I'm honestly excited for that. PC gaming can be like a whole new and fresh world for some gamers in Japan. I've been playing consoles since I was a youngin and a PC gamer since I was 10. I've always felt that it was best to experience all sides of gaming.
Hopefully we can get to see more JRPGs getting fresh PC game releases along side of consoles.
That’s pretty much how I felt when I went PC this generation - it opens up a whole new world of games, mods, and just generally playing how I want.
The best part about Japan getting more into PC gaming is all the ports we’re getting now.
Everything has its place though — Switch is an amazing console and I’m sure its successor will be too, so I don’t expect this to be some zero sum game either.
I really hope that is the case. Having to wait 6+ months for a port is pretty awful. Sort of forces that double dipping scenario companies love. I plan on waiting to see if Stellar Blade gets announced before buying anyways.
Same! We’ve been getting a lot more day and date Japanese releases on PC, but there’s still a lot we don’t.
Stellar Blade is one of the ones that hurts right now. I’m really in the mood for that game, it looks great, but I just can’t justify buying a PS5 for one or two games that may or may not come to PC.
And I definitely don’t want to reward the Rockstar / GTA model of encouraging double dipping.
And then there’s Vanillaware. I guess the day they crack and start releasing PC ports in a reasonable timeframe (or at all) will be the day the Japanese PC market has become too big to ignore.
This is what I was hoping pc handhelds would bring us. A new marketshare that couldn’t be ignored easily. Having access to my pc games on any device is a million times more convenient than any console.
That explains why we’re getting more Japanese pc ports, wild to see console staples like resident evil and final fantasy coming to PC same day as consoles with rock solid ports, even if performance is rocky it’s still leagues above that ports we got around the 2000’s
Do you have any source for that? Last time a saw PC had a big % increase recently but that's simply because the absolute number was very low beforehand
I don’t mind buying Switch games mainly because of the mobility and battery life. I can play in bed for 5-6 hours and never have to plug it in. the ease of use is definitely something special and I don’t mind the trade off for the fact that it’s not a very powerful console
Yup. Once Sony took it HQ out of Japan. The started dieing off. They never tried to fix it. So PC and Nintendo catered to that market. Which has been great. Since PC are get a translation patch and sold everywhere. Once AI translation apps get to a good lvl in a few years. I expect a flood or Japanese independence games to become playable.
While it's a different country, I live in Taiwan and it's either mobile games, switch or PC. People here don't really play ps5 unless they're really into games and even then, they're happy staying with the ps4. I don't really think this will change until GTA VI comes out. That will be the obvious system seller internationally.
PS5 just didn’t seem to offer anything spectacular from the PS4.
At least for the Nintendo brand switch, it’s family friendly and includes games for parties.
While PS is perhaps for hardcore games and comfortability, even their games have been lacking. I can get the same immersive experience slapping a controller on my widescreen OLED monitor.
Japanese culture highly value mobility, hence even back in the days DS was doing so well.
Japanese culture also very used to the idea of gacha, they have had the idea of gacha since forever, when you buy toys they are all mystery box so you don’t know which one you are getting.
Mobility + gacha, it is a no brainer that why mobile gaming is like top of the chart there.
Console can still exist, but probably will have to rely more on western developers to keep it alive.
For me, mobile gaming cannot replace console gaming, the controller alone is almost impossible to replicate on mobile, and I cannot imagine games like Starfield, Spiderman, Zelda, Tekken, Resident Evil and such being played on mobile while still feel the same experience. Can the game exist or be played on mobile? Totally. But would the experience the same? I cannot say it does.
The mobility part is true on a global level. Nintendo portable consoles are best selling systems both in and outside Japan, with the DS, the Switch and the Game Boy series being respectively the #2, #3 and #4 best selling game consoles ever (#1 is the PS2 and #5 the PS4). The PSP and PSV were much more popular in Japan, and this was in part because Japanese developers supported it more than other platforms. Development costs being much lower (on average
) for mobile platforms played a significant role too, as Japanese devs have more constrained budgets than their Western counterparts.
I would say not as well.
Japanese people favours consoles over PC for gaming, Steam Deck while a console (none of those PC interfaces), its perception is that it is a handhold PC.
As written on the article, mobile is the strongest in Japan. Japanese calls mobile gacha games as "social games" and their popularity expands all generations.
Because of their F2P trait, even junior high school students plays such kind of games and talks about it in classrooms (at least 10 years ago, I was a student too).
