Video gaming in Japan

GiGO, a large 6 floor Sega game center on Chuo Dori, in front of the LAOX Aso-Bit-City in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan
A man playing a drumming arcade game (Drummania) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 2005.
Girls playing The House of the Dead III in an amusement arcade in Japan, 2005.

Video gaming in Japan is a major industry. Japanese game development is often identified with the golden age of video games, including Nintendo under Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi, Sega during the same time period, Sony Computer Entertainment when it was based in Tokyo, and other companies such as Taito, Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, NEC, and SNK, among others.

History

1970s–early 1980s

Prior to producing video games, Japanese companies like Sega, Taito, Namco and Nintendo were producers of electro-mechanical arcade games. Soon after the video game industry began in the early 1970s, many of these companies turned their attention to producing arcade video games. Japan eventually became a major exporter of video games during the golden age of arcade video games, an era that began with the release of Taito's Space Invaders in 1978 and ended around the mid-1980s.[1][2][3]

In 1966, Sega introduced an electro-mechanical game called Periscope[4] - an early submarine simulator and light gun shooter[5] which used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine.[6] It became an instant success in Japan, Europe, and North America,[7] where it was the first arcade game to cost a quarter per play,[4] which would remain the standard price for arcade games for many years to come.[7] In 1967 Taito released an electro-mechanical arcade game of their own, Crown Soccer Special, a two-player sports game that simulated association football, using various electronic components, including electronic versions of pinball flippers.[8]

Sega later produced gun games which resemble first-person shooter video games, but which were in fact electro-mechanical games that used rear image projection in a manner similar to the ancient zoetrope to produce moving animations on a screen.[9] The first of these, the light-gun game Duck Hunt,[10] appeared in 1969;[11] it featured animated moving targets on a screen, printed out the player's score on a ticket, and had volume-controllable sound-effects.[10] That same year, Sega released an electro-mechanical arcade racing game, Grand Prix, which had a first-person view, electronic sound, a dashboard with a racing wheel and accelerator,[12] and a forward-scrolling road projected on a screen.[13] Another Sega 1969 release, Missile, a shooter and vehicle-combat simulation, featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen. It was the earliest known arcade game to feature a joystick with a fire button, which formed part of an early dual-control scheme, where two directional buttons are used to move the player's tank and a two-way joystick is used to shoot and steer the missile onto oncoming planes displayed on the screen; when a plane is hit, an animated explosion appears on screen, accompanied by the sound of an explosion.[14]

Japan's first home video game console was Epoch's TV Tennis Electrotennis, a wireless home console version of Pong released in September 1975, several months before Atari's own Home Pong. It was followed by the first successful Japanese console, Nintendo's Color TV Game, in 1977. Japan's first personal computers for gaming soon appeared, the Sord M200 in 1977 and Sharp MZ-80K in 1978. Eventually, the 1978 arcade release of Space Invaders would mark the first major mainstream breakthrough for video games in Japan.[15]

The first handheld electronic game was Electro Tic-Tac-Toe, released by Japanese manufacturer Waco in 1972.[16][17][18][19][20][21] The first color video game was the 1973 arcade game Playtron, developed by Japanese company Kasco, which only manufactured two cabinets of the game.[22] The first video game to represent player characters as human sprite images was Taito's Basketball, which was licensed in February 1974 to Midway, releasing it as TV Basketball in North America.[23][24] Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade racing video game Speed Race, released by Taito in 1974, introduced scrolling graphics, where the sprites move along a vertical scrolling overhead track.[25] The first microprocessor-driven video game was the arcade game Gun Fight, from Taito and Midway Games in 1975. The first tile-based video game was Namco's arcade game Galaxian (1979).[26] The Namco Galaxian arcade system board also introduced multi-colored animated sprites. Hardware sprite graphics was introduced by Namco's Pac-Man (1980), with the Namco Pac-Man hardware.[27]

Full motion video (FMV) games originated in Japanese arcades. The first FMV game was Nintendo's Wild Gunman, a 1974 electro-mechanical arcade game that used film reel projection to present live-action FMV footage.[28] The quick time event mechanic also has origins in Wild Gunman, which used film projection to display live-action footage of cowboys. Alternate film footage was played depending on the player's quick draw reaction. It paved the way for later QTE laserdisc video games.[29] The first FMV video game was Sega's laserdisc game Astron Belt, released in early 1983.

Sega's black and white boxing game Heavyweight Champ was released in 1976 as the first video game to feature fist fighting.[30] The first stealth games were Hiroshi Suzuki's Manbiki Shounen (1979)[31][32][33] and Manbiki Shoujo (1980), Taito's Lupin III (1980),[34] and Sega's 005 (1981).[35][36][37]

Donkey Kong

Taito's Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game.[38] Its success marked the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. Video game arcades sprang up in shopping malls, and small "corner arcades" appeared in restaurants, grocery stores, bars and movie theaters all over Japan and other countries during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Space Invaders (1978), Galaxian (1979), Pac-Man (1980) and Bosconian (1981) were especially popular. By 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion[39] ($21.5 billion in 2017). Some games of this era were so popular that they entered popular culture. The first to do so was Space Invaders. The game was so popular upon its release in 1978 that an urban legend blamed it for a national shortage of 100 yen coins in Japan, leading to a production increase of coins to meet demand for the game[40][41] (although 100 yen coin production was lower in 1978 and 1979 than in previous or subsequent years,[42][43] and the claim does not withstand logical scrutiny: arcade operators would have emptied out their machines and taken the money to the bank, thus keeping the coins in circulation).[43] Japanese arcade games during the golden age also had hardware unit sales at least in the tens of thousands, including Ms. Pac-Man with over 115,000 units,[44] Donkey Kong with over 60,000,[45] Galaxian with 40,000,[46] Donkey Kong Junior with 35,000,[45] Mr. Do! with 30,000,[47]

In Japan, both consoles and computers became major industries, with the console market dominated by Nintendo and the computer market dominated by NEC's PC-88 (1981) and PC-98 (1982). A key difference between Western and Japanese computers at the time was the display resolution, with Japanese systems using a higher resolution of 640x400 to accommodate Japanese text which in turn affected video game design and allowed more detailed graphics. Japanese computers were also using Yamaha's FM synth sound boards from the early 1980s.[48] During the 16-bit era, the PC-98, Sharp X68000 and FM Towns became popular in Japan. The X68000 and FM Towns were capable of producing near arcade-quality hardware sprite graphics and sound quality when they first released in the mid-to-late 1980s.[48]

1980s–early 2000s

Following the North American video game crash of 1983, Japan went on to become the most dominant country within the global video game industry, since the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System and the third generation of consoles. Japan's dominance within the industry would continue for the next two decades, until Microsoft's Xbox consoles began challenging Sony and Nintendo in the 2000s.[49][50][51] After the video game crash, analysts doubted the long-term viability of the video game industry,[52] but following the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the industry began recovering, with annual sales exceeding $2.3 billion by 1988, with 70% of the market dominated by Nintendo.[53] In 1986 Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi noted that "Atari collapsed because they gave too much freedom to third-party developers and the market was swamped with rubbish games". In response, Nintendo limited the number of titles that third-party developers could release for their system each year, and promoted its "Seal of Quality", which it allowed to be used on games and peripherals by publishers that met Nintendo's quality standards.[54]

While the Japanese video game industry has long been viewed as console-centric in the Western world, due to the worldwide success of Japanese consoles beginning with the NES, the country had in fact produced thousands of commercial personal computer games from the late 1970s until the mid-1990s, in addition to dōjin soft independent games.[55]

The first platform game to use scrolling graphics was Jump Bug (1981), a simple platform-shooter game developed by Alpha Denshi.[56] Data East's Karate Champ from 1984 is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre, and went on to influence Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu from 1985.[57] Capcom's Street Fighter (1987) introduced the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with the game controls. Street Fighter II (1991) established the conventions of the fighting game genre and allowed players to play against each other.[58]

