Video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s are a major industry in Japan. Japanese game development is often identified with the golden age of video games, including Nintendo under Shigeru Miyamoto and

Hiroshi Yamauchi was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company in 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being subsequently succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year tenure, Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from a hanafu ...

, Sega during the same time period,

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

when it was based in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, and other companies such as

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. I ...

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiung, ...

, Capcom, Square Enix,

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

, and

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

, among others. The space is known for the catalogs of several major publishers, all of whom have competed in the

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

and

video arcade An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such a ...

markets at various points. Released in 1965, ''

Periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...

'' was a major

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

hit in Japan, preceding several decades of success in the arcade industry there. Nintendo, a former

hanafuda are a style of Japanese playing cards. They are typically smaller than Western playing cards, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, ''tanzaku'' (短冊), animals, birds, or man-made objects. One sin ...

playing card vendor, rose to prominence during the 1980s with the release of the home

called the

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

or "Family Computer", which became a major hit as the Nintendo Entertainment System or "NES" internationally. Sony, already one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers, entered the market in 1994 with the

Sony PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divi ...

, one of the first home consoles to feature

3D graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...

, almost immediately establishing itself as a major publisher in the space. Shigeru Miyamoto remains internationally renowned as a "father of videogaming" and is the only game developer so far to receive Japan's highest civilian honor for artists, the 文化功労者 (bunka kōrōsha) or Person of Cultural Merit. Arcade culture is a major influence among young Japanese, with Akihabara Electric Town being a major nexus of so-called

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorat ...

culture in Japan, which overlaps with videogaming heavily. Japanese video game franchises such as '' Super Smash Bros.'', '' Pokémon'', '' Super Mario'', ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

'', ''

Animal Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. The series was conceptualized and created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. In ''Animal Crossing'', the player character is a human who lives in a village inhab ...

'', '' Shin Megami Tensei: Persona'', ''

Resident Evil ''Resident Evil'', known in Japan as is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...

'', ''

Dark Souls is a series of action role-playing games created by Hidetaka Miyazaki of FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The series began with the release of '' Dark Souls'' (2011) and has seen two sequels, ''Dark Souls II'' (2014) ...

'' and ''

Monster Hunter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games that started with the game '' Monster Hunter'' for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of platforms ...

'' have gained critical acclaim and continue to garner a large international following. The

Japanese role-playing game While the early history and distinctive traits of role-playing video games (RPGs) in East Asia come from Japan, many have also been developed in South Korea and in China. Japanese role-playing games Japanese computer role-playing games O ...

is a major game genre innovated by Japan and remains popular both domestically and internationally, with titles like ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

'' and '' Dragon Quest'' selling millions. The country has an estimated 67.6 million players in 2018.

History

Background

In 1966, Sega introduced an

electro-mechanical game Electro-mechanical games (EM games) are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun ...

called ''

'' - a submarine simulator which used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine. It became an instant success in Japan, Europe, and North America, where it was the first arcade game to cost a

quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25. Quarter or quarters may refer to: Places * Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town Placenames * Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland * Le Quartier, a settlement ...

per play, Steven L. Kent (2000), ''The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games'', p. 83, BWD Press, which would remain the standard price for arcade games for many years to come.Mark J. P. Wolf (2008)
''The video game explosion: a history from PONG to PlayStation and beyond''
p. 149, ABC-CLIO, Sega later produced gun games that used rear image projection in a manner similar to the ancient

zoetrope A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...

to produce moving animations on a

screen Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...

. The first of these, the light-gun game ''

Duck Hunt is a 1984 light gun shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console and the Nintendo Vs. System arcade hardware. The game was first released in April 1984, in Japan for the ...

'', appeared in 1969; it featured animated moving targets on a screen, printed out the player's score on a ticket, and had volume-controllable sound-effects. Another Sega 1969 release, ''Missile'', a

shooter Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...

, featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen.

1970s to early 1980s

The first

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...

Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...

's ''

Pong ''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Al ...

'', debuted in the United States in 1972, and led to a number of new American manufacturers to create their own arcade games to capitalize on the rising fad. Several of these companies had Japanese partners and kept their overseas counterparts abreast of this new technology, leading several Japanese coin-operated electronic games makers to step into the arcade game market as well.

and

were some of the early adopters of arcade games in Japan, first distributing American games before developing their own. Nintendo which at this time was primarily manufacturing traditional and electronic toys, also entered the arcade game market in the latter part of the 1970s. As in the United States, many of the early Japanese arcade games were based on the principle of

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...

gameplay established by popular titles to make new ones. However, several new concepts came out of these Japanese-developed games, and performed well in both Japan and in re-licensed versions in the United States, such as Taito's ''

Speed Race is a 1974 arcade racing video game developed and manufactured by Taito and released under the titles ''Racer'' and ''Wheels'' in North America by distributor Midway Manufacturing in 1975. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, the gameplay involves th ...

'' and ''

Gun Fight ''Gun Fight'', known as in Japan and Europe, is a 1975 multidirectional shooter arcade game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released by Taito in Japan and Europe and by Midway in North America. Based around two Old West cowboys armed ...

'' in 1975. ''Gun Fight'' notably, when released by Midway Games in the U.S., was the first arcade game to use a

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

rather than discrete electronic components. Sega's black and white boxing game ''

Heavyweight Champ is a series of List of boxing video games, boxing video games released by Sega. The original arcade game was released in 1976. The game featured black-and-white graphics and critics have since identified it as the first Fighting game, video gam ...

'' was released in 1976 as the first video game to feature

fist fighting Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

. The first

stealth game A stealth game is a type of video game in which the player primarily uses ''stealth'' to avoid or overcome opponents. Games in the genre typically allow the player to remain undetected by hiding, sneaking, or using disguises. Some games allow th ...

s were Hiroshi Suzuki's ''Manbiki Shounen'' (1979) and ''Manbiki Shoujo'' (1980),

's ''

Lupin III , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch. It follows the endeavors of master thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsèn ...

'' (1980), and Sega's ''

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

'' (1981). TV Tennis Electrotennis

Separately, the first home video game console, the

Magnavox Odyssey The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September ...

, had been released in the U.S. in 1971, of which Nintendo had partnered to manufacture the

light gun A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol. Early history The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensin ...

accessory for the console, while Atari began releasing home console versions of ''Pong'' in 1975. Japan's first home video game console was

Epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

's TV Tennis Electrotennis. It was followed by the first successful Japanese console, Nintendo's Color TV Game, in 1977 which was made in partnership with Mitsubishi Electronics. Numerous other dedicated home consoles were made mostly by television manufacturers, leading these systems to be called ''TV geemu'' or ''terebi geemu'' in Japan. Tomohiro-nishikado

Eventually, the 1978 arcade release of ''Space Invaders'' would mark the first major mainstream breakthrough for video games in Japan.Martin Picard
The Foundation of Geemu: A Brief History of Early Japanese video games
''International Journal of Computer Game Research'', 2013 Created by Nishikado at Japan's

, ''Space Invaders'' pitted the player against multiple enemies descending from the top of the screen at a constantly increasing speed.Buchanan, Levi
Space Invaders
, IGN, March 31, 2003. Accessed June 14, 2008 The game used alien creatures inspired by ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

'' (by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...

s of the time, the game was set in space as the available technology only permitted a black background. The game also introduced the idea of giving the player a number of "

lives Lives may refer to: * The plural form of a '' life'' * Lives, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran * The number of lives in a video game * '' Parallel Lives'', aka ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', a series of biographies of famous ...

". It popularised a more interactive style of gameplay with the enemies responding to the player-controlled cannon's movement, and it was the first video game to popularise the concept of achieving a

high score In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in th ...

, being the first to save the player's score. The aliens of ''Space Invaders'' return fire at the protagonist, making them the first arcade game targets to do so. It set the template for the shoot 'em up genre, and has influenced most shooting games released since then. Donkey Kong arcade

Taito's ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter an ...

'', in 1978, proved to be the first

blockbuster Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: *Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Bl ...

arcade video game. Its success marked the beginning of the

golden age of arcade video games The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development and cultural influence of arcade video games, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The period began with the release of ''Space Invaders'' in 1978, ...

