As AUTOMATON WEST, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the Japanese video game market and all of the people who keep it in motion – which is why we mustn’t forget that gamers are an equally important factor in that conversation. Thus, we decided to start the reader poll series, in which we will directly approach our Japanese readers with a topic in gaming and share their opinions, insights and interesting takes with our overseas readers.
And what better way to do it than to take advantage of our Japanese parent site to ask readers about their preferred gaming platform. In an X poll, we asked gamers to choose among four listed platforms (PC, PS or Xbox, Nintendo Switch, mobile) and tell us about the ones they used the most and the reason behind it. More than 10,000 users participated in the poll, and to our surprise, the results ended up being way more biased to PC gaming than anyone expected.
Before we move on to the poll results, please note that our X survey is not representative of the whole Japanese population, nor is it intended to be a reliable source of statistical data. The poll only serves to give insight about peoples’ general preferences and initiate discussion.
Out of 10,880 users who voted, 60.7% chose PC as their first pick, followed by 19.3% for PlayStation and Xbox. The third and fourth place were taken by Switch users (11.1%) and mobile game users (9%) respectively. Many Japanese gamers on X were understandably surprised by the results, probably expecting votes to be more balanced across the console sections. While we promise we didn’t rig the votes in any way, PC earning more than 60% of votes does seem like a bias too strong, so what actually happened here?
For one thing, a good chunk of our Japanese site’s content revolves around showcasing indie games coming out on Steam, so this has probably helped build up a PC gamer-dominated audience throughout the years.
Now, what do our readers say? Many cite PCs as the most versatile of the platforms – while you can’t play PC games on Xbox or PlayStation, a lot of console games can in fact be played on PC, with the exception of (you guessed it) Nintendo. That’s why many of our readers state that they use Nintendo consoles as their second choice, for playing Nintendo exclusives. Furthermore, platforms like Steam offer a wide variety of indie games which can be bought for affordable prices, and are practically a bottomless pit where anyone can find a title that perfectly matches their niche interests. Additionally, some people named the availability of adult games as the reason why they prefer PC.
“I’ve been playing games mostly on PC ever since I got myself a gaming setup – most games can be played on Steam, while inversely, many can’t be played on consoles. I’ve only ever bought Nintendo consoles to play Nintendo games, as they will never get a PC version.”
“Due to its proven track record, as well as from the perspective of consistency, credibility and flexibility between multiple devices and across generations, I use PC (Steam) as my main platform, and I use Nintendo consoles for games that can only be played on Nintendo platforms.”
“I use PC as my main platform because you can play a lot of different kinds of games on it. Smartphones make it easy to play games outside too, but I worry about the battery overheating so I don’t use it that much.”
“Compared to PS4 and 5, there’s an overwhelmingly larger number of games you can play on the PC, including indies. You can also play games with adult themes, which usually aren’t present in console games.”
Many readers also suggested that their focus on PC gaming is related to their dissatisfaction with mobile games, due to many titles using live-service models and and gacha systems. “There are so many people playing PC games, I guess the bubble of live-service games did burst,” a user commented. And this brings to mind the fact that, currently, many developers are facing a similar situation in Japan’s mobile game market, trying to flee what they call a “sinking Titanic industry” amidst rising development costs and numerous end-of-service announcements.
While “Most readers of a PC gaming website use PC as their main gaming platform” does not exactly qualify as exciting news when you put it that way, as a media outlet making efforts to build a reliable bridge between Japanese gaming/anime culture and the West, we feel like it is important to share the unfiltered voices of real people to real people. Also – it’s just fun to hear what Japanese gamers think on timely topics related to the industry. We hope that the new AUTOMATON reader survey column will become a place for overseas gamers to get a more personal glimpse into Japanese gaming – and if you have anything you want to ask Japanese gamers yourself, please let us know!
