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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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 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!
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! ❤
"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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 know this video is a couple of years old but I'm starting to see and feel the regrowth of Japanese presence in PC gaming for sure. I didn't know about the high rates for PC parts in Japan, but I think the reason you're seeing so many console titles for PC out here now is because consoles are essentially PC architecture anyway which should make porting games easier. I also appreciate the fact that both Western and Japanese developers accommodate by providing language options instead of separate regional releases. What I hope and what I think will happen in the next 10 years is you will see parity in AAA releases going forward. Indie developers already get it but it's taking a while for the rest of the AAA games and industry to catch up. 😃
I am Japanese here and I'd like to say, I may be the first Japanese to sign up for the steam. It was back in 2004 during the launch of Half Life 2. I installed steam and I vaguely remember signing up to it on the day of install. The things I had to do to get Half Life 2 was tedious for me but I got it nonetheless. Of course, back then the steam was used for patching service. The very first game I remember being sold was Garry's Mod. I believe I didn't purchase any games until 2009 even though there were other games on sale such as Left 4 Dead. I didn't like the idea of digital only copy. It took me many years to convince myself to convert. I have always been a PC gamer since 1993 thanks to my uncle who was into exotic electronics. Having played Doom for the first time when I was a child changed me. It was nothing else like it at the time. It got me hooked and started my difficult journey of being a PC gamer in Japan. My very first PC was NEC 486 which had 8MB of RAM. Which was middle of the way back in the early 90's.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Another reason is Natural Disasters being very common which incentivizes people to be minimalism so that when a disaster happends They can just pick up everything They have put in 1 Bag can leave Their Homes You can't exactly do that with PCs unless They are either a Laptop or a Steam Deck That is also the reason why Portable Video Games are more popular in Japan than Home Consoles and also why Arcade Machines are still popular in Japan since You don't need to Own a Machine to play just go to the Local Arcade and play
I actually just found you through niche and (to me) this potentially explains why tons of Japanese companies put little effort into investing in the PC and Home console market, both with new IPs and remasters. Sega and Altus come to mind. Anyways, great video man! Stoked to check out your other videos.
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.
Actually the reason why people prefer their own country products is because of price too. And parts are accessible much easier and cheaper because it produce in the country. You can buy for example Ford in US far cheaper than lets say in Thailand. Because of taxes difference.
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
I do think that there's a practical issue of _space_ as well. In places like America, there is plenty of room to build big houses. In island nations like Japan, houses are naturally going to be built somewhat more compact. If you have a TV then, it would be the easier choice to get a console which will reuse that TV, rather than have a laptop, or worse still, a desktop take up space with both a unit and monitor on limited desk space. There are of course exceptions to this, but I would argue that those who chose to have a PC over a console, or even to have both, have likely done so at the expense of having room for other things in their home, in turn.
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...
tbh, here in ireland there is a similar situation to the one in japan, small cramped houses, no room to put anything anywhere, quite frankly pc gaming is a luxury not because of price but because if space. I have also moved to handheld, its more mobile and less bulky
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I remember as a kid growing up in the 90s and 2000's, computers where really expensive and consoles where a lot cheaper. My family didn't get our first computer until 2001. Eventually we got a second one, but I know I didn't start playing computer games at home till 2003. Mostly with things like the first Sims game. That being said in school I did play some games at school like Sticky bear, kill Barny and The Neverhood in the late 90s. But now I prefer PC gaming over console depending on the game. I guess now that I think about it in the early 90s my grandpa had a computer where I played the Freddy the Fish games on them in the mid 90s. But I was also given a Sega for my birthday one year and that's what I spent a lot of time playing games on even when I got an original Play Station.
Japan used to be a dominator with Pc gaming in the 90s; I'm surprised they never made custom pc hardware. Strange how for us, Arcade had a bubble, and for them, PC gaming had a bubble.
Visual novel are too much forgotten . It's sad because these forms of art are so unique but are slowly dying on their original form . I guess i should be happy that a lot of treasure could be found when my level of japanese will be good enough to read them .
which is also a reason why arcade game devs in japan still make games for the arcades such as initial d arcade stages and the arcade and the wangan midnight maximum tune
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
nowadays it's the opposite, good sir~ I'm glad they're exploring pc gaming! that means more pc ports someday too
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!
