Being the third largest economy in the world is usually pretty cool. It wasn't as cool for Japan in 2009, as their economy joined every other one in going south. Because of that, their games market also suffered. Raking in 5.9 billion dollars in sounds great, but that's actually down 6.9 percent from the year before.
The big difference was hardware sales, which were down over 13 percent. This kind of makes sense, as 2009 was the year of console rehashes. Games themselves were down 1.8 percent, which is not near as bad, but still sucks when you consider that some of the biggest franchises had games come out last year.
Speaking of, Dragon Quest IX was the best-selling game of '09 in Japan with 4,100,968 copies sold. And despite just being released not too long ago, Final Fantasy XIII made #5 on the list for the whole year, with 1,698,256 copies sold so far.
Japanese games market shrinks 6.9% in 2009 [Gi.biz]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
10:30 AM on 01.05.2010
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My bad.
Just kidding. I just hate the stereotypes that jrpgs are well known for, including guys that look like girls, girls that have big bouncing betties but can't be more than 13 years old, the one kid that has to save the world from tyranny.
Uh, where have you been? JRPGs have been huge in the States for years already, but the increasing quality of WRPGs has had some part of the waning popularity here in the West when it comes to those games. Also, JRPGs HAVE stagnated, which is another reason why they aren't as big anymore. It's the same story, same characters, same everything for too long now. I was getting tired of it, so I moved on, and so have a lot of people. I'm with Xzyliac, JPRGs (Not Eastern games in general) are very overrated.
Still, it sucks to see that the economy has hit Japan, too. Hopefully this year will propel games back up, because this is a year to do it with all the AAA games being released.
Also, the world view of the genre's decline also has much to do with people keeping thier dicks in their consoles and totally ignoring the fact that RPGs have been more prolific on the handheld market for the last three years. Fucktardedly high development costs for console games played a role.
Where you been?
I agree with this. There's the argument for "teenagers saving the world," that's a fact of the genre - but how is that any different than our American version of having a grizzled and war-hardened "badass" in every game? How is that different than Bioware's "oh we're being creative we're letting you be in the game with moral choices"? Not that I dislike those games, but seriously - stagnation is global. People LIKE seeing the same things over and over, that's why you're all going to buy the next Call of Duty / Halo / Gears / Uncharted / Batman / Assassin's Creed / Mario / Metroid / 5 million other games.
@ matty125: They may have had some GDP growth but we have as well at this point. Furthermore, despite all the problems we are facing Japans are arguably worse. As for the yen dominating the dollar, that actually creates more problems for them than it does them good. Japan is an export based economy and a strong yen means their goods are more expensive to the rest of the world dampening sales.
Then why are so many people bored of JRPGs? That doesn't explain anything. It only makes the problem seem worse in my opinion.
-Japanese games have a Japanese art style, lololol
-All JRPGs have teenage heroes (Lost Odysssey/ToV/M&L: Bowser's Inside Story say hi)
-Turn based combat is so last gen, kinda' like 2D platformers, mirite?
It doesn't help that everybody here won't pay attention to smaller RPGs (White Knight Chronicles, Infinite Space, Valkyria Chronicles 2, and Golden Sun 3 to name a few) because they'll be too busy judging the entire genre by the quality of FF13. Final Fantasy games haven't been good for years. Square Enix has made an awful lot of crap games the past 5 years, yet people somehow still expect them to have the Midas touch they used to.
Anybody who's played the SMT series (particularly Persona 3/4), Etrian Odyssey 2, or Lost Odyssey should know that JRPGs are far from being dead.
Now I do think the Eastern style games are overrated. Yes all of them. Not just JRPGs.
And yet I find it ironic that all those smaller games he mentions are the ones I want to play. Maybe it's the mainstream Eastern titles?
Hmm...now I have to rethink my whole thesis.
