Management & Marketing
JAPANESE INNOVATORS SET
SIGHTS ON EUROPEAN IGAMING
Developers from Japan, spiritual home of the games industry, are now
turning their considerable talents to developing a new genre of Millennialfriendly games for the UK and European iGaming markets, reveals iGaming
futurologist Mark McGuinness.
Asia is the world’s largest online games
and gambling market. The region has over
4.4 billion people, representing 60% plus
of the world’s population. It is, therefore, no
surprise that Japan, the birthplace of the
modern games console and spiritual home
of the games industry, is looking to the UK
and Western European iGaming vertical for
further expansion and dominance.
Who can forget such hit games from
the early 80s or 90s such as Mario, Final
Fantasy, Zelda, Pokémon, Pac-Man and the
Tekken series, a worldwide smash selling
over 30 million. At one point, Japan via
the behemoth corporations such as Sony,
makers of PlayStation and Nintendo of the
ubiquitous Wii, had more than 50% of the
global console market.
While the console market has seen some
shrinkage over the years due to growth in
PC-based games, digital downloads and
mobile, the Japanese games market value
is $10bn and continues to grow. Indeed,
many industry analysts are citing even
more, growth and dominance to come in the
mobile gaming sector.
The analysts’ forecast for further expansion
is attributed to a mobile-first strategy with a
host of new indie games creators and studios
coming to prominence in Japan. Due to this
growth in the independent games sector,
and given the vast amounts of revenue that
can be achieved with a successful game
franchise, collaboration and consolidation
are inevitable. On the consolidation front,
Ganapatic plc, a business listed on the ICAP
Securities and Derivatives Exchange (ISDX)
in the UK, has started this process by bringing
some major games development talent into
their business under one unified umbrella.
86 | iGamingBusiness | Issue 96 | January/February 2016
The company is in the process of applying for
a UK Gambling Commission licence and is
set to become one of the first Japanese exports
looking to target the UK and European online
gambling vertical with a new genre of games.
An example of the collaboration that
mobile games success can bring is that of
Monster Strike between Mixi, the Japanese
social networking service, and former
Capcom executive producer Yoshiki
Okamoto. Okamoto, who helped create
Street Fighter II, Resident Evil and many
others, developed Monster Strike. In the
game, the player battles waves of monsters
to collect, fuse and evolve them, while
earning gold and other items through
gameplay. The game was a success both in
Japan and globally, and is one of the world’s
biggest grossing mobile games, reportedly
making $4 million daily, and is a testament
to the importance of Japanese know-how
within game development.
The console and publisher ‘old guard’ have
also embraced mobile distribution. One of
Japan’s largest, Nintendo, continues to do
deals with mobile publishers to increase
their reach. Nintendo signed a deal with
one of Japan’s prominent mobile publishers,
DeNA, which owns the Mobage platform,
one of the most popular cellphone-gaming
platforms in Japan, to distribute its console
network services to these platforms, thus
further demonstrating the need for mobile
distribution of games.
Game theme and design
As with all games, whether Asian or Western
European, it is important to consider the
local market and player requirements. This
increases the performance of the games. For
example, exotic imagery of Chinese, Japanese,
Korean and other cultures of the Far East
have made for popular game themes and
franchises. This may include games inspired
by local folklore, legends and symbolism. This
can include fantastical characters, dragonthemes, geishas to martial arts and samurai
warriors and much more, and is only limited
by the developer’s imagination.
With a multi-billion dollar market in the
UK and Europe up for grabs in gaming,
Yutaka Kounoe, a leading games developer,
formerly of Bandai Namco Games Inc. said:
“As games become an ever-more-important
aspect for the iGaming’s operator’s product
mix and marketing strategy to differentiate
themselves, then they should look to the
land of the rising sun”. The games product
category is becoming more competitive; it
is therefore important that operators select
not only games developers with the correct
technical skills and distribution networks but
those with both local and global game design
knowledge and game immersion, in order to
stay one-step ahead of the competition.
Japanese games developers are adept at
engaging with the latest technologies both
on a macro and localised market entry level.
They can bring a much-needed injection of
innovation, game design and, in particular,
mobile ingenuity to the iGaming market as
brands seek to differentiate themselves and
capture the new Millennial generation of
gamers and gamblers.
Mark McGuinness Bsc BA has
more than 15 years experience
in digital marketing director
roles with both private and public
iGaming operators. He is the resident
iGaming Futurologist for Isle of Man-based
Mainstream Marketing & Communications, a
digital marketing agency offering business and
marketing advice on social gaming, iGaming and
land-based gambling.