Ken Akamatsu is a Japanese manga artist who recently won a seat in the House of Councillors of Japan. He held a stream on YouTube, during which he promised to try to legally preserve the gaming legacy for posterity.

In Japan, there is a special gaming club designed exclusively for pensioners. The aim of the initiative is to unite older people through video games and help them avoid loneliness, especially during a pandemic.Photo: South China Morning Post YouTube Channel

The Japanese gaming market is the third largest in the world. In a recent report, the analytical company Newzoo told how many gamers there are in the country now, which games they prefer and how much they will spend on them in 2021.

Two weeks ago, for the first time in 33 years, all 30 places in the Japanese bestseller chart were occupied by games for one console. It became the Nintendo Switch. The Gaming Bolt portal has found out why this console has become more attractive to local developers and why they are no longer eager to cooperate with Sony.

The analytical company GameRefinery summed up the results of the second quarter and told about the main mobile genres and publishers in the USA, Japan and China. For example, American gamers like to play puzzles and give a lot of money to Roblox — it accounts for over 5% of the country’s gaming revenue.

PlayStation suffered heavy losses in the Japanese market. For the whole of 2020, less than a million Sony consoles were sold in the country. The last time this happened was in 1994 — during the launch of the PS1.

The analytical company GameRefinery has published a report on the main news and changes that have occurred in major mobile projects in October. The data relate to the markets of the USA, China and Japan.US Market

A drama is unfolding in the Japanese market. Sony is unhappy with PS4 sales in Japan and is focusing on the American market. At the same time, Microsoft is interested in local development studios and plans to make Xbox the second console in the market of the “land of the rising sun”.

Apple has problems in Japan. Dozens of local developers have criticized the working conditions with the App Store — and it’s not about the 30% commission. Now the company from Cupertino will also be checked by the Japanese Antimonopoly Commission.The Bloomberg edition summarized the main dissatisfactions of the App Store from local developers.

Newzoo analyzed the MAU of the main games on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 over the past month. The report not only shows the popularity of projects like Fortnite and GTA V in different countries, but also gives an idea of Sony’s dominance in specific regions (especially on the example of Japan).Analysts say that this year the total revenue from games in the world will be $ 159.3 billion.

Analysts from Niko Partners analyzed the results of the Asian gaming market for 2019. Fritupley projects continue to dominate, bringing the greatest income. This segment accounts for 80% of revenue from all digital sales.Key data from the report

The Japanese rating agency CERO will resume work this week. In April, the organization went into quarantine for coronavirus, freezing the issuance of ratings for console and desktop games.

The coronavirus pandemic has turned into a serious problem for the Japanese gaming market. The local rating agency CERO has frozen all operations for a month. This can lead to numerous transfers of console and desktop games.

The Japanese publisher Colopl has announced the acquisition of the Tokyo-based game company MAGES., which is mainly engaged in the development of visual novels, and is also a music label.

The main console release of March is a new part of Animal Crossing with a subtitle New Horizons. In the first three days, the game sold 1.88 million copies in Japan alone (this does not include digital copies sold).

According to the forecast of Niko Partners, up to 360 foreign games will be released in China in 2020. This is more than the Chinese regulator licensed last year. 

Japan can follow the example of China and South Korea. For teenagers living in Kagawa Prefecture, a daily limit on the use of smartphones may be introduced. Including for mobile games.

Marketing companies Adjust and Liftoff have published a report on the Japanese mobile market in terms of engagement. The game segment was also mentioned in it.

Sales of the console version of Death Stranding in Japan amounted to almost 186 thousand copies in the first week. The game turned out to be the largest launch of a new IP in the region for the current generation of consoles.