How the Japanese Game Industry experienced decline and Renaissance. The results of the decade

After the collapse of the Western Game Industry in 1983, Japan is undividedly ruled by the console market for three generations. The Land of the Rising Sun produced not only all significant platforms, but also most key games. In the 2000s, a revolution took place: at first the West caught up, and then overtook it in the quantity and significance of releases. The turning point was the transition to HD, which was in Japan with a creak. The local public preferred WII , portables and mobile phones, and the developers themselves lost the creation of games for new high -tech platforms. The results of their works lost to Western releases in almost everything.

In the 2010s, the Japanese game industry entered a noticeably lagging behind, but until the end of the decade it was largely rehabilitated. Some companies have lost their reputation, some, on the contrary, restored. Let's take a look at the path that the seven largest Japanese publishing houses have passed during this time.

Square Enix

In April 2003 Square And Enix They united in one company under the leadership of Yoity Vada – a man with imperial manners. In the zero, the company finished its successful franchises, releasing sequels and spin-offs on all platforms in a row, but the case did not go with the creation of new long-playing IP. At the junction of decades Square Enix Bucus Eidos With all her studios and franchises. By the time Vada resigned in the mid-2010s, his Western subordinates remained the only ones who continued to regularly release the attention of the games.

The Japanese division of Square Enix lost almost all the talents that created the classic Square hits – and those that remained in the company showed both creative and organizational failure. This is best seen in the key for the series corporation – Final Fantasy. Its thirteenth spent six years in development; The developers did not have a single vision and understanding what they were doing, the engine constantly changed, the studio created and immediately threw a huge volume of content. Two announced spin-offs FF XIII eventually disowned the source, but the game still received two sequels, one another worse-obviously, due to the cheapness of the development of secondary crafts. This trilogy was the only thing that the series was able to offer fans JRPG for the entire seventh generation of consoles.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII in all its glory

However, the reputation of Final Fantasy suffered twice – FFXII followed Final Fantasy XIV , which was accepted so badly that even Yoite Vada himself publicly recognized her failure. She was unsuccessful both from the point of view of technology and in terms of design: the game completely ignored all the achievements World of Warcraft, that, in fact, the standard of the genre.

FF XIII and XIV became the personification of all Square Enix problems. The company was mired in Kumi, "grandfathers", blinded by past successes, without a second thought allowed themselves anything. Partly, new blood tried to solve this problem. Naoki Yoshida, who headed the FF XIV team after the catastrophic failure of the project, not only managed to resurrect the game, but also successfully developed it for a decade. Now she has 18 million registered users, and the last addition, Shadowbringers , became one of the most highly appreciated games of 2019 on Metacritic.

Despite this, Square Enix has been meeting a new decade in a rather regrettable state. Previously, between the release of the next Final Fantasy and the next announcement, it was not even a year; Now we have been waiting for at least some news of the existence of Final Fantasy XVI for more than three years. The company has forgotten how to look into the future and is now desperately clinging to the past, releasing the classic remasters and finally holding the remake expected by fans Final Fantasy VII (which will go out in parts, and it is not at all the fact that we will see its real ending).

Konami

Story Konami In many ways, it is similar to what Square Enix went through, only its finale is even more sad. The golden age of the studio also fell on the 90s and the first half of the zero, and by the beginning of the 2010s it managed to kill almost all her wonderful undertakings. Dance and rhythm games rolled, RPG series Suikoden Killed. New Contra announced by teaser on E3, but she is never destined to see the light. Silent Hill and ** Castlevania ** completely transmitted to Western developers, producing new releases with varying success; By the middle of the decade, this will stop. Only two episodes remain priority for the company – this is evident from financial reports, where there are three large categories: Pro Evolution Soccer, Metal Gear And "everything else".

It is unlikely that we will ever find out what exactly happened in Konami in 2015, but the result of the backstage struggle is known to everyone: Hideo Kodzimu, the only employee whom the public knew by name, was literally expelled from the company. The two studio named in his honor was disbanded, promising Silent Hills canceled, and in the appendage said that the future is behind mobile games. Konami revealed from traditional gamers – and they turned away in response.

But, no matter how the public would like to see Konami, she feels great, releasing annual football and mobile games, most of which remain exclusive for the Japanese market. Big games for consoles, she already changed her mind, but after Contra: Rogue Corps And Metal Gear Survive there is no faith in it.

Sega

The most interesting part of the story of the Sega remained in the 90s, when it was drawn with Nintendo And Sony for the championship in the console market (and made legendary mistakes one after another). By 2010, the company came completely different-much more modest in its ambitions, but still quite bold and prone to nonsense.

The Achilles Fifth release of Sega in the past ten years has become marketing. Bayonetta, Vanquish, Resonance of Fate And BINARY DOMAIN They were warmly met by critics and those players who still played in them. Only here they were not as many as we would like: the company simply could not prove that its products deserve attention.

Many releases pursued the inconsistency of quality. The most striking example of this is her own mask: after an outstanding Sonic Generations The curve came out Lost World, Following the ingenious Mania – mediocre Force. Sega canceled RPG by "strangers" from Obsidian , I released the monstrous Aliens: Colonial Marines, And then I made up the guilt of the release Alien: ISOLATION. The sequels of excellent tactical RPG ** Valkyria Chronicles ** went to PSP, the third part was left without the English version; And after a failure spin-off Valkyria Revolution Instead of burying the series, the company took and rolled out a wonderful fourth part.

