Over here in Japan, kids often don't get their own room until they are in high-school, or even until they enter university and start living away from their parents. Japan is a tiny island with a massive population so most households live in tiny apartments with not enough rooms for every member of the family. This was even more of the case back in 90s and 00s. So for many kids, and even dads, the only way to play videogames at home was to use the one family TV they had in their living room, which otherwise was used to watch some dumb variety show together while sharing a dinner, to play console games. This also means the game has to be super family friendly, aka Nintendo stuff, because since the kids are playing in the living room with the family TV, they are under parental supervision at all times. Anything even remotely shocking (violence, sex, etc.) would prompt the parents to switch off the TV. This is to a certain degree why handheld is so popular here: I could only play Monster Hunter with its depiction of blood and female hunters with revealing costumes, because I had a PSP, and thus play it without my mother looking at the screen. But those kids from 90s and 00s, who could only play with console but nonetheless learned to enjoy videogames, are now adults, with their own room or house and some disposable income, so they can not only afford to buy PC but also to do whatever they like with it. I think this is one of the reasons why PC gaming didn't really take off at the time, and why it is becoming popular nowadays.
@@megamanx1291 Not at all, in fact this is the first time I've heard of that concept. We have internet cafes but both their PCs and their connection are often garbage, they're more for drunk salary men who missed their final train to sleep the night away.
10:35 that's not entirely true, the community of 8chan is still alive. Even after Jim tried to kill it off on his revived 8kun abomination the community just moved to greener pastures.
Saying that the MSX competed with the NEC PC-98 is like saying that the C64 competed with the IBM PC... Totally different price ranges and target audiences. :)
I was playing Tokyo Xanadu the other day, and one of the characters straight up says that console gaming is the definitive experience. This is a falcom title. Falcom started as a PC focused company.
Japanese PC gamer here. The first rig father got us cost him $1200. The components were NZXT cabinet, 1TB HDD, 750ti, i5 4440, 8 gigs of ram, 500w PSU, and H87 mobo, amazon basics kb/m. Comparatively, this should no cost us nearly as much outside. I convinced my mother that no only will it double up as an entertainment system but also a system to work on. After a year of no allowance and budgetting, we had a good PC. The three of us assembled it together, I can't thank them enough for it. Father made a foreign account, I can't thank him enough for it, too. I just wanted it for one reason only--SKYRIM MODS!! From all my close friends, classmates, and friends from other classes, senior and junior, I am still the only boy with a "strong" PC at home. So, yes, it was, still is, rare to have a PC for entertainment uses. But I must say, without it the pandemic would have been significantly more difficult for my family.
@@nacho7742 Hello there! Hahahah, yes! Auto bears was simply the coolest! I remember, I downloaded it thinking the roars and growls would be auto-tuned, I was caught off guard when I met a bear. Later, I hunted bears for 4 hours. lol What other silly mods did you have? My game turned into Disney Channel when I added Pew, Spiderman, Macho Dragons, Trololol, and swearing crabs. lmao I had never had so much fun in a game till then. I was missing out on consoles. Cheers! Have a good day!
Blessed post, well asides from the prices. I don't know if this will help (not sure about import taxes and such, though I should learn I am moving there next April) but you maybe able to find cheaper (but second hand) parts on foreign markets. I also have a quick question if that's ok, I will be bringing my pc with me from the UK and I am wondering what voltage your power runs off. We use 240 volts here, I just don't want to bring it all that way only to blow the thing up lol. All the best with your gaming in the future and as you seem to be an Elder Scrolls fan I would highly recommend OpenMW. It's a free, ported version of Morrowind (imho the best ES game) and can look absolutely stunning with mods. Just search OpenMW mods 2023 and you should find some good examples. You can also find mods that will change the gameplay to something that you are more used to with Skyrim, but I would personally not recommend that. Whilst the systems are a bit awkward by today's standards they really add to the RPG elements of the game. All the best to you!
As an indie game developer focused on PC. I always localize my games to Japanese. Because Japan brings a decent chunk of profits. I mean more than 90% of countries out there. Japan brings more money than all French or Spanish countries combined.
A potentially exciting thought for PC gaming fans of Japanese games; The Steam Deck is a thing now, and handheld gaming rules in Japan. If Valve can increase production enough to meet demand, particularly in Japan, we could see an increase in the popularity of PC gaming over there. This could lead Japanese developers to pay more attention to the PC, even if it's geared more towards a handheld, controller based experience.
Even if japanese devs pay attention the japanese publishers still hate pc. You can't buy many namco bandai, konami and sega games on steam japan. All of it will just say "not available in your region" if you click the link to the game from google. And with steam making it much harder to purchase games from other regions recently it's impossible for me to play say one piece pirate warriors 4 unless a) i play it on a consoles or b) just pirate it on pc. This especially hurts if you came to japan from a country which had low steam prices set for your region to begin with. p.s. also "steam deck is not available for reservation in your country" in steam japan
From what I know about UX, web design, and software design, I can safely say that the ideal workflow is to start from mobile devices with smaller screens, and expand to bigger form factors. Rather than adapting desktop interfaces to mobile devices.
There are still complexity where a lot of popular Japanese adult PC games are still not allowed on Steam... Tho, that might lead to Japanese-native store like DLsite will support Linux.
@@Eternal-pj8zh That is where you are mistaken, the correct way is to just develop different UX and workflows for small mobile-like screen, medium table-like screens and big screens. If you focust too much in the mobile ux and adapt it to bigger screen, sure it works but there ends up too much empty space and the ux ends up being too simplistic and empty, while if you try to do the opposite the mobile version ends up being or overcomplicated or with half the features invisible. The best is to just design them separately with each one having the concerns specific to their form factor.
It's more complicated than that. The Steam Deck is huge in size, as far as portables go - that doesn't bode well with the Japanese market. It also doesn't help that the price of the Deck is significantly higher, with a Switch being almost half the price, let alone the Switch Lite (at 19k ¥) less than 1/3 the price of the cheapest Deck model. Certain Japanese genres are also not accepted on the Steam marketplace. I believe PC gaming will only remain niche in the Japanese market, but their devs may be more interested in PC for selling software in the global market.
Meanwhile in my country, and probably all of Eastern Europe, it's the complete opposite: very few grew up with consoles, we've always been about PC gaming out here.
@@belstar1128 there were consoles but not many were buying them. This being Eastern Europe, we didn't have money, especially not in the 90's and 2000's, and on a PC, games could be pirated, which most of us did.
What I don't get is why some Japanese companies upload games to Steam, but don't provide a Japanese language option. Bandai Namco for example. I know at least some of their games, like One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, while they do have Japanese voice-overs, they don't have any options for Japanese text interface. Sega's especially guilty of this, with the overwhelming majority of their classic games on Steam only being the English version.
Yeah it's annoying. Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Arise with JP text, Tales of Zestiria, Tales of Berseria no JP text. FF4-6 pixel remaster, FF8 remastered, FF10, FF12, FF15 with JP text, FF7, FF9, FF13 no JP text. Trails of Cold Steel 1-4 with JP text, Trails in the SKy 1-3 no JP text. This whole thing is just infuriating.
From what i have gathered so far they never release em for Japan at all probably due to the pricing. Also do not expect to unlock em via key, Bandai Namco literally blocks it for japanese users and has been like for a long time.
iirc both Sonic Adventure games have Japanese language options on PC but that's just because both games just happened to have the Japanese language option left in for their North American releases
I admire how many Japanese people play their games with friends together. Playing online is not exactly the same, which has completely taken the space from any couch cooping in my life. I would prefer otherwise, but my friends often not or there are practical reasons preventing this. The Japanese generally seem to not uphold graphics that high since they buy Nintendo. Of course, you could argue, since Nintendo is from Japan and has strong market presence there, they actually as a company determine how people play in Japan. In any case, if there is one major positive side to Nintendo, it's valuing playing games together face to face. This said, I'm a nerd whose most vivid gaming memories are playing alone immersive games in a dim or dark room on a computer.
