The Survival of the Japanese Arcade

I live in America, always have. I grew up in arcades, playing the latest games against the neighborhood's best. But something happened on the way to adulthood.

The arcades all vanished.

I always thought that it was a result of home consoles advancing to the point where they were more powerful then their arcade counterparts. In fact, I remember having that thought once in high school, the question of, "what's going to happen when consoles surpass the arcade games?" question. Well since there are no more arcades, I thought I had my answer.

But now I've been to Japan a few times, and while as I understand it, the industry isn't what it used to be, it's still quite healthy. I always thought it was simply because arcades are more of a cultural mainstay (which may partially be responsible), but what I've come to understand is something else, and it's pretty simple.

Online gaming

In the US, online gaming is a massive industry. according to NPD, 62% of American gamers play online, compare that with just 37% of Japanese gamers... and only 8% of those used a game console to do so, compared to 22% in the US.

While I was away, a report came out about the Japanese and their reluctance to go for online gaming

A new survey has come out, polling Japanese gamers on a number of issues. Most notably of the results is that gamers there are still not all that interested in online gaming, instead preferring in-person multiplayer gaming. More than half of those surveyed said that they were wary of online gaming

Then it clicked. Most of the popular Japanese arcade games are, in fact, multiplayer. They play fighting games by the truckload, and almost never against a computer opponent. They have memory cards that store their match record, achievements, and allow them to customize their character. I saw two varieties of competitive Gundam games (one actually featuring cross-arcade deathmatch), hybrid video/collectable card games, hell, they even have arcade MMOs over there. To the Japanese, gaming is still a very "in-person" social experience.

American gamers have instead opted to take it online. Milestones like Quake have paved the way for a massive change in the way games are played in the States. This revolution never took place in Japan, and so for them, gaming is evolving in a different direction.

We spend a lot of time wondering why the online efforts of Japanese console makers haven't really been up to spec, I think the answer lies here. There simply isn't a demand for that sort of thing in their country.