The CEO of CyberConnect 2, Matsuyama Hiroshi, held a really interesting seminar for game creators and those interested in the topic. Although, I am hardly part of the industry, the interest and passion has always been there. I was able to attend this event, although I arrived a little after it had begun.
There was also time for a book signing and a brief discussion gathering after the event where we were treated to some small drinks and snacks.
Matsuyama was completely in the game tonight and it was clear he was enjoying giving the seminar. I had a blast just listening to him tell the handful of anecdotes throughout the evening.
We were told that we were free to take photos, but to just be mindful of when it was appropriate to take photos. 🙂
▲ Quick company stats with photos from the Fukuoka, Tokyo, and maybe Montreal offices?
Company Size
- Fukuoka Studeo: 180
- Tokyo Studeo: 33
- Montreal: 14
▲ Slide for 『.hack//G.U. Last Recode』!!
▲ Naruto is one of the main titles that CC2 releases. This is Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 “Road to Boruto”.
▲ Another one of their series would have to be Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. This is the PS3 release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle and the PS3/PS4 release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven.
▲ Here’s one of the few smartphone applications that they produced, Full Bokko Heroes X for both iOS and Android.
▲ The offices are literally littered with more than 60 different magazines every month for employees to browse!
▲ There are also all kinds of movie and anime DVD/Blu-rays, individual manga books, and various video game titles freely available to employees.
▲ The company also provides many opportunities for employees to “skill up” their abilities in various areas such as C++, UnrealEngine4, Python scripts, and more.
▲ With the basic introduction out of the way, this was the “meat” of the seminar:
“The Game Creator Seminar”!!!
▲ First, we were asked to think of the average number of games sold in a single year. Numbers ranged from 200 to 1000.
▲ This chart breaks down the number of game titles released every year.
- 2004: 802
- 2005: 828
- 2006: 900
- 2007: 983
- 2008: 972
- 2009: 811
- 2010: 745
- 2011: 679
- 2012: 644
- 2013: 565
- 2014: 539
- 2015: —– ↓
- 2016: —– ↓
- 2017: —– ↑
My photography was bad in the moment, so I don’t have the exact numbers for 2015-2017, but the main point was that 2017 signaled in a slight rebound from the downward trend of releases since 2007.
▲ Next, we were asked to think how many games a person buys in the course of a year.
▲ Generally speaking, the average number of games a “game fan” purchases in a year is 8.8. A soft-core gamer buys about 4 games a year.
▲ Next, we were asked to think of what titles sold over 1,000,000 copies in 2017. I was stupid with the numbers (Japanese “man” is a bit difficult to calculate in your brain) and suggested NieR:Automata did…even though I knew it only sold a bit over 300,000 copies. lol
▲ And this was our answer, a list of top selling titles in 2017!
- 3DS: Dragon Quest 11 – 1,728,000
- 3DS: Monster Hunter Double Cross – 1,668,000
- PS4: Dragon Quest 11 – 1,321,000
- Switch: Splatoon2 – 1,309,000
- Switch: Mario Cart 8 Deluxe – 717,000
- 3DS: Pokemon Sun/Moon – 560,000
- Switch: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the World – 551,000
- Switch: Super Mario Odessy – 511,000
- 3DS: Super Mario Maker – 397,000
- PS4: NieR:Automata – 343,000
▲ Basically, if titles don’t sell over 100,000 copies, they’re losing money…
▲ If we imagine the sales of the top 40 games are positive, then anything 41 to 424 is losing money. 1/10 is in positive figures, whereas 9/10 is in the red.
▲ Among the gaming industry, 1/5 of titles is in positive numbers whereas 4/5s are in the red; which means, 20% have to be MASSIVE HITS!
▲ So it’s very important to know what sort of interesting things will sell. It’s best to avoid talking with people who cannot answer this question.
▲ It’s also vitally important for copies to connect with fans to hear their opinions on a multitude of topics. How/what do people play, read, watch, experience.
▲ This shows the trends of various platforms. The top represents smartphone and PC online games, the middle represents home gaming games, and the last represents home gaming hardware.
December 27, 2015
- Online Platform (smartphone & PC) = 998,900,000,000yen
- Home Software & Hardware = 360,200,000,000yen
- →2016 Home Software & Hardware = 299,400,000,000yen
▲ Global Market Size: 5,400,000,000,000yen; Japan is just 1/14 of this figure.
▲ Global sales for the PS4 is around 60,000,000 units, where as within Japan alone, it’s around 5,000,000.
▲ Titles that sold well overseas:
- Pokemon Sun/Moon
- Super Mario Maker
- Final Fantasy XV
- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Bloodborne
- Dark Souls 3
- Resident Evil 7
- Yokkai Watch 3
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
- Monster Hunter Double Cross
- Pokken Tournament
- The Last Guardian
- Street Fighter V
- NieR:Automata
▲ The market for home gaming is WORLDWIDE, with a focus on gamers all over the world.
▲ The very last bit of Matsuyama’s talk touched briefly on his non-fiction novel, detailing the true events that occurred with “Hiroshi-kun” just prior to the release of 『.hack//G.U. Vol.3』in 2009.
▶︎ Famitsu was also present for the seminar, so here is their recap of the talk!