. Video game arcades sprang up in shopping malls, and small "corner arcades" appeared in restaurants, grocery stores, bars and movie theaters all over Japan and other countries during the late 1970s and early 1980s. ''Space Invaders'' (1978), ''Galaxian'' (1979), ''Pac-Man'' (1980) and ''

Bosconian is a multidirectional scrolling shooter arcade game which was developed and released by Namco in Japan in 1981. In North America, it was manufactured and distributed by Midway Games. The goal of the game is to earn as many points as possible ...

'' (1981) were especially popular. By 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion ($ in ). Some games of this era were so popular that they entered

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

. The first to do so was ''Space Invaders''. The game was so popular upon its release in 1978 that an urban legend blamed it for a national shortage of

100 yen coin The is a denomination of Japanese yen. The current design was first minted in silver in 1959 and saw a change of metal in 1967. It is the second-highest denomination coin in Japan after the 500 yen coin. The current 100 yen coin is one of two d ...

s in Japan, leading to a production increase of coins to meet demand for the game (although 100 yen coin production was lower in 1978 and 1979 than in previous or subsequent years, and the claim does not withstand logical scrutiny: arcade operators would have emptied out their machines and taken the money to the bank, thus keeping the coins in circulation). Japanese arcade games during the golden age also had hardware unit sales at least in the tens of thousands, including ''

Ms. Pac-Man is a 1982 maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the first sequel to '' Pac-Man'' (1980) and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the title character, Pac-Man's ...

'' with over 115,000 units, ''

Donkey Kong is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...

'' with over 60,000, ''

Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, wh ...

'' with 40,000, '' Donkey Kong Jr.'' with 35,000, and ''

Mr. Do! is a 1982 maze game developed by Universal. It is the first arcade video game to be released as a conversion kit for other arcade machines; Taito published the conversion kit in Japan. The game was inspired by Namco's ''Dig Dug'' released earl ...

'' with 30,000. Other Japanese arcade games established new concepts that would become fundamentals in video games. Use of color graphics and individualized antagonists were considered "strong evolutionary concepts" among space ship games. The Namco's ''

'' in 1979 introduced multi-colored animated sprites. That same year saw the release of

's debut shoot 'em up ''

Ozma Wars is a fixed shooter arcade video game developed by Shin Nihon Kikaku (SNK) and released in 1979. The background gives the impression of vertical scrolling, but the player ship's movement is restricted to the bottom of the screen. Gameplay The pl ...

'', notable for being the first action game to feature a supply of energy, resembling a

life bar ''Life Bar'' () is a South Korean Talk show distributed by tvN every Thursday night at 11:00. Season 1 broadcast its final episode on April 13, 2017. Season 2 premiered on May 18, 2017. Format It is a unique talk show where celebrity guests an ...

, a mechanic that has now become common in the majority of modern action games. It also featured vertically

scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...

backgrounds and enemies.

1980s to early 2000s

From 1980 to 1991, Nintendo produced a line of

handheld electronic game Handheld electronic games are very small, portable devices for playing interactive electronic games, often miniaturized versions of video games. The controls, display and speakers are all part of a single unit. Rather than a general-purpose ...

s called ''

Game & Watch The Game & Watch brand ( ''Gēmu & Uotchi''; called ''Tricotronic'' in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as ''G&W'') is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. C ...

''. Created by game designer

Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of the ...

, each ''Game & Watch'' features a single game to be played on an LCD screen. It was the earliest Nintendo product to gain major success. Mega Man, known as Rockman (ロックマン, Rokkuman) in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man". Mega Man, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, was the first in a series that expanded to over 50 games on multiple systems. As of March 31, 2021, the game series has sold 36 million units worldwide.

's ''

Scramble Scramble, Scrambled, or Scrambling may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * ''Scramble'' (video game), a 1981 arcade game Music Albums * ''Scramble'' (album), an album by Atlanta-based band the Coathangers * ''Scrambles'' (album) ...

'', released in 1981, is a side-scrolling shooter with forced scrolling. It was the first scrolling shooter to offer multiple, distinct levels.Game Genres: Shmups, date=December 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes , Professor Jim Whitehead, January 29, 2007. Accessed June 17, 2008 Vertical scrolling shooters emerged around the same time. Namco's ''

Xevious is a vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades in 1982. It was released in Japan and Europe by Namco and in North America by Atari, Inc. Controlling the Solvalou starship, the player attacks Xevious f ...

'', released in 1982, is frequently cited as the first vertical scrolling shooter and, although it was in fact preceded by several other games of that type, it is considered one of the most influential. The first

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

to use

graphics was ''

Jump Bug is a 1981 scrolling shooter platform game developed by Alpha Denshi under contract for Hoei Corporation. It was distributed in arcades by Sega in Japan and Europe, and by Rock-Ola in North America. It was the first platform game to include h ...

'' (1981), a simple platform-

shooter game Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...

developed by

Alpha Denshi , formerly known as , was a Japanese video game developer founded in 1980. ADK began as a developer of arcade games and is best known for their library of SNK Neo Geo titles, including for its home consoles, produced in partnership with SNK. ...

. The North American video game industry was devastated by the

1983 video game crash The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

, but in Japan, it was more of a surprise to developers, and typically known in Japan as the "Atari Shock". After the video game crash, analysts doubted the long-term viability of the video game industry. At the same time, following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to create a cartridge-based console called the Famicom, which is short for Family Computer. Masayuki Uemura designed the system. The console was released on July 15, 1983 as the Family Computer (or Famicom for short) alongside three

ports A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

of Nintendo's successful arcade games ''

'', '' Donkey Kong Jr.'' and ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

. Following a

product recall A product recall is a request from a manufacturer to return a product after the discovery of safety issues or product defects that might endanger the consumer or put the maker/seller at risk of legal action. The recall is an effort to limit rui ...

and a reissue with a new motherboard, the Famicom's popularity soared, becoming the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984. By 1988, industry observers stated that the NES's popularity had grown so quickly that the market for Nintendo cartridges was larger than that for all home computer software. By mid-1986, 19% (6.5 million) of Japanese households owned a Famicom; one third by mid-1988. In June 1989, Nintendo of America's vice president of marketing Peter Main, said that the Famicom was present in 37% of Japan's households. By the end of its run, over 60 million NES units had been sold throughout the world. In 1990 Nintendo surpassed

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

as Japan's most successful corporation. Because the NES was released after the "video game crash" of the early 1980s, many retailers and adults regarded electronic games as a passing fad, so many believed at first that the NES would soon fade. Before the NES/Famicom, Nintendo was known as a moderately successful Japanese toy and playing card manufacturer, but the popularity of the NES/Famicom helped the company grow into an internationally recognized name almost synonymous with video games as Atari had been, and set the stage for Japanese dominance of the video game industry. With the NES, Nintendo also changed the relationship between

console manufacturer A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a ...

s and third-party software developers by restricting developers from publishing and distributing software without licensed approval. This led to higher quality software titles, which helped change the attitude of a public that had grown weary from poorly produced titles for earlier game systems. The system's hardware limitations led to design principles that still influence the development of modern video games. Many prominent game franchises originated on the NES, including Nintendo's own ''

Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...

'', ''

'' and '' Metroid'', Capcom's '' Mega Man'' franchise,

's '' Castlevania'' franchise,

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

's ''

'', and

Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

's '' Dragon Quest'' franchises. Following the release of the Famicom / Nintendo Entertainment System, the global video game industry began recovering, with annual sales exceeding $2.3 billion by 1988, with 70% of the market dominated by Nintendo. In 1986 Nintendo president

noted that "Atari collapsed because they gave too much freedom to third-party developers and the market was swamped with rubbish games". In response, Nintendo limited the number of titles that third-party developers could release for their system each year, and promoted its " Seal of Quality", which it allowed to be used on games and peripherals by publishers that met Nintendo's quality standards. Japan's first

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s for gaming soon appeared, the Sord M200 in 1977 and Sharp MZ-80K in 1978. In Japan, both consoles and computers became major industries, with the console market dominated by Nintendo and the computer market dominated by

PC-88 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the three major Japane ...

