PixelJunk man talks Japan

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 December, 2007

Games taken less seriously.

Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert has been lending Level Up his perspective on the Japanese games market - about which he has an understanding somewhat more intimate than the average Westerner, having worked at Nintendo among other places - reflecting on the fact games aren't taken as "seriously" as they used to be, and revealing that the downloadable PlayStation Network service "really hasn't caught on".

The latter point, says Cuthbert - whose studio is responsible for the PixelJunk series of games, including PixelJunk Racers (out now on PSN) and the recently announced PixelJunk Monsters - is a reflection of the Japanese "traditional aversion to using credit cards". "Pre-paid cards are definitely the way to go forward to solve these problems, but they only rolled out recently, so we'll just have to wait and see," he says.

Equally interesting is his comment on the status of games compared to other pop culture media. "Videogames used to be taken far more seriously than they are now," he says; "over here the gaming culture was affected adversely by advancing mobile phone tech." That's to do with the latter's lightning advances which put our own mobile phone technologies to shame. "However, the Japanese still think of themselves as a kind of gaming Mecca because they have a few god-like presences," he says. "In reality though, gaming has become less central and more a standard commodity; the Wii and DS have proved this with their huge demographic range. People want to play games, but without the huge investment of time and money games used to take up."

For a little more about Japan, getting the Japanese to embrace strategy games, and a lot about PixelJunk Monsters and Cuthbert's views on experimental games, check out parts one and two of the Dylan Cuthbert interview on Newsweek's Level Up.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (5) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • jonsaan #1 4 years ago

    I agree about credit cards. It really is shit that you have to use one to obtain content from PSN, VC and LIVE.

    I know there are some alternatives but the credit card option is so easy and so dangerous.....

    /looks at statement

    /cries

  • Gaol #2 4 years ago

    Some interestig points raised on the changes over there which seem to affect the quality of software us PS3 owners are seeing - as most Western games are being developed on 360 or PC as their primary platform.

    2007 has been described as a great year for games, I think the most surprising thing is I can only think of one (SMG) that's Japanese.

  • Tweakmonkey #3 4 years ago

    I'm not sure he actually worked at Nintendo did he? I thought it was more of a 3rd party relationship. Anyway, how do you buy stuff from Nintendo online? Is it not credit card too? The point about mobile phones is valid and it's obvious handheld gaming and casual gaming is more relevant to Japanese society. It's funny but we almost have the Western market dictating hardcore gaming now.

  • LazyDan #4 4 years ago

    You can buy Wii Points cards in shops to get things from the Shopping Channel OR use a credit card. The cards are never ever ever in stock anywhere I've been though, and I also don't fear teh haX so I actually prefer the convenience of using my credit card to buy games from home.

  • YourMessageHere #5 4 years ago

    Surely debit cards are perfectly acceptable - all the access to online stuffs and (almost) none of the charges, etc.