Posted June 25, 2014
I knew that PC gaming wasn't big in Japan, and some members of the forum have commented about the restrictions they face in the country. So I was expecting something, just not this much.
First, there's the steam sales. The holes on the gaming deals are glaringly obvious, with sometimes as much as a third of the games missing. I was ready to not see the total war games here, as I was warned about Sega. I noticed the Naruto game missing, too, but that must be by a Japanese developer as well. You'd think that an anime game would be expected to sell well in Japan, but whatever. So I don't get it, but I know the Japanese are strange and I just live with it. Dark souls or MGS: Revengeance fall on the same category.
However, as the deals went on, I noticed stranger things. Why is Nether, which is apparently an indie, restricted in Japan? Why is EA not selling Kingdoms of Amalur (not even in Origin, I just checked) or Dragon age: origins? What is the 4th "platformer with a female protagonist", together with Tomb Raider, They bleed pixels and Giana sisters, that is available for voting as a community's choice yet I cannot see as it is region locked?
Oh, but this is steam, right. There's still the brick&mortar stores, and there are some big ones. In theory. I went with my friend to visit some stores in Osaka, and while we ended up spending way too much time on card stores (collectible cards appear to be big over here, which makes more puzzling why they don't use steam) but I still managed to check out a 7 floor computing store. There was a floor for videogames, with tons of games all around... for console. I did manage to find a corner for PC games, but it was not only really well hidden among video DVDs but the selection was very weird. Well, more like random, and freaking expensive. I saw AvP2 for 5700 yens, or BGII: Shadows of amn for 7100!! Saints row 3 too, can't remember the price. For comparison, when checking on Origin earlier I saw Watchdogs is 6000 yen, titanfall 6600 and the sims 4 for 7600. WTF!!!
Now, at that point I thought maybe it was a collector's place. There was a lot of merchandising on the shop, so I thought maybe it was that. As I said, Japan is strange (they have wasabi flavored popcorn, for fuck's sake) and I'm OK with that. But then I found even more PC games on the next door, and this time more "modern" stuff live civ 5 or the witcher 2. Still nothing new.
Oh, but do not fear, the last 2 floors seemed dedicated to PC gaming! Pity it was all porn, but hey, it's PC! Well, it didn't put it clearly on the box (that, or I didn't look where I should have been looking), but I checked the backside of a couple of them and they did have a min specs box, so they probably were PC games. Gotta admit I didn't stick around to confirm that both floors were only for PC, but that's what it looked like to me on a quick inspection.
So, in summary: Japan is weird and seems to only like PC for selling overpriced classics and porn games. Gross simplification of this one experience, yes, but it should mean something right? Can somebody explain it to me?
PS: I'm also pretty sure I saw a steamworks game on the second hand bargain bin. I couldn't find steam's logo on the box, and now I don't remember the title to go and check online if it really was steamworks, so I've left it out of my rant. I'm still bothered about it though.
First, there's the steam sales. The holes on the gaming deals are glaringly obvious, with sometimes as much as a third of the games missing. I was ready to not see the total war games here, as I was warned about Sega. I noticed the Naruto game missing, too, but that must be by a Japanese developer as well. You'd think that an anime game would be expected to sell well in Japan, but whatever. So I don't get it, but I know the Japanese are strange and I just live with it. Dark souls or MGS: Revengeance fall on the same category.
However, as the deals went on, I noticed stranger things. Why is Nether, which is apparently an indie, restricted in Japan? Why is EA not selling Kingdoms of Amalur (not even in Origin, I just checked) or Dragon age: origins? What is the 4th "platformer with a female protagonist", together with Tomb Raider, They bleed pixels and Giana sisters, that is available for voting as a community's choice yet I cannot see as it is region locked?
Oh, but this is steam, right. There's still the brick&mortar stores, and there are some big ones. In theory. I went with my friend to visit some stores in Osaka, and while we ended up spending way too much time on card stores (collectible cards appear to be big over here, which makes more puzzling why they don't use steam) but I still managed to check out a 7 floor computing store. There was a floor for videogames, with tons of games all around... for console. I did manage to find a corner for PC games, but it was not only really well hidden among video DVDs but the selection was very weird. Well, more like random, and freaking expensive. I saw AvP2 for 5700 yens, or BGII: Shadows of amn for 7100!! Saints row 3 too, can't remember the price. For comparison, when checking on Origin earlier I saw Watchdogs is 6000 yen, titanfall 6600 and the sims 4 for 7600. WTF!!!
Now, at that point I thought maybe it was a collector's place. There was a lot of merchandising on the shop, so I thought maybe it was that. As I said, Japan is strange (they have wasabi flavored popcorn, for fuck's sake) and I'm OK with that. But then I found even more PC games on the next door, and this time more "modern" stuff live civ 5 or the witcher 2. Still nothing new.
Oh, but do not fear, the last 2 floors seemed dedicated to PC gaming! Pity it was all porn, but hey, it's PC! Well, it didn't put it clearly on the box (that, or I didn't look where I should have been looking), but I checked the backside of a couple of them and they did have a min specs box, so they probably were PC games. Gotta admit I didn't stick around to confirm that both floors were only for PC, but that's what it looked like to me on a quick inspection.
So, in summary: Japan is weird and seems to only like PC for selling overpriced classics and porn games. Gross simplification of this one experience, yes, but it should mean something right? Can somebody explain it to me?
PS: I'm also pretty sure I saw a steamworks game on the second hand bargain bin. I couldn't find steam's logo on the box, and now I don't remember the title to go and check online if it really was steamworks, so I've left it out of my rant. I'm still bothered about it though.