(1981) and

PC-98 The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...

(1982). A key difference between Western and Japanese computers at the time was the

display resolution The display resolution or display modes of a digital television, computer monitor or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution ...

, with Japanese systems using a higher resolution of 640x400 to accommodate Japanese text which in turn affected

video game design Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

and allowed more detailed graphics. Japanese computers were also using

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

's FM synth sound boards from the early 1980s. Reprinted from . During the

16-bit era In the history of video games, the fourth generation of game consoles, more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release of NEC Home Electronics' PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North Amer ...

, the PC-98,

Sharp X68000 The is a home computer created by Sharp Corporation. It was first released in 1987 and sold only in Japan. The initial model has a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU, 1 MB of RAM, and lacks a hard drive. The final model was released in 1993 wit ...

and FM Towns became popular in Japan. The X68000 and FM Towns were capable of producing near

-quality hardware sprite graphics and sound quality when they first released in the mid-to-late 1980s. The ''

Wizardry ''Wizardry'' is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Sir-Tech, that were highly influential in the evolution of modern role-playing video games. The original ''Wizardry'' was a significant influence on early console role-playing ...

'' series (translated by ASCII Entertainment) became popular and influential in Japan, even more so than at home. Japanese developers created the

action RPG An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...

subgenre in the early 1980s, combining RPG elements with

-style

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

and

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...

elements. The trend of combining role-playing elements with arcade-style action mechanics was popularized by ''

The Tower of Druaga is a 1984 arcade action role-playing maze game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling the golden-armored knight Gilgamesh, the player is tasked with scaling 60 floors of the titular tower in an effort to rescue the maiden Ki f ...

'', an arcade game released by

in June 1984. While the RPG elements in ''Druaga'' were very subtle, its success in Japan inspired the near-simultaneous development of three early action role-playing games, combining ''Druaga''s real-time

hack-and-slash Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay (H&S or HnS) or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons (such as swords or blades). They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well (such as ...

gameplay with stronger RPG mechanics, all released in late 1984: ''

Dragon Slayer A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classifica ...

'', ''Courageous Perseus'', and ''

Hydlide is an action role-playing game developed and published by T&E Soft. It was originally released for the NEC PC-6001 and PC-8801 computers in 1984, in Japan only; ports for the MSX, MSX2, FM-7 and NEC PC-9801 were released the following year ...

''. A rivalry developed between the three games, with ''Dragon Slayer'' and ''Hydlide'' continuing their rivalry through subsequent sequels. ''The Tower of Druaga'', ''Dragon Slayer'' and ''Hydlide'' were influential in Japan, where they laid the foundations for the action RPG genre, influencing titles such as '' Ys'' and ''

''. The action role-playing game ''

'' (1984) was an early open world game,1982–1987 – The Birth of Japanese RPGs, re-told in 15 Games

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

rewarding exploration in an open world environment. ''Hydlide'' influenced ''

'' (1986),John Szczepaniak
War of the Dead
''Hardcore Gaming 101'', 15 January 2011 an influential open world game. ''Zelda'' had an expansive, coherent open world design, inspiring many games to adopt a similar open world design. '' Bokosuka Wars'' (1983) is considered an early prototype

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to p ...

game.

TechnoSoft was a Japanese video game developer and publisher based headquartered in Sasebo, Nagasaki. Also known as "Tecno Soft", the company was founded in February 1980 as Sasebo Microcomputer Center, before changing its name to Technosoft in 1982. The c ...

's ''

Herzog ''Herzog'' (female ''Herzogin'') is a German hereditary title held by one who rules a territorial duchy, exercises feudal authority over an estate called a duchy, or possesses a right by law or tradition to be referred to by the ducal title. ...

'' (1988) is regarded as a precursor to the real-time strategy genre, being the predecessor to ''Herzog Zwei'' and somewhat similar in nature. ''

Herzog Zwei (, German for "'' Duke Two''") is a real-time strategy video game developed by Technosoft and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis. An early real-time strategy game, it predates the genre-popularizing ''Dune II''. It was released first i ...

'', released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

home console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...

in 1989, is the earliest example of a game with a feature set that falls under the contemporary definition of modern real-time strategy.Zzap! Issue 68, December 1990, p.45 –

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The A ...

's ''

Karate Champ ''Karate Champ'', known in Japan as , is a 1984 arcade fighting game developed by Technōs Japan (which would later developing 1995 Neo Geo titles '' Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer'' with SNK) and released by Data East. A variety of moves can be per ...

'' from 1984 is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre, and went on to influence

's ''

Yie Ar Kung-Fu () is an arcade fighting game developed by Konami. It first had a limited Japanese release in October 1984, before having a wide release nationwide in January 1985 and then internationally in March 1985. Along with ''Karate Champ'' (1984), which ...

'' from 1985. Capcom's ''

Street Fighter , commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...

'' (1987) introduced the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with the game controls. '' Street Fighter II'' (1991) established the conventions of the fighting game genre and allowed players to play against each other. In 1985,

Sega AM2 previously known as is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including '' Hang-On'' and ''Out Run'', was the first manager of t ...

's ''

Hang-On is an arcade racing game released by Sega in 1985 and later ported to the Master System. In the game, the player controls a motorcycle against time and other computer-controlled bikes. It was one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit graph ...

'', designed by

Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimen ...

and running on the Sega Space Harrier hardware, was the first of Sega's " Super Scaler" arcade system boards that allowed

pseudo-3D 2.5D (two-and-a-half dimensional) perspective refers to gameplay or movement in a video game or virtual reality environment that is restricted to a two-dimensional (2D) plane with little to no access to a third dimension in a space that otherwise ...

sprite-scaling at high frame rates. The pseudo-3D sprite/

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later

texture-mapped Texture mapping is a method for mapping a texture on a computer-generated graphic. Texture here can be high frequency detail, surface texture, or color. History The original technique was pioneered by Edwin Catmull in 1974. Texture mappi ...

polygonal 3D games of the 1990s. Designed by

, he stated that his "designs were always 3D from the beginning. All the calculations in the system were 3D, even from Hang-On. I calculated the position, scale, and zoom rate in 3D and converted it backwards to 2D. So I was always thinking in 3D." It was controlled using a

video game arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Mac ...

resembling a

motorbike A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruisin ...

, which the player moves with their body. This began the "Taikan" trend, the use of

motion-controlled Motion control is a sub-field of automation, encompassing the systems or sub-systems involved in moving parts of machines in a controlled manner. Motion control systems are extensively used in a variety of fields for automation purposes, includi ...

hydraulic arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980s, two decades before motion controls became popular on

s. Sega's ''

Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but tec ...

'', a rail shooter released in 1985, broke new ground graphically and its wide variety of settings across multiple levels gave players more to aim for than high scores. 1985 also saw the release of Konami's ''

Gradius is a series of shooter video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper. Games *''Scra ...

'', which gave the player greater control over the choice of weaponry, thus introducing another element of strategy. The game also introduced the need for the player to memorise levels in order to achieve any measure of success. ''Gradius'', with its iconic protagonist, defined the side-scrolling shoot 'em up and spawned a series spanning several sequels. The following year saw the emergence of one of Sega's forefront series with its game ''

Fantasy Zone is a 1986 arcade game by Sega, and the first game in the ''Fantasy Zone'' series. It was later ported to a wide variety of consoles, including the Master System. The player controls a sentient spaceship named Opa-Opa who fights an enemy inva ...

''. The game received acclaim for its surreal graphics and setting and the protagonist, Opa-Opa, was for a time considered Sega's

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

. The game borrowed ''Defender's'' device of allowing the player to control the direction of flight and along with the earlier ''

TwinBee is a vertically scrolling shooter released by Konami as an arcade video game in 1985 in Japan. Along with Sega's '' Fantasy Zone'', released a year later, ''TwinBee'' is credited as an early archetype of the "cute 'em up" type in its genre. It ...

'' (1985), is an early archetype of the "cute 'em up" subgenre. '' Hydlide II: Shine of Darkness'' in 1985 featured an early morality meter, where the player can be aligned with justice, normal, or evil, which is affected by whether the player kills evil monsters, good monsters, or humans, and in turn affects the reactions of the townsfolk towards the player. In the same year,

Yuji Horii (also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...

and his team at Chunsoft began production on '' Dragon Quest'' (''Dragon Warrior''). After

published the game in early 1986, it became the template for future console RPGs. Horii's intention behind ''Dragon Quest'' was to create a RPG that appeals to a wider audience unfamiliar with the genre or video games in general. This required the creation of a new kind of RPG, that didn't rely on previous ''D&D'' experience, didn't require hundreds of hours of rote fighting, and that could appeal to any kind of gamer. The streamlined gameplay of ''Dragon Quest'' thus made the game more accessible to a wider audience than previous computer RPGs. The game also placed a greater emphasis on storytelling and emotional involvement, building on Horii's previous work ''Portopia Serial Murder Case'', but this time introducing a coming of age tale for ''Dragon Quest'' that audiences could relate to, making use of the RPG level-building gameplay as a way to represent this. It also featured elements still found in most console RPGs, like major quests interwoven with minor subquests, an incremental spell system, the damsel-in-distress storyline that many RPGs follow, and a romance element that remains a staple of the genre, alongside

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

-style art by Akira Toriyama and a classical score by

Koichi Sugiyama was a Japanese composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was best known for composing the music for the '' Dragon Quest'' franchise, along with several other video games, anime, film, and television shows. Classically trained, Sugiyama was ...

that was considered revolutionary for console

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led t ...

. With ''Dragon Quest'' becoming widely popular in Japan, such that local municipalities were forced to place restrictions on where and when the game could be sold, the ''Dragon Quest'' series is still considered a bellwether for the Japanese video game market. Shoot 'em ups featuring characters on foot, rather than spacecraft, became popular in the mid-1980s in the wake of

action movie Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

s such as '' Rambo: First Blood Part II.''The History of SNK
, GameSpot. Accessed February 16, 2009 The origins of this type go back to '' Sheriff'' by Nintendo, released in 1979. Taito's '' Front Line'' (1982) established the upwards-scrolling formula later popularized by Capcom's ''

Commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...

,'' in 1985, and

's ''

Ikari Warriors ''Ikari Warriors'', known as in Japan, is a vertically-scrolling, run-and-gun shooter arcade video game released by SNK in 1986. It was published in North America by Tradewest. The game was released at the time when there were many ''Commando' ...

'' (1986).Bielby, Matt, "The YS Complete Guide To Shoot-'em-ups Part II", ''Your Sinclair,'' August 1990 (issue 56), p. 19 ''Commando'' also drew comparisons to

Rambo Rambo is a surname with Norwegian (Vestfold) and Swedish origins. It possibly originated with '' ramn'' + '' bo'', meaning "raven's nest". It has variants in French (''Rambeau'', ''Rambaut'', and ''Rimbaud'') and German (''Rambow''). It is now best ...

and indeed contemporary critics considered military themes and protagonists similar to Rambo or

Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

prerequisites for a shoot 'em up, as opposed to an action-adventure game. In 1986, Arsys Software released '' WiBArm'', a shooter that switched between a 2D side-scrolling view in outdoor areas to a fully 3D polygonal third-person perspective inside buildings, while bosses were fought in an arena-style 2D battle, with the game featuring a variety of weapons and equipment. The late 1980s to early 1990s is considered the golden age of Japanese computer gaming, which would flourish until its decline around the mid-1990s, as consoles eventually dominated the Japanese market. A notable Japanese computer RPG from around this time was '' WiBArm'', the earliest known RPG to feature 3D polygonal graphics. It was a 1986 role-playing shooter released by Arsys Software for the

in Japan and ported to

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

for Western release by Brøderbund. In ''WiBArm'', the player controls a transformable

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...

robot, switching between a 2D side-scrolling view during outdoor exploration to a fully 3D polygonal third-person perspective inside buildings, while bosses are fought in an arena-style 2D

battle. The game featured a variety of weapons and equipment as well as an

automap A mini-map or minimap is a miniature map that is often placed at a screen corner in video games to aid players in orienting themselves within the game world. They are often only a small portion of the screen and must be selective in what details ...

, and the player could upgrade equipment and earn experience to raise stats.
Translation
Unlike first-person RPGs at the time that were restricted to 90-degree movements, ''WiBArm's'' use of 3D polygons allowed full 360-degree movement. PC-Engine-Console-Set

On October 30, 1987, the

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...

made its debut in the Japanese market and it was a tremendous success. The console had an elegant, "eye-catching" design, and it was very small compared to its rivals. The PC Engine, TurboGrafx-16, known as TurboGrafx-16 in the rest of the world, was a collaborative effort between Hudson Soft, who created video game software, and

, a major company which was dominant in the Japanese

market with their

and

platforms. ''

R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful ...

'', an acclaimed side-scrolling shoot 'em up, was released in 1987 by

Irem is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Softwa ...

, employing slower paced scrolling than usual, with difficult levels calling for methodical strategies.Buchanan, Levi
Top 10 Classic Shoot 'Em Ups
,

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

, April 8, 2008, May 26, 2009 1990's '' Raiden'' was the beginning of another acclaimed and enduring series to emerge from this period. In 1987, Square's ''

3-D WorldRunner ''The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner'' (shortened to ''3-D WorldRunner'' on the North American box art), originally released in Japan as , is a 1987 Third-person shooter, third-person Shoot 'em up, rail shooter Platform game, platform video game develo ...

'' was an early stereoscopic 3-D shooter played from a third-person perspective, followed later that year by its sequel '' JJ'', and the following year by '' Space Harrier 3-D'' which used the SegaScope 3-D shutter glasses. Also in 1987, Konami created ''

Contra Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...

'' as a coin-op arcade game that was particularly acclaimed for its multi-directional aiming and two player cooperative gameplay. '' Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei'' by Atlus for the Nintendo Famicom abandoned the common medieval fantasy setting and sword and sorcery theme in favour of a modern science-fiction setting and horror theme. It also introduced the monster-catching mechanic with its demon-summoning system, which allowed the player to recruit enemies into their party, through a conversation system that gives the player a choice of whether to kill or spare an enemy and allows them to engage any opponent in conversation. Sega's original ''Phantasy Star'' for the Master System combined sci-fi & fantasy setting that set it apart from the ''D&D'' staple. It was also one of the first games to feature a female protagonist and animated monster encounters, and allowed inter-planetary travel between three planets. Another 1987 title '' Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord'' was a third-person RPG that featured a wide open world and a

mini-map A mini-map or minimap is a miniature map that is often placed at a screen corner in video games to aid players in orienting themselves within the game world. They are often only a small portion of the screen and must be selective in what details ...

on the corner of the screen. According to ''

'' developer Roe R. Adams, early

action-adventure games The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

"were basically arcade games done in a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

setting," citing '' Castlevania'' (1986) and ''

Trojan Trojan or Trojans may refer to: * Of or from the ancient city of Troy * Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans Arts and entertainment Music * ''Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 189 ...

'' (1986) as examples. IGN UK argues that ''

'' (1986) "helped to establish a new subgenre of action-adventure", becoming a success due to how it combined elements from different genres to create a compelling hybrid, including exploration, adventure-style inventory

puzzles A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle ...

, an action component, a

monetary system A monetary system is a system by which a government provides money in a country's economy. Modern monetary systems usually consist of the national treasury, the mint, the central banks and commercial banks. Commodity money system A commodity m ...

, and simplified RPG-style level building without the experience points. ''

'' was the most prolific action-adventure game series through to the 2000s. The first

Nintendo Space World formerly named and was an annual video game trade show hosted by Nintendo from 1989 to 2001. Its three days of high-energy party atmosphere was the primary venue for Nintendo and its licensees to announce and demonstrate new consoles and game ...

show was held on July 28, 1989. It was a video game

trade show A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...

that was hosted by Nintendo until 2001. At the same year, ''

Phantasy Star II ''Phantasy Star II'' (Japanese: ファンタシースターII 還らざる時の終わりに, "Phantasy Star II: At the End of the Restoration") is a science fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. It ...

'' for the

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

established many conventions of the RPG genre, including an epic, dramatic, character-driven storyline dealing with serious themes and subject matter, and a strategy-based battle system. The game's science fiction story was also unique, reversing the common

alien invasion The alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial lifeforms invade the Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under an intense state, harvest people ...

scenario by instead presenting Earthlings as the invading antagonists rather than the defending protagonists. Capcom's ''

Sweet Home Sweet Home or Sweethome may refer to: Places in the United States * Sweet Home, Arkansas * Sweet Home Central School District in Amherst and Tonawanda, New York ** Sweet Home High School (Amherst, New York), a New York State public high school * ...

'' for the NES introduced a modern Japanese horror theme and laid the foundations for the

survival horror Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...

genre, later serving as the main inspiration for ''

'' (1996). '' Tengai Makyo: Ziria'' released for the

PC Engine CD The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...

that same year was the first RPG released on CD-ROM and the first in the genre to feature animated

cut scene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

s and voice acting. The game's plot was also unusual for its

feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inve ...

setting and its emphasis on humour; the plot and characters were inspired by the Japanese folk tale '' Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari''. The music for the game was also composed by noted musician

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto i ...

. The ‘golden age’ of console RPGs is often dated in the 1990s. Console RPGs distinguished themselves from computer RPGs to a greater degree in the early 1990s. As console RPGs became more heavily story-based than their computer counterparts, one of the major differences that emerged during this time was in the portrayal of the characters, with most American computer RPGs at the time having characters devoid of personality or background as their purpose was to represent

avatars Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

which the player uses to interact with the world, in contrast to Japanese console RPGs which depicted pre-defined characters who had distinctive personalities, traits, and relationships, such as ''

'' and ''Lufia'', with players assuming the roles of people who cared about each other, fell in love or even had families. Romance in particular was a theme that was common in most console RPGs but alien to most computer RPGs at the time. Japanese console RPGs were also generally more faster-paced and

-oriented than their American computer counterparts. During the 1990s, console RPGs had become increasingly dominant. In 1990, ''Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, Dragon Quest IV'' introduced a new method of storytelling: segmenting the plot into segregated chapters. The game also introduced an Artificial intelligence (video games), AI system called "Tactics" which allowed the player to modify the strategies used by the allied party members while maintaining full control of the hero. ''Final Fantasy III'' introduced the classic "job system", a character progression engine allowing the player to change the character classes, as well as acquire new and advanced classes and combine class abilities, during the course of the game. That same year also saw the release of Nintendo's ''Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi'', a game that set the template for the tactical role-playing game genre and was the first entry in the ''Fire Emblem'' series. Another notable strategy RPG that year was Koei's ''Bandit Kings of Ancient China'', which was successful in combining the strategy RPG and Construction and management simulation, management simulation genres, building on its own ''Nobunaga's Ambition'' series that began in 1983. Several early RPGs set in a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic future were also released that year, including ''Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II'', and ''Crystalis'', which was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind''. ''Crystalis'' also made advances to the action role-playing game subgenre, being a true action RPG that combined the real-time

combat and open world of ''

'' with the level-building and spell-casting of traditional RPGs like ''Final Fantasy''. That year also saw the release of ''Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom'', which featured an innovative and original branching storyline, which spans three generations of characters and can be altered depending on which character the protagonist of each generation marries, leading to four possible endings. In 1991, ''Final Fantasy IV'' was one of the first role-playing games to feature a complex, involving plot, placing a much greater emphasis on character development, personal relationships, and dramatic storytelling. It also introduced a new Role-playing battle systems, battle system: the "Active Time Battle" system, developed by Hiroyuki Ito, where the Time-keeping systems in games, time-keeping system does not stop. The fact that enemies can attack or be attacked at any time is credited with injecting urgency and excitement into the combat system. The ATB combat system was considered revolutionary for being a hybrid between Turn-based game, turn-based and Real-time game, real-time combat, with its requirement of faster reactions from players appealing to those who were more used to action games. Nintendo-Super-Famicom-Set-FL

Nintendo executives were initially reluctant to design a new system, but as the market transitioned to the newer hardware, Nintendo saw the erosion of the commanding market share it had built up with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo's fourth-generation console, the Super Famicom, was released in Japan on November 21, 1990; Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours. Despite stiff competition from the Sega Genesis, Mega Drive/Genesis console, the Super NES eventually took the top selling position, selling 49.10 million units worldwide, and would remain popular well into the History of video game consoles (fifth generation), fifth generation of consoles. Nintendo's market position was defined by their machine's increased video and sound capabilities, as well as exclusive first-party franchise titles such as ''Super Mario World'', ''The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past'' and ''Super Metroid''. In the early 1990s, the arcades experienced a major resurgence with the 1991 release of Capcom's '' Street Fighter II'', which popularized competitive fighting games and revived the arcade industry to a level of popularity not seen since the days of ''Pac-Man'',Spencer, Spanner
The Tao of Beat-'em-ups (part 2)
''EuroGamer'', 12 February 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2009 setting off a renaissance for the arcade game industry in the early 1990s. Its success led to a wave of other popular games which mostly were in the fighting genre, such as ''Fatal Fury: King of Fighters'' (1992) by

, ''Virtua Fighter'' (1993) by SEGA, and ''The King of Fighters'' (1994–2005) by SNK. In 1993, ''Electronic Games'' noted that when "historians look back at the world of coin-op during the early 1990s, one of the defining highlights of the video game art form will undoubtedly focus on fighting/martial arts themes" which it described as "the backbone of the industry" at the time. A new type of shoot 'em up emerged in the early 1990s: variously termed "bullet hell", "manic shooters", "maniac shooters" and , these games required the player to dodge overwhelming numbers of enemy projectiles and called for still more consistent reactions from players. Bullet hell games arose from the need for 2D shoot 'em up developers to compete with the emerging popularity of 3D games: huge numbers of missiles on screen were intended to impress players. Toaplan's ''Batsugun'' (1993) provided the prototypical template for this new breed, with Cave (company), Cave (formed by former employees of Toaplan, including ''Batsugun's'' main creator Tsuneki Ikeda, after the latter company collapsed) inventing the type proper with 1995's ''DonPachi''. Bullet hell games marked another point where the shoot 'em up genre began to cater to more dedicated players. Games such as ''Gradius'' had been more difficult than ''Space Invaders'' or ''Xevious'', but bullet hell games were yet more inward-looking and aimed at dedicated fans of the genre looking for greater challenges. While shooter games featuring protagonists on foot largely moved to 3D-based genres, popular, long-running series such as ''Contra (series), Contra'' and ''Metal Slug (series), Metal Slug'' continued to receive new sequels.Magrino, Tom
Contra conquering DS
, GameSpot, June 20, 2007. Accessed February 17, 2009 Rail shooters have rarely been released in the new millennium, with only ''Rez (video game), Rez'' and ''Panzer Dragoon Orta'' achieving cult recognition.Goldstein, Hilary
Panzer Dragoon Orta
, ''IGN'', January 10, 2003, July 17, 2008Maragos, Nich
Space Harrier (PS2)
1UP.com, January 1, 2000. Accessed February 17, 2009 1992 saw the release of ''Dragon Quest V'', a game that has been praised for its involving, emotional family-themed narrative divided by different periods of time, something that has appeared in very few video games before or since. It has also been credited as the first known video game to feature a playable pregnancy, a concept that has since appeared in later games such as ''Story of Seasons (series), Story of Seasons''. ''Dragon Quest V's'' monster-collecting mechanic, where monsters can be defeated, captured, added to the party, and gain their own experience levels, also influenced many later franchises such as '' Pokémon'', ''Digimon'' and ''Dokapon''. In turn, the concept of collecting everything in a game, in the form of Achievement (video gaming), achievements or similar rewards, has since become a common trend in video games. ''Shin Megami Tensei'', released in 1992 for the SNES, introduced an early moral Alignment (role-playing games), alignment system that influences the direction and outcome of the storyline, leading to different possible paths and multiple endings. This has since become a hallmark of the ''Megami Tensei'' series. Another non-linear RPG released that year was ''Romancing Saga'', an open-world RPG by Square that offered many choices and allowed players to complete Quest (gaming), quests in any order, with the decision of whether or not to participate in any particular quest affecting the outcome of the storyline. The game also allowed players to choose from eight different characters, each with their own stories that start in different places and offer different outcomes.

