A Relatively Easy Way to Enter the Japanese Game Market
With a worldwide slowdown in sales of consumer electronics, Japan is already feeling the pinch. There is, however, a nascent industry which sees popular mobile games portals trying to sell products outside of Japan.
Every so often, Japanese products have leaked out to the rest of the world. With cell phones, smaller Japanese manufacturers have been testing the market since the late 1990s. Manufacturers like Sharp, Kyocera, and Sendo have tested the foreign waters but too busy selling feature phones in their homeland to get beyond dull basic or entry-level models.
This time, it’s the software and game developers who are slowly showing off their wares outside of Japan. Traditionally, games have only been successful when released in conjunction with a console or game platform. Currently, it’s the distribution channel which is bringing the games to the West. The two largest mobile game platforms, Gree and DeNA are thus expanding their market.
This is a big step for Japan-specific social games and card battle games. This is also a big signal for Western game developers to get into Japan, with the likes of GMO Cloud now offering market entry services that include marketing and localization. Unlike traditional mobile games, newer titles are mostly Android and iOS games. This makes it easier for Japanese developers to penetrate the Western games market.
The growth in the Japanese social game market has been phenomenal, leading to an estimated $4.36 billion revenue from practically nothing just a few years ago.
Some of the more popular card-battle games are not represented as mobile phone apps. Mobile phone games are usually free downloads and free-to-play but with in-game merchandise and level-ups to purchase, leading to huge monetization profits for the likes of GREE and DeNA.
The export of Japanese games does not necessarily mean that the Japanese market is saturated. On the contrary, the projected exponential increase in the market is a sign that new game companies are welcome – perhaps fuelling growth further.
This bi-directional flow can be wholly attributed to the success of Android and iOS devices. Apple has an aggregate market share of around 32% of the Japanese market. There are more Android devices, however, and these companies have a lower percentage market share. Either way, mobile apps and games are on the increase.
There is currently no alternative to mobile games on the horizon. So far, iOS and Android devices have overturned the Japanese smart phone apps market due to sheer numbers. This is a positive feedback mechanism where the large number of apps is fueling the sales of smart phones.
Going back to established IP titles, it is only a matter of time before most of them migrate to Android and iOS apps. One of the most popular card-battle games is Pokemon. It was introduced in 1996. Since then other card sets have been released, helping push newer models of Nintendo game consoles. However, Pokemon is yet to be ported to Android or iOS. Like other console games, there is a need to change the monetization before these games are introduced or relaunched as smart phone apps. Once these titles are released as smart phone apps, game consoles may well vanish.
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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.
