Recent Steam Concurrent Player Data Suggests Japanese Games Are Thriving

Happy to see Granblue Fantasy doing well

Nice, western big AAA games is just too safe now, I feels like back in the ps2 era, where I prefer japanese games compared to western ones. Some western games in ps2 era rules though, like baldur gate dark alliance 1 & 2

Good games are good games no matter their origin. Between Infinite Wealth and Rebirth I'm going to be quite busy the first half of the year.

Japanese games are what keep me invested in this hobby tbh. I'd have ducked out years ago if I was reliant on Western AAA experiences to entertain me.

@Shepherd_Tallon I did have during the Granblue Fatnasy demo, but could not understand whether one can play as other characters from the party or only as a main protagonist, could you clarify this point?

Btw season 3 in Diablo is pretty good and fun after a couple of patches, moreover there is a time-limited event running at the moment with some decent cosmetics to gain for free.

@Shepherd_Tallon Same with me, Japanese games are taking up 80% of my gaming time easily. On my home screen now I have Foamstars, Atelier Shallie DX, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Valkyria Revolution, Legend of Nayuta, Monster Hunter Rise, FF7 Remake Intergrade and Little Goody Two Shoes. There will be a lot more to add over the next 2-3 months as well.

I think as a whole Japanese devs are just better innovaters, gameplay wise and story wise.

Well my last 5 physical purchases for PS5 are

Sonic Origins Plus
Tekken 8
Like A Dragon Gaiden (Asia)
Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Pre Order)

Even last year I got Resident Evil 4 and Street Fighter 6, so yeah my gaming is largely dominanted by games from Japan

A good game is a good game.if its western rpgs.japanese rpgs.etc.word up son

@Shepherd_Tallon I see... thanks, mate!

Stupid question- are none of the Hoyoverse games on Steam, Genshin Impact and the like? I looked all over their metrics but didn’t see any mention of them but I thought they had a lot of players?

I don’t play them, just wondering how the Chinese games match up to the Japanese games.🤷🏻‍♂️

Four games I plan to buy or already have this year are all published by Sega. It definitely feels like the Japanese side is doing very good at the moment compared to the West. I honestly can't think of a Western game I'm really all that excited about this year weirdly enough.

I just started Granblue but its so fun so far. Simple but extremely enjoyable

I bought both Persona and Infinite wealth and I'll be honest I'm really disappointed in both.

Persona feels like a soulless update to P3, it just feels really bland, can't put my finger on what it is, but it is definitely not pulling me in like the original still does to this day (P3 FES is still one of my go-tos on my phone).

Infinite wealth is a shell of a Yakuza game, poor characters, dull open world and don't get me started on what they've done to Kiryu. It's like Ubisoft have taken over the franchise.

Yeah yeah, a good game is a good game Yadda Yadda, yet most of them are still Japanese. Weren't it for Japan we'd mostly be playing crap these days, where we could pay mtx for reloading a gun in another military shooter. Japan has it's tropes, but it is the heart and soul of gaming.

@tameshiyaku I mean, a western game literally just won game of the year last year. And it wasn't a military shooter nor did it have any microtransactions. Clearly you have a Japanese preference and thats fine but maybe dont let it numb you to reality too much either

This is definitely Japan's year with all the releases coming out later too.

I'm over 100 hours deep into Infinite Wealth and I still have a lot left to do. I can see myself hitting 150 hours. The later chapters are some of Kiryu's best in any game.

Well this is good cuz I've always preferred Japanese games all my life for the last 25 years

I've always been a big japan nerd. Jrpgs, manga and Anime are my dominant hobbies so this is nice to see.

I think part of the reason eastern games thrive as opposed to western games is they largely regent woke culture and agenda-driven narratives in thier stories and characters.

there are years where i think Japanese games do better, there are years where i think Western games do better. This year tho? Yeah Japan is absolutely clearing. The only Western game announced for this year that I really care about are Prince of Persia, Plucky Squire, and Silksong (if it comes out), and 2 of those are indie. Palworld, Like a Dragon IW, Tekken 8, Granblue Relink, Persona 3, FF7 Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Rise of the Ronin, Thousand Year Door Remake, Metaphor ReFantazio, and if you want to include Eastern games in general look at Stellar Blade and Wukong.

@invictus4000 What is woke and why is it bad? I don't think that's it buddy. It's bad games doing badly and good games doing well.
Harry Potter was a very inclusive game and it's the best selling game of last year. Monster Hunter that is japanese has body types rather than gender assignment.
These thing are happening on both sides whatever you want to think "woke" is.

The difference is western games are being monetized very aggressively and frankly just aren't very fun. The amount of them that want to chase the live service dream results in dispassionate games meant to extract money rather than entertain. It's that simple. No need to bring political agendas in.

It's good to see but what I hope doesn't happen is the Japanese developers lose sight of what's going on and try chasing Western trends again like many did in the middle-later stages of the PS3/360 era that carried over into the early part of the PS4 gen. We're playing these games because they're from Western AAA games. If I want a WRPG, I'll buy it. When I buy Japanese games I don't want the exact same stuff as what can be found in Cyberpunk or GTA for example.

@Tchunga what I was trying to say was that if the industry would have developed without the Japanese influence over the last 40 years, we probably wouldn't have a Baldurs Gate 3 and other great western single player games. I'd imagine games would be riddled with brand sponsorships and feel a lot like cable TV or sport events, seldomly have anything meaningful to say because you know "games are not art" and try to sell you more stuff at every given opportunity.

@tameshiyaku If you want to go down that road then the same could be said about either Persona 3 Reload or Granblue Fantasy Relink. We probably wouldn't have either those games today if not for many western RPGs, most notably Ultima. Which is considered to be the very first ever RPG and is directly responsible for influencing the first Dragon Quest. And we all know how impactful the DQ series was on the JRPG genre so really if you think about it we have a western developer to thank for creating our favorite Japanese games. My point being that it's silly to either put all of the credit on Japan, or all of the blame on the west, both regions contribute to the industry in their own ways. Try to have a more nuanced perspective, yeah?