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[ArtHands]

日本のSteam市場は世界でもっとも急成長した主要市場。新作のセール待ちへの懸念もなし。日本PCゲーム市場の急成長をプラットフォーマー、パブリッシャーの視点で語る。東京ゲームショウ2023基調講演リポート【TGS2023】 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

2023年9月21日から24日にかけて開催中の“東京ゲームショウ2023（TGS2023）”。その初日のメインステージにて行なわれた、基調講演の模様をお伝えする。

s.famitsu.com

Google translated.

Summary; console & physical still strong but PC and digital has largely caught up. Steam sales is important for uncovering hidden gem and sales of old titles

• Japan = one of fastest growing markets in the world in past 5 years (million of users)
• Japanese developers accounted for about 20% of Steam's top sales in 2023.
• with the spread of Steam Deck, PC games are being introduced to a completely different audience.
• strength of PC games is that once you purchase it, you can register in the library and play it all the time, and there is no subscription (subscription) fee for online play
• William Yagi-Bacon (Capcom) said that ratio of digital sales in game sales is expanding year by year because of the increased PC games sales. However there’s no noticeable decrease for physical game sales
• Harada (Bandai Namco)Until the 90s they only need to support 5 or 6 languages for games, but now have to support more language localization due to the global presence of PC, so Bandai Namco might look into using AI to cope with the need for more language localization
• 40% of the users for Elden Ring and Armored Core VI are PC users. For console centric games like Tekken, about 30% are PC users.
• Shifting the strategy from “console first PC later” to “simultaneous release”
• The needs to cater to different PC specs makes PC game development seem difficult, but Mr. Harada said that there are many things that are easy too. In addition, there are few restrictions due to the lack of first party, and even indie or solo dev can publish games on PC easily.
• (Valve) Steam Sales is very important. Players often add games they might be interested in to wish list, while developers use it to create exposure for their games.
• (Capcom) say Steam sales is important. When there are a lot of major releases like this year, players often only buy selected fews day one and leave the rest to wish list. They say that the steam sale is important for these wishlist titles to be bought at a later date.
• for games like Monster Hunter, where you see everyone around you playing it, players will often buy day one instead of waiting for sales
• (Bandai Namco) said the sales also have ripple effect. When Capcom have their publisher sales where fighting games is discounted, it also lead to increased sales for Bandai Namco fighting games
• (Capcom) said consoles and packages are still strong in Japan, so they will continue selling on physical
• There are many players who buy based game at discount, then proceed to buy dlc or season pass at full price
• Capcom believe that PC games and smartphone games are on par with the console, and have led to a good revitalization of the entire game industry.
• (Valve) Steam has great expectations for the future of the Japanese PC game market
• Valve feels the success of Steam Deck in Japan perfectly matches the success of PC games in Japan
• PCs do not have the concept of generational change in basic architecture, great for archiving old titles
• (Capcom) Capcom said that the importance of cross-platform has increased significantly. the exchange of battles and online lobby "Battle Hub" in SF6 was well received

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Me pleased with this.

 

[GrayChild]

I never though Japan would embrace PC gaming that much. But that's great news. The times when we had to wait 1-2 years for piss-poor ports, or even not getting 3rd party Japanese games at all are thankfully in the past.

 

[Banjo64]

So is the Deck pretty huge there? Sounds like it is. This is really good news as Valve are the one company who can continue to make compelling hardware at a subsidised price.

 

[RoboFu]

Cool maybe Sony will put out ports faster.

 

[lyan]

So is the Deck pretty huge there? Sounds like it is. This is really good news as Valve are the one company who can continue to make compelling hardware at a subsidised price.

Judging from marketing efforts I think it's mostly gaming laptops.

 

[Sakura]

So is the Deck pretty huge there? Sounds like it is. This is really good news as Valve are the one company who can continue to make compelling hardware at a subsidised price.

The Steam Deck has like, less than 4 million sales world wide. I don't think it is "huge" anywhere.

 

[64bitmodels]

Google translated.

please use DeepL next time, it's much more accurate

Anyways, you love to see it.

The Steam Deck has like, less than 4 million sales world wide. I don't think it is "huge" anywhere.

oh the deck is huge alright. Huge in your hands.

People keep saying that it's the reason for the PC gaming boom in Japan but if you didn't have a Steam Account previously you won't be able to buy it. The Deck is dependent on there being a Steam Userbase for purchases, If Japan didn't have many PC gamers before they definintely won't be lining up to buy a Steam Deck when they've already never heard of Steam.
TFW you forget that Valve sells these in stores in Japan.

No one really knows what the sales for that thing is, Valve don't seem keen to reveal it either. It could be less or it could be more. I don't think this thing will do more than 8 mil throughout its lifetime. its weird how entrenced it is in gaming discussion despite such a limited audience

 

[SmokedMeat]

PC gaming will only continue to grow in Japan, and other parts of the world.

Love to see it.

Edit: In regards to Steam Deck, Japan loves handhelds. Steam Deck’s a gateway into PC gaming, and will only continue to sell there. Valve really needs to get production up to where they can ship units to retail stores.

 

[Thaedolus]

I’d so much rather own games on PC/Steam than anything else. The quality of gamepass games on release and Sony bringing their games to PC has me thinking I don’t really need a console other than Nintendo’s lately

 

[64bitmodels]

Shifting the strategy from “console first PC later” to “simultaneous release”

 

[ClosBSAS]

40% of elden ring and armored core VI are pc players...thats a lot considering its running against multiple consoles.
pretty fucking good.
bandai namco never had a pc game before dark souls prepare to die edition, they didnt believe in the platform.
once that shit released, they havent left a single game out of PC release. they saw the light.

 

[Holammer]

One of the more interesting tidbits is Shifting the strategy from “console first PC later” to “simultaneous release”, I have long argued they're wasting the marketing blitz by quietly dumping the PC version once the hype died down.
Turns out PC is such a big chunk of sales for some games today, this turned into a bad business decision. Making it way too expensive for Sony/MS/Nintendo to secure a full exclusive.

 

[Comandr]

Glad to finally see PC being regarded as a priority rather than an afterthought.

 

[Klosshufvud]

Meanwhile at Square Enix: Nah fuck all that

 

[Sleepwalker]

please use DeepL next time, it's much more accurate

Anyways, you love to see it.


oh the deck is huge alright. Huge in your hands.

People keep saying that it's the reason for the PC gaming boom in Japan but if you didn't have a Steam Account previously you won't be able to buy it. The Deck is dependent on there being a Steam Userbase for purchases, If Japan didn't have many PC gamers before they definintely won't be lining up to buy a Steam Deck when they've already never heard of Steam.

Besides no one really knows what the sales for that thing is, Valve don't seem keen to reveal it either. It could be less or it could be more. I don't think this thing will do more than 8 mil throughout its lifetime. its weird how entrenced it is in gaming discussion despite such a limited audience

While I agree that the deck is not the sole reason for PC growth, the bolded is not true. Valve went out of their way to make the Deck available in physical stores in Japan

Authorized Retail Stores

steamdeck.komodo.jp

 

[DemonGamerTTT]

Of course... Japanese are very slow to change but there's no coming back from pc once you started using it.

Only pros, no cons... It's a no brainer.

 

[64bitmodels]

Valve went out of their way to make the Deck available in physical stores in Japan

Oh snap, I completely forgot about that lol. Haven't kept up with much Deck news since i got mine

In that case, Deck might be much more of a thing in JP than I think. At least I hope. Like I said Valve hasn't exactly disclosed many sales numbers/purchases regarding the thing

 

[Elder Legend]

But people told me in the past that PC gaming is dead. /s

 

[DenchDeckard]

This is so good to hear!

PC is killing it and deservedly so.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Capcom saw this coming, they were PC first since 2005 with the development their MT framework engine; heck they were even joined the PC Gaming Alliance back in 2008:

SAN RAMON, Calif. February 3, 2008 The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA), a nonprofit corporation dedicated to driving the worldwide growth of PC gaming, today announced the addition of representatives from Capcom and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University (SMU) to their Board of Directors. Capcom is a leading international developer and publisher of video games headquartered in Osaka, Japan recognized around the globe for franchises like Street Fighter®, Resident Evil® and Bionic Commando®. The Guildhall at SMU is the premier graduate video game education program in the U.S.

