For Japanese gamers, everything old is new again

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As the World Cyber Games grand finals take place in Cologne, Germany, this week, Japan is aiming to reassert itself as the once and future gaming heartland. In 2006, the global videogame market was $31.6 billion, and analysts estimate it will increase to $48.9 billion by 2011. Yet with neighboring South Korea reigning supreme in competitive gaming, the real movement in Tokyo seems to be a return to retro and family games.

Japan didn’t invent videogames. That distinction belongs to a group of MIT hackers who made Spacewar! in the ’60s. The first full-fledged videogame company was North America’s Atari, which pioneered arcade gaming with Pong in 1972. But by the late ’70s and early ’80s, it was Taito’s Space Invaders, Namco’s Galaxian and Pac-Man and Nintendo’s Donkey Kong and Mario Bros — all Japanese titles — that sparked an international craze.

Under Shigeru Miyamoto, the “Walt Disney of videogames,” Nintendo was able to establish lush virtual worlds and iconic characters despite the limits imposed by 8-bit technology and pixilation. In the ’80s, the US gaming market tanked and experts said the “fad” was over. Then came 1985’s Super NES home console and Super Mario Bros., a side-scrolling platformer, which reinvented gaming and put Japan on top of the world for console and arcade gaming.

But today, the gamers aren’t in Japan — they are in Korea playing online computer games, or “e-sports.” South Korea has the highest broadband penetration (30%) and internet use (76.5%) in the world, and some 17 million Koreans, or about one-third of the population, play online games. Over 100,000 spectators attend live competitions such as The StarCraft Proleague Finals, and the country has three 24-hour dedicated gaming channels and 26,000 “PC bang” internet cafes. In 2005, gaming “athlete” Lim Yo Hwan earned an income of 37.8 million yen and had a 600,000-strong fan club. He trains 12 hours a day, during which period he moves his fingers some 300,000 times. Less disciplined players have died mimicking Lim — in 2005, seven people succumbed after playing nonstop in PC bangs. Public outcry was curbed by the initiative to establish a world-class gaming culture.

Japan is nowhere near ready to go so far. Nintendo’s Miyamoto, who criticizes Sony and Microsoft for being “too focused on hardcore gamers,” has spearheaded a return to intuitive play targeting broader demographics. This can be seen in non-traditional titles like Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS, which is popular with women who make use of the stylus to “pet” virtual animals, and “Wii Fit” for the Wii, which is popular with families. In the first six months that the consoles went head-to-head, the Wii outsold the PS3 by a margin of 4-1. This comes as no surprise — in 2005, out of a nationwide population of 127 million, the number of Japanese under 15 totaled just 17.4 million. The young, hardcore gamers are drying up.

Nonetheless, investors and promoters are looking to put Japan back in the game. The Japan e-Sports Association was founded in 2007 as part of the global drive to establish videogaming as an Olympic sport by 2016. Haruna Anno, 20, the country’s most vocal “game idol” and tarento, argues e-sports should be part of the Olympics because players use their minds, skills and reflexes in a way that non-competitors are unable to.

“I think the Japanese image of gaming is still otaku in their rooms,” she says. “Japan invented many games loved around the world, but now we have these stereotypes and are losing out.”

But don’t count Anno among the new generation of online or professional gamer — she’s the spokeswoman of retro gaming. She started playing Super Mario at age 17 and can now beat it blindfolded. Her gaming sessions last anywhere from 8-36 hours at a stretch, and she boasts one of Japan’s largest retro game collections, valued at 10 million yen. Anno has never been defeated at Capcom’s Street Fighter, and she’ll become a character in Street Fighter Online.

Though Anno is the “queen” and champion of retro games, she doesn’t stand a chance against the likes of Lim, and she knows it. “It just seems to me that the simplicity of games is the depth of their beauty. I prefer retro games, and I want to spread the love in Japan and the world.” One has to wonder how far the 8-bit influence will go.

This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp).