The Future of Japanese Gaming After Street Fighter V
The Japanese fighting game community (FGC) has clearly dominated the Street Fighter scene for decades, but American players have recently been growing in dominance. What are the factors that contribute to the shift in regional dominance for Street Fighter V, and what does this mean for the future of eSports in Japan as whole?
Street Fighter V released their game at the same time for everyone.
Japanese players used to be able to enjoy Street Fighter releases a lot earlier than their American counterparts due to it being released first for them in arcades. This allowed them to inadvertently gain an upper-hand when honing their skills against non-Japanese competitors.
While releasing the game at the same time to everyone seems to have leveled the playing field, it is now far less likely for Japan to dominate because of the next point: the game is exclusive to PlayStation 4 and PC.
Street Fighter V is PS4- and PC-exclusive.
Any time there is a game that is released in the arcades, Japan will always be the best. However, for Street Fighter V, Capcom clarified that they would only be releasing the game on PS4 and PC due to a partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment.
While arcades are a dying breed in the United States, they are still alive and well in Japan; Japanese arcades have consistently been the most popular place for games. In Japan, LAN centers are just not as common and most people do not play video games at home, so members of the Japanese FGC who frequently play at arcades lost their competitive advantage of hours of practice and gameplay.
Even though Japanese arcades now have PCs to allow gamers to play Street Fighter V, the popularity for Street Fighter V in Japan just doesn’t compare to the attention that Street Fighter IV had garnered.
Most of the major tournaments are held in the United States.
When looking at a list of tournaments among the FGC, a large majority of the biggest tournaments are held in America. Tougeki — Super Battle Opera was basically the EVO of Japan, but the Japanese FGC took a huge hit when it was discontinued after 2012.
It takes time and money for Japanese players to fly all the way to North America to compete, so this lack of exposure to large-scale tournaments has helped American players rise to the top.
Street Fighter Leading The Way for Japanese eSports
“Street Fighter V gave us more high-profile events and I think the future of fighting games around the world is huge with games such as Tekken 7, Injustice 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.” — Justin Wong, Echo Fox
Street Fighter V may not have had as much success as its predecessor Street Fighter IV in Japan, but it is the game that will pave the way for Japan’s growth in eSports, especially since half of the top 20 highest earning professional gamers in Japan play some version of Street Fighter. If Street Fighter continues to grow, so will Japan’s eSports scene.
Is Japan on the path to joining other gaming giants such as the U.S., China, and Korea? It was recently announced that Japan would be adding eSports to the 2022 Asian Games. The International Olympic Committee also accepted preliminary paperwork by the International eSports Federation to add video games to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. This exciting development shows just how much Japan and the rest of the world is recognizing the growing popularity of eSports.
Even though the FGC historically does not like being lumped in with eSports, I included them in the same category because professional fighting game players are now on professional eSports teams and the lines have recently become more blurred than not.
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