Japanese video gaming adapting new tech for familiar titles
CHIBA: The Japanese video game industry is finding its way out of the doldrums by adapting new technology for decades-old titles. And that energy was evident at the annual Tokyo Game Show, which opened to media Thursday before opening to the public over the weekend.
“Our old fans used to play Japanese games, and those people are excited those games are coming back and they recognize them as Japanese-style games,” game creator Koji Igarashi told The Associated Press at the show in Makuhari Messe hall in Chiba, a Tokyo suburb.
“Truly game-like games” is the way Igarashi described the genres enjoying revival, including his side-scrolling role-playing games. His latest version will come with a 3-D movie section.
Although smartphones hammered the video-games market for some years, from about 2010, the companies have adjusted. After the dust settled, some of the games that stood the test of time turned out to be Japanese, such as “Monster Hunter” and “Resident Evil,” known as “Biohazard” in Japan, both from Capcom Co., the “Super Mario” series from Nintendo and “Gran Turismo” from Sony, to name a few.
Also helping are new consoles from the Japanese makers, such as the PlayStation 4 from Sony Corp. and the Nintendo Switch. More than 60 million PlayStation 4, or PS4, consoles have been sold since they went on sale last year. Switch sales already total some 4.7 million globally. Switch went on sale in March.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. initially scoffed at the threat from smartphones but did an about-face and began offering smartphone versions of their flagship games like “Super Mario” since 2015. “Pokemon Go,” featuring Nintendo’s Pokemon characters and played on smartphones, became a global hit.
Games are also taking on more features, such as massive online communities, as well as immersive virtual reality, not only leading to new kinds of games but also helping revive interest in old-style genres.
Igarashi compared that to the way Japanese moviemaking has endured along with Hollywood films.
“We are just offering what we find as fun,” he said, noting that what he called his “Japanese idea of fun” can cross borders. “And we must never lose sight of that — what makes us truly us.”