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!
Augh, this channel is too underrated.
That’s my fault fir not uploading enough. Hopefully that changes.
Congrats on the sponsorship!!
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.
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.
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.
Ok I came from Niche Gamer and so you got a new subscriber.
Make that 2.
finally a youtuber that DOESNT beg for subs or reads out their patreon list.
fuck im already subbed.
"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.
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 those PC-88 art
the americans invited console gaming
and the japanese perfected it
the japanese invented pc gaming
and the americans perfected it
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!
You've earned my subscription good sir! Really great concise analysis.
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! ❤
"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
Ayy, congrats on the partnership, good to see ya in my feed again! Good to see ya again, rooting for ya. Great video!
same
All I know about Japanese gamers I learned during my time playing Eve Online. They are absolutely the most risk adverse players ever.
No more 4 month hiatus'.
Last video one year ago
I just found your channel and was excited
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)
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.
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.
Now That Valve Will Be Launching The Steam Deck In Japan The Largest Hurdle To The Japanese PC Market May At Least Be Lessened.
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.
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.
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
Goddamn, those PC-98 graphics are sweet!!
PC-98 Pixel Art is honestly peak. Wish we still had games made in this aesthetic.
I know this video is a couple of years old but I'm starting to see and feel the regrowth of Japanese presence in PC gaming for sure. I didn't know about the high rates for PC parts in Japan, but I think the reason you're seeing so many console titles for PC out here now is because consoles are essentially PC architecture anyway which should make porting games easier. I also appreciate the fact that both Western and Japanese developers accommodate by providing language options instead of separate regional releases. What I hope and what I think will happen in the next 10 years is you will see parity in AAA releases going forward. Indie developers already get it but it's taking a while for the rest of the AAA games and industry to catch up. 😃
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
I am Japanese here and I'd like to say, I may be the first Japanese to sign up for the steam. It was back in 2004 during the launch of Half Life 2. I installed steam and I vaguely remember signing up to it on the day of install. The things I had to do to get Half Life 2 was tedious for me but I got it nonetheless. Of course, back then the steam was used for patching service. The very first game I remember being sold was Garry's Mod. I believe I didn't purchase any games until 2009 even though there were other games on sale such as Left 4 Dead. I didn't like the idea of digital only copy. It took me many years to convince myself to convert. I have always been a PC gamer since 1993 thanks to my uncle who was into exotic electronics. Having played Doom for the first time when I was a child changed me. It was nothing else like it at the time. It got me hooked and started my difficult journey of being a PC gamer in Japan. My very first PC was NEC 486 which had 8MB of RAM. Which was middle of the way back in the early 90's.
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.
Seeing Touhou: Highly Responisve To Prayers made my heart skip a beat.
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.
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
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.
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
Another thing - space in Japanese homes, or the lack of it...
My father had an NEC in the early 80's. Good stuff.
came from NG, and add to that a topic that i have been struggling to put into words. new sub.
Another reason is Natural Disasters being very common which incentivizes people to be minimalism so that when a disaster happends They can just pick up everything They have put in 1 Bag can leave Their Homes
You can't exactly do that with PCs unless They are either a Laptop or a Steam Deck
That is also the reason why Portable Video Games are more popular in Japan than Home Consoles and also why Arcade Machines are still popular in Japan since You don't need to Own a Machine to play just go to the Local Arcade and play
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
Gimme more random niche for my 3 am activities, I'll watch almost anything s late enough!
happy to hear makotos stage theme on the video
Fascinating. Thank you.
2:11 same.
10:33 this is awesome, I'm very excited about this!
I actually just found you through niche and (to me) this potentially explains why tons of Japanese companies put little effort into investing in the PC and Home console market, both with new IPs and remasters. Sega and Altus come to mind. Anyways, great video man! Stoked to check out your other videos.
damn makes me wanna play the old visual novels now, they look pretty good for time they where made.
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.
