Why Steam isn't a big hit in Japan

I'm a game development student here in Tokyo. I've been living here for 2 years now and am actually thinking of going for US instead. Anyway, although this is just an anecdote and not from a source with statistical evidence (since I just asked my Japanese classmates), I would just like to share what they said.

The Steam store itself is too dark. They said the Japanese love colorful stuff and that the Steam store is too dark for them. I guess if you compare Steam to other DD services it is dark but I just like the way it is because it seems elegant.

The prices aren't in Japanese Yen. They have to bother calculating the US dollar to Yen. I agree with this. Other stores like Play-Asia have the options of seeing prices in different currencies. Steam should do the same.

It isn't in Japanese. Most of them they say take a while to read English and it would have been great if it were in Japanese. I have no problem with English since it's my second language but I understood what they felt when I opened Origins here in Japan and it was in Japanese. I still wasn't as good as I am right now in Japanese back then.

And lastly, they said Western games tend to revolve around killing people and destroying stuff. This, I wholeheartedly disagree. I just think they are ignorant of the numerous games on Steam that don't revolve around killing and destroying stuff. They just aren't familiar to indie games too. So I made a list of games mostly indies and gave it to this one guy. I wonder though if he really will research those games or just throw that paper away.

I think it all boils down to familiarity. Battlefield series is pretty known within my class. There's this one classmate who liked Skyrim too. I wonder if Western companies try to advertise their games more aggressively with proper Japanese localization, maybe Western games would become bigger and hell even PC gaming in Japan.

What do you think?

Sounds like it makes sense. Most of the games on Steam are western games, or if they are Japanese, they tend to be Japanese games that are pointedly marketed at western audiences. Though there is a growing niche of visual novel games on Steam, like To the Moon and Analogue.

smh...and by the way, pc gaming is boring. snore.

Whatever the case, you know that the second part of my post is true (yeah the one you chose to ignore).

The handheld market is what rules Japan. PC gaming isn't exactly commute friendly. I think that's as far as we need to look.

Okay, mostly valid points, but if it's not in Japanese, I don't know why the topic is being looked at in the first place.

The Japanese are getting old have other more important things to worry about than games, like nuclear radiation and Godzilla.

Japan's strange to me. Its asian buddies, China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, ect, are all very very deeply routed into PC gaming and are hubs of DOTA, Starcraft and Counter Strike.

For some reason, Japan sits in the middle of all this and the biggest games there are like cutesy cartoon games (Pokemon/Animal Crossing), anime orientated games, and fantasy dating games. Seriously. I lived there. Those are all the rage. To sound slightly less racist than BattleSpectre, the things you see about cuddling cafe's and guys preferring virtual girlfriends on their DS to real girlfriends actually do exist. It's not like a national thing but there is a very active minority that we would consider "weird as ****"

Lived in Japan for awhile, Godzilla can be a real bitch sometimes.

Wait what? Western games revolve around killing and destroying? Umm.. DMC? Final Fantasy? Ninja Gaiden? Bayonetta? Metal Gear? Mad World? Resident Evil?

I'm assuming they were thinking of things like military shooters?

i was shaking my head to the second part of your post, as an american you embarrass me.

Only one problem with your theory. I'm not American, I'm Australian.

Are you talking about japanese language support for games or the interface itself?

I think Portal 2 is the Only Valve Game that doesn't revolve around Killing People.

Killing Sucks !

And here I thought you people were smarter than that.

Sorry to disappoint... alright fine maybe I was a little harsh with my comment I'll admit that, and I don't personally have anything against Japan so no hard feelings.

Make they should make a Japanese Only Steam client that is more colorful and embraces the Japanese culture.

k

Designed for Western audiences.....

@clyde46: what are you talking about? TC wrote "And lastly, they said Western games tend to revolve around killing people and destroying stuff"

Regardless of the audience it's a Japanese game that includes those elements.

If I misinterpreted what TC wrote or what you said, please explain, because I'd really like to know.

racist

Now I could be completely wrong but I believe the japanese culture typically has a minimalistic approach in the home.

Got any links/pics of this vending machine?

You just want me to get banned, ain't it?

steam are not even going after the japenese market though are they? the points u made are solid though. with more japanese publishers like capcom/konami now releasing games on steam or showing interest to maybe gabe will go after the land of rising sun

On consoles its largely true. The big blockbusters tend to be geared around that, but I think it displays their ignorance of steam as a platform and what is on offer there when they say that.

Steam and handheld oriented Japanese market don't mingle.

Some good points, but the main one is the games just dont appeal to them, or at least a majority of them.

This is an easy one... people don't play a lot of PC games in Japan. That's really all you need to know. It's the land of handhelds.

Is it true that you have vending machines with panties in them?

It's stuff you hear about, but I want to know if it's legit.

Clearly it needs more girly pink, and less dark gritty badasses.

To be fair, they have a point/ the steam U.I is INCREDIBLY ugly... like a young teenage boys sort of art-style.... its not even that great to use.

Hideous.... just like Xfire... who designs this crap? honestly?

In Japan computers only run visual novels and MMO's, true story.

Why does it need to be?

Not everything is global. If it's not cost effective then markets are ignored.

simple, the device doesnt which steam runs on doesnt fit in their pocket

I haven't seen any vending machine that sells panties. When I researched about it, it really existed although in "small amount" at only a few places in the past before the 21st century I think. Then it got banned. So if you come here planning to find those, you're gonna get disappointed.

That just sucks.

shut up idiot, Christianity saved the world. don't eve n try to get into this.

haha

there is no god

Steam Handheld version 1.1 coming to Japan soon.

I use a skin called Pixelvision for Steam. Looks very good :)

lmfao.... are you serious?

Hmm name calling and hate. The christian way, Jesus would approve.