History of the Game Industry of Japan [Part 2]

The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s marked the fourth generation of consoles, and in folk memory it remained like “16-bit era”. Когда выходили Mega Drive /Sega Genesis (1988) и Super Nintendo Entertainment System /Super Famicom (1990) (в дальнейшем буду употреблять аббревиатуру «SNES») — это был настоящий прорыв, и за рекламными лозунгами стояла настоящая революция в игрострое. The 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor was installed in Mega Drive, the same as in the first Macintosh from Apple.

Now you play with power!
– Advertising Slogan Nintendo

There are no more borders!
– Advertising Slogan Sega

If in the United States by the end of the 1980s and during the first half of the 1990s, the PC games occupied more than a third of the market, then in Japan the situation was diametrically opposite. At least in the eyes of Koei leadership: “The success of Nintendo simply destroyed the computer games market”.Mindscape Interactive had the same opinion. It was necessary to seriously try to move the hegemon. For which there were more than 90% of the market.

Chairman of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. David Rosen With bitterness, he admitted: “Unfortunately, we released [Sega Master System (1985)] after 2 years or so after Nintendo. By that time, the game culture in Japan completely belonged to Nintendo. And it was very difficult to release a similar console in Japan “.

Now SEGA had almost 2 years of handicap. She immediately began to invest in marketing. All the positive experience of Nintendo (as they thought) was taken into account. The advertising company was built around the new Muscot of the Company – Hedgehog The Hedgehog. He was positioned as an alternative to Mario on, who lived his age, nes.

Advertisers did not hesitate to use words such as “Blast Processing”, which means “explosive performance”. The console was actively advertised in Famitsu and BeeP magazines!”, Which of course contributed to the growth of sales but not very much. Only 400,000 copies were sold in the first year.

And just two months earlier, Super Mario Bros came out. 3 sold in the end 17.28 million times. Having shown that Nes is more alive to all living things, which means that you do not need to rush with the release of a new console. Only in 1988 9 were sold.3 million Nes, 5.3 million in 1989 and 7.6 million in 1990.

The corporation devoted free time to portable platforms, releasing an 8-bit Game Boy in April 1989, selling 118.69 million devices.

For Nintendo, there was also a huge library of games, and more importantly, games of well -sold and high -quality games. Coming to the store, the buyer asked first of all the console on which you can play Mario. Nintendo kept on the news, her successes were regularly discussed in the media, and the people went to jokes about her. Nes was a real folk console.

If the SEGA arcade machines market successfully competed with Nintendo, possessing hits such as Astro Blaster, Monster Bash, Turbo, such a classic as PENG.But while Sega tried to maintain her presence throughout the industry, Nintendo, threw more and more efforts to support NES, and then SNES.

Nintendo had been concluded by that time with exclusive contracts with such largest Japanese developers as: Bandai (lead manufacturer of toys), Capcom, Hudson, Konami, Namco (Publisher Pac-Man) and Taito (publisher of SPACE Invaders).

Sega had practically no chances in the Japanese market of consoles, but she tried.

Realizing that it will not work out to compete with Nintendo, the Sega positioned Mega Drive /Sega Genesis as a more adult console. And it worked … in the USA. There, Sega grabbed 65% of the market in 1988, and after the exit of SNES 35% remained behind it. But this is in the USA, in Japan, still Nintendo rules.

At the start and in the first 2 years, SEGA offered the following games: Alved Beast (Juuouki Jap.), Air Diver, Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf (Naomichi Ozaki No Super Masters Yap.), Arrow Flash, Atomic Robo-Kid, Burning Force, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (I Love Mickey: Fushigi No Oshiro Daiboukin.), Dangerous Seed, Herzog Zwei and others. They were united by one thing – a great seriousness and an attempt to seem an alternative to Nintendo.

Sega was doomed and no competition in Japan could not talk. Further confrontation was transferred to the United States, where the chances (and market shares) were almost equal. It was with the sight to the American market that Sonic was developed in 1991 by the SEGA talisman. You can state that Already in 1991, the struggle on Japanese land was discontinued. Although fierce counterattacks still lasted some time. We will talk about them before proceeding to the description of the triumphal procession of Nintendo.