I think this is a video that needs some asterisks added on BAD. Like, your main point isn't wrong, but it ignores the few markets in which PC Gaming DOES indeed have a huge presence in Japan, like MMORPGs and Visual Novels (particularly Dating Sims). MOBAs are also popular, though rarely are any of them actually DEVELOPED in Japan. Edit: Ah, you did address VNs! I mean, you kinda glossed over them, but you did address them, so that point will be rolled back.
There is...One little issue with Japanese PC gaming going fully mainstream, namely the fact that Sony is desperate to try to lock many Japanese developers into developing games only for their flagship home console system. It's been rumored for example that Square-Enix is getting pressured by Sony to make Final Fantasy completely exclusive to the PlayStation 5.
which wont happen sadly for sony. the number of PS5s is so small that any 3rd party company releasing a ps5 exclusive game would be asking for financial disaster, unless the game is also released on XboxSeries and pc, or as playstation exclusive on both ps4 and ps5.
no more. Even Sony has been meddling with PC market as of late 2020, despite that what they offer is pretty much "old" stuff, but we're getting there someday. Even Japan is embracing PC gaming, thanks to Vtubers industry that promotes it.
Do I think the rumor is feasible. Maybe. Feasible enough to consider it? Not really. Sony can certainly make deals with some companies but enough to *specifically* counter the Japanese PC market? Sounds really out there.
Interesting. When Yakuza: Like A Dragon was released on Steam in November 2020, it didn't release globally - Asia got it only months later in February 2021. No official explanation was ever given, but some Asian PC gamers suspected that Sony had something to do with it. I remember this because I had Southeast Asian and Japanese friends complaining about not being able to buy the game on Steam.
Even if just subconsciously, I think that vtubers are having an effect on PC gaming in Japan. A lot of Japanese fans see their oshi more the way we're used to teenage girls seeing boyband members than the way adults in the west traditionally view their favorite celebrities, so I think that the fact you often see popular Japanese vtubers using steam and playing pc-exclusive games pushes their fans in that direction, not to mention that they often play games with online lobbios, so people will play the PC version so they can play in the same lobby as the vtuber during the stream.
Weird, I was just checking your channel out yesterday to see if I had missed an upload of yours by accident. I didn't even know nichegamer even had sponsorships. 4:40 One important detail you left out in your video was how the US government pressured Japan to kill off it's effort to make a domestic alternative/competitor to Windows. It's believed that Japan agreed to the deal in exchange for receiving full access to the technical information for the F-16, which Japan then used to create their own domestic variant of the F-16 in the form of the F-2. They wanted this so they could rrebuild the Japanese aerospace industry. Very fascinating rabbit hole to go down.
One thing I wish was that more visual novels were getting localized officially in English. In the west, there has been a boom in popularity of anime and manga and visual novel gaming. I wish the publishers in Japan would at least localize many titles for North America.
Same. Thanks to the likes of Jast we have seen a good number of both famous and obscure titles be translated, yet sadly there are so many more that are left by the wayside.
It seems like it would be pretty expensive. Localizing an action game requires far less effort than a visual novel, where they are basically remaking the game at that point. Maybe with all the AI and machine learning, it's going to get a bit easier. Time will tell on that front.
With the current western climate, I couldn't even trust most localizers to not mess up the translation by changing and/or adding things that aren't true to the original.
You talk about Japan rejecting Windows and Microsoft, but the MSX itself was a standard created by Microsoft and PC-98 computers ran modified versions of MS-DOS and Windows. Hell, nearly every Japanese computer ran some kind of Microsoft operating system, if even just a modified version of Microsoft's BASIC. A major factor for this was because Microsoft spent a lot of effort early on in the operating system wars on multi-byte character sets, so their OSes actually tended to have better support for languages that didn't use Latin characters. And the second point is about IBM standards - the PC-98 was essentially an IBM PC with bespoke graphics and sound hardware with some of hardware buses mapped to different parts of memory.
This video was randomly suggested to me, even though it's 2 years old. As others have said, the Steam Deck could potentially bridge the gap between western and Japanese PC gamers, preferably if Steam makes it a standard that third parties can make their own variants like with the ill fated Steam Machines. That way a Japanese company could make these devices and appear more enticing to the Japanese. Also, as of recent, Sony has been bringing their first party catalog, but fittingly enough, none of the games released (so far) are by Japanese developers. Granted Sony is ironically better known for western games, but they still have a few Japanese titles under their belt.
The question of *why* PC-gaming has been so traditionally neglected in Japan has been bothering me for a while, so it was very interesting to see it explored. Very interesting topic, well-written script and solid presentation - you've earned a new sub! I came here from NicheGamer, so congratulations on the partnership!
This is changing... At least the Japanese publishers changing their focus... Capcom higher-ups admitted the importance of PC for the company's future and Square Enix president noted to necessity to focus on global market which also means to give more attention to PC gaming.
Capcom is probably the only major Japanese publisher who didn't have a rough time (or as much of one) during the 7th Gen. They've always had a pretty decent grasp on what the West wants and how to market it well enough. It helps that two out of their three big franchises, RE and SF, are well liked over here by anyone, not just gaming fans.
@@muramasa870 Fromsoft done nothing to convince the many other Japanese game companies, Capcom already pushed West way back since Inafune was still working with them. Say what you want about their fumbles but Capcom actually tries unlike the others. Very fitting for a company that's called Capsule Computers
Killing of PC98/88 line wasn't simply "ohh boy we want that international pie now". Closer to the opposite really. Firstly Japan had to stop competing with Windows to get F16 schematics. Secondly the issue was cost, the VAST majority of the PC98 library is what in the west would be qualified as "indie games" in the modern day from people that grew up in NEC's PC ecosystem. This meant that lots of developers simply quit making games as both learning a new system was painful, console was to niche, expensive and most of their games wouldn't be passed by the "family friendly" filter to begin with, not to mention weird semi-windows compatibility some late PC98 games had made it all a rather big cluster fuck. For that same reason a lot of developers quit in Europe with the slow death of the micro computers. Granted MSX was part Microsoft, and the PC98 ran a custom DOS and later windows version with Japanese characters.
This video feels like it neglects some nuances and replaces them with half truths. For example, the statement that "nothing captures the PC-98 game aesthetic" isn't entirely true. The Sharp X68000 PC was released later and a lot of the games had a similar aesthetic. The statement that domestic brands always sell better isn't entirely true. For example, Commodore was an American company, yet the C64 and Amiga computers were far more popular in Europe. I feel like this video doesn't go deep enough. For example, the smaller form factor of a console and their relative cheapness and the fact that you didn't need a dedicated monitor was a massive winning formula for consoles. Japanese people are used to sitting on the floor. They're used to smaller living spaces. PCs are less suited to that kind of environment than a console. This is also one of the the reasons why handhelds are probably more popular in Japan than anywhere else.
They can't stand First Person Shooters and that's a good thing because they make new ways to play games while the Western game makers just throw on a new coat of paint on another COD and sell millions -_-
forreal I cant relate to most gamers I meet here bc of the cod shit. I play weird games and mostly handheld. "I think Im going japanese I think Im going japanese I really think so"
PC parts are too pricy for most parts of the world. We are privileged that it's somewhat affordable here. (Affordable as to the minimum wage of that country).
PC gaming ALWAYS has been a privilege or expensive since the 90s. But it's totally worth it at the longterm like owning a car, by far the best platform, not even a contest, and if you work as well, that is another plus.
6:31 Eh... That's something that I think only applies to first world countries, I genuinely wouldn't care less if Mexico made anything because I know other countries make better things as the norm, heck, even with entertainment I couldn't care less about what my country produces because most of it did never appeal to me
"People prefer buying products made in their own countries" That might be true for the 1st-world countries, but out here in the 2nd world we tend to avoid products made in our own countries.
8:00 in Japan Everywhere. US is ultraeasy mode and pretty much every goods not locally produced will be cheaper in US then any random country you pick (medicine being pretty much only exception)
Found this off Reddit-another channel to binge watch and actively check on for more videos. Love the quality in the videos so far, excited for your future!
I am Japanese and I do own a Gaming Laptop and do play Games on it. For sometime now Kids mostly here are now getting into PC gaming. 2 of my friends also bought high end rigs with 4080 just to game. Most students and working adults do own a laptop or PC with specs for gaming but they use it for work and other related jobs. PC gaming is gaining popularity here too and handheld devices like Steam deck sold quite well.
KOF13`s PC sales made SNK want to "get back" into making fighting games?? Is there a link to that because that doesnt sound right. KOF13 came out in 2010 and KOF12 came out in 2009. There has been KOF releases each year from 1994 to 2010 until they made KOF14 in 2016. Ive been living in Japan for a long while, even played KOF13 at the cades and own the game on PS3 along with 12. They never stopped, dont think it had anything to do with PC sales, as the game basically released on everything. If anything, Street Fighter 4 helped revitalize more interest in fighting games as a whole in 2008. Also, KOF12 and 13 were expensive to make since they were high detailed sprites (drawn over 3d models), so they had to make that money back. This is why all the fighting games they made post KOF13 are in 3D.
What a stupid question, japanese have mobile like switch and Playstation consoles, all made for gaming with the best games at their disposal, why they would go after pc? pc sucks anyway
Funnily enough, the knowledge of how PC gaming not being popular in Japan is a big part on why I got into Vtubers. I was like, "these Japanese gamers are actually playing PC games or ports?". Nowadays, it's really common to see them playing games on Steam.
Let me ask you this: When you're working your ass off day in and day out and are forced to stay overtime to drink with your boss till 2 in the morning just to save face and you finally get a couple of hours to play games, do you want the hassle of conflicting drivers and optimizing settings or would you prefer having a dedicated device you can just turn on and play?
It's simple. Market size. Console gaming market is hundreds times bigger and has ten times cheaper entry cost. Forceful immigration to Microsoft's Windows 3.1/95 pretty much ended major PC gaming in Japan in late 1990s. PC became indie's platform. And don't forget that DirectX sucked hard until Xbox came out, and Xboxes have been fucking humongous defective shit with deceptive marketing up until now.
well there is touhou. while I think some of the spinoffs have console ports, I am pretty sure that every main series touhou game has been a PC exclusive, and while it is indie, it is FAR from niche.
Almost all of them, and before that it was the PC-98…before the PC-98 unfortunately died. Technically PC-compatible with custom ROMs and its own exclusive graphics and sound chips.
In Germany erotic games wouldn't have been a problem in that time. The bigggest publisher of american of that time - CDV - only produced erotic materials - something actually way mor acteptable than games. Unfortunately we hate Anime.
There's also another important factor in why PC gaming is not as big as the west scene, Japan has one of the world highest price per square meter thats why people live in pretty much mini flats with only space for a mini kitchen, a tv and a couch/bed to rest and sleep, they dont have the luxury to have space for a desk to have a huge tower with another huge monitor and some speakers, they just want something to plug into the tv and get their quick gaming fix or have a console like the switch that they pretty much can play anywhere, and also if you work in japan its more likely to spend more time outside with your co-workers in your job and drinking after
I think it is connected to PC gaming but I think it also has to do with the japanese preferring 3rd person games in general. The shooters that do exist in japan tend to be 3rd person ones. Something about seeing your character appeals to them more, especially being able to make them look cool/sexy.
@@welfarewalrus597 Rather than being a thing of appeal, it just might be pure game design logic. First person adds immersion, while third person creates larger field of view and you can see what's going on with your character. I bet that the heftier console sales make Japanese devs choose the third person in the end. Upcoming Resident Evil 8 and the previous 7 are games that take the immersion route instead as praised by the devs.
"People prefer to buy products produced in their own countries." As a Turkish person, this is one of the most hilarious statements I've ever heard lmfao.
I have to imagine that at least part of this has to do with Japans work culture back when I worked a desk job at a call center I would play games overwhelmingly on console. I didn’t even want to look at a computer screen or a touch a mouse on my time off as it was just so closely associated in my mind with “work”. And that was working a regular 40 hour work week
This doesn't hold up when you look at the annual numbers of hours worked on average by a single person per nation, Japan scored roughly 1700h/y and the US 1750h/y. Though no doubt, your hypothesis could be a valid reason for many people.
I disagree. You can easily see in VR how Japanese despise anything that wasn't PC VR. Most Japanese worlds in VRChat are PC only and never VR Quest. Japanese are picky and think that they can't use the Quest as standalone and you would never see non-PC users in Japanese worlds. Japanese use consoles but in reality, they think everything should be ideal and needs to be on a computer of sorts, including Macs which are a large market there. There's the big Japan casual user base that's on console but Asia prefers computer gaming any day. So meh.
When I moved to America I always told my English speaking friends I always preferred Consoles to PC and they act like I'm some weirdo. I'm Japanese but I never knew this. I guess this is a cultural thing.
It's not like they hate pc gaming but they prefer family or group gaming to individual gaming to overcome addiction. After all, Japan is a collectivistic country unlike the USA.
I remember reading a while back that PC gaming is more popular in japan every year and growing fast, hope its true so smaller developers don't have to rely on the Nintendo or Sony
not gonna happen Japanese devs still dont give a fuck PC their PC ports are shit its 2022 and their relationship with PC platform is still like that this topic shouldve been over in like mid 8th gen of consoles
@@houragents5490 What? No. There are a lot of options of pc gaming (Yes, Steam is the biggest) like GOG, Epic; or they can sell their games without marketplace.
@@wibs0n68 If they aren't on Steam or getting a sweetheart deal from Epic, they aren't going to sell a whole. Steam makes over 90% of the global market.
Great video, friend. As someone who is relatively new to PC gaming(I built my first rig two years ago😊) this was very well done and explained and a fun history lesson. Also, bonus for using the Makoto's theme from Street Fighter 3 third strike🤩🤩 That was the first PS2 game I ever played when I was a kid in Nigeria in 2004 when my dad first bought me the console and I still love the soundtrack to this day! Subbed
I love how this video completely ignores the Japanese indie game scene and MMO or MOBA scene. Or how almost all of the Japanese streaming ecosystem is on PC. Seems very limited to just what Japanese AAA publishers are putting out onto PC with a very brief mention of Japanese VNs being published on PC too.
You're telling us that the streaming ecosystem can actualy play pc game unlike MOST japanes, because they happen to already have the hardware for, you know, their job... shoker, IG we can now consider that every person that play video game have a 700k$ settup, I mean, that's what streamers have, so it's OBVIOUSELY representativ of the whole population DUH... and "MOBA"... let me laugh, show me any actual streamer that actualy play LoL on the JP server, and look at the fucking queu timer, this shit's so awfull a aquitance of mine that live in japan play on the australian server with 400 ping, that's how fucking underdevloped the MOBA scene is. (and let's not talk about the abyssal level of the competitiv scene) And if you take 5min to research it yourself, you'll se that you can't find a single article that talk about moba popular specificly in japan, that are not mobile games... As for MMO, let's take a look at the most populars ones: Phantasy star online 2, the series is the fucking pioneer of console MMOs, and the latest version is available on Xbox one, windows, Switch, and PlayStation 4 in japan. FFXIV: available on PC Xbox One, Switch, and PlayStation 4. Dragon Quest X: originally released in 2012 for Wii and Wii U... and can be played on Switch, PC, PlayStation 4. Izanagi Online: it's a fucking mobile game. and last, Dungeon fighter online: a Korean game from 2005, and it's the only PC exclusiv one on the list. There's a reason the vast majority of MMOs come from Korea and not japan, most of them fail in their own country, all of these are 10+yo, no new one get released, it's not a viable market. And last the Indie scene... it's porn... and horror, but mostly porn, for every 1 japanese indie SFW game there's hundreds of NSFW ones...
I think they do like it, but only for weeb games. They are starting to put AAA titles on PC too just because that's where the money in it now due to the popularity of STEAM.
Japan dont ignore PC gaming. Japan ignores AAA gaming. Notice how big titles, Japanese or Western rarely get spotlight. Nintendo games and Dragon Quest are the only big thing in there in terms of mainstream appeal. But Visual Novels and MMO is a huge thing there.
pc ??? here arcade games are more popular , here its more of a esports here ... and portable consoles like switch or mobiles are more popular here this days . PC always will be niche in japan ...
Japan is the homeland of all those legendary consoles, so it is not surprise for me that Japanese gamers play mostly on consoles. I think, the west market more diverse bc we appreciate good graphics and play much more RTC and FPS games that mostly existed on PC, and also thanks to all those PC companies such as Apple and Microsoft, especially Microsoft since they are really help to kept PC gaming alive to these days.
Yeah, which makes me sad that Microsoft isn’t trying much with the Xbox anymore. Yeah game pass is great, and finally they are acquiring studios, but I want quality. And quality first party games is what makes Sony and Nintendo succeed in the console space. I do hope Bethesda makes Star field good because right now Microsoft’s recent games haven’t been great.
I wonder how things have changed in these past 2 years since this video was published, I'm thinking about the rise of Vtubers, all big Vtubers have gaming PCs and I bet they have influenced a lot of people in Japan...
Back when things were harder to create on PC, the level of dedication and time was likely dramatically higher. This could rival the ancient masters of sculpting… a curiosity, this unique and nostalgic look. Thank you for this compilation and research paper! ❤
The first point you make in assuming japanese games didn't have an influence on pc gaming is pretty much bs already. Just look how many "spititual successor" games to former console only games have been kickstarted the last few years alone, hell jrpgs, zelda clones or even FFT clones are something you still see announced nearly every week for pc, as indie games, let alone platformers. And the biggest game in recent memory with this connection i can think of would be stardew valley. If harvest moon was not a thing stardew valley would've never existed to begin with, but that did not start on console, but on pc. So while this could might ring true for the japanese market itself on pc, the other way around form japan to the west it clearly is not the case at all. The longer i watch this video the more i think you were coming into this topic form a console pov to begin with. You sirt around the topic of visual novels which were and still are primarily developed for windows pcs and are also made in japan, but you never even mention the massive market those alone entail, surely in japan itself as well? Edit: So you purely tacked this topic for a Japanese pov, then. I guess what i would like you to do would be to make a part two or maybe even three and four on the japanese gaming industry influence on the western market and what this continued relationship could hold as in good and bad things. Tackling censorship, the move form sony's hq etc. all of those seem related in the broadest sense to this topic here. Anyway this wasn't a bad video at all and i think i will subscribe to you and see if you continue to make content like this. Thank you!
A huge advantage of console gaming in Japan is that you can easily buy and sell used console games. Every GEO or Book-Off has a part for used console games. PC games are usually download-only games, linked to an account, thus not possible to resell (or trade with your friends). Finally, don't forget that Nintendo is really huge in Japan. Perhaps every Japanese kid has a Nintendo console to play Mario Kart, Pokemon or Animal Crossing with his/her friends. Switch offers many good 3rd party games along with excellent Nintendo games making it ideal for most gamers in Japan.
Yea I think Japans impact can be overstated. The only japanese game Ive ever played is one mario game back when it was all pixels. Should play Darksouls tho. Eddit: No looked up where its from and Ive finished Contra too.
The Answer is SIMPLE they ve been Raised on the NES and the Sega Master System since 1984 or so. Nintendo, Sega, Playstation are HUGE Japanese Brands like Toyota. And the Japanese are very proud of them.
Before watching i'll take a guess and say it's because they can't put their shit at overpriced values like they always... ALWAYS do for everything because they are inept at adapting to the pc market, hence why so many people would rather pirate their games and/or buy them when there's a SIZEABLE discount. Also companies like Bandai which is basically the japanese equivalent of Paradox Interactive, just won't stop releasing expensive and endless dlc for their games.
I was in Japan in 2003 and there was an electronics store with an all in one PC running the most recent Y's game. It looked glorious on that big, glossy screen!
I think the premise is false from the offset it's not that Japanese people don't like PC gaming in fact it's more than doubled in players in about 3 years time. But if you do go over there like my cousins in Osaka they aren't about what's the most powerful or whatever. They tend to build smaller micro ATX and mini ITX type builds that take up less space. They tend to prefer form over function in most cases. But PC gaming is much more rapidly growing now in Japan than it was I think things like Steam Deck and all the handheld PC's definitely helped on that end. Also Japan is really the last Asian country that console gaming is hugely popular in and it's shrinking there now.
Most japanese people never owned a computer. In my first year comoutational physics class, in my physics major, the teacher had to show how to turn on the ckmputer since many didnt know how. Also, my mother is a teacher at a university, and during covid most students didnt have computers, so the students had to learn on their phones.
![[UA] NAVI проти G2 Esports | Blast Premier Fall Final](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QWlIm4FGESQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Over here in Japan, kids often don't get their own room until they are in high-school, or even until they enter university and start living away from their parents. Japan is a tiny island with a massive population so most households live in tiny apartments with not enough rooms for every member of the family. This was even more of the case back in 90s and 00s. So for many kids, and even dads, the only way to play videogames at home was to use the one family TV they had in their living room, which otherwise was used to watch some dumb variety show together while sharing a dinner, to play console games. This also means the game has to be super family friendly, aka Nintendo stuff, because since the kids are playing in the living room with the family TV, they are under parental supervision at all times. Anything even remotely shocking (violence, sex, etc.) would prompt the parents to switch off the TV. This is to a certain degree why handheld is so popular here: I could only play Monster Hunter with its depiction of blood and female hunters with revealing costumes, because I had a PSP, and thus play it without my mother looking at the screen. But those kids from 90s and 00s, who could only play with console but nonetheless learned to enjoy videogames, are now adults, with their own room or house and some disposable income, so they can not only afford to buy PC but also to do whatever they like with it. I think this is one of the reasons why PC gaming didn't really take off at the time, and why it is becoming popular nowadays.
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" by Virginia Woolf
PC game player : Me too
Are PC bangs not common over there? In Korea they're the hype.
@@megamanx1291 Not at all, in fact this is the first time I've heard of that concept. We have internet cafes but both their PCs and their connection are often garbage, they're more for drunk salary men who missed their final train to sleep the night away.
Thank you for sharing this. I would love to hear more about japanese society and people. And what their psychology is.
@@ワンダフルバニーモヒロザ Wow, that’s incredibly interesting. Thanks for the insight!
日本では昔からsony、任天堂、SEGAの、「コンソールゲーム」が覇権を握っていたのもあって「ゲームはコンソール機でするもの」という感覚が強い。
フォートナイトなどのバトルロイヤルゲームが出てきてからpcを買う人も増えてきてるけど、まだまだ「なんでゲームをpcでやるの？」と思う人も多い
Sony out there collecting market sectors/competing products they killed with the launch of the ps1 like they're baseball cards
This was so good you deserve millions of subs
this is misinformation japan has always had personal computer's
6:37 what the source on that American Xbox infographic?
I thought it was because they couldnt find W A S D only ワスド
10:35 that's not entirely true, the community of 8chan is still alive. Even after Jim tried to kill it off on his revived 8kun abomination the community just moved to greener pastures.
They had to ban old content because their new host and registrar didn't allow it
@@kloa4219 I'm fairly certain that that was a lie by Jim as after Mark left 8kun and founded his own 8chan he hosts the content that Jim banned.
Saying that the MSX competed with the NEC PC-98 is like saying that the C64 competed with the IBM PC... Totally different price ranges and target audiences. :)
Japan's gamers dont hate pc
Japan's gaming industry hate pc
True! Japan's gaming industry is still technologically backwards.
@@luciusirving5926 stupid comment
@@luciusirving5926 japan use of tech is backwards outside of gaming
I was playing Tokyo Xanadu the other day, and one of the characters straight up says that console gaming is the definitive experience.
This is a falcom title. Falcom started as a PC focused company.
yes.
Japanese PC gamer here.
The first rig father got us cost him $1200. The components were NZXT cabinet, 1TB HDD, 750ti, i5 4440, 8 gigs of ram, 500w PSU, and H87 mobo, amazon basics kb/m. Comparatively, this should no cost us nearly as much outside.
I convinced my mother that no only will it double up as an entertainment system but also a system to work on. After a year of no allowance and budgetting, we had a good PC. The three of us assembled it together, I can't thank them enough for it. Father made a foreign account, I can't thank him enough for it, too. I just wanted it for one reason only--SKYRIM MODS!!
From all my close friends, classmates, and friends from other classes, senior and junior, I am still the only boy with a "strong" PC at home. So, yes, it was, still is, rare to have a PC for entertainment uses. But I must say, without it the pandemic would have been significantly more difficult for my family.
Auto tune bear mod is my favourite 😂
@@nacho7742 Hello there!
Hahahah, yes! Auto bears was simply the coolest! I remember, I downloaded it thinking the roars and growls would be auto-tuned, I was caught off guard when I met a bear. Later, I hunted bears for 4 hours. lol
What other silly mods did you have?
My game turned into Disney Channel when I added Pew, Spiderman, Macho Dragons, Trololol, and swearing crabs. lmao
I had never had so much fun in a game till then. I was missing out on consoles.
Cheers! Have a good day!
It cost y'all 1200 for a rig like that? Jeez. They charged your dad a lot of money for an I-5 system with 8 gb of ram.
That's rough.
FUS ROW DAH
Blessed post, well asides from the prices. I don't know if this will help (not sure about import taxes and such, though I should learn I am moving there next April) but you maybe able to find cheaper (but second hand) parts on foreign markets.
I also have a quick question if that's ok, I will be bringing my pc with me from the UK and I am wondering what voltage your power runs off. We use 240 volts here, I just don't want to bring it all that way only to blow the thing up lol.
All the best with your gaming in the future and as you seem to be an Elder Scrolls fan I would highly recommend OpenMW. It's a free, ported version of Morrowind (imho the best ES game) and can look absolutely stunning with mods. Just search OpenMW mods 2023 and you should find some good examples. You can also find mods that will change the gameplay to something that you are more used to with Skyrim, but I would personally not recommend that. Whilst the systems are a bit awkward by today's standards they really add to the RPG elements of the game.
All the best to you!
As an indie game developer focused on PC. I always localize my games to Japanese. Because Japan brings a decent chunk of profits. I mean more than 90% of countries out there. Japan brings more money than all French or Spanish countries combined.
That’s actually really cool to hear actually. What games have you worked on if you don’t mind me asking?
i think indie games are the most popular in japan than anywhere else
This is true, according to Steam statistics, the percentage of Japanese is increasing every year and is now the 8th most common language.
It won’t matter if you localize your games to Japan, they will still hate PC gaming. That’s why League Of Legends failed in Japan.
@@Swagmite Nobody cares, if you get your money you don't care.
A potentially exciting thought for PC gaming fans of Japanese games;
The Steam Deck is a thing now, and handheld gaming rules in Japan. If Valve can increase production enough to meet demand, particularly in Japan, we could see an increase in the popularity of PC gaming over there. This could lead Japanese developers to pay more attention to the PC, even if it's geared more towards a handheld, controller based experience.
Even if japanese devs pay attention the japanese publishers still hate pc. You can't buy many namco bandai, konami and sega games on steam japan. All of it will just say "not available in your region" if you click the link to the game from google. And with steam making it much harder to purchase games from other regions recently it's impossible for me to play say one piece pirate warriors 4 unless a) i play it on a consoles or b) just pirate it on pc. This especially hurts if you came to japan from a country which had low steam prices set for your region to begin with.
p.s. also "steam deck is not available for reservation in your country" in steam japan
From what I know about UX, web design, and software design, I can safely say that the ideal workflow is to start from mobile devices with smaller screens, and expand to bigger form factors. Rather than adapting desktop interfaces to mobile devices.
There are still complexity where a lot of popular Japanese adult PC games are still not allowed on Steam...
Tho, that might lead to Japanese-native store like DLsite will support Linux.
@@Eternal-pj8zh That is where you are mistaken, the correct way is to just develop different UX and workflows for small mobile-like screen, medium table-like screens and big screens.
If you focust too much in the mobile ux and adapt it to bigger screen, sure it works but there ends up too much empty space and the ux ends up being too simplistic and empty, while if you try to do the opposite the mobile version ends up being or overcomplicated or with half the features invisible.
The best is to just design them separately with each one having the concerns specific to their form factor.
It's more complicated than that. The Steam Deck is huge in size, as far as portables go - that doesn't bode well with the Japanese market. It also doesn't help that the price of the Deck is significantly higher, with a Switch being almost half the price, let alone the Switch Lite (at 19k ¥) less than 1/3 the price of the cheapest Deck model. Certain Japanese genres are also not accepted on the Steam marketplace. I believe PC gaming will only remain niche in the Japanese market, but their devs may be more interested in PC for selling software in the global market.
Meanwhile in my country, and probably all of Eastern Europe, it's the complete opposite: very few grew up with consoles, we've always been about PC gaming out here.
here in japan we usually still heavily on arcade games or portable consoles like switch or ps vita
arcade gaming treated like esport here
Because the consoles didn't get an official release over there until recently.
@@belstar1128 there were consoles but not many were buying them. This being Eastern Europe, we didn't have money, especially not in the 90's and 2000's, and on a PC, games could be pirated, which most of us did.
@@radicalcentrist4990 Yea but a pc in the 90s was very expensive compared to a console
@@belstar1128 I mostly mean the 2000's, that's when gaming was catching on in these parts.
What I don't get is why some Japanese companies upload games to Steam, but don't provide a Japanese language option. Bandai Namco for example. I know at least some of their games, like One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, while they do have Japanese voice-overs, they don't have any options for Japanese text interface. Sega's especially guilty of this, with the overwhelming majority of their classic games on Steam only being the English version.
Yeah it's annoying. Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Arise with JP text, Tales of Zestiria, Tales of Berseria no JP text. FF4-6 pixel remaster, FF8 remastered, FF10, FF12, FF15 with JP text, FF7, FF9, FF13 no JP text. Trails of Cold Steel 1-4 with JP text, Trails in the SKy 1-3 no JP text. This whole thing is just infuriating.
From what i have gathered so far they never release em for Japan at all probably due to the pricing. Also do not expect to unlock em via key, Bandai Namco literally blocks it for japanese users and has been like for a long time.
Huh that also explains why gundam seed destiny vs zaft plus don't have English language....and this game was on PS2.
iirc both Sonic Adventure games have Japanese language options on PC but that's just because both games just happened to have the Japanese language option left in for their North American releases
@@KayX291 wait they never released japanese games for japan? is that what you're saying?
the americans invited console gaming
and the japanese perfected it
the japanese invented pc gaming
and the americans perfected it
I admire how many Japanese people play their games with friends together. Playing online is not exactly the same, which has completely taken the space from any couch cooping in my life. I would prefer otherwise, but my friends often not or there are practical reasons preventing this. The Japanese generally seem to not uphold graphics that high since they buy Nintendo. Of course, you could argue, since Nintendo is from Japan and has strong market presence there, they actually as a company determine how people play in Japan. In any case, if there is one major positive side to Nintendo, it's valuing playing games together face to face. This said, I'm a nerd whose most vivid gaming memories are playing alone immersive games in a dim or dark room on a computer.
That's just because Devs take it out their games
Wish my friends were bullet train away from me..
your comment got liked 69 times.
Japan has a huge problems with young people being isolated and not seeing anyone, like the incels but they shoot prime ministers instead of schools.
@@Phlegmatic- they cant afford bullet trains nor have them in every prefecture.
I think this is a video that needs some asterisks added on BAD. Like, your main point isn't wrong, but it ignores the few markets in which PC Gaming DOES indeed have a huge presence in Japan, like MMORPGs and Visual Novels (particularly Dating Sims). MOBAs are also popular, though rarely are any of them actually DEVELOPED in Japan.
Edit: Ah, you did address VNs! I mean, you kinda glossed over them, but you did address them, so that point will be rolled back.
