More On Japanese Game Developers In 2004

Thanks to Game Science for their second article, following yesterday's first part, discussing Japanese game developer expectations for 2004, as relayed via a survey in Famitsu magazine. Of 100 developers surveyed, 25 thought things would improve in 2004, suggesting "new hardware will spur the market on, [and] big hits like FFXII and GT4 will be released", but 32 expected no change, saying "makers and shops will struggle to get by, [and] it will be a tough year for small companies." Hints of the Japanese games slump in 2003 came from survey results in which a clear majority considered it a 'bad year', pointing out "companies like Digicube went bankrupt... [and] the market got smaller." Finally, of those Japanese developers surveyed, 52 were planning to concentrate on PlayStation 2 in 2004, compared with 24 on PC, 15 on PSP, 11 on GameCube, and just 7 on Xbox.

No Change

[orthancstone]

I'd agree with the no real change group. FF 12 isn't going to turn everything around for the entire year.

If Japan is lucky, perhaps it will see a boost if North America sees a large boost from HL2, Doom, and GTA 4. I wouldn't go counting on it though :|.

This is shocking though...we are in the middle of the prime time for releasing ground breaking console games yet the market is seeing no real boosters...really odd :O.

Japanese.. meh

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah, who cares if the Xbox gets subpar Jap support. This console generation has been the generation where western game developers really have stepped up and surpassed their Eastern counterparts. The best games this generation... KOTOR, GTA, Splinter Cell, EA Sports, etc have been Western games.

The importance of Japanese gaming to Western gamers is steadily decreasing. Take a look at how popular tactical shooters are on Xbox Live and PC gaming. Are most of those Japanese? Hell no... Western all the way.

One more reason why I am proud of my Xbox to give gamers in the US what WE want, not some cheesy flashy Japanese drivel.

Well duh

[XellDx]

This time last year at least 3-4 A list games had been announched. There was Zelda on the horizon, FFX2 was starting to rear its ugly head, Knights of the Old republic, I mean hell, its was a unavoidable release orgy. By March I was budgetting 3-400$ just for games as presents there were 5 months away. I don't want to know what I spent on myself.

Now we have (supposedly) FF12 and (probably) GTA5. Thats about it. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot Crystal Chronicles.

GTA5 hasn't officially been announced yet, and given some of the troubles [nytimes.com] take two [gamer.tv] is facing, GTA5 could face delays in the making. Or at least in release, so its not going to pull a night trap [armchairempire.com] or something.

Myself, I want to see Nintendo get off its ass and start making more BroadBand enabled games. Crystal Chronicles is cool and all, but finding 4 friends to play a RPG for X # of hours is going to be a hurdle I might not clear.

Re:Japanese.. meh

[Anonymous Coward]

I am proud of the Xbox, for it is my favorite console that I own between the PS2 and the Xbox. You get the same games multiplatform (better graphics, sound, controls, memory, hard drive, system link, online play) and the fact that as an RPG gamer... I have had much more fun this generation with a western RPG (KOTOR) than I did with FFX. Heck, FFX was just like the other games just updated graphics and still just as annoying. KOTOR did something different for me, and I really commend Bioware for being unique with this game.

I just can't stand all the hype that the PS2 gets. Sure it has these games that aren't available on the other consoles, but I prefer a game console that has some sort of AA in the graphics and I don't have to hurt my eyes with jaggies, flicker, and slowdown.

For that, I choose the Xbox.