Survey Says Japanese Dislike Shooters

Famitsu has catalogued a few reasons for the poor reception shooters receive in Japan.

The latest issue of Japanese gaming periodical Famitsu features an eight-page examination of the lackluster sales of first-person and third-person shooters in Japan.

Only 74.8 percent of readers surveyed stated they had experienced an FPS or TPS, and only 51 percent of that group demographic said they wanted to play shooters. Only 38.1 percent of the Japanese gaming market enjoys one of the most profitable genres in North America.

User submitted reasons read:

• "I'm not interested"
• "The games seem difficult"
• "I don't know what the point of these games is"
• "I'm worried about playing them because I'm a beginner."

Not a single submitter stated that nausea or sickness, an inaccurate yet widespread explanation for the low penetration of FPS games in Asia, was a turn off from shooters.

Source: Famitsu via Next-Gen