14 DAY TRIAL // A report from the University of Gothenburg has used data gathered from the Chief Executive Officers of 74 Japanese gaming companies to paint a rather grim picture of the state of video game development in the country.
Remarkably, 48.2 percent of those who offered information have stated that they did not manage to make a profit over the last few years, while the companies tended to rely on funds from outside sources to continue their operations.
The Japanese developers also failed to create their own technology, with 57.8% of respondents saying that they used licensed game engines, a little over 40 percent saying that they used physics engines while 35.9% relied on Artificial Intelligence created by other companies.
For some time analysts have seen the Japanese gaming industry entering a long-term decline, with a number of prominent publishers like SEGA and Square Enix trying to make more of an impact on Western markets in order to compensate for the decline on the home market.