Capcom

Of all the Japanese developers to the seventh generation of Capcom console, it was ready, perhaps, the best. Her engine MT Framework worked miracles – In 2006, no other game was suitable for the definition of Nekstgen more than Dead Riding. Mt Framework remains relevant and still – they have developed a beautiful Monster Hunter: World, which just recently reached a large DLC. The new Rehine engine also showed itself perfectly in Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2 Remake And Devil May Cry 5. In matters of Capcom technology, it is confidently leading.

But in terms of talents, everything is much worse for her: the company has lost almost all the most important developers (Okamoto, Mikami, Kamia, Inaba, Inafuna) in the zero. There is no one left to give out loud and original works. Of the famous names in Capcom, only Hideaki Itsuno, responsible for Dragon’s Dogma and DMC 5. The rest of the developers are relaxed and work mainly on the sequels of the already sensational IP.

Bandai Namco

Despite the fact that Bandai Namco releases a lot of games, hardly anyone will call her their favorite publishing house. From the side Bandai There are endless games based on popular manga and anime series, from the side Namco – Endless sequels of long -standing franchises: Tekken, Soulcalibur, Tales of, Katamari, Ace Combat. There are very few frank failures among them, noteworthy games – too.

2010s would have passed for a publishing house without special hits if at the very beginning of the decade it had not released in Europe Demon’s Souls From a little -known studio Fromsoftware , and then – did not ask her to make her spiritual heir. Or three.

The insight of Bandai Namco allowed her to become a trendsetter, a publisher of one of the most influential game series of only a decade. It is ironic that the game that laid the beginning was initially financed and abandoned by Sony – a platform holder, who so much at that time needed exclusives.

Sony

In the 2010s, Sony entered the catch-up. Self -confidence, dictated by incredible results of the first two PlayStation , forced the company's bosses to think that the entire console market has in their pocket – and launch PS3 He turned into a disaster. The early exclusives came out terrible, the console had many technical problems, it was a year behind Xbox 360 and was able to catch up with the competitor only at the very end of the life cycle.

At that time, platform holders often rushed for each squeak of fashion: at one conference in each game shown, they promised a stereoscopic 3D, and in the next one there was not a word about it-but the moshenic management came to the forefront. Sony was lucky twice. Firstly, Microsoft In 2010, I released Kinect And so they carried away that she herself destroyed her leadership, concentrating production capacities on the new device. Secondly, Sony invited Ken Kutaragi (creator PlayStation 1-3) not a Japanese, but Haizina Mark Mark Sweres, who made PS4 Exactly as it should have been. Convenient for developers and players close in architecture to a PC, deprived of mandatory accessories and filled with a variety of games. PS4 began this generation of consoles perfectly and confidently retains leadership on the finish line.

Alas, for the sake of this, Sony was completely sacrificed to the portable segment of the market. PlayStation Vita It was a great pocket console, but the widespread spread of smartphones and the unwillingness of Sony to support the platform condemned it to slow death. After that, the monopoly in the market of portable consoles remained at ..

Nintendo

The company from Kyoto has always walked its road. Her most successful products from the zero were distinguished by a radically new approach to the interaction of the user with the game: DS Popularized the stylus and microphone, WII-control with gestures and a spool-slip. These platforms were not only able to attract the general public, but also gave gamers experience that other consoles simply did not offer.

However, in the 2010s, Nintendo is as if exhausted. IN 3DS Nothing was added but stereoscopy, and the main feature Wii U The opportunity to transfer the gameplay from the TV screen to the tablet became the opportunity. The first nevertheless took off thanks to the exclusive library (and the fact that https://sister-site.org/richprize-casino/ Sony self -fraught with the race), but the second became the most failed home console Nintendo. While Sony escaped to the leaders of the market, Nintendo had practically no trump cards – even exclusive Ubisoft hastily fled from Wii U. And the legendary Miyamoto came out a rather long series of passing releases. Fortunately, there were enough hits too.

Finally, in the middle of the decade, Nintendo lost the most important person – President of Corporation Sator Ivata, the author of the revolutionary consoles from the zero. A person who understood well business, and gamdev, and the players themselves. How much this will affect the company – a question for the upcoming years. Now Switch , Nintendo hybrid console feels very good (at the level of the same DS and WII), although the number of outstanding exclusives can still be counted on the fingers of the hand.

Throughout the first half of the 2010s, Japanese games remained in the shade: all kinds of tops fell into all kinds of exceptions except for the release of unstoppable Nintendo. But closer to the end of the decade, the situation began to change, and the series that previously loved only in Japan became international hits. Nier, ** yakuza ** and Monster Hunter found many new fans in the West, not to mention Dark Souls.

And now, summing up the results of 2019, one cannot but notice that it is Japanese that dominate among large releases. Resident Evil 2 Remake, Devil May Cry 5, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers , Monster Hunter: World , Fire Emblem: The Three Houses… the Japanese industry sank to the very bottom and returned from there not an example of a stronger and more confident than before. I would like to wish her even greater successes.

Well, except Konami, of course.