There is...One little issue with Japanese PC gaming going fully mainstream, namely the fact that Sony is desperate to try to lock many Japanese developers into developing games only for their flagship home console system. It's been rumored for example that Square-Enix is getting pressured by Sony to make Final Fantasy completely exclusive to the PlayStation 5.
which wont happen sadly for sony. the number of PS5s is so small that any 3rd party company releasing a ps5 exclusive game would be asking for financial disaster, unless the game is also released on XboxSeries and pc, or as playstation exclusive on both ps4 and ps5.
no more. Even Sony has been meddling with PC market as of late 2020, despite that what they offer is pretty much "old" stuff, but we're getting there someday. Even Japan is embracing PC gaming, thanks to Vtubers industry that promotes it.
Do I think the rumor is feasible. Maybe. Feasible enough to consider it? Not really. Sony can certainly make deals with some companies but enough to *specifically* counter the Japanese PC market? Sounds really out there.
@Sonic Mobian wouldn't make sense to make an already existing game exclusive
Interesting. When Yakuza: Like A Dragon was released on Steam in November 2020, it didn't release globally - Asia got it only months later in February 2021. No official explanation was ever given, but some Asian PC gamers suspected that Sony had something to do with it. I remember this because I had Southeast Asian and Japanese friends complaining about not being able to buy the game on Steam.
Even if just subconsciously, I think that vtubers are having an effect on PC gaming in Japan. A lot of Japanese fans see their oshi more the way we're used to teenage girls seeing boyband members than the way adults in the west traditionally view their favorite celebrities, so I think that the fact you often see popular Japanese vtubers using steam and playing pc-exclusive games pushes their fans in that direction, not to mention that they often play games with online lobbios, so people will play the PC version so they can play in the same lobby as the vtuber during the stream.
Weird, I was just checking your channel out yesterday to see if I had missed an upload of yours by accident. I didn't even know nichegamer even had sponsorships.
4:40 One important detail you left out in your video was how the US government pressured Japan to kill off it's effort to make a domestic alternative/competitor to Windows. It's believed that Japan agreed to the deal in exchange for receiving full access to the technical information for the F-16, which Japan then used to create their own domestic variant of the F-16 in the form of the F-2. They wanted this so they could rrebuild the Japanese aerospace industry. Very fascinating rabbit hole to go down.
I didn’t know about that! Sounds like a very American deal.
That is super interesting (though not surprising) and you've sent me down a reading hole
One thing I wish was that more visual novels were getting localized officially in English. In the west, there has been a boom in popularity of anime and manga and visual novel gaming. I wish the publishers in Japan would at least localize many titles for North America.
Same. Thanks to the likes of Jast we have seen a good number of both famous and obscure titles be translated, yet sadly there are so many more that are left by the wayside.
It seems like it would be pretty expensive. Localizing an action game requires far less effort than a visual novel, where they are basically remaking the game at that point.
Maybe with all the AI and machine learning, it's going to get a bit easier. Time will tell on that front.
@@jesfest It is not that hard, they are just localizing a novel, plenty normal novels are localized.
Sorry but we don't want you westerners corrupting our community with your western ideologies
With the current western climate, I couldn't even trust most localizers to not mess up the translation by changing and/or adding things that aren't true to the original.
You talk about Japan rejecting Windows and Microsoft, but the MSX itself was a standard created by Microsoft and PC-98 computers ran modified versions of MS-DOS and Windows. Hell, nearly every Japanese computer ran some kind of Microsoft operating system, if even just a modified version of Microsoft's BASIC. A major factor for this was because Microsoft spent a lot of effort early on in the operating system wars on multi-byte character sets, so their OSes actually tended to have better support for languages that didn't use Latin characters.
And the second point is about IBM standards - the PC-98 was essentially an IBM PC with bespoke graphics and sound hardware with some of hardware buses mapped to different parts of memory.
I see you’re a man of culture as well!
One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us!
This video was randomly suggested to me, even though it's 2 years old. As others have said, the Steam Deck could potentially bridge the gap between western and Japanese PC gamers, preferably if Steam makes it a standard that third parties can make their own variants like with the ill fated Steam Machines. That way a Japanese company could make these devices and appear more enticing to the Japanese.
Also, as of recent, Sony has been bringing their first party catalog, but fittingly enough, none of the games released (so far) are by Japanese developers. Granted Sony is ironically better known for western games, but they still have a few Japanese titles under their belt.
The question of *why* PC-gaming has been so traditionally neglected in Japan has been bothering me for a while, so it was very interesting to see it explored.
Very interesting topic, well-written script and solid presentation - you've earned a new sub! I came here from NicheGamer, so congratulations on the partnership!
This is changing... At least the Japanese publishers changing their focus... Capcom higher-ups admitted the importance of PC for the company's future and Square Enix president noted to necessity to focus on global market which also means to give more attention to PC gaming.
Cause they can sell more in the west
Capcom is probably the only major Japanese publisher who didn't have a rough time (or as much of one) during the 7th Gen. They've always had a pretty decent grasp on what the West wants and how to market it well enough. It helps that two out of their three big franchises, RE and SF, are well liked over here by anyone, not just gaming fans.
Because Fromsoft shown them the power of PC market
@@muramasa870 Fromsoft done nothing to convince the many other Japanese game companies, Capcom already pushed West way back since Inafune was still working with them. Say what you want about their fumbles but Capcom actually tries unlike the others. Very fitting for a company that's called Capsule Computers
@@muramasa870 Still no mouse n keyboard support. I ain't buying.
nowadays it's the opposite, good sir~ I'm glad they're exploring pc gaming! that means more pc ports someday too
2:00 this footage is actually from the Windows remake of The Legend of Heroes IV that came out 4 years after the PC-98 version.
Ok I came from Niche Gamer and so you got a new subscriber.
Make that 2.
Augh, this channel is too underrated.
That’s my fault fir not uploading enough. Hopefully that changes.
Killing of PC98/88 line wasn't simply "ohh boy we want that international pie now". Closer to the opposite really. Firstly Japan had to stop competing with Windows to get F16 schematics. Secondly the issue was cost, the VAST majority of the PC98 library is what in the west would be qualified as "indie games" in the modern day from people that grew up in NEC's PC ecosystem. This meant that lots of developers simply quit making games as both learning a new system was painful, console was to niche, expensive and most of their games wouldn't be passed by the "family friendly" filter to begin with, not to mention weird semi-windows compatibility some late PC98 games had made it all a rather big cluster fuck. For that same reason a lot of developers quit in Europe with the slow death of the micro computers.
Granted MSX was part Microsoft, and the PC98 ran a custom DOS and later windows version with Japanese characters.
This video feels like it neglects some nuances and replaces them with half truths. For example, the statement that "nothing captures the PC-98 game aesthetic" isn't entirely true. The Sharp X68000 PC was released later and a lot of the games had a similar aesthetic.
The statement that domestic brands always sell better isn't entirely true. For example, Commodore was an American company, yet the C64 and Amiga computers were far more popular in Europe.
I feel like this video doesn't go deep enough. For example, the smaller form factor of a console and their relative cheapness and the fact that you didn't need a dedicated monitor was a massive winning formula for consoles.
Japanese people are used to sitting on the floor. They're used to smaller living spaces. PCs are less suited to that kind of environment than a console. This is also one of the the reasons why handhelds are probably more popular in Japan than anywhere else.
They can't stand First Person Shooters and that's a good thing because they make new ways to play games while the Western game makers just throw on a new coat of paint on another COD and sell millions -_-
forreal I cant relate to most gamers I meet here bc of the cod shit. I play weird games and mostly handheld. "I think Im going japanese I think Im going japanese I really think so"
PC parts are too pricy for most parts of the world. We are privileged that it's somewhat affordable here. (Affordable as to the minimum wage of that country).
PC gaming ALWAYS has been a privilege or expensive since the 90s. But it's totally worth it at the longterm like owning a car, by far the best platform, not even a contest, and if you work as well, that is another plus.
6:31 Eh... That's something that I think only applies to first world countries, I genuinely wouldn't care less if Mexico made anything because I know other countries make better things as the norm, heck, even with entertainment I couldn't care less about what my country produces because most of it did never appeal to me
Congrats on the sponsorship!!