The addition of these two leading organizations significantly broadens participation in the PCGA by the publisher and educational stakeholder communities and will provide the PCGA with much greater insight into their PC gaming issues and requirements.

³Capcom believes strongly in the value and strength of the PC gaming market as a global platform for our entertainment brands,² said Christian Svensson, vice president, business development and strategic planning. ³Our participation in the PCGA¹s activities over the past year has greatly improved our understanding of the market, provided us great business opportunities and allowed us to participate in improving the field of PC gaming. We¹re pleased to have a representative on the board in order to directly help shape the future of the PC gaming environment.²

Paving the way for all other japanese devs.

 

[Elder Legend]

Capcom saw this coming, they were PC first since 2005 with the development their MT framework engine; heck they were even joined the PC Gaming Alliance back in 2008:

Paving the way for all other japanese devs.

the fruits of their labor are now ripe for harvesting lol.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Let’s go Vanillaware.

 

[ssringo]

its weird how entrenced it is in gaming discussion despite such a limited audience

I dont think its that that weird. The people that spend time discussing games are enthusiasts and the Deck is a (PC) enthusiast device.

Let’s go Vanillaware.

God damn they piss me off with their refusal to touch PC. I might hate purchase and rage play Unicorn Overlord.

 

[64bitmodels]

I dont think its that that weird. The people that spend time discussing games are enthusiasts and the Deck is a (PC) enthusiast device.


God damn they piss me off with their refusal to touch PC. I might hate purchase and rage play Unicorn Overlord.

If they are touching Switch, they are touching PC.

 

[rodrigolfp]

and play it all the time

??? Can't we play all the time on console?

Capcom believe that PC games and smartphone games are on par with the console, and have led to a good revitalization of the entire game industry.

???

 

[RickMasters]

To be fair Japan has always loved computers for gaming. Remember they had a computer made by sharp that had some bad-ass ports of arcade games back in the days. I forget the name of it but it was a big deal.

 

[Danjin44]

Vanillaware:

 

[Fabieter]

I never though Japan would embrace PC gaming that much. But that's great news. The times when we had to wait 1-2 years for piss-poor ports, or even not getting 3rd party Japanese games at all are thankfully in the past.

Its completely logical when you see that basically everything got released on pc the past 10 years.

 

[RickMasters]

This is so good to hear!

PC is killing it and deservedly so.

Even though I mostly play games on my Xbox. I’m also build my own computers ( when I’m not using a max) for music production. My current X299 build is a monster for playing games even though I never built it for that as the main purpose. It just happens to have hundreds of gigs of ram and an 18 core CPU overclocked Ayo 4.2ghz and has LEDs everywhere and a Corsair Tripple fan AIO hybrid liquid cooling system. I’d say I’m a PC building enthusiast… and from that perspective…. Yoh relly can build the type of PC you want nowadays. You can practically make a console like PC.


It’s like Burger King. You can have it your way. I do like that my gamepass works on both. I remember buying quake 2 months ago…. When it turned up on console, it was showing that I already owned it, because I already bought it via gamepass on my PC for 2 bucks….. nice!


I also love playing arcade classic off steam inbetween recording sessions. That has given me a reason to buy a ASUS ally. So I can hook it up to my alpine head unit and olay games in the car too, whenever I’m waiting in my car or just in really bad traffic.


Everybody should have some form of steam account even if you own a console. Whatever you wise out on due to console exclusive contracts, you can always play on your laptop or custom PC console box.



And them Corsair one and ASU’s pre builds look pretty cool for dedicated gamers who don’t wanna build their Own computers but want something they can add a better GOUbor more ram to later on. You get all the options with a PC. It’s flexible. It can either be your main thing for gaming or supplement what you are missing due to owning one brand of console ( which probably describes me best)

 

[Hudo]

Excellent.