Will PC Gaming gain back its place in japan?

we know that PC gaming is not popular in Japan , it has been overshadowed by consoles for nearly two decades and Consoles still dominant platforms for gaming in Japan but do you think this will last forever ?! Considering how much PC gaming market grew since 2008, moreover most of Japanese developers are porting their games to PC, I mean who would have thought we’d see Square Einx at PC Gaming Show but here they are …

Has PC gaming ever had a place in Japan?

The reason why Japanese publishers are releasing their games on PC is because they are expanding their access to the Western and other Asian markets, not because they want to please the Japanese market.

Will PC beat out mobiles in Japan? No. Handhelds? No. Home consoles? Maybe...but not in the short term.

lol @ consoles being the dominant platform for gaming in Japan. Have you seen the handheld sales? I don't think Japan is converting to PC gaming any time soon.

Handhelds are king there

What place was that? or are you talking about that FM Towns PC that used to be a thing in Japan?

gain back?

Japanese love portable devices. That's the reason why Consoles were big in Japan and not desktop PC Gaming. They were easy to move from one place to another. Due to the rise of Mobile and Tablet gaming, they have started to switch to those devices instead because those are even more easy to move around than Consoles... Console gaming is on death bed in Japan. If that's the case with Consoles then I can't see PC gaming becoming big in Japan, especially in this era.

maybe in 1980's

@RoboCopISJesus: I'll take that as a no

Both PC and console gaming are dying in Japan. The japanese now are into handhelds and mobile gaming.

I think it was a poor attempt of a reference of you being butthurt,

@Heil68: oh, I thought he was just sharing a self portrait for some odd reason

I never thought of that angle, he posts similar to Jankz and God though..hmmm

I'm sure it's totally a coincidence...

Maybe in the future. It would be foolish to rule anything out.

But as of now HH's and Mobile are dominant right now in Japan. Even the Sony and Nintendo consoles are selling poorly in their home country.

So actually he posted a self portrait, since hes too butt hurt to post on 1 account.

Mind Blown

No, japanese gamers are for 1 not graphics whores like those in the west.

Home console gaming itself appears to be floundering in Japan (or was last time I checked). If games aren't selling that well on home console why would they stand a chance of selling better on a platform few are invested in? It's not like there are a lot of PC exclusives in Japan to drive the PC as a gaming platform either.

For all intents and purposes the push we are seeing with Japanese games on the PC is related to Japanese publishers expanding into the West (and my extention, the PC).

Computer gaming was big in Japan back in the 8-bit and 16-bit days, during the 1980s to early 1990s. There were a lot of Japanese home computers back then, including the NEC PC-88 & PC-98, Sharp X1 & X68000, Fujitsu FM-7 & FM Towns, MSX & MSX2, etc. A lot of major Japanese developers started out making home computer games, including Squaresoft, Enix, Nihon Falcom, Koei, Hideo Kojima, etc.

Nope. Never unless you count US GIs and families plus JASDF personnel playing Flight Simulator X.

Nope. Even Console gaming is dying in Japan...

Anyways I doubt any Japanese games interest most PC gamers. Most PC gamers I met both offline and online had no interest in Japanese games, but mostly western games.

Not true...

Retro Japanese Computers: Gaming's Final Frontier

There was a time when computer gaming was big in Japan.

Japan houses the lowest population of people under the age of 15 per capita of it's population in the world. So nope. Not anytime soon it won't

And those times will never come back while the rest of the world get to know the advantages and perks of PC gaming. PC gaming having any place here in Japan is like Godzilla coming out of the Pacific Ocean and invading the US.

No. Japan's gaming future is on mobile.

Gaming on mobile as a main platform .... "meh" !

Japan's failed this industry.

That's an interesting fact but what it's got to do with PC gaming?

The current generation of Japanese do not deem PC as a gaming platform aside from hentai games. Hoping for the new generation of Japanese to get acquainted with PC gaming is a delusion. Not only will there be fewer kids and teenagers, it's going to be full mobile games in the future. Japan will face the big problem of having to take care of its old people with fewer youth since they aren't open to immigration and prefer exploitation. The game industry of Japan will shrink as the population of old people rise and those of the youth dwindles.

PC gaming is very dominant in South Korea which has half the population of Japan , I think the main reason that handhelds and mobile games are so popular in Japan is mostly because they’re cheap, portable and easy to play

Considering the price buyers had to pay for them, I doubt they were bought in any significant number.

I thought the Amiga installed base was big as well. But, the numbers didn't really support it. It was the vocal crowd that made it seem big.

you mean never.

False. The reason is that consoles got big with Famicom then came Gameboy. Gameboy started it all for mobile entertainment. From then on PC gaming was solely Western territory and Western games aren't that popular in Japan. They usually prefer their own games and aren't that willing to try Western games that aren't marketed heavily. Also, they generally suck at English so they can't try PC games that aren't translated to Japanese even if they want to of their own volition. Blizzard Entertainment, one of the most famous and prominent video game developers, are virtually unknown in Japan save for a very few who do PC gaming. It's shocking. It's like living in a cave.

China and South Korea are really into PC gaming and those markets are freaking huge.

Again, not true. The NEC PC-98 sold over 18 million units in Japan. That's almost as much as what the NES console sold in Japan (19.35 million) and more than what the Commodore 64 computer sold worldwide (17 million). The PC-98 has a huge game library, with thousands of games in many different genres. On the other hand, the Sharp X68000 and FM Towns were more niche, because of how expensive they were, since they were the world's most powerful home computers at the time (especially the X68000, which was like a home arcade machine).

The Amiga sold 7.2 million units worldwide, most of which were sold in Europe, where it sold over 4.35 million units. That's quite close to what the SNES sold in Western Europe (4.65 million). In other words, the Amiga and SNES both had similar installed base numbers in Europe, though both were trailing behind the Sega Mega Drive there (8 million in Western Europe).

GS actually did a piece won why PC Gaming is not popular in Japan. And the conclusion was somewhere along the line that Japanese people work hard long hours so they much prefer the simplicity of consoles where they could just plug it in and play it on the TV after a longs day hard work.

Also, they tend to be brand loyal to their country devices hence Playstation and Nintendo does so well while Microsoft hardly made a dent in the Japanese game market with their Xbox. Also, there really isn't a tradition of PC gaming like we have in the West I think is a factor too which is a shame because I think if more Japanese were to game on the PC I don't think they would go back to consoles.

Plus, Japanese people being fairly well off compared to the rest of the world would be able to afford PC Gaming hardware. I am hope Steam starts to upend the trend, I have seen more Japanese people on Steam then before.

Consoles aren't plug and play anymore like they used to be. The Japanese aren't any more special than other people in regards to being hard-workers. I would say they're crazy about work not necessarily hard-working. It's two different things. People can be hard-workers without those unnecessary long hours. It's about the quality of work done not the amount of time staying in the company's quarters/offices.

Japanese workers could soon be FORCED to take holidays