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For those who love Japanese games, a new feature page has been launched on Steam to promote games made in Japan.

The "Made in Japan Games Market" page can already be found on Steam and features about 100 titles from 43 Japanese companies.

It'll also feature a dedicated sale that will start on March 18 and end on March 25 to coincide with the Game Developers Conference 2024.

The initiative comes from JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), a Japanese government-related organization founded in 1958 with the mission of promoting mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world.

If you're wondering, JETRO is what is defined in Japan as an Independent Administrative Institution. That's a kind of agency based on the concept of separating the activities of the government into planning and operating functions.

Planning is done by government agencies, while independent agencies take care of the operational aspects. They are managed in a way more similar to private companies with a lot of autonomy on how they operate and use their budgets.

JETRO will also have a boot at GDC at the Japan Pavilion with the goal of promoting Japanese games.

The new page on Steam features Japanese games with a variety of sizes and genres, including JRPGs, Strategy Games, Visual Novels, Fighting Games, and more.

Some examples are Samurai SNK's Samurai Shodown, Bushiroad's Gift, Compile Heart's Neptunia X Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars, Petit Depot's Gnosia, and BeXide's Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deeplblue.

This is certainly an interesting initiative, as finding an audience in the West remains a challenge, especially for small Japanese developers, albeit some games certainly manage to achieve viral success like the recent Palworld.

It's worth mentioning that Japanese games are doing quite well on Steam. In the recent ranking of the most played games for February 2024 on the popular Steam Deck, five of the top-ten titles have been developed by Japanese studios.

Steam Page to Promote Japanese Games Launched by Japan Government-Related Organization

For those who love Japanese games, a new feature page has been launched on Steam to promote games made in Japan.

techraptor.net

 

[64bitmodels]

Danjin44 Will you buy/build a gaming PC now?

 

[LectureMaster]

Haha, for me it just feels right to play Japanese games on PS and Switch.

 

[Danjin44]

Danjin44 Will you buy/build a gaming PC now?

No….both PS5 and Switch already giving me enough Japanese games…especially this year I’m already having hard keeping up with all the releases.

 

[jshackles]

Only 100 games?

 

[GrayChild]

I still don't see Bloodborne there.

Fuckers...

 

[Nankatsu]

Missed chance of having bikini Tifa as the main image of the page.

 

[64bitmodels]

No….both PS5 and Switch already giving me enough Japanese games…especially this year I’m already having hard keeping up with all the releases.

i wasnt being serious, you do you champ

 

[Gaiff]

But Japanese games already got plenty of spotlight? What’s next, promoting Japanese cars?

 

[Skifi28]

The biggest advertisement for Japanese games these days is the big AAA western stuff that does manage to get released.

 

[Danjin44]

I do wish Vanillaware eventually releases their games on PC, I might not be PC gamer but I still want to see Vanillaware’s games gets exposure as much as possible.

 

[Magic Carpet]

The last Labyrinth VR, still working on seeing all the death scenes.

 

[NanaMiku]

No….both PS5 and Switch already giving me enough Japanese games…especially this year I’m already having hard keeping up with all the releases.

You're missing out

 

[64bitmodels]

But Japanese games already got plenty of spotlight? What’s next, promoting Japanese cars?

Not necessarily. The AAA/AA stuff will get plenty of love but the indies and visual novels sort of get left behind in discussions. Not too dissimilar to what goes on with gaming from other regions.
Since Steam has a lot of Japanese indie games, this makes sense.
I'd recommend subscribing to PLAYISM on Steam, they have a lot of hidden Japan indie gems there.

 

[March Climber]

I see this as a better win for japanese indie developers who are trying to get their game noticed for a small publisher to push it out west...at least until Translation AI reaches it's final form of perfect, non-awkward tranlsations.

 

[Danjin44]

You're missing out

I have enough "neko"......

 

[JimboJones]

I would never have believed that Japanese games could be so well represented on PC 10 - 15 years ago.
It's great to see.

 

[nial]

I still don't see Bloodborne there.

Fuckers...

Don't you think port-begging for 10 years straight is a bit too much...?
/jk kinda

 

[IAmRei]

Cool, will see it later though, still have jobs to be done.

 

[IAmRei]

I have enough "neko"......

I see niah i press love button <3

 

[Danjin44]

I see niah i press love button <3