What Japanese Gamers Think, Spring '09 Edition

A few interesting notes from Famitsu magazine's yearly poll of its readers, conducted on its Famitsu.com portal with a pool of 798 readers:

- Over 90 percent of respondents had used some sort of console or portable game network service, although a mere 24.6% of those had paid for the right -- the rest presumably using free services like PSN instead. Only 58.5% ever use those networks for stuff besides the online mode of the games they play, but the majority of that 58.5% is just Japanese people playing Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G on the adhoc Party PSP network service, which is sort of the same thing.

- 75% of respondents had downloaded a game off a console/portable network service, as opposed to only 37% in the last poll in the spring of 2008. However, if given the choice between a retail package and a downloadable game (assuming everything else was the same), gamers overwhelmingly chose the box, for reasons ranging from "the satisfaction of owning a physical object" to "because I can sell it when I get bored of it."

- Both the amount of time and cash Japanese users spent on games remained unchanged in 2008 despite the economy, with over half shelling out at least 5000 yen per month (i.e. buying the equivalent of one new title) and two-thirds devoting ten or more hours a week to the hobby.

- In the comments section of the poll, respondents laid out a wagonload of good and bad opinions about the game industry. On the plus side, gamers noted "a rise in the gamer population, thanks to Nintendo" and the ability to download patches to fix bugs in their games. "Being able to download demos is great," said one 36-year-old woman. "I've made purchases based off the demos I've played several times."

On the other hand, gamers had a litany of complaints, chief among them gripes about creeping release dates -- a peeve no doubt fueled by Dragon Quest IX's launch getting delayed four months in Japan. Others brought up the rise of online cheaters ("Isn't it about time the industry does something about this?", one 28-year-old businessman wrote) and the way new releases come out on Thursday and often sell out their first shipment by the weekend, making it impossible for Japan's overworked salarymen to buy them at the brick-and-mortar store right off.

- Interestingly, Famitsu received an equal amount of praise and complaints regarding the current variety of choice in console gaming. "Every current platform is in competition with each other, and I like how each one is a distinct choice," wrote one 27-year-old man -- certainly a different story from the last generation. On the other hand, as one unemployed 30-year-old put it, "there are too many consoles -- I wish they'd all merge together." Another 31-year-old saw it in a more cash-oriented way: "If a game gets ported somewhere else after it goes on sale, I feel like I wasted my money buying a console just to play that game."