"People prefer buying products made in their own countries"
That might be true for the 1st-world countries, but out here in the 2nd world we tend to avoid products made in our own countries.
They're console peasants who can't see more than 30 FPS.
8:00 in Japan
Everywhere. US is ultraeasy mode and pretty much every goods not locally produced will be cheaper in US then any random country you pick (medicine being pretty much only exception)
Found this off Reddit-another channel to binge watch and actively check on for more videos. Love the quality in the videos so far, excited for your future!
I am Japanese and I do own a Gaming Laptop and do play Games on it. For sometime now Kids mostly here are now getting into PC gaming. 2 of my friends also bought high end rigs with 4080 just to game. Most students and working adults do own a laptop or PC with specs for gaming but they use it for work and other related jobs. PC gaming is gaining popularity here too and handheld devices like Steam deck sold quite well.
KOF13`s PC sales made SNK want to "get back" into making fighting games?? Is there a link to that because that doesnt sound right. KOF13 came out in 2010 and KOF12 came out in 2009. There has been KOF releases each year from 1994 to 2010 until they made KOF14 in 2016. Ive been living in Japan for a long while, even played KOF13 at the cades and own the game on PS3 along with 12. They never stopped, dont think it had anything to do with PC sales, as the game basically released on everything. If anything, Street Fighter 4 helped revitalize more interest in fighting games as a whole in 2008. Also, KOF12 and 13 were expensive to make since they were high detailed sprites (drawn over 3d models), so they had to make that money back. This is why all the fighting games they made post KOF13 are in 3D.
What a stupid question, japanese have mobile like switch and Playstation consoles, all made for gaming with the best games at their disposal, why they would go after pc? pc sucks anyway
Funnily enough, the knowledge of how PC gaming not being popular in Japan is a big part on why I got into Vtubers. I was like, "these Japanese gamers are actually playing PC games or ports?". Nowadays, it's really common to see them playing games on Steam.
Also funnily enough again Japan create PC games called Touhou Project
Let me ask you this: When you're working your ass off day in and day out and are forced to stay overtime to drink with your boss till 2 in the morning just to save face and you finally get a couple of hours to play games, do you want the hassle of conflicting drivers and optimizing settings or would you prefer having a dedicated device you can just turn on and play?
It's simple. Market size. Console gaming market is hundreds times bigger and has ten times cheaper entry cost.
Forceful immigration to Microsoft's Windows 3.1/95 pretty much ended major PC gaming in Japan in late 1990s. PC became indie's platform.
And don't forget that DirectX sucked hard until Xbox came out, and Xboxes have been fucking humongous defective shit with deceptive marketing up until now.
well there is touhou. while I think some of the spinoffs have console ports, I am pretty sure that every main series touhou game has been a PC exclusive, and while it is indie, it is FAR from niche.
Almost all of them, and before that it was the PC-98…before the PC-98 unfortunately died. Technically PC-compatible with custom ROMs and its own exclusive graphics and sound chips.
@@nep-nep6575 I'm counting PC-98 as a PC
Japan Hates PC Gaming:
Also Japan: Play Touhou Project Games Which Actually From PC
In Germany erotic games wouldn't have been a problem in that time. The bigggest publisher of american of that time - CDV - only produced erotic materials - something actually way mor acteptable than games. Unfortunately we hate Anime.
There's also another important factor in why PC gaming is not as big as the west scene, Japan has one of the world highest price per square meter thats why people live in pretty much mini flats with only space for a mini kitchen, a tv and a couch/bed to rest and sleep, they dont have the luxury to have space for a desk to have a huge tower with another huge monitor and some speakers, they just want something to plug into the tv and get their quick gaming fix or have a console like the switch that they pretty much can play anywhere, and also if you work in japan its more likely to spend more time outside with your co-workers in your job and drinking after
Last I checked, PC gaming is exploding in Japan. Ya'll trippin'... 🤷♂
Hmm is this the reason why the japanense don't make FPSs? It is something I always wondered.
I think it is connected to PC gaming but I think it also has to do with the japanese preferring 3rd person games in general. The shooters that do exist in japan tend to be 3rd person ones. Something about seeing your character appeals to them more, especially being able to make them look cool/sexy.
@@welfarewalrus597 so pretty much it's just like the eastern gaming mindset,third person just appeals to us
@@welfarewalrus597 Rather than being a thing of appeal, it just might be pure game design logic. First person adds immersion, while third person creates larger field of view and you can see what's going on with your character. I bet that the heftier console sales make Japanese devs choose the third person in the end.
Upcoming Resident Evil 8 and the previous 7 are games that take the immersion route instead as praised by the devs.
"People prefer to buy products produced in their own countries."
As a Turkish person, this is one of the most hilarious statements I've ever heard lmfao.
I have to imagine that at least part of this has to do with Japans work culture back when I worked a desk job at a call center I would play games overwhelmingly on console. I didn’t even want to look at a computer screen or a touch a mouse on my time off as it was just so closely associated in my mind with “work”. And that was working a regular 40 hour work week
This doesn't hold up when you look at the annual numbers of hours worked on average by a single person per nation, Japan scored roughly 1700h/y and the US 1750h/y. Though no doubt, your hypothesis could be a valid reason for many people.
@@dydx_日本人はタイムカードを正しく切れません
Now That Valve Will Be Launching The Steam Deck In Japan The Largest Hurdle To The Japanese PC Market May At Least Be Lessened.
Hard to justify building a pc here in japan when an 8 core cpu alone is about the same price as a ps5.
PCs are way too expensive for what they offer.
I disagree. You can easily see in VR how Japanese despise anything that wasn't PC VR. Most Japanese worlds in VRChat are PC only and never VR Quest. Japanese are picky and think that they can't use the Quest as standalone and you would never see non-PC users in Japanese worlds. Japanese use consoles but in reality, they think everything should be ideal and needs to be on a computer of sorts, including Macs which are a large market there. There's the big Japan casual user base that's on console but Asia prefers computer gaming any day. So meh.
When I moved to America I always told my English speaking friends I always preferred Consoles to PC and they act like I'm some weirdo.
I'm Japanese but I never knew this. I guess this is a cultural thing.
PC9801 is a populr platform that I have myself? WTF? ;_;
It's not like they hate pc gaming but they prefer family or group gaming to individual gaming to overcome addiction. After all, Japan is a collectivistic country unlike the USA.
Gimme more random niche for my 3 am activities, I'll watch almost anything s late enough!
It's a blessing that Japanese didn't adapt western taste in gaming otherwise the gaming world would be boring ugly and rubbish
Not true, the Japanese love hentai and that's a pc thing
I remember reading a while back that PC gaming is more popular in japan every year and growing fast, hope its true so smaller developers don't have to rely on the Nintendo or Sony
So they'll just have to rely on Valve.....
not gonna happen Japanese devs still dont give a fuck PC their PC ports are shit its 2022 and their relationship with PC platform is still like that this topic shouldve been over in like mid 8th gen of consoles
@@houragents5490 What? No. There are a lot of options of pc gaming (Yes, Steam is the biggest) like GOG, Epic; or they can sell their games without marketplace.
@@houragents5490 You do realise that there's plenty of storefronts on PC, right?
You peasants shouldn't talk about PC.
@@wibs0n68 If they aren't on Steam or getting a sweetheart deal from Epic, they aren't going to sell a whole. Steam makes over 90% of the global market.
the only pc users over there are hikikomori
Because a consple is readily available and convenient which saves people from using a computer. The end.
All I know about Japanese gamers I learned during my time playing Eve Online. They are absolutely the most risk adverse players ever.
naah man let japan be japan in japan
the west is puritans in the past, woke in the future! no fan service forever! lol
Great video, friend. As someone who is relatively new to PC gaming(I built my first rig two years ago😊) this was very well done and explained and a fun history lesson. Also, bonus for using the Makoto's theme from Street Fighter 3 third strike🤩🤩 That was the first PS2 game I ever played when I was a kid in Nigeria in 2004 when my dad first bought me the console and I still love the soundtrack to this day! Subbed
Same question I had for a long time, also why Japanese are not so into Linux? Even for Linux the numbers are so low for such a high tech country 😥
I love how this video completely ignores the Japanese indie game scene and MMO or MOBA scene. Or how almost all of the Japanese streaming ecosystem is on PC. Seems very limited to just what Japanese AAA publishers are putting out onto PC with a very brief mention of Japanese VNs being published on PC too.
