So, I wrote an essay on the history of the history of Japan's video game industry, trying to understand why it succeeded and was so dominate during the 1980s and 90s. In doing so, I learned a lot about the early video game industry, and I wanted to talk more about it here, because there was a lot I wanted to say in that paper that I wasn't able to due to it not really relating to the topic. So here's a few points about my paper and how I feel about video games:
1. Notes on Japan's Dominance
In my paper I boiled down Japan's dominance in video games to a few key reasons: geography, business culture, existing electronic industries, and most importantly, existing animation and comic book industries (anime and manga) that were mainstream and ready to provide a lot of talent.
However, while doing my research I found another point of note. It's somewhat obvious, but during the 1980s, when video games really started to get big, Japan was an economic monster. They had the 2nd strongest economy in the world, and were growing at such an incredible rate that it looked like they were going to overtake the United States and become the most powerful economy in the world. During the 1980s, Japan was throwing money everywhere, and if any new industry emerged during this time, Japan was going to put so much money into it by virtue of how much money was going through Japan's economy. I learned why the 1980s were so crazy for Japan in a way that completely blew my mind (it was all thanks to China), but that's getting off topic. I didn't put this in the paper because I struggled to find research that supported or explored this. Maybe because it was so obvious, but all I could find for this was reading The Untold History of Japanese Developers: Volume 1, in which many of the developers interviewed said that during the 1980s they were just spending a lot more money and doing more with it. Which I should also say was an amazing book and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for information on Japan's gaming industry from the actual developers. Learned a ton from that book.
In hindsight, I think I would have preferred replacing the work culture argument in my paper with this 1980s argument, but alas, it is what it is.
2. Reflection on Japan's Dominance
Since writing this paper, I've been thinking a lot about how kind of strange it is that this happened at all. As someone who lives in North America, most people I know keep up with american/canadian sports, and will watch the big hollywood american movies. Everyone is so into north american culture, but then you have a lot of people like me who love video games from a foreign country. That's...weird. I never really realized as a kid because it felt so normal, but doing this whole essay and just reflecting on media in general has given me a new look on just how unique of a life I had because I happened to grow up during a time when Japan dominated video games. Like I think of people who grew up after that, kids growing up now, and how they probably won't play as many Japanese video games, being more inspired from minecraft and such. And I dunno that's just....that's interesting. It's weird to realize that the circumstances that influenced you and made you who you are were not some natural thing, but a rarity, a mistake almost. No one could have seen Japan's domination of video games coming.
3. Japan's "Decline"
One thing I found in my research that I really wanted to put in my paper was, what caused Japan's "decline?" And I put that in quotes because the more research I do, the more I don't like framing it that way. Recall that in my paper I argued that the main source of Japan's dominance in video games came from two key factors: 1) the anime and manga industries, and 2) the limitations of video game technology. So what caused Japan's decline? Well, I would say it was the inevitable progression of technology. Technology was not going to stay limited forever, and as it got better, as 3D games became possible, as the possibility of creating realistic looking games became a thing, more and more fans and developers well, wanted to do this. People wanted to make realistic looking games once video games could. And you know who had the skills for that? America, the west in general. It was inevitable then that Japan would lose its place on top of the video game industry. Once video games could handle the type of games western developers were good at, it was a foregone conclusion they'd start making great games just like Japanese developers, and create games that appealed a lot more to their audiences.
I mean look at a list of the best selling video games from 1980 - 2010, and look at what happens in 2000. I chose 1980 - 2000 as Japan's period of dominance because of that. During 1980 and 90 the most popular video games were Super Mario, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Sonic, Mario Kart, Pac Man, Space Invaders, etc. They're Japanese games. But then after 2000, what were the best selling games then? What dominated the PS2, Xbox 360, and PS3? Grand Theft Auto, open world games, Halo, Call of Duty, it was the era of the rise of the FPS and sandbox genres, genres that were and still are primarily dominated by western developers and made for western audiences. You don't generally see Japanese developers making FPS and sand box games. The fact that different parts of the world do different genres more is a fascinating topic in general. I know Mother's Basement did a great video on why certain genres are clearly the product of anime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfH1bfPFjhQ But I'm getting off topic, where was I?
4. Japan's Decline, or Rise of the West?
I think it would be more accurate to say that Japan didn't decline, the West simply rose to prominence, and started having a functioning gaming industry that could compete with Japan. Japan didn't fall, they still made great games. However, I think it should also be pointed out that, these new games that dominated the landscape after 2000? GTA and Call of Duty? These games primarily sold well in the US, but in Japan? They barely made a dent. That's the thing, it's not that Japanese games suddenly stopped selling, they just stopped selling in countries outside of Japan. And you could argue this was inevitable, almost the natural way of doing things. American developers are going to know and create games that cater to American audiences better then anyone else, because they have that shared culture and history with them. If anything this was a period when Japanese and American games co existed, succeeding in their own markets primarily and maybe on some occasion doing well in other countries. But Japan's decline wasn't some terrible thing they did, it was inevitable that as technology got better, they would struggle and fall behind the US. And how could they not? The US has a population that is almost triple that of Japan's. They have a lot more people with a lot more money to spend on games. So of course, it would make sense that whatever games succeed most in America will succeed the most overall. That doesn't mean American games are better, they just have the biggest market.
5. The Discourse around Japan's Industry
This is the big thing I took away from this whole thing. See, in video game circles, at least from what I remember when I frequented video game forums, people would often talk about a decline of Japan and how their games got worse and how they've made so many mistakes. But creating this paper made me realize that's all bullshit. Japan only succeeded because they happened to get lucky and have technical limitations that crippled the West while they happened to have the perfect tools to deal with them (anime and manga). It was inevitable that they'd lose this edge as technology got better. This whole narrative that Japan messed up is an oversimplification that just isn't true.
6. Japan Appealing to the West
Which leads me to another important point that I want to discuss. Because in discourse surrounding the "decline" of Japan, there's always a point that was concluded, that everyone believed, that I believed. I used to believe, that the reason Japan declined was that they started making games that appealed to the West, and this was horrible, these games wouldn't work. No, if Japan wanted to succeed again and return to the old days, all they had to do was make Japanese games again, embrace their culture rather than turning from it. It's a very simple narrative, very easy way to view Japan's game industry. Especially easy to view...if you love Japanese video games, and want Japan to make Japanese video games.
And this is the thing, it's wrong. It's wrong and comes from biases of people who miss the old days and want Japan to make Japanese games. And I'm someone like that, I love Japanese games, unabashedly, but that bias of mine is why I bought this narrative so much. But the fact of the matter is, this isn't true. Japan's decline didn't come from creating games that appealed to the West. Do you know why Japan started making games that appealed to the West? 2 reasons:
1) It makes a heck of a lot more money - As I said above, the US has a lot more people and is a much bigger market. And, European markets have a lot in common with the American market, so there's a lot more potential to make money. And most importantly
2) Because they can - This is the big misunderstanding people miss about this narrative (including me). It's this idea that back in the good old golden days Japanese developers only made Japanese games because they were better or something. But do you know why they only made "Japanese" games (which as my roommate put aptly, "Japanese video games more than any other are defined by technical limitations")? Because it was all they could make, the technology of video games was so limited that Japanese developers couldn't make games that appealed to the West, even if they wanted to. And now they can, and that's awesome.
7. Japan's place in the Game Industry
You know what games I've always thought are really really cool? The Souls games, made by Fromsoft. These are Japanese developers making games that are incredibly realistic and action based and seem so western by the weird ideas we have of what makes a game Western and Japanese. And I love that, it's so cool that games like this exist, that Japanese developers can make all these new crazy games. They couldn't make games like this during Japan's "dominate" age, but now they can. That's cool, sounds better for them then at the time that they were supposedly dominate almost...
And the Souls games have found huge success in the West. I also love it when we see western developers create games like Doki Doki Literature Club or Undertale, games that you might think are Japanese when they in fact were made in North America. I also don't think it's any surprise that a lot of the "Japanese" games western developers make are indie games, as those are the most technically limited, again, reinforcing this idea that really, Japanese games are just games with more technical limitations. As another great example, I read in one of my books while researching about the Professor Layton games. Those games are so cool, because they're based on British aesthetics and sherlock holmes type stories, but they're Japanese, made by a Japanese company. And they sold incredibly well, especially in the UK. That's so cool. That wasn't possible before in the "golden" age.
