Why are handhelds more popular than consoles in Japan?

Software and hardware sells clearly trump consoles in the East. Why is that? It seems more and more Japanese publishers and developers are shifting focus from consoles to handhelds. Is it the culture? pricing? What?

Physical space is so small in Japan. You'd think they'd prefer playing at home on a bigger screen than a handheld, but I'm obviously wrong there.

I see people as being more on the go in Japan wheras here most people typically just sit at home for days without ever coming outside. I couldn't really speculate however because I've never been to Japan.

Japan are a very transport heavy society. They spend a lot of time on public transport and such need time to whittle away while they are on there. Also as cities get more and more crowded people aren't moving from the country to the city for work since their transport is so good. Pricing they are possibly not the cheapest but certainly by no means the most expensive either. They are very much a consumer electronics society since they have had a large number of companies thay have provided these devices. They are also very patriotic, Sony and Nintendo will ALWAYS be more popular than Microsoft over there. mike_on_mic

Smaller living spaces coupled with a lot of commuting. Games that involve collecting or grinding have also traditionally lent themselves well to handhelds.

Japan are a very transport heavy society. They spend a lot of time on public transport and such need time to whittle away while they are on there. Also as cities get more and more crowded people aren't moving from the country to the city for work since their transport is so good. Pricing they are possibly not the cheapest but certainly by no means the most expensive either. They are very much a consumer electronics society since they have had a large number of companies thay have provided these devices. They are also very patriotic, Sony and Nintendo will ALWAYS be more popular than Microsoft over there. mike_on_mic

Yep public transport is an important reason. Most people also have a death schedule for school/work. It starts at 09:00~10:00 and ends at 20:00~23:00 so no one's at home to play consoles. Japanese devs also moved to handheld consoles because the development costs are cheap - which resulted in a lot of good games in a short span of time. This is in contrast to Western devs who were mostly PC devs who needed a console to expand their userbase, so HD consoles were their best choice. Console gaming also has a bed rep of being nerdy/childish, but that is more after-the-fact (after handhelds became popular).

I don't think smaller houses has anything to do with it. Japan has the highest rate of HDTV penetration in households, so there's definitely enough room for a PS3 or a Wii.

gadgets excite japanese geeks

You can play them anywhere.

Just a guess but cultural differences could play a part. I can't imagine it would be very accepted in Japanese culture to sit around a house playing online games with friends when the home has a lot more family interaction and traditions compared to many Western societies. So quicker pick up and go devices could tend to do better because it offers gaming but in shorter more frequent bursts. Japanese tend to take education and work more seriously than Western society as well so 10 hour COD runs are probably rarer whereas 20 minutes of Mario 3D land fits the schedule easier. Could be wrong..but probably am not.

Actually I can tell you guys people actually use portable toilets in cars because the traffic is so bad, so you guys tell me, why do they like portable games more?shadowchronicle

[QUOTE="shadowchronicle"]Actually I can tell you guys people actually use portable toilets in cars because the traffic is so bad, so you guys tell me, why do they like portable games more?Eponique

A lot of Japanese people commute on the train everyday so having a portable game device that would be used everyday would be more convenient than a console that takes up so much room and is non-portable.

I know Japanese people travel alot more thanAmericans via trains and buses, that could be a huge reason. Also, they are hardcore over there for Nintendo and Sony, a loyalty thing.

Because their lifestyles is different over there.

Firstly their housing tends to be much much smaller than the average home here, and on top of that they also live in very urban areas that basically result in a lot of use of public transportation. It's because of those traits that social gatherings tend to be outside of the home.

I think there can be analogy drawn between handheld/console gaming in the US/Japan, and arcade gaming in the US/Japan

They pretty much died off in the US as more people moved to the suburbs, and away from the city. Eventually their target consumer (kids) didn't live close enough for it to be practical to visit the arcades anymore. In Japan, however, there are still plenty of arcades because of the fact that they live that much more urban lifestyle than we do in the US.

However, handheld gaming isn't unpopular in the states, but the demographics for handheld gaming seem to be radically different between both regions.

Aren't they always on the move? Also alot of internet around there? I'd say thats why. But I don't know much about Japan so it's probably inaccurate

Aren't they always on the move? Also alot of internet around there? I'd say thats why. But I don't know much about Japan so it's probably inaccurate

OB-47

All you need to know about Japan is that all the people there look, and talk exactly like anime characters do, and Godzilla roams free from time to time

a lot of people have already good valid reasons as to why.

i'd like to add looking at the games. perhaps i'm wrong but there are far far more Japanese centric games being made specifically for the Japanese audience only, and most of those games will never leave their shores.

games from JRPG's and to the dating sims.

Ever wonder why there is a dearth of quality JRPG's this generation on consoles? it's because it's cheaper to make it for handhelds and given that the Japanese dev's know how to make games for their own audiences will focus on their own audience soley.

they lost their edge this generation, and many devs' it seems have simply given up on the West and prefer to just stick to what they know. which unfortunately is also a shrinking market.