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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The shares of the majority of publicly traded AAA game companies in Japan rose to all-time highs during February and March 2025, as reported by industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto on Kantan Games. This includes major players Sony, Nintendo, Konami, Capcom and Bandai Namco.

The AAA games industry has been facing worsening conditions in recent years, with mass layoffs, studio closures and cancelled games becoming a distressingly common occurrence in the West. But amidst this, Japan’s major game and console developers have been showing strong performance. While peaks in share price are influenced by wider economic factors, the five aforementioned game companies have, as Kantan Games notes, been performing very well over the past few years.

Nintendo and Sony have maintained their dominance in the console market with the Nintendo Switch and PS5 respectively, and, combined with its track record in the mobile and sports game market, Konami has made a successful comeback into the AAA scene with hit releases like Silent Hill 2 driving profits. This momentum is not likely to stop either, as Konami is set to release the much-awaited Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and Silent Hill f.

Capcom on the other hand, has seen growth (in operating profit) for the last 13 consecutive years thanks to its consistency in releasing new hits and clever sales strategies for catalogue titles. The company is on track to update its 13-year-run as its annual plan for the current fiscal year relies heavily on Monster Hunter Wilds – which has seen massive commercial success so far, selling over 8 million copies in three days.

That’s not to say that everything is perfect, as Bandai Namco Holdings, for instance, recently incurred large financial losses due to the discontinued MMORPG Blue Protocol, dissolved its online game subsidiary and reduced staff by 100 people (which is rumored to have been executed using some unsavory business practices). On the flip side, the company expects to see the highest profits since its founding as the 2024 fiscal year wraps up. Although Bandai Namco does a lot more than just games, a big contributor to these profits are titles like Elden Ring and its Shadows of the Erdtree DLC, as well as Dragon Ball Sparking ZERO, which saw tremendous success outside of Japan.

When it comes to layoffs, it’s important to mention that part of why they don’t tend to happen in Japan is due to the country’s labor laws. However, this is not the only reason, as major Japanese game companies continue to be profitable enough to keep hiring (albeit some sources say that hiring power has declined in recent years). Moreover, companies are also improving conditions for their developers, as Konami recently raised base salaries for the fourth year in a row, and Capcom started offering more competitive starting salaries to attract new talent.

Japan’s AAA game industry performs strongly as 5 out of 8 major companies hit record-breaking share prices - AUTOMATON WEST

Five out of eight of Japan's major publicly traded AAA game companies have seen share prices reach all-time highs in the past two months.

automaton-media.com

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Great.

Now its time for AA to hit it out the park and its back to healthy console game development.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Well done

Japan is pretty much carrying gaming right now in terms of quality.

Who’d have thought we’d be seeing this after the PS360 era?

 

[Ritsumei2020]

I wonder if part of the reason why this so is because Western developers are fed up of basically getting fired at the end of a project. It must be exhausting to be always on the verge or being fired especially after shipping great games. How can people even build for the future with that kind of instability.

 

[San Dan Glokta]

I wonder with Xbox exiting the home console market if another Japanese company would be willing to take another gander at it. They certainly do have the goodwill as a country and the vote of the people ore than anywhere else.

 

[Soodanim]

 

[RCU005]

Practically every Japanese developer has focused on quality this generation, while western developers are so focused on live service games (which, like Sony will not get you any games out), woke (which will make people hate you), and making the most expensive games nobody wants to play (which will make your company bankrupt).

 

[mèx]

Good. Who thought focusing on making good/fun games without chasing trends is the recipe for success, hmm.

 

[Gamerfan81]

Western companies on the other hand are focused on woke shit. For example, news just came out that the KCD2 director added in woke shit so his game and ass wouldn't be lynched by the mob.

 

[Il Comodino]

I'm so happy about that, now we need more Japanese game, not necessarily AAA, only good game, with style, great gameplay.

this generation I'm thinking particularly of Capcom, with its many quality titles

 

[phant0m]

Well done

Japan is pretty much carrying gaming right now in terms of quality.

Who’d have thought we’d be seeing this after the PS360 era?

Asia in general been holding this generation down - Chinese and Korean devs dropping bangers too (Wukong, Stellar Blade, Marvel Rivals, Lost Ark, hoyoverse, etc)

North American Devs really need to get their shit figured out

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I wonder with Xbox exiting the home console market if another Japanese company would be willing to take another gander at it. They certainly do have the goodwill as a country and the vote of the people ore than anywhere else.