Feeling the inevitable phenomenon of SNES to the people, SEGA decided not to create, an alternative to the “world Nintendo”, but to significantly expand the capabilities of the console by launching on November 3 Sega Meganet (NES had a similar device called Tsushin). Using the external device for Mega Drive – “Mega Modem” could be played in 17 games online. The next step called Mega Anser was very soon taken, which turned the console into a terminal for online banking. In 1994, but only in the USA the Sega Channel was flooded, which allowed to download demo versions of games and something else on trifles. But in Japan, the battle for minds and hearts was completely lost. However, after the Sega, although modest but at the same time an influential gaming heritage remained.

One of them was Phantasy Star II 1989. She established the new RPG rules, it was after her that a science fiction setting (in exchange for fantasy-fairy tale), drama and epic scope have become fashionable. Serious moral and ethical topics began to rise, and the gameplay developed tactical gameplay characteristic of the PC Games of the mid-1980s. It was she who set the direction of development of the famous Final Fantasy.

In general, until 1990, things went well. And then in Japan on November 21, 1990, SNES was released at a price of 25,000 ¥ ($ 210).

“As soon as Hiroshi Imani reported the start date of sales, some stores immediately began to accept orders. Hankyu department store in Osaka announced that from November 3 it has been opening “reservation”. For a week they accepted more orders than they could serve, and stopped receiving orders. Other stores launched lotteries, and some customers paid 32,000 yen (about $ 200) for the system and Super Mario World in advance.”

– David Shaff, Game Over as Nintendo won the world
First batch of 300.000 consoles were sold in a matter of hours. The excitement reached such a level that the Japanese government asked the manufacturer to sell the console only on weekends in order to avoid riots. And this is despite the fact that at the start, in Japan, only 2 games were available: Super Mario World And F-zero. If everything is clear with the first, then the second was the race in a futuristic setting, but the authorship of the same Siger Miyamoto (creator of Mario). In the United States, this list was much wider.

In subsequent years, the list expanded primarily due to the next parts of Mario, Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and others. Nintendo went strictly in the evolutionary direction, simply complementing and improving the elements of long -acquaintances of the mechanic and plots. The remaining games of the Brain Lord type (action-RPG with puzzle elements), CamelTry (a mixture of platformer and race), CHAOS SEED (isometric RPG in the fantasy world) and many others, rather, by auxiliary circulations, not sold by millionaire circulations. The same Contra was a hit in the USA. Nintendo themselves set the fashion for games, and even if something was invented before, only in their games did it gain the greatness and significance in the eyes of Japanese players. Not because they were sophisticated by gamers and refused to admit anything except Nintendo, for the most part they simply did not know anything except Nintendo and did not want to know, but learned about all the innovations from the next part of Mario and Dragon Ball. This provision was achieved thanks to the audience, which has not changed since the time of NES and arcade machine guns of the late 1970s. This is the reason for the failure of the Sega. She simply did not have the opportunity to reach out to the players who were already enough.

But you need to pay tribute to Nintendo, they very quickly ported hits from arcade machines on SNES. For example, already in 1991, Street Fighter II was released: The World Warrior from Capcom, on the SEGA console, he went only a year later.

Due to the shortage of copies, the price jumped 7 times and was released at a price of ¥ 15,000 ($ 119.19 or £ 65). According to the editorial office of Gamest, the arcade version became the “game of the year” and “best action” in 1991.

Of 49.10 million. SNES sold around the world, Japan had 17.17 million., unable to repeat the success of Nes with her 61.91 million. copies around the world.

Now let’s talk more about the genre that moved not only the Japanese industry, but also the world.

The 1990s is considered to be the “golden era” RPG. With the only difference being that in Japan this referred to the console and in the west to computer. Japanese RPG more and more focused on the plot. RPG in Japan was and remains the most important genre, replacing the shooters so popular in the West.

“The fact that the largest number of first -person shooters is developed and sold in the United States, the author of this article is inclined to attribute to the fact that the United States is a country of firearms … If the United States is the“ country of the trunk ”, then Japan with its culture of samurai should be called the“ country of the blade ”. Of course, there were guns in Japan. But they served nothing more than a means of which they resorted to only in wartime … In America, which is the “country of the barrel”, the popular game genre is FPS. Meanwhile, in Japan, the deep meaning of this “trunk” does not find understanding, because in this country there is no culture of firearms. In contrast to the United States, the popular game genre in Japan – the “country of the blade” – became role -playing games. The development of the character, which the player becomes, occurs along with the evolution of his blade – from a stick to the dagger, a long sword … The American player, if he sits in playing such a role -playing game, will not be completely captured by it, he will be bored, because he believes that the blade in comparison with the barrel is an ineffective weapon ”.

