More Japanese video games are getting launched on PC as of late than ever earlier than, from huge titles like Final Fantasy XV to cult hits like Nier: Automata and even your anime-licensed RPGs and preventing video games of selection. That’s no coincidence, based on Sega — and the success of those video games on Steam helps drive additional curiosity on different platforms.
John Clark, Sega Europe government vice chairman, says that curiosity in Japanese-developed video games on digital shops — like Steam — has been particularly sturdy within the final 18 months. “We’ve seen the growth of Japanese IP on Steam on PC; that never existed before. And it surfaces across other formats as well because gaming is now a social entity.”
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As Clark tells GamesIndustry.biz, the prevalence of social media helps hold video games alive. “You have your friends lists and you see what your friends are playing and it encourages you to dive back in to the games you maybe missed before or games you stopped playing.”
This progress is why we’re seeing collection like Yakuza suddenly hit PC — video games constructed very historically within the Japanese mould. As Clark says, from collection perspective they’re “Single player, story-led, sequel, sequel, sequel.”
Yakuza stays its quirky self, and Sega doesn’t appear interested by altering it as much as a Western fashion open world or bolstering the sport with long-term service parts. Clark says the “franchise is being brought to the West and it’s not being changed for the Western market, in terms of the gameplay.”
Instead, “We’re representing the Japanese IP, the Japanese road map, the Japanese content to the relevant audience within the West. And whether there’s a need to change that or not, I don’t know. But it seems to be successful and it seems to be working.”
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