June 23rd, 2009

Is the Japanese Market in Decline, or is it just a blip?

Grasshopper CEO Suda 51, the developer of “Killer7” and “No More Heores”, has declared to “GamesIndustry.biz” that the Japanese games market is having a decline this year that can be avoided with games to be created for what he calls a “middle audience”. Participating at the Nordic Game conference allowed him to visit some studios in London and learn what people are doing nowadays. He has noticed some remarks that say that Japanese companies need to appeal more globally, even though Grasshopper is better-known in the Western market than in Japan, and such an event as Nordic Game is a good occasion for the people to get them to know even better. He has also heard that a lot of big publishers in Japan have started to find ways to sell more games on the Western markets.

When asked about the low sales of hardware and software this year, Suda 51 has replied that in his opinion the reason might be different preferences in the content of the games both for Western gamers and Japanese ones. The taste for RP games also differs, the type of Japanese RPG simply do not meet the tastes of RPG Western gamers. While thinking about his games’ designs, Suda 51 is imagining that he does this in order for all the world gamers to play the game he designs. In fact this is the target of Grasshopper company: to reach a global audience.

There are markets where gamers are more mature than on other markets, for instance the market of UK, France and Germany, while others are still in the process of growing up, such as Italy and Spain. On the growing up markets, Suda 51 sees a good opportunity to offer their products. Since Japanese market has released Wii and DS, a lot of people who never played games before, now have access to them, and this, too, is a good thing for the Japanese market.

The market is in continuous growth, whereas the sales are low, so the question pops inherently up: is the Japanese market in decline, or is it just a blip? Suda 51 replied that in his opinion games should start firstly to be created aiming for that middle audience segment of the customers, and this might get the market back on the track. Secondly the creative ideas of Grasshopper visions should be innovative and to convey the game a non-precedent concept. Games that exist on the market have indeed their unique print in style and core elements, features that one can be felt while playing these games.

The existence of a rich mixture of hardware platforms on the market, especially the next-generation consoles enables different types of people to try different things, an aspect that can only helps the company to diversify its products. And going back to the low volume of sales, Suda 51 believes that culture can also be the reason that reflects the sales, since in Japan, people are using trains to move from here to there, that enabling them to use their DS, or people using PSPs in different locations to play games with their friends. So, maybe in the ends all depends on what is their life style like.