– Hirabayashi Khisakazu, Global Video Global Market: Japanese companies in search of new solutions
The most important difference between console JRPG from West’s computer RPG was the presence of worked out characters with its backstory. In Final Fantasy and Lufia, an emphasis was placed on the interaction between the heroes and the development of their relations, and in the same Fallout there was simply an “avatar” through which we interacted with the world. The romantic line was already the standard in the Japanese RPG, unlike Western. On the consoles it was easier than the mechanics and the gameplay itself was made with emphasis on action.

Combined RPG very quickly began to bring much more money, which prompted to port on them such games as Ultima.

In 1990, Dragon Quest IV brought the innovative method of presentation of history – the division of the entire plot into chapters. What made the game more linear, and allowed to devote more time to the development of the characters (each chapter was devoted to the background of each individual character). In the gameplay plan, the innovative system of AI – “Tactics” was added, the essence of which was the opportunity to give orders to the allies on the battlefield, while completely maintaining control of the main character. Later this system was transferred to Final Fantasy XII (2006), but it was only called “Gambits”.

Final Fantasy III (1990) introduced, which has become a classic, a character development system allowed to develop the selected class in any right direction, making the initial selection of the class only by the starting point, allowing you to combine any skills in the future.

And even earlier, the player sent the player to the post-apocalytic future, it was Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II And Crystalis Inspired by the Hayao Miyazaki animation film “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”. Crystalis combined a modern real-time action system and an open world from The Legend of Zelda with Level Design and the magic system of Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy Adventure (1991), the first to kill ordinary garages. The Final Fantasy series in the 1990s was constantly examining both with the submission of the plot and with the combat system. Hiroyuki, not the last role in this, played the development of the combat system for the 4th part of the popular series. And to the 6th part went from medieval setting.

At the same time, another popular series developed. Dragon Quest V, (1992) added family relations in time for several periods. This was also the first game where the “playable” burden appeared so to speak, in the sense in which it became implemented in Story of Seasons, The Sims 2 and Fable II. There were other important innovations in gameplay with monsters fishing and their training, which seriously affected Pokémon, Digimon and Dokapon.

The authorship of Square, published in 1995 Chrono Trigger, again increased the standards of the genre. Many aspects were revolutionary for that time. The passage has become real nonlinear, the plot changed depending on the player’s actions even in Sidkvests. As much as 10 endings were worked out. Combo attacks appeared in the combat system, for the first time worked out, well-known, the “New Game+” mode, although it first appeared in the first Legend of Zelda.

If you suddenly thought that the Slotmonstercasino.uk development of the greatest games in history was conducted in royal conditions, then you are very mistaken.

Take for example Konami – the creator of Silent Hill, MGS and many other cult games. Throughout the 1980s and even the 1990s, the development conditions were Spartan. Employees slept on the floor and almost did not rest, working nights on. The usual team in those days consisted only of programmers, animators and project managers.

“The company had a great responsibility on us. In the development of games, you cannot achieve the ideal. You improve the program and improve, and so on to infinity. Only we decided when it stopped. But being in the development department means striving to do better than possible. So yes, we worked until late “.

– Kukino Masaaki, artist and designer Konami

As he specified, they even “They took a shower much less often than it should” “.
Konami herself at that time had a reputation as a producer of high -quality software. There were so many games that could not be counted, much more than it reached the release. In fairness, it is worth saying that most of the games were canceled not having time to start developing. Here is an example: in 1992, Konami began the development of fighting winging-it was something between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. A team has already been formed, work was in full swing. But as soon as the issue of allocating a larger budget was closed, and the team was threw to develop the basketball game Run and Gun.

For arcade machines, the games were developed much longer than for consoles. If about 2 months took to the console game, then for machine guns the cycle was from 6 months to a year. And therefore they were canceled less often.

An interesting fact: In Japan, posters draw and stylize, and in the USA they prefer to hire models for them and photograph.

However, back to RPG.

The following revolutionary coming in the genre that changed his face to the second half of the 1990s was Final Fantasy VII (1997), which reached the PlayStation. At that time, she had a huge $ 45 million production budget. The same was the creation of COD: Modern Warfare 2, and most modern AAA projects do not often cross the line of $ 50 million (this is not counting the marketing budget). It was with her that the massive transition to the full 3D began. Sound quality and video was also not achievable then level. In terms of influence on the development of the gaming industry, the researcher of the gaming industry and writer Matt Barton even put it on a par with the influence of Star Wars on cinema.