You're telling us that the streaming ecosystem can actualy play pc game unlike MOST japanes, because they happen to already have the hardware for, you know, their job... shoker, IG we can now consider that every person that play video game have a 700k$ settup, I mean, that's what streamers have, so it's OBVIOUSELY representativ of the whole population DUH...
and "MOBA"... let me laugh, show me any actual streamer that actualy play LoL on the JP server, and look at the fucking queu timer, this shit's so awfull a aquitance of mine that live in japan play on the australian server with 400 ping, that's how fucking underdevloped the MOBA scene is. (and let's not talk about the abyssal level of the competitiv scene)
And if you take 5min to research it yourself, you'll se that you can't find a single article that talk about moba popular specificly in japan, that are not mobile games...
As for MMO, let's take a look at the most populars ones:
Phantasy star online 2, the series is the fucking pioneer of console MMOs, and the latest version is available on Xbox one, windows, Switch, and PlayStation 4 in japan.
FFXIV: available on PC Xbox One, Switch, and PlayStation 4.
Dragon Quest X: originally released in 2012 for Wii and Wii U... and can be played on Switch, PC, PlayStation 4.
Izanagi Online: it's a fucking mobile game.
and last, Dungeon fighter online: a Korean game from 2005, and it's the only PC exclusiv one on the list.
There's a reason the vast majority of MMOs come from Korea and not japan, most of them fail in their own country, all of these are 10+yo, no new one get released, it's not a viable market.
And last the Indie scene... it's porn... and horror, but mostly porn, for every 1 japanese indie SFW game there's hundreds of NSFW ones...
Yeah, it's a really bad take.
Cos theyre weird. It is the superior form of gaming.
I am learning Japanese complicated kanji characters
Why play on pc when consoles were made for that in Japan
One of my favorite things in Destiny 2 is running into players not on US soil... Japanese players are a worthy challenge in the crucible
I think they do like it, but only for weeb games. They are starting to put AAA titles on PC too just because that's where the money in it now due to the popularity of STEAM.
Japan dont ignore PC gaming. Japan ignores AAA gaming. Notice how big titles, Japanese or Western rarely get spotlight. Nintendo games and Dragon Quest are the only big thing in there in terms of mainstream appeal.
But Visual Novels and MMO is a huge thing there.
Interesting, why is that?
Another thing - space in Japanese homes, or the lack of it...
now talk about why somalia doesnt like pc gaming
i love touhou!!! talking of pc games, do you think there is way to revive the tribes ascend scene???
I think PC gaming might become a thing in Japan. Playstation is Americanized and a lot of Japanese games are on PC.
pc ??? here arcade games are more popular , here its more of a esports here ...
and portable consoles like switch or mobiles are more popular here this days . PC always will be niche in japan ...
Yea console gaming is going downhill.
Japan is the homeland of all those legendary consoles, so it is not surprise for me that Japanese gamers play mostly on consoles. I think, the west market more diverse bc we appreciate good graphics and play much more RTC and FPS games that mostly existed on PC, and also thanks to all those PC companies such as Apple and Microsoft, especially Microsoft since they are really help to kept PC gaming alive to these days.
Yeah, which makes me sad that Microsoft isn’t trying much with the Xbox anymore. Yeah game pass is great, and finally they are acquiring studios, but I want quality. And quality first party games is what makes Sony and Nintendo succeed in the console space. I do hope Bethesda makes Star field good because right now Microsoft’s recent games haven’t been great.
I love those PC-88 art
I wonder how things have changed in these past 2 years since this video was published, I'm thinking about the rise of Vtubers, all big Vtubers have gaming PCs and I bet they have influenced a lot of people in Japan...
japan is the country of being easily impressionable and influenceable
Back when things were harder to create on PC, the level of dedication and time was likely dramatically higher. This could rival the ancient masters of sculpting… a curiosity, this unique and nostalgic look. Thank you for this compilation and research paper! ❤
Actually pc are getting big over there
Because the koreans always beat them.
The first point you make in assuming japanese games didn't have an influence on pc gaming is pretty much bs already.
Just look how many "spititual successor" games to former console only games have been kickstarted the last few years alone, hell jrpgs, zelda clones or even FFT clones are something you still see announced nearly every week for pc, as indie games, let alone platformers. And the biggest game in recent memory with this connection i can think of would be stardew valley. If harvest moon was not a thing stardew valley would've never existed to begin with, but that did not start on console, but on pc. So while this could might ring true for the japanese market itself on pc, the other way around form japan to the west it clearly is not the case at all.
The longer i watch this video the more i think you were coming into this topic form a console pov to begin with. You sirt around the topic of visual novels which were and still are primarily developed for windows pcs and are also made in japan, but you never even mention the massive market those alone entail, surely in japan itself as well?
Edit: So you purely tacked this topic for a Japanese pov, then. I guess what i would like you to do would be to make a part two or maybe even three and four on the japanese gaming industry influence on the western market and what this continued relationship could hold as in good and bad things. Tackling censorship, the move form sony's hq etc. all of those seem related in the broadest sense to this topic here. Anyway this wasn't a bad video at all and i think i will subscribe to you and see if you continue to make content like this. Thank you!
Goddamn, those PC-98 graphics are sweet!!
You've earned my subscription good sir! Really great concise analysis.
A huge advantage of console gaming in Japan is that you can easily buy and sell used console games. Every GEO or Book-Off has a part for used console games.
PC games are usually download-only games, linked to an account, thus not possible to resell (or trade with your friends).
Finally, don't forget that Nintendo is really huge in Japan. Perhaps every Japanese kid has a Nintendo console to play Mario Kart, Pokemon or Animal Crossing with his/her friends. Switch offers many good 3rd party games along with excellent Nintendo games making it ideal for most gamers in Japan.
yes its easy to resell physical games after you finished.
but some people build pc is for pirating some games.
PC gaming has always sucked
because japanese people are based
Yea I think Japans impact can be overstated. The only japanese game Ive ever played is one mario game back when it was all pixels. Should play Darksouls tho.
Eddit: No looked up where its from and Ive finished Contra too.
finally a youtuber that DOESNT beg for subs or reads out their patreon list.
fuck im already subbed.
The Answer is SIMPLE they ve been Raised on the NES and the Sega Master System since 1984 or so.
Nintendo, Sega, Playstation are HUGE Japanese Brands like Toyota. And the Japanese are very proud of them.
Before watching i'll take a guess and say it's because they can't put their shit at overpriced values like they always... ALWAYS do for everything because they are inept at adapting to the pc market, hence why so many people would rather pirate their games and/or buy them when there's a SIZEABLE discount.
Also companies like Bandai which is basically the japanese equivalent of Paradox Interactive, just won't stop releasing expensive and endless dlc for their games.
I was in Japan in 2003 and there was an electronics store with an all in one PC running the most recent Y's game. It looked glorious on that big, glossy screen!
I think the premise is false from the offset it's not that Japanese people don't like PC gaming in fact it's more than doubled in players in about 3 years time. But if you do go over there like my cousins in Osaka they aren't about what's the most powerful or whatever. They tend to build smaller micro ATX and mini ITX type builds that take up less space. They tend to prefer form over function in most cases. But PC gaming is much more rapidly growing now in Japan than it was I think things like Steam Deck and all the handheld PC's definitely helped on that end. Also Japan is really the last Asian country that console gaming is hugely popular in and it's shrinking there now.
Most japanese people never owned a computer. In my first year comoutational physics class, in my physics major, the teacher had to show how to turn on the ckmputer since many didnt know how. Also, my mother is a teacher at a university, and during covid most students didnt have computers, so the students had to learn on their phones.