I sometimes see people sad that no longer are a few select games dominating the global industry. Now we have mobile games dominating some parts of the world, action realistic games in some, cartoony games in others, now gaming is huge. But you know what? That was inevitable, this whole idea of Japan having a "golden age" comes from a rose tinted view of the past that simplifies it, when in fact, Japan only dominated because the gaming audience was small. It was small so could all share the same tastes, but as the gaming audience grew, as more people played, it was inevitable that the tastes of the gaming population would diverge more. Once technology got better, games could be all sorts of different things, appealing to all sorts of different people. Now there are mobile games which everyone plays, we have streaming games that people watch, PC gaming is huge for multiplayer and social games, gaming is so much bigger than it ever has been, and that's awesome. Now we can have games that do amazing in American but then poor in China, while other games do amazing in China but poor in Japan. The diversity of gaming has increased exponentially, and the only way gaming could grow and incorporate more people, is if it grew and diversified, making more than the games Japanese developers were best at.
8. Japan's Legacy
I will admit, as someone who loves Japanese games so much, there is a small part of me that looks back at the 1980s and 90s as this wonderful time when everyone loved Japanese games. Gaming has gotten so much bigger now, no longer can many video games can be traced back to a single country. But does that mean Japan's time has come? Has their influence come to an end, and will Japan's expertise at video games be forgotten? Are they doomed to only succeed in their home country?
I don't think so. One thing I've noticed looking in the video game industry, one thing I find so neat, is that, you know what? All of Nintendo's big franchises, Mario, Zelda, Pokemon. For whatever reason, they and Nintendo systems in general always sell ridiculously well in North America, a lot of times even better than in Japan (when comparing the populations as if they were the same even). And I think a large reason why that is the case is that during the 1980s and 90s, when the American gaming market was pretty big, Japan dominated, and left a mark there. Mario and Pikachu are still the most popular video game characters, and a lot of people still play and grow up on these games. Look no further than Pokemon Go, which might be the highest grossing mobile game in the world.
You can find other stories like this all around the industry. The Danganronpa series, visual novel games found large success in the West. Right now, I'm playing a 3DS JRPG called Bravely Default. It's a game largely based on and inspired by the original Final Fantasy. It's cool, but it is incredibly Japanese, the most JRPG ever, turned based combat, super linear, random battles, a traditional fantasy world, etc. And because of that, Square didn't want to release it outside of Japan, thinking it wouldn't do well. But eventually, they were convinced to give it a shot, and you know what? It completely exceeded their expectations, so much so that they made a sequel (Bravely Second) that also released outside of Japan, and then the studio went on to make Octopath Traveler, another huge huge JRPG that sold amazing outside of Japan. And I think there's a reason you see stories like this. Because those gamers that fell in love with Japanese games during the 1980s and 90s, people like me, we never left. Sure, maybe there are more gamers in the west interested in pure western games like GTA and Call of Duty, but that doesn't mean there still isn't a market in the west for "Japanese" games, whatever that means. I think this market exists because when Japan dominated the gaming landscape, they left their mark on it. They left a ton of gamers who loved their games and would go on to buy them, share them with others, and even create games like them, encouraging others to play them.
So how do I conclude this, all these thoughts I've had on Japan's game industry? Well, here's what I'm going to say. Japan's "golden age" was never going to last forever. It was an accident, born from technical limitations and the manga and anime industries. But it helped gaming to grow, to continue, it laid the groundwork for western developers who made games for their western audiences. There is no way the gaming industry would not be as big as it is without Japan to carry it on its back. And that's cool. I think while Japan no longer dominates the industry, the fact that now technology has allowed us to make so many different types of games, and that Japanese developers can now make a whole bunch of different games, is awesome, it cannot be said as anything other than a good thing. And now we have a whole bunch of people playing video games that never would have before because they didn't have interest in the games that released in the 1980s and 90s. And that's cool, we're seeing a lot of new types of games for those audiences as gaming continues to grow. But I am infinitely thankful we had Japan to get the industry going and growing during those decades of dominance. They created people like me, who now have a massive love and almost familiarity with Japanese culture and games, and that's really cool. Thanks Japan for your amazing games, here's to the next ones.
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