Japanese vs. American Video Games - Do Cultural Differences Exist in Game Production?
Japanese video games are every bit as different from American video games as Japanese animation and manga are different from their American counterparts. Just as in the case of anime/manga versus American animation/comics, the differences in the video games are surely there, yet it is often difficult to describe exactly what is different, or what makes it specifically "Japanese." Much of this difference has gone largely unnoticed by American consumers. There is no segregation between American and "foreign" games on store shelves, and even the names of the companies that release the games usually aren't very indicative of which country the game originates from. Furthermore, most American gamers have no particular reason to make any distinction between a game made in the U.S. or anywhere else. The Japanese video game is not seen as directly linked to Japan as anime almost always is, and for that reason the same "Japanophilia" that often results from an interest in anime is much less likely to develop from an interest in Japanese video games.1 While we don't want to promote cultural biases and prejudices toward products produced in certain countries, it is useful to recognize that we commonly make this distinction in various areas of cultural production such as animation; and by making this distinction we avail ourselves the opportunity to understand what is happening across international markets.
Interestingly, instead of distinguishing between Japanese and American software, American gamers have traditionally made a distinction between hardware; specifically between console games and PC games. American gamers would tell you that the gaming experience one gets from a PC is different from what one gets from a console, and thus the types of games made for PC are inherently different from those made for consoles. However, it could be said that the distinction that is being recognized here is actually more closely linked to country of origin than it is to platform. These associations are made because the selection of PC games available in the U.S. is basically devoid of any Japanese titles, and it is usually blockbuster Japanese titles like "The Legend of Zelda" and "Final Fantasy" that get associated with the console experience. Besides, if an American gamer were to try Japanese PC games by companies like Falcom or TGL, they would likely agree that Japanese PC games have much more in common with Japanese console games than they do with American PC games. Therefore, the distinction that the American gamers are really making is based largely on a Japanese vs. American dichotomy rather than the supposed console vs. PC dichotomy.
Gamers: Do these screen shots from Japanese PC games remind you more of American PC games or Japanese console games? "Farland Story: kyoushin no miyako" (left) and "Zwei!" (right)
Only in more recent years have American gamers begun to make a distinction between certain Japanese and American games. This is occurring with regard to the RPG genre. I have now even heard the term "Japanese RPG" used on the television program "X-Play" which is a television show devoted to video games shown on the U.S. cable network TechTV. In the RPG genre, the differences between the Japanese and American approach have become so apparent that many now regard Japanese RPG's and American RPG's as two separate genres. The two countries' versions of the RPG have diverged a great deal. In the beginning, the two were more alike and it was not uncommon to see similarities and imitations from both countries, but they have now become separate entities through specialization and the seeking of niche markets. In the book Fresh Pulp: Dispatches from the Japanese Pop Culture Front (1997-1999), Jason Thompson writes, "Though the initial influences were translated American RPG's... Japanese RPG's [have] developed a life and subculture of their own..."2 We can see now that it is beginning to be a more widely recognized fact that the Japanese approach to making games (certain types of games at least) is different from the American approach.
It is very difficult to put into simple terms what exactly the general differences between American and Japanese games are. For each different game genre there are certain conventions that drive that genre. In most genres these conventions are different depending on the country it is developed in. As stated already, the conventions of Japanese RPG's tend to be different from those of American RPG's. The same thing goes for other genres such as platform action, fighting, strategy, adventure, etc. Rather curiously, there are some genres such as sports and racing which oftentimes have little or no distinguishable differences based on country of origin. That is not to say that there aren't plenty of examples in which very real differences can be easily distinguished in these genres as well. Most games from other genres are easily identifiable as either Japanese or American to the trained eye.3 Differences in art style used to draw characters and the different types of characters presented are fairly obvious. For instance, Japanese games tend to have a higher occurrence of female characters, and the characters can be either cute or highly sexualized. Female characters in American games are almost always the latter of the two. If the reader is not an avid player of video games, s/he may have a difficult time grasping all of the minute differences that often exist between Japanese and American video games. It can take a lot of experience playing a large number of games in order to begin recognizing the differences and to move away from the PC vs. console distinction and toward the Japanese vs. American distinction.4 If one pays enough attention the differences should eventually become apparent.
One might argue that since the games are often developed to be sold both in and outside Japan that they are not a 'pure' form of Japanese media5 and should not be examined using the same terms that we use when examining other forms of Japanese media intended (for all practical purposes) strictly for Japanese consumers. We must recognize, though, that Japanese companies have traditionally focused almost entirely on their domestic market, and given very little thought or consideration to their non-Japanese consumers, which is to say that their understanding of local (Japanese) taste is what drives production. This is understandable when you consider that the ratio of video game consoles to households in Japan has always been larger than that of the U.S. or any other country. This gap between the number of active consoles in use in Japan versus the U.S. has been gradually narrowing, and has only become comparable in relatively recent years. Therefore, the Japanese video game market has been historically much more profitable for the Japanese companies than other markets have. At its peak, the Japanese video game market accounted for one-third of total world video game sales.6 Thus, it is understandable that Japanese companies would concentrate on developing games that they feel will sell well in their domestic market. The selection of Japanese games available in the U.S. is a small piece of a local video game market which has been removed from the local and placed in the global. In that way, one might say that the video game market outside of Asia is actually quite similar to the anime market.
To sum things up, the differences between Japanese and American video games are created by two basic factors. The first is the different structure and organization of the video game development companies which doubtlessly exists between the U.S. and Japan which amounts to a different approach to game making. The second and more powerful factor is the structure of each country's local market and the companies' perceived taste of their consumers.
Click one of the following links to continue to the other sections of this editorial:
1. Introduction: A Brief History of the U.S. Video Game Market
3. Assimilation of Japanese 'Otherness' into the U.S. Market
4. Orientalism: When Exotic or Japanese-looking Imagery is Used to Sell Games in the U.S.
5. American Games in Japan: The Other Side
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