Ignition: Japanese market is shrinking

Ignition Entertainment believes the market for games that specifically target Japanese consumers is diminishing.

Speaking to Siliconera, business development director Shane Bettenhausen claimed that there are very few studios in the region that are able to achieve strong sales without assistance from larger companies in the West.

There are very few independent guys in Japan that don’t have a Western subsidiary, but those little guys need someone to help them,” he said. [And they] don’t know how to succeed in the West and the Japanese market is shrinking.

I think the future is to make games together for the global market. That’s what I really want to do with Japan is actually from the ground up create a game with Japanese developer that would work everywhere.”

Ignition has studios in the US, UK and Japan. It is currently working on biblical fantasy adventure El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.