The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Japan’s gaming market, a world apart Posted: 22 Sep 2013 01:16 AM PDT Shoot-em-up offerings from abroad often struggle to gain traction in the multi-billon-dollar Japanese videogame sector where fantasy-style games reign supreme and sell in the millions – though many in the West have not heard of them. They include the hugely popular Monster Hunter franchise, which has sold 23 million copies and counting since its debut a decade ago. "But most of them were sold in Japan even though we did make an English version," said a spokeswoman for game creator Capcom. Language translation problems and cultural differences were among the reasons cited for the struggles of foreign game operators in Japan, a rift that was apparent as gamers flocked to the Tokyo Game Show this week. Over 600 games titles were on offer at the four-day extravaganza that wraps up Sunday. Though Japan once dominated the worldwide market with the likes of Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, the country appears to be looking increasingly inward. "The main trends of the videogame market in Japan are divided into two categories: major worldwide successes like Pokemon, Final Fantasy or Biohazard, and games that are specifically designed for core Japanese gamers," said the Asia Trend Map institute, pointing to the "overwhelming dominance of games made in Japan". A blockbuster offering based on the popular comic book Shonen Jump reflects a common theme in which many Japanese games are centred around a character well known in multiple media platforms, from so-called manga cartoons and movies to music and television series. Namco Bandai's AKB 1/149 Renai Sosenkyo, a popular dating simulation game, is the kind of title known to most at home but with little name familiarity abroad – AKB48 is the name of a well-known girl band. "The title isn't suited to foreign markets," said Namco Bandai spokesman Toshiaki Honda. Even Japanese giant Sony is releasing its PlayStation 4 abroad before its hits store shelves in Japan – a first – with executives saying that titles expected to be hits at home won't be ready in time. Eiji Araki, senior official of mobile social game maker Gree, added: "We've learned that characters and visuals favoured in the United States are different from those in Japan." For some, the unique character of Japan's gaming market encapsulates the country's so-called Galapagos Syndrome in which firms concentrate almost solely on the domestic market. The take up in Japan on Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones trailed huge sales abroad as many mobile carriers focused on homegrown flip-phone offerings. While iPhone is now selling well in Japan, a ride on the Tokyo subway underscores another unique aspect of the nation's gaming market – a love of handheld gaming devices. Commuters on the city's vast transportation network are frequently seen thumbing away on portable devices to pass the time while, at home, consoles outpace the rising popularity abroad of playing games on personal computers For one official at Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organisation, the love of fantasy and role-playing games in low-crime Japan stands in stark contrast to Grand Theft Auto's brutal depictions of urban violence. "Japanese consumers prefer family-use games to those with violent, anti-social or extreme expressions of sexuality," she said. A report by Internet firm GMO Cloud characterises the difference as "self-escapism versus self-expression". True or not, Grand Theft Auto is undoubtedly violent, especially when compared to Nintendo's award-winning Animal Crossing: New Leaf in which players take on the role of a mayor running a rural community. By contrast, past versions of Grand Theft Auto have included simulated sex with prostitutes and drunken driving, along with profanity-packed dialogue. Carjacking, gambling and killing are the staples of a game in which players take on the role of a psychopathic killer in fictional Los Angeles. When Grand Theft Auto IV was released five years ago it blew away videogame and Hollywood records by taking an unprecedented $500 million in the week after its release, and it shows few signs of slowing with the game's fifth incarnation released days ago. Despite its foreign pedigree, Hisakazu Hirabayashi, of Tokyo-based consultancy firm InteractKK, said he still expects the newest Grand Theft Auto to have relative success among Japanese consumers, at least "for a Western game". - AFP, September 22, 2013. |
| Hotel-style prison awaits China’s Bo Xilai Posted: 21 Sep 2013 11:14 PM PDT Hidden in wooded hills north of Beijing, guards stand outside the red gate of Qincheng prison, where the once-powerful Bo is widely expected to begin his life sentence after being convicted Sunday of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. The jail has high grey walls, but there are no obvious signs of barbed wire or watchtowers. "It's like a five-star hotel," said Bao Tong, a former secretary to the ruling Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee who spent seven years in the prison for opposing the 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Inmates at the facility – which has housed almost all the high-ranking politicians jailed in China since the 1960s – are given large private cells equipped with soft beds, sofas, desks and an en-suite bathroom, former residents said. "I was pleasantly surprised the first time I saw my room," Dai Qing, the adopted daughter of a Chinese commander, wrote in a description to AFP. Dai, who spent 10 months in the prison for supporting the Tiananmen demonstrators, described her cell as about 30 square metres large (320 square feet) and coming "with high ceilings... and even a bathroom", while prison guards treated her with "warmth and care". "The head of the prison let me put on better clothes before I left," she recalled of one occasion when she was let out to visit a sick relative. "He reminded me of my old school headmaster." Prisoners can choose their clothes, drink milk for breakfast and eat selections of soups and meat dishes for lunch and dinner, they said. Some of the jail chefs used to work in one of Beijing's top hotels and prepare food to "ministry chief level", according to a recent report by the Beijing Times. Information about the prison – which does not appear on any Chinese maps – is tightly controlled in China, but a trickle of reports have emerged. The former Communist Party boss in Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, jailed for graft in 2008, wore a western-style suit and practiced tai chi while incarcerated, Hong Kong media said. Qincheng was expanded in the last year, with an old wall removed to make room for "pavilions, trees and grass reminiscent of a Chinese garden", the respected financial magazine Caijing reported last month. The descriptions present a stark contrast with ordinary Chinese jails, where inmates generally share cramped cells, eat basic food and are encouraged to work, sometimes manufacturing goods for export. "Qincheng gives the best treatment of any prison in China," said Chen Zeming, an academic blamed by authorities for helping to organise the Tiananmen protests and who spent several months in the facility. The "Gang of Four", a political faction including former leader Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, were sent to the prison following a high-profile trial in 1981. Prison authorities treated senior Party figures better than the Tiananmen activists, Chen said. "Some prisoners were allowed outside to plant vegetables, later I realised one of them was Yao Wenyuan," he said, referring to one of the Gang of Four. Built in the late 1950s with help from the Soviet Union, Qincheng is the only prison in China to be directly administered by state security, rather than judicial authorities. "The prison is directly controlled by the Communist Party's central committee," Bao said. "The everyday situation of prisoners is reported directly to them." Security officials stood outside his room at all hours noting his every change of position, Bao said, while Dai wrote of being constantly monitored. Bo's status as the son of one of China's most famous revolutionary generals – and his continued support among the party elite – would ensure his comfort, the former inmates said. "Bo Xilai won't be mistreated... he will have long periods to breathe the outside air and to communicate with others," said the academic Chen. Bao added: "If Bo Xilai wants anything, and the central party agrees, then he will get it. If he wants to dance all day, and the party agrees, he can dance all day." Top officials detained at Qincheng are often released on medical parole years before the end of their terms, according to reports never officially confirmed, and live out their days under house arrest. "After two years, they will say (Bo) is ill and he will be released, and will live next to a lake," Bao predicted, "or by the sea". - AFP, September 22, 2013. |
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