Japan’s Unique Social Gaming Industry
Mobile social gaming is prouder and bigger in Japan than anywhere else. In the last year alone it has reached $3.26 billion with further increases predicted year on year. However, this news has been tempered by one of the most popular gaming mechanics called kompu gacha becoming a controversial topic especially for parents who pay the debs racked up by kids who play these games. This profit-making scheme has been banned by the government which has led to lower profits for gaming providers.
Millions of social gamers in Japan had been enticed by this gambling-like scheme as it allowed them to win special virtual items by buying other items first. The mere fact that Japanese consumers are willing to pay that much money for a mobile game presents a clear picture of how massive the industry is in this country.
Japanese mobile social gamers enjoy the convenience of paying through their mobile phones with carrier billing. This encourages more of them to play their favorite games for an even higher cost. Card games, though seemingly traditional elsewhere, still warm the hearts of Japanese mobile gamers with popular games involving role-playing and manga-related topics. Other top-ranking games deal with the social lives of consumers such as dating.
With Facebook taking over the social network industry, local users also enjoy games wherein they can manage their own farms and restaurants. Foreign gaming companies will have to do more in order to penetrate this closed market where homegrown providers still lead such as Gree and DeNa. Both of these companies are trying to break into the international market with various acquisitions.
While Japanese developers can easily produce advanced graphic designs for social games, local patrons already find entertainment in fun, interactive and simple graphics. But while cute, interesting avatars and anime graphics capture the attention of this crowd, the story of the game is still the main attraction. Many video game developers – who must invest considerable time and money in creating console games – are also setting their sights on this more lucrative market.
Another factor that makes the Japanese one of the most addicted social media gamers in the world is interaction with friends through mobile games. And since many of these gaming programs are already installed on their phones, users are even more swayed to play instantly.
Though the kompu gacha stoppage dented financial growth of social games, the market will rise again. With the advent of the smartphone and eventual death of feature phones, more local players will be lured into downloading more games on their mobile phones as technology improves apace. With 3G networks ever reliable and more innovations in the works, Japanese players will continually comprise a great percentage of worldwide users in the social media gaming industry.
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About the Guest Author:
Rodolfo Lentejas, Jr. is a fulltime freelance writer based in Toronto. He is the founder of the PostSckrippt, a growing online writing business dedicated to producing top quality, original and fresh content. To know more about him, please visit www.postsckrippt.ca. Like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.
