First in Your Pocket

Millennial Monsters by Anne Allison examines the creation, rise and distribution of Japanese games, toys and culture starting just after WWII up through the present day. The text attempts to examine the causes for the rise in popularity of Japanese toys, media and culture by looking at the unique historical and cultural sources that gave rise to global popular brands such as Pokemon and Sailor Moon.

One of the primary points the author makes in regards to the reasons behind the expansion of Japanese culture is that the vessels for the culture are just as important as the culture itself. The mediums used were often portable in nature, embodied in products such as the Tamagotchi or the Gameboy. This novel method of deployment, coupled with a desirable product, lead to the mass adoption of Japanese media and culture.

The portable nature of Japanese electronic entertainment allowed for greater adoption among students and, I would hazard to guess, was the primary reason for their success in the US. I remember growing up I was never allowed to have a console at home and what gaming I was able to do on PC was strictly limited and controlled, rightfully so, by my parents. I was allowed to have a Gameboy and it was the handheld’s portable nature that introduced me more into Japanese games. I was able to play at school and in the car, venues where I was both outside the control of my parents and where I was unable to access my computer.

The relationship with Japanese games changes when I got a laptop in high school. With it I was able to play the computer games I liked wherever I wanted and the amount of time I spent on my Gameboy diminished. I don’t think there was any real difference between the quality of the games on either system, but I often did have my laptop with me for school reasons, where as the handheld was never more than a recreational device.

While the quality of Japanese games was a major factor to their US success, from my experience, their form factor was a bigger push for their use. Their portable nature expanded my access to them and lead to their adoption by my sister and me.

For the last several years, Japanese games and game development has come under criticism for quality and for being “too insular to appeal to a global market.” (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2011/10/05/digital/why-do-japanese-developers-keep-us-waiting/)

My feeling on the topic is not that Japanese games are suffering too much from their quality. Anecdotally I find the enthusiasm for Japanese games to be, while diminished, still strong especially when compared to the enthusiasm for any other specific region and culture. Instead, I would guess that the increase in competition in the portable gaming space is partially responsible for the issues in Japanese game sales.

Smartphones have become ubiquitous, and with their widespread adoption has come a gaming device in almost everyone’s pocket. Most of the games available on the Apple app store, for example, are Western in origin, with Japanese companies ironically lagging in their adoption of these new platforms. Japanese games and electronic media was successful on the back of the Japanese electronics industry and their focus on portable systems. Now that the innovator is being forced to compete, Japan’s edge is lost and their roll in the video game market is normalizing, with Japan becoming just another player in the global video game market.

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