I don’t see it, the PlayStation and Nintendo platforms are so established.

Capcom or Sega partnering with Panasonic would be too risky, do Capcom want to take their games away from PlayStation and Switch in order to go it alone? I doubt it.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Go go Japan.

 

[Gaiff]

Well done

Japan is pretty much carrying gaming right now in terms of quality.

Who’d have thought we’d be seeing this after the PS360 era?

Come. Give some credit to China, Korea, and a few European studios.

KCD2, Split Fiction, Stellar Blade, BMW, and many other games not from Japan have been putting in work.

 

[FewRope]

I wonder if part of the reason why this so is because Western developers are fed up of basically getting fired at the end of a project. It must be exhausting to be always on the verge or being fired especially after shipping great games. How can people even build for the future with that kind of instability.

This is the real problem the industry is facing in the West. Remake and Rebirth team are practically the same, the result? You can play it right now, they are making the third entry much faster thanks to it. Talent and team building is basically essential to any business and publishers dont get it

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Come. Give some credit to China, Korea, and a few European studios.

KCD2, Split Fiction, Stellar Blade, BMW, and many other games not from Japan have been putting in work.

Japan is a whole level above Chinese and Korean studios.

 

[Ronin_7]

Sony almost at 4000 yen per share.

I believe 4000 will be ATH once reached.

 

[Hudo]

Good on Japan. I wish they'd do RTS games as well...

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Japan is a whole level above Chinese and Korean studios.

They're starting to catch up though, especially China.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

They're starting to catch up though, especially China.

We’re getting some excellent SoulsBorne games from them, but they’re not up to From’s level yet.

As for other genres like racing, fighting and RPG they’re nowhere close yet.

Big potential though, they’re only going to get better.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

It's interesting to see that the West is so dismissive of the East as a gaming market even though all the growth this past decade is there

But the kinds of games the West makes these days are completely unappealing to Eastern gamers anyways

 

[Robb]

Nintendo and Sony have maintained their dominance in the console market

Konami has made a successful comeback into the AAA scene

Capcom has seen growth (in operating profit) for the last 13 consecutive years

Bandai Namco Holdings […] expects to see the highest profits since its founding as the 2024 fiscal year wraps up.

 

[Klosshufvud]

America's game development decay is to Japan's advantage. We're back to how things were in the late 90's, early 00's.

 

[Kotaro]

America's game development decay is to Japan's advantage. We're back to how things were in the late 90's, early 00's.

Japan, Korea and China all reap the benefits for it

Western industry is cooked, poisoned by DEI and woke mind virus, destroyed by culture wars.

I think more and more and games will follow Marvel Rivals model, where they just use Western IP and China developers, cheaper and free of woke mind virus

 

[seething left]

I practically have no other choice but to buy Japanese games if I want to have attractive characters and an interesting story. The western woke/DEI braindead slop is just no appealing.

 

[Major Insano]

In hardware terms, they are dominating and are the bedrock of the industry.

But software?
Take away the save/collect the waifu anime RPGs and samurai/ninja hack 'em ups..
And you're not left with much, bar Nintendo imo.

 

[ExtendEmbraceExtinguish]

Come. Give some credit to China, Korea, and a few European studios.

KCD2, Split Fiction, Stellar Blade, BMW, and many other games not from Japan have been putting in work.

Essentially the future unless wages skyrocket.

 

[hemo memo]

Watch as western developers double down on woke and completely misunderstand this.

 

[Woopah]

In hardware terms, they are dominating and are the bedrock of the industry.

But software?
Take away the save/collect the waifu anime RPGs and samurai/ninja hack 'em ups..
And you're not left with much, bar Nintendo imo.

You've still got Tekken 8, Dragon's Dogma 2, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, Monster Hunter Wilds, Astrobot and more just from the last year or so.

 

[Kotaro]

In hardware terms, they are dominating and are the bedrock of the industry.

But software?
Take away the save/collect the waifu anime RPGs and samurai/ninja hack 'em ups..
And you're not left with much, bar Nintendo imo.

Western industry has some of the biggest bombs in recent memories. 30K+ jobs loss in the past couple of years

When a Dragon Ball game outsold an Assassins Creed game, you know Western industry is cooked

 

[Kacho]

Nintendo, Konami, Capcom and Bandai Namco.

My purchase history reflects this.

I think Doom Eternal will be the first brand new western game I buy since MechWarrior 5: Clans last year.

 

[Unknown Soldier]