Actually the reason why people prefer their own country products is because of price too. And parts are accessible much easier and cheaper because it produce in the country. You can buy for example Ford in US far cheaper than lets say in Thailand. Because of taxes difference.
Because a consple is readily available and convenient which saves people from using a computer. The end.
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
finally, i am a man of culture.
i could recognize most of the ero games showed.
I do think that there's a practical issue of _space_ as well. In places like America, there is plenty of room to build big houses. In island nations like Japan, houses are naturally going to be built somewhat more compact. If you have a TV then, it would be the easier choice to get a console which will reuse that TV, rather than have a laptop, or worse still, a desktop take up space with both a unit and monitor on limited desk space. There are of course exceptions to this, but I would argue that those who chose to have a PC over a console, or even to have both, have likely done so at the expense of having room for other things in their home, in turn.
Just subscribed. Looking forward to more content 🎉
PC Parts can get ridiculously expensive outside of america.
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
This was so good you deserve millions of subs
Your next video being up in a week is a great treat. Keep it up now that you've got some real money coming your way.
tbh, here in ireland there is a similar situation to the one in japan, small cramped houses, no room to put anything anywhere, quite frankly pc gaming is a luxury not because of price but because if space. I have also moved to handheld, its more mobile and less bulky
You glossed over why in the 2000s the situation with PC gaming in Japan was also in decline.
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.
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.
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.
Excellent video you have my sub.
It makes sence that touhou started on pc-98
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?
Japan: INFINITE COSMIC ECONOMIC POWERS... teeny tiny living spaces.
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.
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.
Once consoles are for features.
Then it's for practicality
Now it's to encourage purchasing locally made products.
3:59 Ah, I See You're a Man of Culture As Well
Came from NG, good video man.
ゲーム機の存在も大きいけど、00年代のPC市場はNEC、富士通、ソニーなどの国内メーカーが幅を効かせていて、ビデオカード非搭載且つ拡張性も限定されたロースペックPCを高価格で売りつけてたせいでPCゲームを出来る下地が出来なかったのもある。
そのおかげで当時の人らが想像するPCゲームはBattle FieldやHalf-Lifeのような大作ゲームではなく、ソリティアやマインスイーパかブラウザで出来るシンプルなFlashゲーってイメージが強かった。
2010年以降はスマホの台頭により高価なロースペックPCの売りつけが駆逐された事で皮肉にもPCゲーの人気や知名度が上がった
Fun fact: During 90's and 00's, internet cafes were popular in Turkey. Just a fact I wanted to give here.
great video dude I dig it
Bruh I'm watching this after ps5 price increase in Japan
i love touhou!!! talking of pc games, do you think there is way to revive the tribes ascend scene???
I want those older games here
I remember as a kid growing up in the 90s and 2000's, computers where really expensive and consoles where a lot cheaper. My family didn't get our first computer until 2001. Eventually we got a second one, but I know I didn't start playing computer games at home till 2003. Mostly with things like the first Sims game. That being said in school I did play some games at school like Sticky bear, kill Barny and The Neverhood in the late 90s. But now I prefer PC gaming over console depending on the game. I guess now that I think about it in the early 90s my grandpa had a computer where I played the Freddy the Fish games on them in the mid 90s. But I was also given a Sega for my birthday one year and that's what I spent a lot of time playing games on even when I got an original Play Station.
Japan used to be a dominator with Pc gaming in the 90s; I'm surprised they never made custom pc hardware. Strange how for us, Arcade had a bubble, and for them, PC gaming had a bubble.
Except they did, they actually had a lot of custom hardware. MSX, Fujitsu FM Towns, PC-88, Sharp X68000, and the long-lived PC-9801.
@@nep-nep6575 no, I mean modern custom pc hardware like GPU and Cases.
Visual novel are too much forgotten . It's sad because these forms of art are so unique but are slowly dying on their original form .
I guess i should be happy that a lot of treasure could be found when my level of japanese will be good enough to read them .
which is also a reason why arcade game devs in japan still make games for the arcades such as initial d arcade stages and the arcade and the wangan midnight maximum tune