One on the greatest disappointments of the 7th generation of consoles was, for me, the decline in Japanese AAA development. When Nintendo revived the home console market all those years ago, they were not the only ones to benefit. For years after that, even when Sony entered the fray, the Japanese game developers were the foundation of console game experience. As a consequence of that, we in the west were privy to some of the stage and wonderful aspects of Japanese culture and indeed many embraced Japanese culture for what is was, warts and all. But then it all began to change. Almost overnight, these developers seemed to disappear and now, with recent events, we are left to ponder their console extinction. Konami is now gone, Sega has scaled-back tremendously, Capcom is in poor financial health and Square Enix is talking more and more about mobile. So, what changed? Where did it all go wrong?
One big factor that contributed to these phenomena was the gaming audience in Japan itself. They simply moved away from home consoles. They first moved to handhelds and then to mobile devices and developers were forced to follow them. The reality of the gaming landscape was that for many titles, a large part of their revenue was obtained in the domestic market of Japan itself. Many “popular” titles here in the west actually never really garnered much in the way of sales. If you take JRPGs for instance, the only series to get mainstream and consistent financial success was Final Fantasy. Most JRPGs made their money in Japan and were only localized to get added income. This added income would not be enough to fund game development, just merely enough to subsidize costs. So when gamers moved to handhelds, the games followed and only a few were brave enough to keep making console games. That bravery was not well rewarded in most cases, but more on that later.
When the disappearing console audience coincided with the exorbitant costs of HD gaming, a perfect storm formed that scattered console developers to the shores of handheld gaming initially, and now to mobile gaming. The increased costs of game development met with the diminishing console audience for games such as Jrpgs and Platformers, and something had to give. Today, platformers are all but extinct, with only platform holders Sony and Nintendo willing to make full 3D platformers. But things are so bad that even Nintendo, on their new shiny WiiU hardware, are unwilling to make a full 3D open world platformer. Sony have pretty much maintained their focus on the young adult gamer and won’t go anywhere near that genre anymore. Of course an argument has been put forth that platformers have simply been absorbed by other games such as open world games. These people fail to understand that platformers were more than the sum of their mechanics, but no matter, the point is that genre has seen better days.
The absence of Japanese console gamers was what prompted all that talk of “westernizing” game titles. This talk mainly came from SquareEnix. They saw the need to attract larger segments of the Western Console audience in order to continue making console JRPGs. However, the absent audience and rising costs were not even the end of the problems for Japanese developers. No, along came the Western RPG makers. Unlike their Japanese counterparts who had been slowly losing their audience, these guys had been building their base over the years on the PC platform. These guys had honed their craft on the PC platform and now, with the technological leap in processing power, were able to bring their creations to the console audience. These genres, often compared and contrasted, have very different philosophies. The focus of a Western RPG tends to be exploration and for this, vast (read: expensive) open worlds needed to be designed. In addition to vast worlds, they also brought simpler combat systems and did away with savepoints. The ability to save at any point was the reason I was able to play so many of these games and is why I prefer them to JRPGs. I could play 15 minutes or 5 hours without having to worry about save points. The JRPG has a combat focus, where much of the effort is put into crafting a deep combat system and even story. The worlds themselves have never been vast or open. So, you could understand Square Enix’s confusion when all of a sudden, Final Fantasy 13 was raked over the coals for being too linear. It had always been linear. But the new audience that they and other Devs sought to court did not understand this or simply did not want this style of game. They wanted a large playground. Not a never-ending tutorial on a combat system that had the complexity of string theory (Play Resonance of Fate if you think I’m joking). Notice how the focus of the new Final Fantasy XV trailers is of the game world and not the combat system? Notice how they’ve gone to a more seamless system in the form of the Active Cross Battle system? No more trying to force turn-based combat down these western throats. The audience has spoken. Even Zelda is showing signs of becoming truly open-world. Hopefully I get to grab a chicken and fly across the map. Seriously, I will buy a WiiU for that. Hopefully they also abandon that archaic save point system while they’re at it, but that may be hoping for too much. I for one will miss those complex battle systems, but I understand why, in the console space, they are on their way out. The handheld space seems to be a lot more forgiving though so at least there’s that. The question remains as to if the next console Final Fantasy will make a big impact for Square Enix. It’s worrying because the company is making money on handhelds and mobile. How long will they agree to lose money on consoles is the really big question.
Yet another very obvious thing that happened that contributed to the eastern decline was, of course, the explosion of the shooter genre. Call of Duty turned a lot of developer heads for different reasons. The biggest reason was sales and money. They achieved unprecedented success. It was understandable that many flocked to emulate that success. Eastern developers, however, never quite jumped aboard that train. Even where attempts were made they fell short in one key area. Perhaps my favorite shooter of the last gen was Vanquish, a third person shooter published by Sega. This game had some of the best mechanics that I have seen in the genre and was definitely the most fun I had. But it never had a chance at mainstream success because Japanese developers never quite grasped the importance on online play. Here, the story was no different. If your game wasn’t open world or had online play, you faced an uphill battle. Sega made a lot of great games last gen, and another favorite of mine was the truly incredible horror series “Condemned”. These games were great, but the survival horror genre never did great numbers outside of Resident Evil (Naughty Dog can make anything and sell it at this point). No game in the Silent Hill series ever made it past 1 million in sales (Japan and US combined). I was shocked that Konami were contemplating a current gen horror game when the sales were that poor and the minimum cost would be say 30 million? Eventually, better business sense prevailed. I know a lot of you were looking forward to a new Silent hills game, but you are the vocal minority. Now both of these great Developers have basically retreated from the home console space for greener pastures. In the case of Sega, a mixture of poor genre choices and design choices (no online) led to their decline. In the case of Konami, they have much better things to spend their money on (Mobile and Pachinko) and the opportunity costs associated with console games can no longer be ignored.
Still on the topic of Sega, they had yet another franchise that I loved. The Yakuza series was an updated version of the “Beat ‘em up” street brawlers of old and were tons of fun. The audience for these games would usually be about 500,000 worldwide. Yet, journalists and gamers alike thought it wise to compare this game to the much more pervasive Grand Theft series and declare it as disappointing. In fact, any game set in a modern city immediately gets compared to the Grand Theft series that manages to sell 20 million copies without breaking a sweat. How many other open world games are now set in a modern city? Only Saints Row dares to do that because nobody wants that comparison anymore. The (unrealistic) expectations of gamers and industry persons saw a lot of good games get unfair treatment. I get that Yakuza offers less than a Grand Theft title for the same price, but it’s a differ type of game for a different audience. That series never was and never will be “Japan’s GTA”, which is exactly how some attempted to position it.
The Order 1886 seems like an unfinished game that hit its budget cap and had to ship. It was a new franchise from a first time console developer and they chose to build the world and lore as a platform for the remainder of their series. If you were expecting Sony to sink 100 million behind a new franchise and a first time developer then you have some seriously unrealistic expectations. An audience has to be built first because a large budget does not guarantee success. Kingdoms of Amalur is a very good example of the need to slowly build a franchise insead of just appearing out of the blue with a multi-million dollar AAA game. Even the first Batman game was fairly linear before they got enough of an audience to justify the open world costs of Arkham City. Everyone chose to ignore the linearity of Arkham Asylum and raved over the game. That gave them time to build. The point here is simple. If you expect every game to be immediately on par with the best of the industry, then no new franchises will come. Nobody will want to take the risk. Also, not everyone has the audience to justify increased expenditure. No doubt Konami, who make most of their money on mobile games and gambling, had had enough of the console arms race and the diminishing returns. At least we got one final Metal Gear game to enjoy and I hope that it is indeed a deserved swan song for the series. The point I’m hoping to make here is that you have to have realistic expectations of developers based on the audience for that game and the budget that they can afford. We now have a nice little indie game in the form of Yooka-Laylee which has a paltry budget of 2.5 million or so. Already there are idiots who claim that this signals the re-birth of the genre. Please shut up. This is a shoestring budget for a game and I really hope that nobody expects anything near the production value of established series like Mario or Ratchet and Clank. Keep your expectations in check and allow this genre the time it needs to grow from here. We now have a landscape that is divided between indies and mega franchises, with very little in-between. And now even the Mega Franchises are dying (or being murdered in some cases). Unless we align our expectations with financial realities, the dieback of games will continue. Not everything can be 1080p 60FPS, and not eveything has to be.