's ''Glory of Heracles (series), Heracles no Eikō III'', written by Kazushige Nojima, introduced the plot element of a nameless Immortality, immortal suffering from amnesia, and Nojima would later revisit the amnesia theme in ''Final Fantasy VII'' and ''Glory of Heracles''. The TurboGrafx-CD port of ''Dragon Knight II'' released that year was also notable for introducing Eroge, erotic Adult video game, adult content to consoles, though such content had often appeared in Japanese computer RPGs since the early 1980s. That same year, Game Arts began the ''Lunar (series), Lunar'' series on the Sega CD with ''Lunar: The Silver Star'', one of the first successful CD-ROM RPGs, featuring both voice and text, and considered one of the best RPGs in its time. The game was praised for its soundtrack, emotionally engaging storyline, and strong characterization. It also introduced an early form of level-scaling where the bosses would get stronger depending on the protagonist's level, a mechanic that was later used in Enix's ''The 7th Saga'' and extended to normal enemies in Square's ''Romancing Saga 3'' and later ''Final Fantasy VIII''. 3D computer graphics, 3D polygon graphics were popularized by the Sega Model 1 games ''Virtua Racing'' (1992) and ''Virtua Fighter (arcade game), Virtua Fighter'' (1993), followed by racing games like the Namco System 22 title ''Ridge Racer'' (1993) and Sega Model 2 title ''Daytona USA (video game), Daytona USA'', and light gun shooters like Sega's ''Virtua Cop'' (1994),Virtua Cop
, ''IGN,'' 7 July 2004. Retrieved 7 February 2009 gaining considerable popularity in the arcades. In 1993, Square's ''Secret of Mana'', the second in the ''Mana'' series, further advanced the Action role-playing game, action RPG subgenre with its introduction of Cooperative video game, cooperative multiplayer into the genre. The game was created by a team previously responsible for the first three ''Final Fantasy'' titles: Nasir Gebelli, Koichi Ishii, and Hiromichi Tanaka. The game received considerable acclaim, for its innovative Time-keeping systems in games#Pausable real-time, pausable real-time battle system, the "Radial menu, Ring Command" menu system, its innovative cooperative multiplayer gameplay, where the second or third players could drop in and out of the game at any time rather than players having to join the game at the same time, and the customizable AI settings for computer-controlled allies. The game has influenced a number of later action RPGs. That same year also saw the release of ''Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium'', which introduced the use of pre-programmable combat manoeuvers called 'macros', a means of setting up the player's party AI to deliver custom attack combos. That year also saw the release of ''Romancing Saga 2'', which further expanded the non-linear gameplay of its predecessor. While in the original ''Romancing Saga'', scenarios were changed according to dialogue choices during conversations, ''Romancing Saga 2'' further expanded on this by having unique storylines for each character that can change depending on the player's actions, including who is chosen, what is said in conversation, what events have occurred, and who is present in the party. ''PCGamesN'' credits ''Romancing SaGa 2'' for having laid the foundations for modern Japanese RPGs with its progressive, non-linear, open world design and subversive themes. In 1994, ''Final Fantasy VI'' moved away from the Middle Ages, medieval setting of its predecessors, instead being set in a steampunk environment,. The game received considerable acclaim, and is seen as one of the greatest RPGs of all time, for improvements such as its broadened thematic scope, plotlines, characters, multiple-choice scenarios, and variation of play. ''Final Fantasy VI'' dealt with mature themes such as suicide, war crimes, child abandonment, teen pregnancy, and coping with the deaths of loved ones. Square's ''Live A Live'', released for the Super Famicom in Japan, featured eight different characters and stories, with the first seven unfolding in any order the player chooses, as well as four different endings. The game's ninja chapter in particular was an early example of

elements in an RPG, requiring the player to infiltrate a castle, rewarding the player if the entire chapter can be completed without engaging in combat. Other chapters had similar innovations, such as Akira's chapter where the character uses telepathic powers to discover information. ''Robotrek'' by Quintet (developer), Quintet and Ancient (company), Ancient was a predecessor to ''Pokémon'' in the sense that the protagonist does not himself fight, but sends out his robots to do so. Like ''Pokémon'', ''Robotrek'' was designed to appeal to a younger audience, allowed team customization, and each robot was kept in a ball. FromSoftware released their first video game, titled ''King's Field (video game), King's Field'', as a launch title for the PlayStation in 1994. The game was later called the brainchild of company founder Naotoshi Zin, who was considered a key creative figure in the series. The eventual success of the first ''King's Field'' prompted the development of sequels, establishing the ''King's Field'' series. The design of ''King's Field'' would influence later titles by FromSoftware including ''Shadow Tower'', ''Demon's Souls'', and the ''

'' series. The latter would propel FromSoftware to international fame. In 1995, Square's ''Romancing Saga 3'' featured a storyline that could be told differently from the perspectives of up to eight different characters and introduced a level-scaling system where the enemies get stronger as the characters do, a mechanic that was later used in a number of later RPGs, including ''Final Fantasy VIII''. Sega's ''Sakura Wars'' for the Sega Saturn, Saturn combined tactical RPG combat with dating sim and visual novel elements, introducing a Real-time game, real-time Nonlinear gameplay#Branching storylines, branching choice system where, during an event or conversation, the player must choose an action or Dialog tree, dialogue choice within a time limit, or not to respond at all within that time; the player's choice, or lack thereof, affects the player character's relationship with other characters and in turn the characters' performance in battle, the direction of the storyline, and the ending. Later games in the series added several variations, including an action gauge that can be raised up or down depending on the situation, and a gauge that the player can manipulate using the analog stick depending on the situation. The success of ''Sakura Wars'' led to a wave of games that combine the RPG and dating sim genres, including ''Thousand Arms'' in 1998, ''Riviera: The Promised Land'' in 2002, and ''Luminous Arc (video game), Luminous Arc'' in 2007. The

video game genre began with Capcom's ''Resident Evil (1996 video game), Resident Evil'' (1996), which coined the term "survival horror" and defined the genre. The game was inspired by Capcom's ''