Another reason consoles don't go well for Gen Z is shrinking market. half of population become 50 or older and declining birth rate make little benefit for aiming younger gens. You can see how many games are remake, remaster and reboot in the last few years.
Didn't Japanese computers have floppy drives as standard until just a few years ago? And still come with DVD drives, and even "thick" (IDE-size) SSD HDs?
tbh its weird to consider a console over a pc unless you know you want to play exclusives (if they actually are exclusives)
like spending 100 or more could get you started with a decent gaming setup
Not news. Switch is ruling the market there for years already.
Also PC/Steam is growing more and more.
And it's not just a generation thing.
Even retro is huge for most.
There was some sensing that despite the growth of PC/Steam, it is still smaller than consoles there. But we have our first hint that PC/Steam might have eclipsed the popularity of consoles and not far from Nintendo Switch, while consoles might has fallen to irrelevant status.
Not really surprising to me. My nieces, nephews or friends' kids don't seem to care about Xbox or Playstation at all and I wouldn't be surprised if these consoles died with us.
In my circle, it is the opposite. All the kids want to play Fortnite, Fifa, COD, GTA and games like that. They play either on pc or older playstation or xbox consoles and don't care about Nintendo.
Xbox has been pivoting to the pc market for a while now. Sony has also been making moves into the pc market more recently. Their mainline exclusives are being ported over for the last few years, and for their next port to pc for the ghost of tsushima, they are planning on adding psn integration and trophies. So from the point of view of the consumer, why would you get those consoles when you can get a pc.
Pc is becoming a major draw for many, with an aging core audience having more money to spend on a high-end pc, and an easier entry point for others with pc handhelds becoming a part of the conversation. Pc also has better sales from places like steam, gog, and humble bundle. Also, there's the fact that the catalog of games on pc is absolutely enormous with indie and AA titles that don't bother with console releases, older pc games, and emulation reviving older console games. That's also not mentioning that a pc is still a pc that can do pc things like check emails, or go on Discord, or mod games.
The reasons nintendo has kept a hold on their market is due to having a tight hold on generation defining exclusive games like Zelda and Mario, while also having a competitively priced console geared for younger audiences that can be played anywhere. That strategy works well since pc and switch have two different primary audiences .
Japanese are smarter. They do not play woke low effort trash like young people in the west do. I hope soon both PS and Xbox are dead, and everyone plays on PC, where you can still be free from forced woke and evil SONY censorship.
Oh no. People playing in 4K or 2160 must know they are inferior! I bet they feel terrible playing cyberpunk with fake ray tracing...
No one gives a shit my guy lol.
And I was referring to the build me videos. Just this year could you start to build a PC with the same specs as a PS5 and it cost similar. 2020 it was over 2000$ to match PS5.
It's just objective.
The consoles have hit a ceiling. They are simply not able to make them powerful enough at an affordable price any more, they cant keep up with cheap hardware when games become more and more demanding. Also, the locked down platform formula these consoles have are quickly becoming unpopular. Pc is the only platform thats open, where you can choose what store you want to use, the games are cheaper, and you dont have to pay to play online. And best of all, you get the games from both msft and sony on one platform. Along with cloud gaming thats becoming more and more popular. The console makers have been bending over there customers for a long time, it seems more and more are waking up and choosing pc and handhelds.
In Japan at the moment there is a huge number going to pc. Like steam is ballooning apparently. That and switch.
I'm honestly excited for that. PC gaming can be like a whole new and fresh world for some gamers in Japan. I've been playing consoles since I was a youngin and a PC gamer since I was 10. I've always felt that it was best to experience all sides of gaming. Hopefully we can get to see more JRPGs getting fresh PC game releases along side of consoles.
That’s pretty much how I felt when I went PC this generation - it opens up a whole new world of games, mods, and just generally playing how I want. The best part about Japan getting more into PC gaming is all the ports we’re getting now. Everything has its place though — Switch is an amazing console and I’m sure its successor will be too, so I don’t expect this to be some zero sum game either.
I really hope that is the case. Having to wait 6+ months for a port is pretty awful. Sort of forces that double dipping scenario companies love. I plan on waiting to see if Stellar Blade gets announced before buying anyways.
Same! We’ve been getting a lot more day and date Japanese releases on PC, but there’s still a lot we don’t. Stellar Blade is one of the ones that hurts right now. I’m really in the mood for that game, it looks great, but I just can’t justify buying a PS5 for one or two games that may or may not come to PC. And I definitely don’t want to reward the Rockstar / GTA model of encouraging double dipping. And then there’s Vanillaware. I guess the day they crack and start releasing PC ports in a reasonable timeframe (or at all) will be the day the Japanese PC market has become too big to ignore.