Sega AM2's Hang-On, designed by Yu Suzuki and running on the Sega Space Harrier hardware, was the first of Sega's "Super Scaler" arcade system boards that allowed pseudo-3D sprite-scaling at high frame rates.[59] The pseudo-3D sprite/tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s.[60] Designed by Sega AM2's Yu Suzuki, he stated that his "designs were always 3D from the beginning. All the calculations in the system were 3D, even from Hang-On. I calculated the position, scale, and zoom rate in 3D and converted it backwards to 2D. So I was always thinking in 3D."[61] It was controlled using a video game arcade cabinet resembling a motorbike, which the player moves with their body. This began the "Taikan" trend, the use of motion-controlled hydraulic arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980s, two decades before motion controls became popular on video game consoles.[62]

In the early 1990s, the arcades experienced a major resurgence with the 1991 release of Capcom's Street Fighter II,[63] which popularized competitive fighting games and revived the arcade industry to a level of popularity not seen since the days of Pac-Man,[64] setting off a renaissance for the arcade game industry in the early 1990s.[65] Its success led to a wave of other popular games which mostly were in the fighting genre, such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1992) by SNK, Virtua Fighter (1993) by SEGA, and The King of Fighters (1994–2005) by SNK. In 1993, Electronic Games noted that when "historians look back at the world of coin-op during the early 1990s, one of the defining highlights of the video game art form will undoubtedly focus on fighting/martial arts themes" which it described as "the backbone of the industry" at the time.[66]

3D polygon graphics were popularized by the Sega Model 1 games Virtua Racing (1992) and Virtua Fighter (1993),[67] followed by racing games[64] like the Namco System 22 title Ridge Racer (1993) and Sega Model 2 title Daytona USA, and light gun shooters like Sega's Virtua Cop (1994),[68] gaining considerable popularity in the arcades.[64]

Around the mid-1990s, the fifth-generation home consoles, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64, began offering true 3D graphics, improved sound, and better 2D graphics, than the previous generation. By 1995, personal computers followed, with 3D accelerator cards. While arcade systems such as the Sega Model 3 remained considerably more advanced than home systems in the late 1990s.[69][70]

The survival horror video game genre began with Capcom's Resident Evil (1996), which coined the term "survival horror" and defined the genre.[71][72] The game was inspired by Capcom's Sweet Home (1989), retroactively described as survival horror.[73] The earliest game to be retroactively described as survival horror was Nostromo, developed by Tokyo University student Akira Takiguchi for the PET 2001, with a PC-6001 port published in 1981.[74]

One of the earliest Japanese RPGs, Koei's The Dragon and Princess (1982),[75] featured a tactical turn-based combat system.[76][77] Koji Sumii's Bokosuka Wars (1983) is credited for laying the foundations for the tactical RPG genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan, with its blend of basic RPG and strategy game elements.[78] The genre became with the game that set the template for tactical RPGs, Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi (1990).[79]

Japanese developers created the action RPG subgenre in the early 1980s, combining RPG elements with arcade-style action and action-adventure elements.[80][81] In 1983, Nihon Falcom released Panorama Toh, coming close to the action RPG formula that they later became known for.[82] The trend of combining RPG elements with arcade-style action mechanics was popularized by The Tower of Druaga,[81] an arcade game released by Namco in 1984.[83] Its success inspired the development of three early action RPGs, combining Druaga's real-time hack-and-slash gameplay with stronger RPG mechanics, all released in late 1984: Dragon Slayer, Courageous Perseus, and Hydlide.[84]

The 1983 first-person adventure game, The Portopia Serial Murder Case, featured a non-linear open world,[85][86] which is considered ahead of its time.[86] The action role-playing game Hydlide (1984) was an early open world game,[87][83] rewarding exploration in an open world environment.[88] Hylide influenced The Legend of Zelda (1986),[84] an influential open world game.[89][90] Zelda had an expansive, coherent open world design, inspiring many games to adopt a similar open world design.[91]

Bokosuka Wars (1983) is considered an early prototype real-time strategy game.[92] TechnoSoft's Herzog (1988) is regarded as a precursor to the real-time strategy genre, being the predecessor to Herzog Zwei and somewhat similar in nature.[93] Herzog Zwei, released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis home console in 1989, is the earliest example of a game with a feature set that falls under the contemporary definition of modern real-time strategy.[94][95]