'' (1989), retroactively described as survival horror. The first Tokyo Game Show was held in 1996 in video gaming, 1996. From 1996 to 2002, the show was held twice a year: once in the Spring and once in Autumn (in the Tokyo Big Sight). Since 2002, the show has been held once a year. It attracts more visitors every year. 2011's show hosted over 200,000 attendees and the 2012 show bringing in 223,753. The busiest TGS was in 2016 with 271,224 people in attendance and 614 companies had exhibits. The event has been held annually since 1996 and was never canceled. The 20th anniversary of TGS was celebrated in 2016. The Fujitsu FM Towns Marty is considered the world's first 32-bit console (predating the Amiga CD32 and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, 3DO), being released only released in Japan on February 20, 1993 by Fujitsu. However, it failed to make an impact in the marketplace due to its expense relative to other consoles and inability to compete with home computers. Around the mid-1990s, the Fifth generation of video game consoles, fifth-generation home consoles, Sega Saturn, PlayStation (console), PlayStation, and Nintendo 64, began offering true 3D graphics, improved sound, and better 2D graphics, than the previous generation. By 1995, personal computers followed, with 3D accelerator cards. While Arcade system board, arcade systems such as the Sega Model 3 remained considerably more advanced than home systems in the late 1990s. The next major revolution came in the mid-to-late 1990s, which saw the rise of 3D computer graphics and optical discs in Fifth generation of video game consoles, fifth generation consoles. The implications for RPGs were enormous—longer, more involved quests, better audio, and full-motion video. This was clearly demonstrated in 1997 by the phenomenal success of ''Final Fantasy VII'', which is considered one of the most influential games of all time, akin to that of ''Star Wars'' in the movie industry. With a record-breaking production budget of around $45 million, the ambitious scope of ''Final Fantasy VII'' raised the possibilities for the genre, with its more expansive world to explore, much longer quest, more numerous sidequests, Minigames of Final Fantasy, dozens of minigames, and much higher production values. The latter includes innovations such as the use of 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, battles viewed from multiple different angles rather than a single angle, and for the first time full-motion Computer-generated imagery, CGI video seamlessly blended into the gameplay, effectively integrated throughout the game. Gameplay innovations included the materia system, which allowed a considerable amount of customization and flexibility through materia that can be combined in many different ways and exchanged between characters at any time, and the limit breaks, special attacks that can be performed after a character's limit meter fills up by taking hits from opponents. ''Final Fantasy VII'' continues to be listed among the List of video games considered the best, best games of all time, for its highly polished gameplay, high playability, lavish production, well-developed characters, intricate storyline, and an emotionally engaging narrative that is much darker and sophisticated than most other RPGs. The game's storytelling and character development was considered a major narrative jump forward for video games and was often compared to films and novels at the time. One of the earliest Japanese RPGs, Koei's ''History of Eastern role-playing video games#Japanese computer RPGs, The Dragon and Princess'' (1982),
Translation
featured a Turn-based tactics, tactical turn-based combat system. Koji Sumii's '' Bokosuka Wars'', originally released for the Sharp X1 computer in 1983 and later ported to the NES in 1985,
translation
is credited for laying the foundations for the tactical RPG genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan, with its blend of basic RPG and strategy game elements. The genre became with the game that set the template for tactical RPGs, ''Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi'' (1990). Treasure's shoot 'em up, ''Radiant Silvergun'' (1998), introduced an element of narrative to the genre. It was critically acclaimed for its refined design, though it was not released outside Japan and remains a much sought after collector's item. Its successor ''Ikaruga'' (2001) featured improved graphics and was again acclaimed as one of the best games in the genre. Both ''Radiant Silvergun'' and ''Ikaruga'' were later released on Xbox Live Arcade. The ''Touhou Project'' series spans 22 years and 27 games as of 2018 and was listed in the Guinness World Records in October 2010 for being the "most prolific fan-made shooter series". The genre has undergone something of a resurgence with the release of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii online services,Staff
Top 10 Tuesday: 2D Space Shooters
, IGN, March 6, 2007. Accessed February 13, 2009 while in Japan arcade shoot 'em ups retain a deep-rooted niche popularity. ''Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved'' was released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2005 and in particular stood out from the various re-releases and casual games available on the service. The PC has also seen its share of Dōjin soft, dōjin shoot 'em ups like ''Crimzon Clover'', ''Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony'', ''Xenoslaive Overdrive'', and the EXceed (series), ''eXceed'' series. However, despite the genre's continued appeal to an enthusiastic niche of players, shoot 'em up developers are increasingly embattled financially by the power of home consoles and their attendant genres.

2005–2015

GitarFreaks and DrumMania V cabinets and player

In 2002, the Japanese video game industry made up about 50% of the global market; that share has since shrunk to around 10% by 2010. The shrinkage in market share has been attributed to a difference of taste between Japanese and Western audiences, and the country's Great Recession, economic recession. Nintendo had seen record revenues, net sales and profits in 2009 as a result of the release of the Nintendo DS and Wii in 2004 and 2006, respectively, but in Nintendo's subsequent years, its revenues had declined. In 2007 Tokkun Studio released Marie: BabySitter for Personal computer, PC. In 2009, FromSoftware released ''Demon's Souls'' for the PlayStation 3, which brought them international exposure. Its spiritual successor, ''Dark Souls (video game), Dark Souls'', was released in 2011. In March 2014, ''Dark Souls II'', was released, while ''Dark Souls III'' was released in 2016. Other FromSoftware games inspired by the ''

'' series, ''Bloodborne'' (2015) and ''Elden Ring'' (2022), received critical acclaim and strong sales. They have also received a number of awards, primarily those for the role-playing video game, role-playing genre, including multiple "RPG of the Year" and List of Game of the Year awards, Game of the Year awards. Since release, ''Dark Souls'' and ''Bloodborne'' have been cited by many publications to be among the greatest games of all time. The decline of the Japanese video game development industry during this period was partially attributed to the traditional development process. Japanese companies were criticized for long development times and slow release dates on home

s, their lack of third-party game engines, and for being too insular to appeal to a global market. Yoichi Wada stated in 2009 that the Japanese game industry had become "almost xenophobic." He also stated: "The lag with the US is very clear. The Video gaming in the United States, US games industry was not good in the past but it has now attracted people from the PC game, computer industry and from Cinema of the United States, Hollywood, which has led to strong growth." At the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, Keiji Inafune stated that "Everyone's making awful games - Japan is at least five years behind", and that "Japan is isolated in the gaming world. If something doesn't change, we're doomed.", stressing the need for Japanese developers to bring in Western approaches to game development to make a comeback. Related to the isolationism, games developed in Western countries did not perform well in Japan, whereas Japanese games were readily played by Western market consumers. Foreign games often sell more poorly in Japanese markets due to differences in what consumers expect for escapism between these cultures. Microsoft had attempted to push both the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles in Japan with poor success, at they struggled to compete against Sony and Nintendo there. However, as detailed above, Japanese console games became less successful, even in their own country, as of 2013. In the Japanese gaming industry, arcades have remained popular through to the present day. As of 2009, out of Japan's $20 billion gaming market, $6 billion of that amount is generated from arcades, which represent the largest sector of the Japanese video game market, followed by home console games and mobile games at $3.5 billion and $2 billion, respectively. In 2005, arcade ownership and operation accounted for a majority of

's for example. With considerable withdrawal from the arcade market from companies such as Capcom, Sega became the strongest player in the arcade market with 60% marketshare in 2006. Despite the global decline of arcades, Japanese companies hit record revenue for three consecutive years during this period. However, due to the country's Great Recession, economic recession, the Japanese arcade industry has also been steadily declining, from Japanese yen, ¥702.9 billion (US$8.7 billion) in 2007 to ¥504.3 billion ($6.2 billion) in 2010. In 2013, estimation of revenue is ¥470 billion. In the 2010s, Japanese RPGs have been experiencing a resurgence on PC, with a significant increase in the number of Japanese RPGs releasing for the Steam (service), Steam platform. This began with the 2010 release of doujin/indie game ''Recettear'' (2007) for Steam, selling over 500,000 units on the platform. This led to many Japanese doujin/indie games releasing on Steam in subsequent years. Beyond doujin/indie titles, 2012 was a breakthrough year, with the debut of Nihon Falcom's '' Ys'' series on Steam and then the Steam release of From Software's ''

'', which sold millions on the platform. Other Japanese RPGs were subsequently ported to Steam, such as the previously niche ''Valkyria Chronicles'' which became a million-seller on the platform, and other titles that sold hundreds of thousands on Steam, such as the 2014 localization of ''The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky'' (2014) and ports of numerous ''

'' titles. Japanese developers have been increasingly considering Steam as a viable platform for the genre, with many Japanese RPGs available on the platform. By 2015, Japan had become the world's fourth largest PC game market, behind only China, the United States, and South Korea. The Japanese game development engine RPG Maker has also gained significant popularity on Steam, including hundreds of commercial games. Every year, hundreds of games released on Steam are created using RPG Maker, as of 2017. In the present day, Japan is the world's largest market for mobile games. The Japanese market today is becoming increasingly dominated by mobile games, which generated $5.1 billion in 2013, more than traditional console games in the country. Former rivals in the Japanese arcade industry,

, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Sega, are now working together to keep the arcade industry vibrant. This is evidenced in the sharing of arcade networks, and venues having games from all major companies rather than only games from their own company.

