Japan's Serious Gaming: Nintendo DS

While in the video game section of one of the larger Tokyo bookstores (itself within a larger technology-oriented department store) I was surprised to find a large percentage of titles had nothing to do with what we regard as the typical genres of entertainment. At least one in four were educational in some nature, used for informal tutorial, reference, language learning, or historical perspective. Inquiring more about local usage found that this was one of the more popular uses for the Nintendo DS.

Introduced at about the same time in Japan and the United States, the small hand-held device never quite caught on as much as it did in Japan. The consensus of those I spoke with is that the difference goes well beyond what might be attributed to cultural or economic variables; the biggest factor may be in how we value connectivity differently. (I believe only recently has Nintendo made the device "Internet ready/aware".) In the United States, with an emphasis on Internet connectivity, both at home and at school, the idea of always having the Internet at one's fingertips has been a priority. In Japan, where home connectivity remained significantly lower during the dot-com era and only recently (in the last year) surpassed broadband connectivity as compared to the United States, the emphasis has been on making content as portable as possible. As such, the market for high-quality titles beyond entertainment remains viable in Japan (whereas here, they seem to be an afterthought).

Anecdotal evidence of this was observed while waiting for my wife to finish perusing the multitude of traditional paper selections available from a local merchant. I wandered out to the railing, looked down, and was surprised to find not one, but eight different tables with kids and their parents all working on or sharing their Nintendo DS with others at the table. But none of them were acting like they were in the middle of video game combat or performing some high-dexterity manuver or puzzle. Instead, they simply interacted with the device and others around the table. (Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to interogate each about their uses, as we had to meet my brother, his wife and my niece for dinner.)