Will Starfield succeed in the Japan?

 

Japan Xbox's Scene and Starfield

The Japanese Game industry plays an important role in the medium today. Their games are incredibly inventive and interesting. Despite the language barrier between them and the West, Japan has carved out an important niche that produced some incredible games. Companies such as Sony, Sega and Capcom are household names among Americans. While the Japanese industry may not dominate like when they were in the 1980s, they are important market for video game companies to paying attention to when thinking about sales, especially when it comes to video game consoles and niche games. 

 In the beginning, the American game industry was the one that making strides in bringing the video game industry to the masses. Companies like Atari were taking the world by storm and making billions of dollars in an industry that was once confined to the labs of universities. The video game industry was growing from strength to strength. 

The Video Game Renaissance of the 1980s

Looking at the video game industry in 1982, one can clearly see that the industry was stronger than it had ever been before. Just a generation earlier in the history of video games, the Maganvox Odyssey had only sold a couple hundred thousand systems. The Atari, ColecoVision, and Intellivision were selling millions of systems between each other. Atari, in particular was selling like hot cakes. They flooded the tv market with tons of ads that talked up the strengths of their system. Competition was fierce between the companies. 

The video game industry at the time was still figuring stuff out but it was already a very corporate industry. Warner Communcations owned Atari and Mattel owned the Intellivision. Millions of dollars of investment were flooding into the industry. The news media was taking notice. At the time, the Arcades were where the money was being made. They were surpassing revenues by music and movies. However, the home consoles were also making money for Atari and other companies. They were somewhat behind in graphics and gameplay but the innovation was red hot and changing alot. There were many opportunities in the area of video games and programmers, while not paid as much as today, were getting alot of work and jobs. 

However, in 1983, the video game industry ended up belly up due to the fact that industry was flooded with games that were of poor quality. The industry was just getting started and would have been nothing more than a fad had it not been for the Japanese taking an interest in making their Rpgs have international appeal across their borders. 

Nintendo essentially saved the video game industry in America. While companies like Atari were moving more onto the area of computers, the Japanese company was becoming more proficient at making games for the American market. They struck gold in 1985 by releasing the Nintendo Entertainment System in America. 

Sales for the Nintendo Entertainment System were extraordinary and helped breath new life back into the video game industry. In this time, they were synonymous with video games.

The Japanese dominance of the industry would continue into the 80s with Sega releasing the Sega Genesis. Atari would try to come back and regain control of the industry with several products but their reputation was still in tatters. 

By the time that we get to 1995, Sega, Nintendo and Sony were all releasing consoles. The video game market was dominated by Japanese companies. This is not surprising, considering the great amount of work ethic that Japanese pour into their products. 

The PC market was where the America video game makers really shined. However, at the time, PC gaming was still a niche market in comparison with consoles.

Microsoft strikes back with the Xbox

Microsoft's entry into the console market was seen as risky by some but they eventually managed to be successful with the original Xbox, with Halo: Combat Evolved being the best-selling game of that generation of console. This meant that the Americans were back into the console-selling market. The Xbox would solidified itself as one of the most popular consoles of the generation. The Xbox would continue to expand its reach across the Console space with the release of the Xbox Live service. Online gaming would expand the gaming landscape even further. Microsoft would go from strength to strength. 

The console would struggle in Japan for a variety of reasons. However, the Americans were back in the Console market and would stay there for the next couple of decades until the current time. 

Can Starfield succeed in Japan?

Japan is a pecuilar market. Its people are very proud of their culture. They like to sample Western culture from time to time but this country is one of the greatest examples of cultural gigantism there is. Japan will be a very hard nut to crack. They have many RPGs on the market and are one of the biggest markets out there for the development of RPGS. It is important for Microsoft to try to get the Japanese market, as it is very important in the world of video games. 

The question is. Can Starfield succeed in Japan?

Japan has its own pecuilar market that has its own genres. Visual novels are particularly quite popular in Japan. So are their own RPGS. Will Space sims take off in Japan? 

It's hard to say. Japan has its own history and culture when it comes to video games. I expect that there will be some Japanese people that will really like this but most Japanese people seem to only care about their own culture. 

I have seen some Japanese responses to Starfield's marketing campaign, and I expect that some of them will be on the bandwagon to help make this game more popular. 

However, Japan has an already entrenched cultural mindset that makes selling Microsoft products difficult in that country. Microsoft has already had issues with selling the Xbox in Japan. Without Starfield being on the Playstation or the Nintendo Switch, Japanese customers have little reason to want to support Starfield. Of course, there has been in recent years an attempt to get Xbox into Japan. They have been having more success that allows for Starfield to get more traction in Japan.

Is Japan vital for the sales of Starfield?

In many ways however, Starfield is not dependent on the sales in Japan of Starfield. Japan is still a small market for Xbox but it is growing. PC gaming in Japan has sometimes lagged behind the West but it is also a growing market. However, Japan is dominated by Nintendo and Sony. 

What is really important for Starfield is to get the sales in North America and Europe to meet expectations. I expect that they will. This game is going to be one of the biggest of all time and be able to surpass the sales of previous games by a wide margin. It will take years for it pass the sales of Skyrim but I expect that it will do so. Starfield's huge size is a testament to the hard work of them being able to put together an incredible game that will surpass people's expectations when it released in September. 

The Japanese Xbox market is still small and PC gaming is increasingly becoming popular. I expect that games like Starfield will propel more Japanese into playing the Xbox and also help Starfield become more successful in the sales.