2016–present

Switch, Wii U, and PS4 first-year sales in Japan

The eighth generation of video game consoles primarily includes the home video game consoles of the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013; the handheld game consoles of the Nintendo 3DS in 2011, Nintendo 2DS in 2013, and the PlayStation Vita in 2011; as well as the first hybrid game console, the Nintendo Switch in 2017, which played as a handheld but could be Docking station, docked to played like a home console. Unlike in most prior generations, there were few new innovative hardware capabilities to mark this generation as distinct from prior ones. Sony continued to produce new systems with similar designs and capabilities as their predecessors, but with improved performance (processing speed, higher-resolution graphics, and increased storage capacity) that further moved consoles into confluence with personal computers, and furthering support for digital distribution and games as a service. Motion controller, Motion-controlled games of the seventh generation had waned in popularity, but consoles were preparing for advancement of virtual reality (VR); Sony introduced the PlayStation VR in 2016. Though prior console generations have normally occurred in five to six-year cycles, the transition from seventh to eighth generation lasted approximately eight years. The transition is also unusual in that the prior generation's best-selling unit, the Wii, was the first to be replaced in the eighth generation. In 2011, Sony considered themselves only halfway through a ten-year lifecycle for their seventh-generation offerings. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had stated that his company would be releasing the Wii U due to declining sales of seventh generation home consoles and that "the market is now waiting for a new proposal for home consoles". Sony considered making its next console a digital download only machine, but decided against it due to concerns about the inconsistency of internet speeds available globally, especially in Developing country, developing countries. On September 13, 2012, Nintendo announced that the Wii U would launch in Japan on December 8, 2012. The PlayStation 4 and Wii U use AMD graphics processing unit, GPUs, and the PS4 also use AMD central processing unit, CPUs on an x86-64 architecture, similar to common

s (as opposed to the IBM PowerPC Architecture used in the previous generation). Nintendo and Sony were not aware that they were all using AMD hardware until their consoles were announced. This shift was considered to be beneficial for Multi platform, multi-platform development, due to the increased similarities between PC hardware and console hardware. In October 2013, online retailer ''Play.com'' announced that its Wii U sales saw a 75% sales increase. The company also predicted that the Wii U would be more popular than its competition, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, among children during the holiday season. Following the release of ''Wii Party U'' on October 31 in Japan, weekly Wii U sales spiked to 38,802 units sold. During the first two weeks of December, the Wii U was the top performing home console in Japan, with 123,665 units sold. In fiscal year (FY) 2013 (ending early 2013), Nintendo sold 23.7 million consoles. By February 26, 2014, Wii U sales had surpassed those of the Xbox 360 in Japan. However, by June 2015, the basic Wii U was discontinued in Japan, and replaced by a 32 GB "Premium" set that includes white hardware and a Wii Remote Plus. In mid-November 2016, Nintendo announced that Japanese production of the Wii U would be ending "in the near future". The PS4 was released in Japan at ¥39,980 on February 22, 2014. In September 2015, Sony reduced the price of the PS4 in Japan to ¥34,980, with similar price drops in other Southeast Asian markets. Within the first two days of release in Japan during the weekend of February 22, 2014, 322,083 consoles were sold. PS4 software unit sales surpassed 20.5 million on April 13, 2014. During Japan's 2013 fiscal year, heightened demand for the PS4 helped Sony top global console sales, beating Nintendo for the first time in eight years. Since 2016, Japanese video games have been experiencing a resurgence, as part of a renaissance for the Japanese video game industry. In 2017, Japanese video games gained further commercial success and greater critical acclaim. In 2016, the global success of ''Pokémon Go'' helped ''Pokémon Sun and Moon'' set sales records around the world. ''Final Fantasy XV'' was also a major success, selling millions. There were also other Japanese RPGs that earned commercial success and/or critical acclaim that year, including ''Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past'', ''Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse'', ''Bravely Second'', ''Fire Emblem Fates'', ''Dragon Quest Builders'', ''World of Final Fantasy'', ''Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky'' and ''I Am Setsuna''. Anticipating the release of the console's successor, the Nintendo Switch, a hybrid video game console, Nintendo had planned to diminish production of the Wii U. It formally announced the end of its production on January 31, 2017. The company had posted its first loss as a video game company in 2012 prior to the Wii U's introduction that year, and had similar losses in the following years due to the console's poor uptake. ''The New York Times'' attributed Nintendo lowering financial forecasts in 2014 to weak hardware sales against mobile gaming. Previously, the company had been hesitant about this market, with then-president Satoru Iwata considering that they would "cease to be Nintendo" and lose their identity if they attempted to enter it. About three years prior to the Switch's announcement, Iwata, Tatsumi Kimishima, Genyo Takeda, and Shigeru Miyamoto crafted a strategy for revitalizing Nintendo's business model, which included approaching the mobile market, creating new hardware, and "maximizing [their] intellectual property". Prior to his death, Iwata was able to secure a business alliance with Japanese mobile provider DeNA to develop mobile titles based on Nintendo's first-party franchises, believing this approach would not compromise their integrity. Following Iwata's death in July 2015, Kimishima was named as president (corporate title), president of Nintendo, while Miyamoto was promoted to the title of "Creative Fellow". The Switch was officially released on March 3, 2017 in Japan with an MSRP of . The design of the Switch was aimed to bridge the polarization of the gaming market at the time, creating a device that could play "leisurely" video games along with games that are aimed to be played "deeply", according to Shinya Takahashi and Yoshiaki Koizumi, general manager and deputy general manager of Nintendo's Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development, Entertainment Planning & Development Division (EPD), respectively. This approach also would apply to the cultural lifestyle and gaming differences between Japanese and Western players; Japanese players tend to play on the go and with social groups, while Western players tend to play at home by themselves. The design of the Switch would meet both cultures, and certain games, like ''1-2-Switch'', could potentially make social gaming more acceptable in Western culture. Two key elements that were set to address this mixed market were the ability for the unit to play both on a television screen and as a portable, and the use of detachable controllers. In Japan, first weekend sales exceeded 330,000 units, which was on par with the PlayStation 4 during its launch period. Media Create estimated that more than 500,000 Switch units were sold in Japan within its first month, beating out the PlayStation 4 to this figure. Console sales in Japan, which had been languishing due to the strength of the mobile game market, saw its first annual growth of 14.8% in 2017 due to the release of the Switch. Based on its first year sales, the Switch was considered to be the fastest-selling game console in history in many regions. With 2017 year end Japanese sales data from Media Create, the Switch became the fastest-selling home console in Japan in first year sales, with its total sales of 3.2 million units exceeding the 3.0 million units of the PlayStation 2 during its first year of release, while ''Famitsu'' reported that these sales had eclipsed the lifetime sales of the Wii U in the country, and helped to support the first growth in sales within Japan's console market in eleven years. By May 2019, the Switch had overtaken the PS4's lifetime sales in Japan. In 2017, Japanese RPGs gained further commercial success and greater critical acclaim. The year started strong with ''Gravity Rush 2'', followed by ''Yakuza 0'', which some critics consider the best in the ''Yakuza (series), Yakuza'' series, ''Nioh'' which is considered to have one of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth-generation's best RPG combat systems, and then ''Nier Automata'' which has gameplay and storytelling thought to be some of the best in recent years. ''Persona 5'' won the Best Role Playing Game award at The Game Awards 2017. Some Japanese RPGs that were previously considered niche became mainstream million-sellers in 2017, including ''Persona 5'', ''Nier: Automata'', ''Nioh'', and ''Xenoblade Chronicles 2'' on the Nintendo Switch. 2017 was considered a strong year for Japanese RPGs, with other notable releases including ''Dragon Quest VIII'' on the Nintendo 3DS, ''Tales of Berseria'', ''Valkyria Revolution'', ''Ever Oasis'', ''Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age'', ''Ys VIII'', ''Etrian Odyssey V'', ''Dragon Quest Heroes II'', ''The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd'', ''Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia'', ''Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood'', and ''Tokyo Xanadu''. In 2018, ''Monster Hunter: World'' sold over 10million units, becoming Capcom's best-selling single software title, and Square Enix's ''Octopath Traveler'' sold over 1million units. Sony released the PlayStation 5 in 2020 and have emphasized that they want this to be a soft transition, allowing PlayStation 4 games to be directly backwards compatible on their respective systems. Sony has stated the "overwhelming majority" of PlayStation 4 games will play on the PlayStation 5, with many running at higher frame rates and resolutions.

References

;Sources * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Video games in In Japan Video gaming in Japan, Mass media in Japan

History

Background

1970s to early 1980s

1980s to early 2000s

2005–2015

2016–present

See also

References

External links