development wise it would have to go to Japan. They are so diverse and creative its amazing. The quality is also very nice.

Japan by a mile. I can't even name any developers or games from the UK, aside from Criterion.

that does nothing for UK's argument. And it's still a japanese product

The UK used to be more far more creative back in the day, before the industry became corporatised. Then people went broke, moved to the states, etc. The Japanese market appears to be less risk adverse for sure.

Aren't you the one who keeps licking Forza Horizon 2's dick? Yeah, Playground games is a british developer. Also, Rockstar North (GTA creator) is British. Rocksteady (Batman games) is British. Codemasters, Media Molecule, Lionhead, are also British. I mean, Britian don't have US or Japan levels of developers, but the few they have make massive impact. I suspect Batman Arkham Knight will out sell almost everything this year.

Japan

- Home of countless game developers.

- Home of some of the biggest and most long standing IPs in gaming.

- Even in their decline they still crank out some of the most critically acclaimed titles today.

- The epicenter from which nearly every relevant console and handheld has come from over the past 30 years. This still holds true today.

Japan are to games like what Britian are to music. Japan has Nintendo which are like the Beatles of the gaming industry. They top all of the greatest and most revolutionary game developer lists like The Beatles do the music lists. And just like The Beatles, there were others before them that layed the foundation (Elvis/Bill Haley/The Blues compared to Atari/Colecovision etc).

Then PlayStation hits the scene and does a Led Zeppelin. Kind of steals Nintendos thunder and becomes successful as **** by their own merits. I'm not quite sure who Microsoft are though.. hmm.

The vote says 53% versus 50%.
That adds up to 103%

How is this possible

Well Japan's always invested in hardware for the games industry and has forwarded the industry incalculably. The UK hasn't even come close to doing this.

Japan still. :P

Japan when it comes to my Nintendo systems, UK probably more relevant elsewhere (this gen at least).

Japan, has more people and puts out WAYYYY more games than the UK.

@ConanTheStoner:

i know i'm laughing because he mentioned UK

also no Heavy Metal @bobrossperm just Led zepellin u suck man :p

@notorious1234na:

Haha, total misunderstanding on my part bro.

Japan, the only UK developer I know of is Rockstar

Japan by far. Nintendo, capcom, konami, and square enix alone lock this down for the land of the rising sun.

japan, the headquarters of Sony.

The UK. A lot of Japanese devs seem stuck in the past which is a damn shame.

Two out of the three consoles on the market, and both handhelds, are Japanese. You tell me.

the japanese people are still huge console gamers

right now they own a crapton of ps3's, and they always buy nintendo ds and psp's

they are still huge gamers they just didn't want the ps4 right away cuz it had no games at launch

UK by far.

This place is full of ignorant people totally oblivious to history of video games. So much negativity regarding UK yet most people know very little about it. What's more Sony's most prominent studios in PS1 era were British but that's just a tip of the iceberg.

Haha. Lolspot strikes again.

If we include hardware then Japan hands down. If we're talking just software though, easily the uk for me when they have :

Rockstar

Rocksteady

Playground Games

Team 17

Evolution Studios

Codemasters

Media Molecule

Lionhead

Rare

Not to mention one of the biggest indie Dev scenes.

The UK makes the best games but Japan makes more good games. Japan also makes hardware.

Knowing that Japan is far more relevant to video gaming as a whole is neither ignorant, nor negative.

This is a question that didn't need to be asked, but OP made the topic and there is no point getting upset over the obvious answer. If you personally have a soft spot for the UK's contributions to this industry, then great!

That said, yes this place is full of ignorant people lol.

UK, the demand for Japanese games have lessoned over Western games now.

How so, the Wii U is selling poorly and most of the PS stuff could very well be on Xbox and it wouldn't even make a difference. Even most of the biggest PS first party games are not Japanese any more.

Even the Japanese are making Western styled games now.

Yet you probably crave loads of British games thinking that they are American

As a small example

Grand Theft Auto (Rockstar North originally DMA Design created GTA)

Batman series (Rocksteady)

Total War (Creative Assembly)

Warhammer Fantasy and 40K (Games Workshop)

I could go on but you get the picture

Maybe people did not notice, but currently most of the highest rated current gen games in metacritic are japanese.

Japan, as games from this territory tend to have a culture around them. The fighting game scene, for example.

I'd say right now that it's the UK.

Basically this.