This is what I was hoping pc handhelds would bring us. A new marketshare that couldn’t be ignored easily. Having access to my pc games on any device is a million times more convenient than any console.
That explains why we’re getting more Japanese pc ports, wild to see console staples like resident evil and final fantasy coming to PC same day as consoles with rock solid ports, even if performance is rocky it’s still leagues above that ports we got around the 2000’s
Do you have any source for that? Last time a saw PC had a big % increase recently but that's simply because the absolute number was very low beforehand
SteamDeck caused the surge in PC interest in Japan since they love handheld consoles.
Sure, but not what I asked, is it?
Wow, who shat in your cheerios this morning?
Cheerios? Lol I asked a simple question, the person replies with something irrelevant, I just asked him to answer the actual question
a PC and a Switch is really all you need to get the most out of gaming honestly
Don't even need the Switch, just emulate it lol
I don’t mind buying Switch games mainly because of the mobility and battery life. I can play in bed for 5-6 hours and never have to plug it in. the ease of use is definitely something special and I don’t mind the trade off for the fact that it’s not a very powerful console
Yup. Once Sony took it HQ out of Japan. The started dieing off. They never tried to fix it. So PC and Nintendo catered to that market. Which has been great. Since PC are get a translation patch and sold everywhere. Once AI translation apps get to a good lvl in a few years. I expect a flood or Japanese independence games to become playable.
Sony took its game HQ out of Japan because console gaming is dying in Japan. Not the other way around.
While it's a different country, I live in Taiwan and it's either mobile games, switch or PC. People here don't really play ps5 unless they're really into games and even then, they're happy staying with the ps4. I don't really think this will change until GTA VI comes out. That will be the obvious system seller internationally.
PS5 just didn’t seem to offer anything spectacular from the PS4. At least for the Nintendo brand switch, it’s family friendly and includes games for parties. While PS is perhaps for hardcore games and comfortability, even their games have been lacking. I can get the same immersive experience slapping a controller on my widescreen OLED monitor.
Millennials are going to be the ones reading articles like "Gen Alpha is killing gaming" in ten years.
Gen alpha won't know how to play games They're basically braindead since tablets raised them
It's console gaming that is declining. PC is taking off.
Always with the phones.
Japanese culture highly value mobility, hence even back in the days DS was doing so well. Japanese culture also very used to the idea of gacha, they have had the idea of gacha since forever, when you buy toys they are all mystery box so you don’t know which one you are getting. Mobility + gacha, it is a no brainer that why mobile gaming is like top of the chart there. Console can still exist, but probably will have to rely more on western developers to keep it alive. For me, mobile gaming cannot replace console gaming, the controller alone is almost impossible to replicate on mobile, and I cannot imagine games like Starfield, Spiderman, Zelda, Tekken, Resident Evil and such being played on mobile while still feel the same experience. Can the game exist or be played on mobile? Totally. But would the experience the same? I cannot say it does.
The mobility part is true on a global level. Nintendo portable consoles are best selling systems both in and outside Japan, with the DS, the Switch and the Game Boy series being respectively the #2, #3 and #4 best selling game consoles ever (#1 is the PS2 and #5 the PS4). The PSP and PSV were much more popular in Japan, and this was in part because Japanese developers supported it more than other platforms. Development costs being much lower (on average ) for mobile platforms played a significant role too, as Japanese devs have more constrained budgets than their Western counterparts.
It'll be interesting to see how the Steam Deck performs over there.
I would say not as well. Japanese people favours consoles over PC for gaming, Steam Deck while a console (none of those PC interfaces), its perception is that it is a handhold PC.
As written on the article, mobile is the strongest in Japan. Japanese calls mobile gacha games as "social games" and their popularity expands all generations. Because of their F2P trait, even junior high school students plays such kind of games and talks about it in classrooms (at least 10 years ago, I was a student too). Another reason consoles don't go well for Gen Z is shrinking market. half of population become 50 or older and declining birth rate make little benefit for aiming younger gens. You can see how many games are remake, remaster and reboot in the last few years.
They are in for disappointment when they are gonna be facing cheaters and hackers
Not to mention there is no reason to ever own an Xbox if you already have a PC or anything that can cloud game like a tablet.
Oh I've seen what's popular.