In the early 2000s, mobile games gained popularity in Japan's mobile phone culture, years before the United States or Europe. By 2003, a wide variety of mobile games were available on Japanese phones, ranging from puzzle games and virtual pet titles that utilized camera phone and fingerprint scanner technologies to 3D games with exceptionally high quality graphics. Older arcade-style games became particularly popular on mobile phones, which were an ideal platform for arcade-style games designed for shorter play sessions. Namco began to introduce mobile gaming culture to Europe in 2003.[96]

2005 - 2015

In 2002, the Japanese video game industry made up about 50% of the global market; that share has since shrunk to around 10% by 2010.[97] The shrinkage in market share has been attributed to a difference of taste between Japanese and Western audiences,[97][98] and the country's economic recession.[99] Despite declining home console game sales, the overall Japanese gaming industry, as of 2009, is still valued at $20 billion, the largest sector of which are arcade games at $6 billion, in comparison to home console game sales of $3.5 billion and mobile game sales of $2 billion.[100] The Japanese arcade industry has also been steadily declining, however, from ¥702.9 billion in 2007 ($6.61 billion in 2017 dollars) to ¥504.3 billion in 2010[101][102] ($4.78 billion in 2017 dollars). The domestic arcade market's decline has also been attributed to the country's economic recession.[101]

The decline of the Japanese gaming industry during this period was partially attributed to the traditional development process. Japanese companies were criticized for long development times and slow release dates on home video game consoles, their lack of third-party game engines, and for being too insular to appeal to a global market.[103] Yoichi Wada stated in the Financial Times on April 27, 2009 that the Japanese gaming industry has become a "closed environment" and "almost xenophobic."[104] He also stated: "The lag with the US is very clear. The US games industry was not good in the past but it has now attracted people from the computer industry and from Hollywood, which has led to strong growth."[104] At the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, Keiji Inafune stated that "Everyone's making awful games - Japan is at least five years behind", and that "Japan is isolated in the gaming world. If something doesn't change, we're doomed.", stressing the need for Japanese developers to bring in Western approaches to game development to make a comeback.[97]

Related to the isolationism, games developed in Western countries did not perform well in Japan, whereas Japanese games were readily played by Western market consumers.[105][106][107][108] Foreign games often sell more poorly in Japanese markets due to differences in what consumers expect for escapism between these cultures.[109] Microsoft had attempted to push both the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles in Japan with poor success, at they struggled to compete against Sony and Nintendo there.[110]

However, as detailed above, Japanese console games became less successful, even in their own country, as of 2013.[111][112][113]

In the Japanese gaming industry, arcades have remained popular through to the present day. As of 2009, out of Japan's $20 billion gaming market, $6 billion of that amount is generated from arcades, which represent the largest sector of the Japanese video game market, followed by home console games and mobile games at $3.5 billion and $2 billion, respectively.[114] In 2005, arcade ownership and operation accounted for a majority of Namco's for example.[115] With considerable withdrawal from the arcade market from companies such as Capcom, Sega became the strongest player in the arcade market with 60% marketshare in 2006.[116] Despite the global decline of arcades, Japanese companies hit record revenue for three consecutive years during this period.[117] However, due to the country's economic recession, the Japanese arcade industry has also been steadily declining, from ¥702.9 billion (US$8.7 billion) in 2007 to ¥504.3 billion ($6.2 billion) in 2010.[99] In 2013, estimation of revenue is ¥470 billion.[99]

In the present day, Japan is the world's largest market for mobile games.[118] The Japanese market today is becoming increasingly dominated by mobile games, which generated $5.1 billion in 2013, more than traditional console games in the country.[119] The country's traditional console gaming market itself is today largely dominated by handheld game consoles rather than home consoles.[120] In 2014, Japan's consumer video game market grossed $9.6 billion, with $5.8 billion coming from mobile gaming.[121]

Former rivals in the Japanese arcade industry, Konami, Taito, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Sega, are now working together to keep the arcade industry vibrant. This is evidenced in the sharing of arcade networks, and venues having games from all major companies rather than only games from their own company.[122]

2016 - present

Japanese players at a shoot 'em up arcade in Akihabara, Tokyo. (2017)

Since 2016, Japanese video games have been experiencing a resurgence,[123][124][125] as part of a renaissance for the Japanese video game industry.[126][127] In 2017, Japanese video games gained further commercial success and greater critical acclaim.[123][126]

See also

  • Video games developed in Japan

References

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