The player had a huge world at his disposal, with long and worked out quests and dozens of mini-games. The battles were now shown from different angles, and for the first time in the history of CGI, the videos were woven directly into the gameplay. It was since then that cinematography has become the norm of the genre, to which everyone began to strive.

In 1999, the cinematography trend supported the Final Fantasy VIII, it was in it that for the first time, auto -overwhelming appeared, which automatically equalized enemies with the player. The same system was used much later in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and many other Western RPGs.

During the 1990s, the console RPG began to displace computer, but understanding what the user needed, they “responded to the“ adventure games ”or“ Game Novel ”, focusing on the plot, or rather, mainly from it and consisting. Here we will talk about them now. Twe need to increase the level of the Japanese, otherwise the harm of it is an article.

Many mistakenly call all Japanese adventure games “visual novels”. In Japan, this is a very narrow category of games in which the text is displayed directly on top of the image and fills the entire screen, instead of appearing in a neatly designed window at the bottom of the screen. Visual novels, audio-noneals, graphic adventures, text adventures, interactive history, dates and many others-all this is just a suck.

If we take it wider, it will be just “Novel Game” which is already divided into sucks. However, such heads such as Phoenix Wright or Virtue’s Last Reward are not “Novel Games” but “Adventure Game” (“Adventure Game”), although the term “Nevel Games” is closer in the sense and better reflects the gameplay.

What is the difference between Western and Japanese “adventure games”? Both the oldest game genres that appeared at the dawn of the 1980s. The genre appeared after the Japanese company Microcabi released the Western Mystery House authorship of Robert and Ken Williams, but unlike the Kletama (Point and Click) development of Western quests. In Japan, with the same sources of inspiration, puzzles and research began to develop. So the Japanese adventure already in the 1980s were closer to modern interactive stories in the spirit of Heavy Rain and Telltale games.

Visual novels made the first serious application about themselves on SNES in 1992 and 1994

Chunsoft released “Otogirisou” And “Kamaitachi no yoro”. They were certainly not the first, the visual novels were released back in the 1980s. But it was these games that they brought out what you would think – gameplay to a new level. A full-fledged “Full-Screen” text interface appeared. Having spied the ideas of the games of Sid Mair. Instead of performing hundreds of micro-acts like “Raise the key”, “Put the lock”, “Open the door”. Chunsoft Games concentrated on intuitive macro solutions. Suppose you are in the room and hear someone to climb the stairs. You immediately have the choice of “jump out the window” and “get out through the door”, now it was not possible to get stuck to the finals, whatever it was, everyone would reach. Then serious variability of passage appeared.

But the most popular novels in Japan still had one final or type of “variability”. For simplicity of understanding, I will explain on the example of the average “Dating-SIM”. Suppose you have a choice of 5 girls that you can meet, which means that there may be 5 endings, but they will only differ only in a model or rather a girl with a picture of a girl at the end. But the mentioned “Otogirisou” and “Kamaitachi No Yoru” possessed precisely the variability of the passage, and the plot developed according to the most incredible paths. Even the genre could change from the detective to the horror, thriller, a spy detective or even a romantic comedy.

In 1994, the Tokimeki Memorial from Konami came to PC Engine. The emphasis was made on adventures and a romantic line. She very quickly gained popularity and loyal fans who preferred to call her tokimemo. Soon, ports on PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC followed. The game was built on the fact that the player has been pumping his skills for 3 years, studying in high school, which means to go on dates, conquer the hearts of beauties. Hello Persona.

It was with her that the general fashion for “Dating-Sim” began, capturing not only the male audience but also the female. New circumstances demanded new achievements. Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side was urgently released, which became a sign of a game in the nascent genre of “Otome Game” – this is rather a suck, the essence of which in which in the role of a girl to develop relationships with guys. Compared to other visual novels, whose stories ended sooner or later, games like Girl’s Side were constantly developing – continuations were released, and popularity did not weaken. The mentioned division of the audience has developed for a reason. The guys played in “Yuri” versions (lesbian), and girls in the “yao” version (Gay). The demand for them was so great that the largest companies such as Nitro Plus were shaken to develop the best people and allocated solid budgets. The creator of Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero (two best -selling anime of all time) led the development of one of the most successful “yaoil” short stories – Dramatical Murder.

In 1996, the developer of the LEAF PC-IGR combined the classical mechanics of adventure game with erotic content. These games “Shizuku” and “Kizuato” enjoyed great success. A mixture of stressed horror with variability of the Chunsoft style. And then Leaf released the comedy “To Heart”.

These were the ancestors of those visual novels who still come out. Soon, such a background appeared as “Nakige” or “Crying Game”, the essence of which is to create emotional stress between the player and characters (in other words, such games in which you empathize with the heroes). It was these approaches to the creation of games-novell who determined the face of the genre for the next 20 years.

In games such as Song of Saya or Over The Rainbow, sex scenes should have caused horror in the reader. This is the so -called “Darkig” genre, with a gloomy atmosphere and an abundance of cruelty. How many have already guessed the scenes of sex in them by the Guro category, which shows the cruelty of humiliation and torture, reaching openly grotesque forms with an abundance.

In Japan, romantic visual novels became an analogue of SIMS in America and Europe.
Using a huge fan base, many other developers began to create their games, already with an emphasis on a romantic line, but for users of all ages, and after that and with a note 18+. In most cases, 18+ the game was released on a PC, then there was a release of the version for all ages not only on PC but also consoles (later devices on iOS and Android were added to them). The term “erogen” (from the words “erotic” and “game” (in Japanese sounds like “gemu”) applies to all games with sex scenes, and qualify as “h-scenes” (“h”, of course, from the word “hentai”). Such, ready -made scenes simply cut out of the game in order to soften the rating and increase profits, even despite the fact that for the sake of these scenes they played in them.

But there was also the return of the Hentai scenes to the game. For example, Little Busters first went to a PC with a rating for everyone, and a year later a reprint with the ECSTASY subtitle was released, where all the hantai scenes returned. And when they announced TV adaptation, another reprint came out, where all the hantay scenes have already been cut back. As the Internet spread due to the joint efforts of enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic, English -speaking versions of the most popular short stories began to appear, for example Kanon. One of the largest games of the Western user introducing the Japanese adventure games was the official release of Phoenix Wright from Capcom.

This led to the creation of a whole category of players who took on the localization of games, while cooperating at the official level with publishers and developers. So, in fact, the majority of visual novels in the Western market appeared. Instead of somehow interfering with fans, publishers actively interacted with them, and after negotiations and some approvals they released a version of the game with a fan translation. An example of this approach is Steins; Gate and EF: A Fairy Tale of the Two.

In the case of the Umineko series: whether the authorship of Ryukishi07 (which, by the way, was inspired by the “witch from Blair”), translators from ideological enthusiasts have become professionals, and are now engaged in localization at the official level.

It is more profitable for publishers to work with such as Ryukishi07, because it is “Doujin” – “Indie” in our opinion, but there is also its own specifics. His games are published on his own, but if in the West “Indie” is an original pro -kek, then in Japan this can be a game based on someone else’s intellectual property.

“Games-News” produced such large companies as Konami. But, work on Ookami Kakushi is serious from work on, for example, on the independent When They Cry.

Firstly, there is a schedule of which you need to adhere to, which means that before starting development a detailed plan is drawn up. Already by this moment the script should be ready. And when you work for yourself, then everything is created by inspiration. And all sorts of conflicts and creative crises are a schedule blow. In the end, there is such a thing as “Deadline”. When you work alone, you can change anything at any time, even a day before creating a conditional “master disk”.

Number 1 is Ki (beginning), 3- ten (confrontation, plot turn) and 4- Ketsu (denouement), but the element under the number 2 is ShO (everyday life, naturalness, daily routine), in other words- the introduction, development, plot turning, completion.

These elements are next to 1, 2, 3, 4- number 2 and 3 the most important in the modern Japanese submission of the plot (especially 3-plot turn)

“I believe that the culture of Otaku entered the dead end that is marked by number 3, [plot turn]. In Japan, a huge number of high-quality novel games are created, and therefore, most possible plot turns have already been met by Otaku, and excellent turns. And now when they already know all possible options for the development of the plot, they require more and more. … they say: “This is somehow not very, I was waiting for the best, there were games before. You guys rolled up “” “

– Ryukishi07, creator of whet
An interesting difference between visual novels is that there are practically no abolished projects or thrown out ideas and ideas.

Interesting fact: Many India Igers were distributed by the developers themselves to Comiket (Japanese exhibition dedicated to anime and manga). So, on Comiket #84 in 2013, over 60% of the developers were girls. And if you look at the existence of the exhibition from a historical point of view and calculate the average ratio of developers of girls and guys T, we get 2: 1, respectively. And this is not some modern trend. When “Comiket” only opened in the 1970s, most of the independent authors of the manga (including “Yaoynaya”) were girls.