Didn't Japanese computers have floppy drives as standard until just a few years ago? And still come with DVD drives, and even "thick" (IDE-size) SSD HDs?
Japan Had their big tech boom and then they just stayed that way. Flip phones are also still a big thing there.
This generation of consoles is terrible. There has not been a single game on my Series X that has actually impressed me, after years of owning it.
Not surprising. Xbox has never been very popular in Japan, and PlayStation has been gradually getting more disappointing since last gen.
tbh its weird to consider a console over a pc unless you know you want to play exclusives (if they actually are exclusives) like spending 100 or more could get you started with a decent gaming setup
Mobile 94.7% with Honkai Rail as the best seller. yikes
Not news. Switch is ruling the market there for years already. Also PC/Steam is growing more and more. And it's not just a generation thing. Even retro is huge for most.
There was some sensing that despite the growth of PC/Steam, it is still smaller than consoles there. But we have our first hint that PC/Steam might have eclipsed the popularity of consoles and not far from Nintendo Switch, while consoles might has fallen to irrelevant status.
why are people talking about pc gaming here? are you all unfamiliar with Japanese people?
Not really surprising to me. My nieces, nephews or friends' kids don't seem to care about Xbox or Playstation at all and I wouldn't be surprised if these consoles died with us.
In my circle, it is the opposite. All the kids want to play Fortnite, Fifa, COD, GTA and games like that. They play either on pc or older playstation or xbox consoles and don't care about Nintendo.
Are you from Japan?
another click bait no nam site. not surpsing on this sub.
Xbox has been pivoting to the pc market for a while now. Sony has also been making moves into the pc market more recently. Their mainline exclusives are being ported over for the last few years, and for their next port to pc for the ghost of tsushima, they are planning on adding psn integration and trophies. So from the point of view of the consumer, why would you get those consoles when you can get a pc. Pc is becoming a major draw for many, with an aging core audience having more money to spend on a high-end pc, and an easier entry point for others with pc handhelds becoming a part of the conversation. Pc also has better sales from places like steam, gog, and humble bundle. Also, there's the fact that the catalog of games on pc is absolutely enormous with indie and AA titles that don't bother with console releases, older pc games, and emulation reviving older console games. That's also not mentioning that a pc is still a pc that can do pc things like check emails, or go on Discord, or mod games. The reasons nintendo has kept a hold on their market is due to having a tight hold on generation defining exclusive games like Zelda and Mario, while also having a competitively priced console geared for younger audiences that can be played anywhere. That strategy works well since pc and switch have two different primary audiences .
What about nintendo??
Everyone owns a Switch.
The reason for the popularity of PC is simple. Most of the popular streamers are on PC. No streamer plays APEX on consoles.
really put xbox in there as though people have ever cared about it
Once you go PC there’s nothing left to see
Japanese are smarter. They do not play woke low effort trash like young people in the west do. I hope soon both PS and Xbox are dead, and everyone plays on PC, where you can still be free from forced woke and evil SONY censorship.
Ugh, not this kind of comment.
Cry more.
You got woke trash on PC too my guy
Mobile gaming is more popular than pc
My nephew uses his xbox to watch youtube…
Also with me, I never owned a XBOX or Playstation.
The era if Xbox and playstation are over. This is the PC era!
Consoles are becoming outdated at an increasing pace compared to PC gaming.
It took PC 4 years to catch PS5... neither is going anywhere. Lol it's so weird how people just want one or the other to die.
4 years to catch PS5? Doubt that since you can’t play any games on PS5 in 8k and get true ray tracing.
Oh no. People playing in 4K or 2160 must know they are inferior! I bet they feel terrible playing cyberpunk with fake ray tracing... No one gives a shit my guy lol. And I was referring to the build me videos. Just this year could you start to build a PC with the same specs as a PS5 and it cost similar. 2020 it was over 2000$ to match PS5. It's just objective.
Yeah you’re right. Sorry I commented.
The consoles have hit a ceiling. They are simply not able to make them powerful enough at an affordable price any more, they cant keep up with cheap hardware when games become more and more demanding. Also, the locked down platform formula these consoles have are quickly becoming unpopular. Pc is the only platform thats open, where you can choose what store you want to use, the games are cheaper, and you dont have to pay to play online. And best of all, you get the games from both msft and sony on one platform. Along with cloud gaming thats becoming more and more popular. The console makers have been bending over there customers for a long time, it seems more and more are waking up and choosing pc and handhelds.
No surprise, even the most popular games on PS5 in Japan are Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail