Japan Game Industry Dilemma Survey

(The blue line is the total domestic delivery of the game market in Japan; the red line is the export delivery; the green line is the export volume for the North American market; the purple line is the export volume for the European market. This figure shows that since 08-09, the Japanese game Global influence drops sharply)

Gamasutra quoted a research report from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, pointing out that almost half of Japanese game manufacturers did not earn money in the previous fiscal year.

The paper written by Mirko Ernkvist is titled "Investment Report for CEOs of Japanese Game Development Industry" and its research methods follow the "Tailored Design Method" social science research method. After success, the survey form is sent to all businesses with layers of advancement. For more than three years, the CEO of the game production company asked them to provide answers to the questionnaire.

The author received a response from 74 CEOs and the response rate was 25.6%. 48.2% of the 74 CEOs stated that the company recorded a deficit in the previous fiscal year, which is in line with the background of the Japanese game industry over the past decade or so.

As for the reasons leading to this situation, the author pointed out in the article: Compared with Western counterparts, the Japanese game industry's technical heritage is insufficient.

The report lists a series of figures: Only 57.8% of respondents claimed that the game engine has been used in games for three years; 40.6% of respondents have used physics engines; 37.5% of respondents use version control software. 35.9% of respondents use AI engine.

In response to the increasing challenges, 78.7% of the respondents stated that they had outsourced the company’s work to the collaboration unit in the past three years, while 63.5% of the respondents had played the role of an outsourced production unit for other companies. OEM game.

Contrary to this scenario, even a very small and insignificant European game developer who develops games will easily and happily develop an own engine to increase development efficiency and save licensing fees:

"Hard Reset", Flying Wild Hog Studio, Poland, self-developed Road Hog engine;

"Devil Hunter" series, Polish CD Projekt RED Studio, self-developed TSOOD engine;

Goth and Risen series, Piranha Bytes studio, Genome and Risen proprietary engines;

"Crysis" and "Crysis 2," Crytek, CryENGINE 2, 3 engines in Germany;

"S. T. A. L. K. E. R. "Series, Ukraine GSC, X-Ray proprietary engine;

Metro 2033, Ukrainian 4A Games, 4A cross-platform engine (said to be the ancestor of X-Ray);

Act of War series and R. U. S. E. ”, Eugen Systems, France, IRISZOOM engine;

"Just Cause" series and "Renegade Ops", Swedish avalanche studio, Avalanche engine Needless to say, those first-tier manufacturers in Europe and America (Bethesda has always insisted on using the pithy Gamebryo engine, EA is fully importing DICE's frost engine in place of UE3. Activision/Infinity Ward, whose money counts on guilt, is eager to play secret id Tech 3).

On the other hand, if Japanese companies are not outsourced, it is normal for them to go on a big job for the past three years, and it is often the full-scale human tactics that causes high development costs. The management of the company is therefore hesitant to hesitate to outsource or vice versa. The result is gradually marginalized.