But let’s get back 10 years ago, because so far nothing has been said about PlayStation. This unforgivable omission needs to be urgently corrected.

In 1994, Sony entered the market as an independent player. However, the creation of the original PlayStation, which brought its world glory and success, was not trivial and became, in fact, the result of the aggravated contradictions between Sony and Nintendo.They cooperated since Famicom, supplying different details for the consoles. Ideas for using discs appeared back in 1986, but due to the not high reliability and the ability to pirate this idea, they postponed. The idea returned to the idea with the Specification of CD-ROM/XA (expansion of the CD-ROM standard, which allows you to record on the disk both compressed sound and arbitrary binary data). At that time they were produced by only two Sony and Philips companies. Given the long-standing connections of Nintendo, she turned to Sony with a proposal to jointly release “SNES-CD”.

Sony also planned to develop her playing console compatible with Nintendo, one that could lose games both with Super Nintendo cartridges and with compact format compact disks, which will be developed in Sony. This format was supposed to be the SNES-CD format used for disks, which would give Sony a certain share of the video game market, despite the leading position of Nintendo.

In 1991, Snes-CD was supposed to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) exhibition. However, when Hiroshi Yamauti read the 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he decided that the agreement gives Sony too much: control over the licensing of products that go out in the Snescd-Rom format. Yamauti considered the contract completely unacceptable, he secretly canceled all plans for the release of a joint product from partners. On the opening day Ces, At 9 o’clock in the morning, instead of the announcement of cooperation with Sony, the director of Nintendo, Howard Lincoln (Howard Lincoln) went to the rostrum and reported that his company was starting cooperation with Philips and releasing all the developments made together with Sony. Before that, the Lincoln and Minor Arakawa secretly visited the PHILIPS headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance on completely different conditions that give Nintendo full control over all licenses.

“As a result, Play Station appeared (they say, with a gap), which was announced on Consumer Electronics Show in 1991 … … one of the lucky ones in the hands of the same Snes-CD, which was talked about in 1991. This is a truly unique device – since it did not reach conveyor production, there were only a few prototypes collected by engineers in the world. Naturally, a lucky one named Dan Diebold could not help but share a find with the Internet. Please note that the console read both CDs and cartridges for SNES, that is, it was a kind of universal combine “.

– Gennady Vorobyov, the first PlayStation almost turned out to be the Nintendo console
After the collapse of the Alliance, Sony decided to stop the development, but ultimately the company decided to use what was currently accumulated and create a complete, completely independent console.

By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo came to an agreement, according to which Sony Play Station was able to lose the ported games from SNES, but Nintendo became the owner of the rights and received part of the profit from the games, and the SNES still used the sound chip from Sony. Nevertheless, at that time, Sony already realized that the SNES technology will soon be a thing of the past, and the appearance of the next generation of consoles is no longer around the corner. In early 1993, Sony began work on the development of its Play Station concept for the next generation of hardware and software.

Since 1994 and during the first two years, such games as Kyūsei Kōshu (based on the popular manga and whose previous units were released on the Nintendo consoles), Air Combat (port from arcade machines), Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood (also a port from arcade automatic machines), have been released.Breakthru! (Popular puzzle-headed puzzle, which moved to PlayStation with SNES), Cyber ​​Sled (port from arcade automatic), published in 1996 by Crash Bandicoot, was positioned as an alternative to Mario, and the creators of Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin spent months in studying Japanese films, books, manga and anime, so thatcreate a competitor in the Japanese market. Such classic series Nintendo Metal Gear and Final Fantasy began to appear on the Sonya console. Almost immediately on Konami, Capcom and other heavyweights began to release either the continuation of the games, known as Nintendo, or launched new franchises. And NAMCO completely provided the starting line of games in 1994 on the same time with the internal studios of Sony.

By the mid-1990s, the industry had grown to its own gaming exhibition.

Tokyo Game Show (tōkyō gēmu shō?) began in the distant 1996, as a modest exhibition and traveled to a large -scale world scale in 2009. Until 2002 it was held annually in the summer and winter in the Japanese city of Chiba. But the format has changed and now it passes every spring with the support of Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (Cesa) and Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. In the exhibition center “Tokyo Big Sight”

Then, in the mid-1990s, “cosplay” began to actively develop. It existed even in the time of Comiket, but, firstly, then it did not reached a professional level, and secondly, the anime and manga was dedicated primarily.

On September 30, 2007, 7918 items of games and other software for PlayStation were released around the world with a total of 961 million pieces, and the production of the console lasted 11 years, and this became one of the longest periods of production in the video game industry. In total, more than 100 million consoles were sold.

Interesting fact: Konami planned to release its console in 1994. At first it was supposed to be a full -fledged home console, then portable but with 3D support. As a result, as we know, it did not work out with either one or the other. And the team working on games for the starting line was transferred to PlayStation projects, along with games. Exclusively on the PS came the Shadow of Memories, Suikoden 1.2. According to Yoshitak Murayam, she was inspired by such a manga as Captain Tsubasa, Saint Seiya and Dragon Ball. The first 2 parts of Suikoden turned to such serious topics as terrorism, genocide, chemical weapons, the murder of civilians, racial prejudices and much more. An even more interesting fact is that some employees deny the existence of plans for the release of the console.

Nintendo remained the market king, and Sony decided not to offer an adult alternative as Sega, but to become nintendo herself. For all her games, their analogues were created or continuations of the familiar fans of the series were produced. As I said. The average gamer went to the store asked about Mario, and if the adventures of the mustachioed plumbing were exclusive, then another popular series (Final Fantasy for example) was now available on PlayStation. Having played it, the proud Nintendo fan had a reason to take a closer look at other projects. Sony just like Nintendo spent the best games from arcade machines. And since the gaming community was very large -scale and constantly contacted, Sony, at least, informedly penetrated the Nintendo market. It turned out that there are favorite games with machine guns not only on SNES and Nintendo 64.

But this was not some kind of special and brilliant business trip. Rather, on the contrary, this is the only reliable way to compete.

The Japanese attach great importance to the concept of “first -disorder”. There is a significant, as it were, a high -quality gap between this and subsequent categories. There are first -bit firms, first -bit universities, first -bit restaurants. There is unofficial gradation even among government institutions.

Japanese institutions and corporations, escaped among the first -bit, of course, compete. But at the same time, they do not seek to stand out some kind of characteristic feature, to find their own profile in something. Instead, rivals tend to be like each other, imitate the structure of the group standing higher, duplicate each type of its activity.

It was worth the Mitsui concern to build the first high -rise building in Tokyo, his rivals “Sumitomo” and “Mitsubishi” were immediately erected along the skyscraper.

To answer the question of what differs in their profile and political direction of the newspaper Asahi, Minity and Jomiuri, is as difficult as to determine the difference in the nature of the activities of the Mitsukosi, Daimaru, Matsuza-Kaya department stores. The leading Japanese universities and monopolistic concerns are just as similar to each other.

But Sega did not take these features to take into account, which predicted her failure in the Japanese market.
This approach to business is not random. It fully corresponds to the group consciousness of Japanese society.

“Japan is a country of groups. On these overpopulated islands, groups are formed, probably, if necessary. Solitude in our understanding is unattainable here “.

– George Mikesh, a country of rising yen.
Unlike Indian castes or guilds in medieval Europe, closed groups in Japan are based not on horizontal, but on vertical connections. The Japanese professor is closer to his assistants and students than to other professors of the same university or his colleagues in the specialty. “This is more like a ship crew that is equipped with people of all the necessary specialties in order to successfully compete with other ships.”.

“This strange communism is the result of political agreements that the ruling elite consciously introduced into society more than 300 years ago,” and that the essence of these agreements boils down to the fact that every Japanese should accept as inevitability, that his mental and psychological growth is limited to the will of the collective ”.

– Karel Van Voltron, a mystery of power in Japan: people and politics in a non -state nation.
Japanese society is a group of groups. Each person constantly feels like a part of some group-either family, or communities, or firms. He is used to thinking and acting together, is accustomed to obey the will of the group and behave accordingly to his position in it.
There are more than independence to the feeling of involvement – the very feeling that a person who sings in the choir or walks in the ranks experiences.

Japan owes this image of thinking to this image of education, which has gathered a lot from Confucianism. Which since the beginning of the 17th century the country’s military rulers – the shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty – began to impose intensely, with his idea of ​​humility by higher.

The teachings of Confucius were based on the fact that the son should be a son, and his father should be a father;subject – subjects, and the lord is the Lord.

