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181-602: The video game crash of 1983 (known in Japan as the Atari shock ) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985 in the United States . The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturation in the number of video game consoles and available games, many of which were of poor quality . Waning interest in console games in favor of personal computers also played

362-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

543-500: A low unemployment rate of around 2.6%. Its poverty rate is the second highest among the G7 countries, and exceeds 15.7% of the population. Japan has the highest ratio of public debt to GDP among advanced economies, with a national debt estimated at 248% relative to GDP as of 2022 . The Japanese yen is the world's third-largest reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. Japan

724-701: A security alliance . The United States is a major market for Japanese exports and a major source of Japanese imports, and is committed to defending the country, with military bases in Japan. In 2016, Japan announced the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision, which frames its regional policies. Japan is also a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue ("the Quad"), a multilateral security dialogue reformed in 2017 aiming to limit Chinese influence in

905-712: A combined 90 new Atari games. By 1983, an estimated 100 companies were attempting to leverage the CES into a foothold in the market. AtariAge documented 158 different vendors that had developed for the Atari VCS. In June 1982, the Atari games on the market numbered just 100 which by December, grew to over 400. Experts predicted a glut in 1983, with only 10% of games producing 75% of sales. BYTE stated in December, "in 1982 few games broke new ground in either design or format ... If

1086-652: A country's commitment to environmental sustainability. Japan is the world's fifth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide . As the host and signatory of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol , Japan is under treaty obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps to curb climate change. In 2020, the government of Japan announced a target of carbon-neutrality by 2050. Environmental issues include urban air pollution ( NOx , suspended particulate matter , and toxics ), waste management , water eutrophication , nature conservation , climate change , chemical management and international co-operation for conservation. Japan

1267-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

1448-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

1629-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

1810-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

1991-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

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2172-545: A kingdom in central Japan in 660 BC, beginning a continuous imperial line . Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book of Han , completed in 111 AD. Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Baekje (a Korean kingdom) in 552, but the development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China. Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class, including figures like Prince Shōtoku , and gained widespread acceptance beginning in

2353-436: A landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico , though Atari did not comment about their activity at the time. Misinformation related to sales of Pac-Man and E.T. led to the urban legend of the Atari video game burial , that millions of unsold cartridges were buried there. Gaming historians received permission to dig up the landfill as part of a documentary in 2014, during which former Atari executive James Heller, who had overseen

2534-491: A large cooperative sector, with three of the world's ten largest cooperatives, including the largest consumer cooperative and the largest agricultural cooperative as of 2018 . It ranks highly for competitiveness and economic freedom . Japan ranked sixth in the Global Competitiveness Report in 2019. It attracted 31.9 million international tourists in 2019, and was ranked eleventh in

2715-479: A major catalyst for further administrative reforms. These reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taihō Code , which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central and subordinate local governments. These legal reforms created the ritsuryō state, a system of Chinese-style centralized government that remained in place for half a millennium. The Nara period (710–784) marked

2896-554: A new constitution emphasizing liberal democratic practices. The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956. A period of record growth propelled Japan to become the second-largest economy in the world; this ended in the mid-1990s after the popping of an asset price bubble , beginning the " Lost Decade ". In 2011, Japan suffered one of

3077-465: A new system of taxation. The true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys and students were dispatched to China to learn about Chinese writing, politics, art, and religion. The Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew Prince Ōtomo , became

3258-622: A population of nearly 124 million as of 2024, and is the eleventh-most populous country . Its capital and largest city is Tokyo ; the Greater Tokyo Area is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with more than 38 million inhabitants as of 2016. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions . About three-quarters of the country's terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains . The country sits on

3439-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

3620-481: A role. Home video game revenue peaked at around $ 3.2 billion in 1983, then fell to around $ 100 million by 1985 (a drop of almost 97 percent). The crash abruptly ended what is retrospectively considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. To a lesser extent, the arcade video game market also weakened as the golden age of arcade video games came to an end. Lasting about two years,

3801-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

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3982-465: A significant shift to urbanization. The early 20th century saw a period of Taishō democracy (1912–1926) overshadowed by increasing expansionism and militarization . World War I allowed Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies , to capture German possessions in the Pacific and China in 1920 . The 1920s saw a political shift towards statism , a period of lawlessness following

4163-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

4344-619: A strict licensing policy for the NES that included equipping the cartridge and console with lockout chips, which were region-specific, and had to match in order for a game to work. In addition to preventing the use of unlicensed games, it also was designed to combat software piracy , rarely a problem in North America or Western Europe, but rampant in East Asia. The concepts of such a control system remain in use on every major video game console produced today, even with fewer "cartridge-based" consoles on

4525-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

4706-1040: A system of terraces is used to farm in small areas. This results in one of the world's highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% as of 2018 . Japan's small agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected . There has been a growing concern about farming as farmers are aging with a difficult time finding successors. Third-party developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

