After several years of powering up on the sidelines, the online game market is set to go critical.
All the signs are there. Consoles are plugging into the Internet, game producers are conjuring up virtual battlefields for the masses, and the nation's solitary players are finally looking for real-time opponents.
With broadband fast becoming a common household utility, sales of online games and related service fees are expected to smash through the 100 billion yen mark in 2007.
Online games have had a slow start in Japan. Wildly popular in South Korea and China, Internet-based games still play second-fiddle in the domestic market, where most of the action takes place on stand-alone home consoles.
But online games designed for personal computers have already demonstrated their potential in the home market.
Subscriptions for GungHo Online Entertainment Inc.'s Ragnarok Online role-playing game have grown about 50 percent to 1.3 million over the past year. A monthly membership is 1,500 yen.
At any given time, tens of thousands of people are racing, fighting and outfoxing other players.
The new taste for community gaming couldn't come at a better time for the industry, which has seen sales stagnate in recent years.
"Video games have become overly sophisticated, turning off many users," says Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata.
With next-generation consoles like Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 as the platform, a new gaming culture is ready to flower, says Hirokazu Hamamura, president of game-magazine publisher Enterbrain Inc.
In Japan, the Xbox 360 went on sale on Saturday, and six titles released simultaneously are Internet-compatible. Microsoft also introduced a new free membership system for online games.
According to Enterbrain, the online game market will grow to 138 billion yen in 2007, up from 58 billion yen in 2004.
"Japan, too, will enter an era when online games really start to spread," Hamamura said.
Aiming to catch this wave, Konami Corp. set up a division in charge of online games in April. Square Enix Co. has made two of its titles online-capable this year.
The game-site operator affiliated with Softbank Corp. set up a 10 billion-yen fund in October to invest in online game producers.
"Online games will become a major sector with the potential to develop business offshore," says Takenobu Miki, president of the company, which has been renamed Movida Investment.(IHT/Asahi)
