Japan lag behind social revolution
Gaming's home isn't down with sackboy
While the exploits of sackboy are likely to take social gaming, and the role of user-generated content, to new levels in Europe (and to a lesser extent North America), gaming heartland Japan is so far ambivalent to the craze. That's the word from SCEE Worldwide's Jamie Macdonald.
Chatting with GI.biz, Macdonald admitted that Japanese gamers were proving slow to adapt to this sea-change in gaming tastes.
"I think… that the success we had in Europe with social gaming in the PS2 era was a surprise," the exec conceded. "Nobody foresaw it, and what we’re trying to do now is to make sure that this whole new genre is catered for within future PlayStation developments.
"It’s not that social gaming was ignored, it’s that it was a surprise to everyone - and also, to be frank, from our point of view it’s been more of a success in Europe than it has in Japan or the United States. It’s still been relatively successful in the US, but I think it’s fair to say it’s not had much of an impact in Japan."
While the PS3 is suffering in the land of the rising sun, the Wii, DS and even the PSP are proving extremely popular.

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