I became extremely bored of them. It's why I stopped giving a shit and think that JRPGs are overrated most of the time. It doesn't mean I won't give the games you mentioned a chance, it's just they'll have to be real good to get me back into the whole genre. I know I'm not the only one that has moved on, either. It's my opinion that WRPGs have been steadily gaining a lot of momentum over the past few years, and it's why JRPGs have been losing momentum, at least on this side of the Earth (Because Japanese people are never going to admit a Western game is better, sad but true). Now I'm not saying JRPGs can't return to their former glory, but as of right now, in my opinion, WRPGs are better and doing a lot of different things (The good ones are all pretty varied, with JRPGs being a lot similar to one another). Some here may not think so, but I think JRPGs have become very stagnant over the last few years, thanks to people like Bethesda and BioWare, and the lack of differentiation between JRPGs.
Remember, this is my OPINION. We can have a healthy discussion without attacking each other.
I was raised on jrpgs, back in the 90's, so I'm far from an jrpg/rpg hater. I can see the change over the years, where graphics have gotten better but the plot and gameplay are largely from the same cookie cutter. Now wrpgs were once stuck in a rut too, where every game was like an Oblivion high fantasy and the like, but since games lke System Shock and Deus Ex graced the PC back in the 90s, things changed and wrpgs are much more varied. These days, the output of Bioware, Bethesda etc are what they are, as a result.
Unfortunately, jrpgs developers are very insular, and many do not seek to change the status quo, in a conformist society that is japan. Think of it, like music without rock and roll and you'll see the problem. All industries need pioneers to lead and improve them. Many jrpg developers need to think outside of the box more, and not be afraid to take a little influence from games. Problem here is, because of japan's largely xenophobic like apathy of western games, they too deny themselves valuable doses of other ideas, tricks, game concepts, from another point of view that could largely improve their games. Kudos to those jgamers and devs who realise, western gamers offer a lot, and aren't as bad as many once thought. Its a shame, that when Suda 51 says he thinks Burnout is awesome for example, that more japanese gamers don't listen and check it out
The light for them is From Software, Atlus, and Sega, who are smart enough to think outside the box and reap the benefits. While I might want FFXIII on my 360, I'd much rather have Demon's Souls, Valkyria or Persona etc much more, because these games are pushing the envelope, and going where jrpgs need to be. Square Enix have lost their way, but ideally I don't think they should be held to such lofty heights as before.
Think of all of 09's hot games that we've enjoyed. Many of them couldn't be made in japan, because of their closed mindset, and different development pratices they have. This cycle must be broken, or their side of the industry will suffer more.
Whatever, I'll just say what I alway say. Different strokes for different folks. I like both WRPGs and JRPGs, but both have their flaws. WRPGs may excel in in-game combat aspects, but storytelling and characterization has always been weak. Other than Mass Effect, I honestly cannot think of a single WRPG character that I have EVER cared about beyond a gameplay standpoint. The characters in JRPGs have always been vastly superior in the ways they elicit emotion from me. Hell, just play Lost Odyssey or Persona 3/4. Just a shame most JRPGs get saddled with inferior gameplay or boring combat. Other than Atlus, no other RPG developer I know of can get the right balance between fun gameplay and believable characters.
Did you even take the time to read my post? I never said ALL Western games are better than Eastern games, just WRPGs are better than JRPGs NOW (Maybe not in the 90's, but definitely now). Quit taking what I say as shitting on the genre, I simply said that in my OPINION (For emphasis), I think WRPGs, at this point and time, are better. In fact, we're simply having a discussion here, not insulting each other. Chill out dude, I'm not going to apologize for having an opinion.
@ Cowboy TTop
I couldn't agree more. It seems that Western developers take what makes some Eastern games good and build on those concepts, and their games are received well over here. Unfortunately, I wish I could say the same for the people of Japan, who could care less about the latest Western game, even if it kicks ass. Even their own developers admit that the West has better games these days.
I think destructoiders should be careful of black and white thought; just as JRPGs do not always fail to deliver, western games aren't great success everytime either. This side of the world produces their fair share of déjà-vu sandbox games, or games with a ton of filler side-quests and sparse main content that cause them to be left aside unfinished after a while, or yet another World War FPS, etc... Yes, the innovation seems to come often from Westerners these days, but let's not fart rainbows about it please.