As the Sun sets in the East on console game development, I can’t help but look back at some the strange and wonderful things that Japan has brought up. I remember when I popped in Katamari for the first time and thought “Who the hell approved this madness?” They may have taken that element of risk-taking and experimentation with them and now we are left with the monotony that is AAA game development. I’m just grateful that the indie scene has grown as quickly as it has. The gaming industry is currently too diverse to see another crash, but I do worry about consoles and modern AAA development. We seem to be progressing Highlander-style to a situation where only a handful of games will survive to be released over and over with little variation. We have copied the movie industry in that we have safe games with huge budgets and very little creativity. That's not something i'm very interested in. You can keep your pixel counts and 4k resolutions. I’ve actually gone back to play the many games that I have missed over the years. I’m not that enthused about your endless Assassins Creeds or even your GTAs for that matter. This is the longest that its ever taken me to jump into a new console cycle and the reason for it is that I'm just bored of AAA for the most part. I come to games to break the monotony of everyday life, not to have it recreated.
In an era dominated by digital downloads and streaming services, the importance of physical media in gaming remains a topic of discussion.
Of course, Nintendo has always preferred physical sales, especially since they skew to a younger audience, and kids want games for their birthdays and holidays. They go to the store and pick the game they want.
Since the Wii they have always been the last major publisher to support modern tech or concepts, and they will be the last to support physical if it ever goes away. Which I hope it doesn't.
During the Dead By Daylight Year 8 Anniversary event, it was revealed that a new collaboration with Castlevania is coming to the game.
Mullet MadJack will make you miss the culture, aesthetics, and style of the 80s. It will also remind you of the ugly truth we all seem to forget about the 80s.
Clever title, i'm always a sucker for those.
Interesting points, i will miss the quirkiness of Japanese devs as well. I have a feeling that Yooka-Laylee will be a victim of the hype surrounding it. You have a very good point about the budget and our expectations though.
I wouldn't count them out just yet; the new generation is just getting started, and with E3 around the corner following Tokyo Game Show there are a lot of potential and hope of some positive news from the other side of the world.
I do agree though with the rise of mobile gaming, costs, and fanboysism/trolling gaming has been going through a decline. When I officially enter the gaming market I'm going to try my hardest to bring back gaming to its roots from the 80s and 90s.
People thought it was a betrayal that Sony would launch PS4 in Japan last, but it was strategically planned. Japanese console gaming is a dying breed and many have the foresight to see this trend. Rather than cling into tradition, many Japanese publishers and devs are drastically chaninging their longtime franchises to suit western interests because that's where games and consoles sell their best.
I really dont get how people get so over hyped about games and then when their hype falls short it consequently destroys for the most part not-that-bad of a game.. i really enjoyed the order and i showed it to some of my friend who dont actually read reviews and if u would belev it some of them game it a 9.. and yes these are old veteran gamers im talking about who have been gaming since the RE1 and Doom era.. all im saying is that sometimes it is US who create unreal expectations towards a software by over reading/writing about said game.. plus ive noticed a kind of Trend in the gaming community where if u create a loud enough voice for a certain statement eventually it will be on ever ones tongue. im talking about how much out of proportion did the media blow out the fact that XB1 had 1 or maybe 2 games more than PS4 last holiday and yet I havnt heard any one besides fans talk about how there have been 2 AAA exclusives and other Japanese ones on ps4 and not much from MS this quarter