The examination system serves its rod, its essence is to accustom people to remember, not to think;to act, as is customary, and not look for independent decisions;follow traditions, not break them. Japanese morality considers the bonds of mutual dependence the basis of relations between people. Individualism is portrayed by it cold, dry, inhuman. “Find a group to which you belong, – preaches Japanese morality. – Be faithful to her and rely on her. You will not find your place in life alone, you will be lost in her intricacies. There can be no sense of confidence without a sense of dependence “.

Against this background, the Otaku geek group looks completely different. The very idea of ​​combining with common interests is by no means something marginal, as one could assume, but the norm. It is the “group” type of consciousness that explains the explosive RUST of the popularity of culture. At first, she spread at school horizontally among all social groups, and only then in adulthood they spread vertically (whether it was a family or company).

“Tastes differ”, If for us this means that everyone has their own taste, then in the understanding of the Japanese they do not argue about tastes, because it is already established from above and there is nothing to discuss here. Of course, Nintendo, becoming a monopolist, fully used the features of culture.

And what was there in the second half of the 1990s? Surely stiff competition began. On the adjustment of Nintendo 64 in 1996, in Japan, she felt confident, or rather too self -confident. Nintendo decided to completely surrender to the mercy of their fan-bas. Apparently, the leadership believed that loyalty to the group would outweigh any temptations. And given the structure of Japanese society, these hopes were not groundless. This self -confidence is visible in everything: from the statements of leadership, to backward reproduction technologies based on cartridges (apparently the gap with Sony turned out to be too painful in the future, although the words about the reliability and lack of piracy) and the absenteeism) and The starting line of games is clearly designed for fans: Super Mario 64, in addition, there were other games about Mario (Mario Kart 64, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Paper Mario, and Mario Party 1, 2, and 3), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros., Goldeneye and Conker’s bad Fur Day.

A symbol of this self -confidence and not the desire to take risks, one can rightfully consider their gamepad.

He possessed both a stylish control and button, having left Sony in the same 1996 from Sony, this successfully combined the industry forever, and in 2007, for the DualShock game controller, Sony received the Emmy Prize “For the Development of the Periphery and the Influence on Game Controller Technology”.

But, it was then, in 1996 Nintendo in the person of Satoshi Tajiri came up with one of her most popular series – Pokemon (from English. Pocket Monster – “Pocket Monster”). The very first games, Pokémon Red and Blue, were released on February 27, 1996, and since then the games of the series have come to each new Nintendo game console. The main series of games is made in the JRPG genre, however, spin-offs can be of various genres, such as puzzle, action-RPG and Tamagoti. Side game setting can also differ greatly from the main series.

Nintendo is difficult to blame, because they could not go to revolutionary changes without losing fan support. In addition, in the distant 1996, the future seemed bright and cloudless, especially considering how easily they got off with a challenge of Sega. The real confrontation unfolded already in the XXI century. And then there was a lot of interesting and important.

The beginning of the 21st century was marked not only by the release of PlayStation 2 and its direct competitor – Xbox, but also by the rapid growth of mobile games. Meanwhile, at the state level, it was decided to change society from group consciousness to individualistic, which was reflected in the general cultural crisis, which immediately followed economic, but more on this next time.

“Japanese vision of the 21st century”– So called a document, which in 2000 prepared the best minds of the country for the government. “Economic and social globalization, the information and technological revolution, the accelerated progress of science, the decrease in the birth rate and aging of the population in industrial countries-all this quickly changes the world familiar to us,” the authors of the report noted. They conclude: the changed conditions require Japan to turn from the “kingdom of groups” into the “kingdom of personalities”. It is impossible to allow traditions and customs to suppress new ideas and extraordinary actions.

The document called for the youth to educate the spirit of innovation, to see the source of power in variety. Among the most sensational recommendations – to give English the status of the second state language, duplicate all official documents on it. The authors of the “Japanese vision of the 21st century” bitterly noted that in the possession of English, which actually became the language of the Internet, the Japanese are at one of the last places in the world.

The consequences of this had for society as a whole and the gaming industry in particular, and also what this led to many developers, but we will talk about this and much more about this and much more.

P.S. Last time I asked to write tips in the comments about the content: what to add what to remove, but it turned out somehow in any way. As you can see, this part is 2 times larger than the previous. Here I decided to pay attention to the general information about the industry and in the style of an article about China, I briefly described the Japanese society. I ask you to write what is superfluous here and what is missing.