1. Meanwhile in Japan… Andy Hall
Thoughts on gaming in Japan gaming, and how it got that way Gaming Evangelist
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
GTA mods: http://hamoge.blog18.fc2.com/blog-category-10.html

2. Agenda
§ The past/present: arcades, consoles, PCs
§ The present/future: social, mobile
§ How things got this way
§ Further rambling
§ QA
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

3. Once upon a time...
Japanese video game was redundant.
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

4. Whence this success?
§ 1983 US video game crash
§ Market was driven by arcades
§ Japan s economy and high tech/manufacturing industries
were ascendant
§ Japan dominated home hardware (see: console wars )
§ Quality driven up by console makers putting controls on 3rd
party content
(today we d call it a walled garden ...)
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

5. Flash-forward to today: Top-selling titles of 2012, US/EU
US Europe
1 Mass Effect 3 FIFA 13
2 Diablo III Diablo III
3 Just Dance 3 FIFA Soccer 12
4 Pokemon Black/White CoD: Modern Warfare 3
5 CoD: Modern Warfare 3 Mario Kart 7
6 Kinect Adventures! Super Mario 3D Land
7 Madden NFL 13 Mass Effect 3
8 Borderlands 2 Just Dance 3
9 NBA 2K12 FIFA Street
10 Zumba Fitness 2 Uncharted 3
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2012/USA/
http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2012/Europe/

6. Top-selling titles of 2012, Japan
Japan
1 Pokemon Black/White
2 New Super Mario Bros.
3 Dragon Quest Monsters
4 One Piece
5 Biohazard 6 (aka Resident Evil)
6 Monster Hunter 3G
7 Mario Kart 7
Note - Japan s highest selling...
8 Super Mario 3D Land § XBOX360 game was #162 (Biohazard 6)
9 Dragon Quest X § non-Japanese game was #156 (FIFA 13)
In other words the market is very different here.
10 Mario Party 9
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://geimin.net/da/db/2012_ne_fa/index.php

7. So how much have things changed?
Japan’s approximate share of
global video game market:
2002 50%
2010 10%
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_gaming_in_Japan

8. This sums things up:
“Everyone's making awful games -
Japan is at least five years behind.
Japan is isolated in the gaming world.
If something doesn't change, we're
doomed."
Keiji Inafune,
Capcom (2010)
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9159905.stm

9. Meanwhile in mobile...
Statistics on market size vary, but here are two:
Mobile Games - Market Size
Japan US
$1.06B (JP gov t)
$1.53B (Gartner)
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000073104.pdf
http://business.time.com/2012/01/19/why-mobile-gaming-changes-everything-or-is-mobile-gaming-facebooks-achilles-heel/

10. Meanwhile in mobile...
Oops, forgot the dates!
Mobile Games - Market Size
Japan (2007!!!) US (2011)
$1.06B (JP gov t)
$1.53B (Gartner)
pre-iPhone!
So how did Japan have a billion dollar mobile game market
before smartphones came along?
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000073104.pdf
http://business.time.com/2012/01/19/why-mobile-gaming-changes-everything-or-is-mobile-gaming-facebooks-achilles-heel/

11. The explanation:
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

12. Why i-mode was revolutionary:
§ A separate internet based on
C-HTML
§ Official portal leading to 2nd
party sites, apps, stores, etc.
(i.e. walled garden)
§ Parallel access to unofficial
content outside the garden
§ Carrier-driven, manufacturers
were along for the ride
§ Carrier payments!
In 1999-2000! Seriously!
§ And later: NFC (FeLiCa), digital wallet, TV tuners...
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

13. Oh, and did I mention?
Biggest feature of all:
Flash Lite 1.1!
(HHOS)
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

14. So why didn t this go global?
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode (duh)

15. The result: Galapagos-ization
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1084712/Darwins-Beagle-sail--5m-replica-survey-oceans-help-NASA-craft.html

16. The other result:
FP SP %
users
SP
users
now
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://webdacapo.magazineworld.jp/top/70161/

17. The other other results:
§ Users still have good reasons not to move to smartphones
§ Some social games here go back 5-7 years
§ Social-casual is a long-established genre, players are used to
IAP and avatar goods sales
§ Facebook? What s that, does it taste good?
§ Carrying FlashLite 1.1 assets over to smartphones is kind of a
big deal in gaming
§ Social platforms are kind of an even bigger deal in gaming
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

18. On social platforms..
Facebook-
shaped
hole
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://www.serkantoto.com <- awesome site

19. FlashLite -> SmartPhones solutions
These are just the two best-known ‒ there are many more.
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

20. Developing trend: platform-free games
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

21. One more trend...
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/complete-gacha-disaster-historic-proportions/

22. So getting back to the original question:
§ Popular theories on the Japan-West Gaming Divide
§ Genre gap ‒ space marines vs. girls with enormous swords
§ Mechanic gap ‒ FPS vs. RPG
§ Localization gap ‒ English vs. イングリッシュ
§ Culture gap ‒ Japan s gamedevs became too Japanese
§ Culture gap ‒ Japan s gamedevs tried to become too western
(i.e. mimicking US AAA games but without the speed, middleware...)
§ Hardware gap ‒ living room w/ Xbox vs. commute with phone
§ Motivation gap ‒ XBLA trash-talk vs. moe
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

23. Or maybe it s just random disparate evolution?
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
http://gamingwithscissors.com/reviews/monster-hunter-freedom-unite/

24. Thanks! Questions?
Andy Hall
andhall@adobe.com
@fenomas
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.