As others have said, PC gaming isnt a very big market here, and those that do play PC games are mostly into asian MMOs. FF14 is getting pushed heavily right now, and before that Aion was being marketed quite a bit.

I've only been in one store that had a decent amount of PC games, but it was really specialized towards PC gamers. As far as SC2 goes, i've seen it in a few stores, everytime it was an imported NA version and they never had more than a few copies.

Region restrictions are another problem. This doesnt really concern SC2 or other blizz games, but a lot of steam games I cant get, which is kind of annoying. Took me a while to get a copy of civ 5.

aepal

Netherlands123 Posts

October 14 2010 17:51 GMT

#22

I think i heard a while ago that the reason E-Sports is not so big in Japan is cause they have very strong laws against Gambling ? And that E-sports "Playing a game for money" is considered gambling. Something like this, someone to confirm ?

edit*
i now notice it was why sc2 isnt big :p sorry, thought it was meant to be esports.

okuraku

United States210 Posts

October 14 2010 17:52 GMT

#23

On October 15 2010 02:46 Go0g3n wrote:
Because Japanese always concentrate on features and StarCraft II really doesn't have an outstanding one, just a solid mix of good(ish) and a few bad ones.

Wait, what? Have you never played a Japanese game? They're almost ALWAYS a rehash of something done before... Japanese like a certain design and no variation.. there are a few exceptions like Demon's Souls but it's still only a cult classic type.

Look at the Yakuza games, Monster Hunter, Pokemon (latest one is up to 8 million sold now I think, with almost no major variation from the original from 10+ years ago), Final Fantasy 13, Shin Megami Tensei, all the Tales games, all the Star Ocean games... I could go on forever...

That being said, RTS in general hasn't quite caught on in Japan mostly I think because of the lack of permeation of PC's as a gaming platform combined with lack of really good RTS's to choose from (again, Blizz games aren't localized)

okuraku

United States210 Posts

October 14 2010 17:54 GMT

#24

On October 15 2010 02:51 aepal wrote:
I think i heard a while ago that the reason E-Sports is not so big in Japan is cause they have very strong laws against Gambling ? And that E-sports "Playing a game for money" is considered gambling. Something like this, someone to confirm ?

edit*
i now notice it was why sc2 isnt big :p sorry, thought it was meant to be esports.

While that's true, I don't think that'd be something that'd prevent competitive gaming.. I mean look at how popular those massive Horse Racing simulators are..

Also we have examples like SBO, Tougeki, and Godsgarden, which are all big fighting game tourneys but still very much alive and well I think.

Tazza

Korea (South)1678 Posts

October 14 2010 17:56 GMT

#25

I think japan mostly plays nintendo, and playstation games, as they're from japan. I don't think they play many computer games

itsMAHVELbaybee

292 Posts

October 14 2010 17:59 GMT

#26

I'm not even sure the popularity of WoW in Japan which aided SC2's success overall.

Blaired

Japan5 Posts

October 14 2010 18:04 GMT

#27

WoW isnt localized here, so the people who do play WoW in japan are mostly foreigners. I'm not sure, but there may be japanese versions of Diablo and WC3, but I know that SC2 and WoW haven't been localized.

okuraku

United States210 Posts

October 14 2010 18:05 GMT

#28

On October 15 2010 02:59 itsMAHVELbaybee wrote:
I'm not even sure the popularity of WoW in Japan which aided SC2's success overall.

WoW isn't available in Japan (without importing it) so the popularity is basically nil - I wouldn't even expect WoW to be a major contender for top in youge genre but I could be wrong about that, hard to track...

Kaniol

Poland5551 Posts

October 14 2010 18:06 GMT

#29

It was the same with SC1 anyway

mizoguchi

United States50 Posts

October 14 2010 18:07 GMT

#30

On October 15 2010 02:52 okuraku wrote:
(again, Blizz games aren't localized)

So you do know that SC1 was localized for Japan, right? Dubbed over with Japanese voice-acting and everything. Just never sold well at all.

Gingerninja

United Kingdom1339 Posts

October 14 2010 18:09 GMT

#31

Blizz did a shitty job of translating the original starcraft, and as such it bombed over here (I live in Japan currently) and as such, don't localise games here any more. Upon arrival I went to look for a Japanese version and was hoping they'd play on the same servers as Korean.. alas there isn't one. So I'm still playing on my EU client from Japan. Lucky for me the Internet is awsome where I live and get really good DL/UL so my ping is good.

Handhelds are everywhere over here tho, 1 in 5 people in Japan own a DS, and you see them by the hundreds on a daily basis. Kids all crowded around in bunch's playing on them. I couldn't even find any PC games in the large electronics store near me. (Yamada Denki)

shadymmj

1906 Posts

October 14 2010 18:14 GMT

#32

It has just never really caught on. Arcade gaming is by nature more social. I mean face-to-face, and you can always chill with your buds after a game at the nearby cafe. Whereas free movement in PC bangs will generally annoy everyone. The Japanese enthusiasts are extremely hardcore. Just not at PC games.

JAN0L

Poland207 Posts

October 14 2010 18:16 GMT

#33

its not a console game
i'm not sure if they even know that you can run other games than WoW on PC

Dagon

Romania264 Posts

October 14 2010 18:23 GMT

#34

No anime on starcraft pretty much..

i mean really.. Have you seen Hikaru no Go? That stuff makes you wanna play Go 24/7! After the show started airing the Go playing comunity exploded by 300% or some ridiculous shit like that.. If they make an anime on Sc, koreea would be in trouble..

And also, they have DDR and hentai games.. Hell yeah!

Caphe

Vietnam10817 Posts

October 14 2010 18:33 GMT

#35

Japan is all about CONSOLE games. Of course people still play PC games, but nothing really compare to console. From what I heard from my gf in Japan that many young Japanese doesnt own a computer/laptop cos they can do almost everything on there cell phone..

Caphe

Vietnam10817 Posts

October 14 2010 18:35 GMT

#36

On October 15 2010 02:59 itsMAHVELbaybee wrote:
I'm not even sure the popularity of WoW in Japan which aided SC2's success overall.

WOW is nonexistence in Japan

kickinhead

Switzerland2069 Posts

October 14 2010 18:39 GMT

#37

Japan isn't really big on PC-games AT ALL. Even in console-games, they're pretty much only really good at fighting-games they play in Arcades, at least considering the popular competetive games.

Can't really tell why, I guess it's a cultural thing: Korea has PC and PC-bangs and Japan has Nintendo/Sony and Arcades.

MetalSlug

Germany443 Posts

October 14 2010 18:50 GMT

#38

Starcraft 1 for N64 sold pretty well in Japan when it was released...
so if Blizzard would port SC2 to PS3 it would probably work^^
--EDIT--
It would sell even better on the new Wii HD probably