4887-403: A toy robot called R.O.B. to convince toy retailers to allow it in their stores. Furthermore, the design for the NES used a front-loading cartridge slot to mimic how video cassette recorders , popular at that time, were loaded, further pulling the NES away from previous console designs. By the time the U.S. video game market recovered in the late 1980s, the NES was by far the dominant console in

5068-697: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

5249-529: Is reclaimed land ( umetatechi ). Lake Biwa is an ancient lake and the country's largest freshwater lake. Japan is substantially prone to earthquakes , tsunami and volcanic eruptions because of its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has the 17th highest natural disaster risk as measured in the 2016 World Risk Index. Japan has 111 active volcanoes. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century;

5430-430: Is 377,975.24 km (145,937.06 sq mi). Japan has the sixth-longest coastline in the world at 29,751 km (18,486 mi). Because of its far-flung outlying islands, Japan's exclusive economic zone is the eighth-largest in the world, covering 4,470,000 km (1,730,000 sq mi). The Japanese archipelago is 67% forests and 14% agricultural . The primarily rugged and mountainous terrain

5611-722: Is a unitary state and constitutional monarchy in which the power of the Emperor is limited to a ceremonial role . Executive power is instead wielded by the Prime Minister of Japan and his Cabinet , whose sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people. Naruhito is the Emperor of Japan, having succeeded his father Akihito upon his accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019. Japan's legislative organ

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5792-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

5973-755: Is an island country in East Asia . It is located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland , and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands— Hokkaido , Honshu , Shikoku , and Kyushu —and thousands of smaller islands , covering 377,975 square kilometres (145,937 sq mi). Japan has

6154-517: Is divided into 47 prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor and legislature. In the following table, the prefectures are grouped by region : 7.  Fukushima 14.  Kanagawa 23.  Aichi 30.  Wakayama 35.  Yamaguchi 39.  Kōchi 47.  Okinawa A member state of the United Nations since 1956, Japan is one of the G4 countries seeking reform of

6335-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

6516-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

6697-730: Is governed by the Ministry of Defense , and primarily consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force , the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force . The deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan marked the first overseas use of Japan's military since World War II. The Government of Japan has been making changes to its security policy which include the establishment of

6878-491: Is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter. In the Sea of Japan region on Honshu's west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall during winter. In the summer, the region sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures because of the Foehn . The Central Highland has a typical inland humid continental climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter. The mountains of

7059-439: Is restricted for habitation. Thus the habitable zones, mainly in the coastal areas, have very high population densities: Japan is the 40th most densely populated country even without considering that local concentration. Honshu has the highest population density at 450 persons/km (1200/sq mi) as of 2010 , while Hokkaido has the lowest density of 64.5 persons/km as of 2016 . As of 2014 , approximately 0.5% of Japan's total area

7240-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

7421-482: Is the National Diet , a bicameral parliament . It consists of a lower House of Representatives with 465 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and an upper House of Councillors with 245 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 18 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elected offices. The prime minister as

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7602-592: Is the oldest unamended constitution in the world. Statutory law originates in the legislature, and the constitution requires that the emperor promulgate legislation passed by the Diet without giving him the power to oppose legislation. The main body of Japanese statutory law is called the Six Codes . Japan's court system is divided into four basic tiers: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts. Japan

7783-574: Is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period . The characters 日本 mean "sun origin", which is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun". The name "Japan" is based on Min or Wu Chinese pronunciations of 日本 and was introduced to European languages through early trade. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded

7964-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

8145-571: Is very heavy, especially during the rainy season. The main rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, and the rain front gradually moves north. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain. According to the Environment Ministry, heavy rainfall and increasing temperatures have caused problems in the agricultural industry and elsewhere. The highest temperature ever measured in Japan, 41.1 °C (106.0 °F),

8326-483: Is written using the kanji 日本 and is pronounced Nihon or Nippon . Before 日本 was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was known in China as Wa ( 倭 , changed in Japan around 757 to 和 ) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato . Nippon , the original Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, is favored for official uses, including on Japanese banknotes and postage stamps. Nihon

8507-899: The shōgun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state nominally unified under the emperor (the Meiji Restoration ). Adopting Western political, judicial, and military institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council , introduced the Meiji Constitution (November 29, 1890), and assembled the Imperial Diet . During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the Empire of Japan emerged as

8688-416: The 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people. More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami. The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate but varies greatly from north to south. The northernmost region, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers. Precipitation

8869-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

9050-463: The Asuka period (592–710). In 645, the government led by Prince Naka no Ōe and Fujiwara no Kamatari devised and implemented the far-reaching Taika Reforms . The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from China . It nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for

9231-539: The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. He was appointed shōgun by Emperor Go-Yōzei in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (modern Tokyo). The shogunate enacted measures including buke shohatto , as a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyō , and in 1639 the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as

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9412-519: The Chūgoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round. The Pacific coast features a humid subtropical climate that experiences milder winters with occasional snowfall and hot, humid summers because of the southeast seasonal wind. The Ryukyu and Nanpō Islands have a subtropical climate , with warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation

9593-601: The Early Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of the characters 日本國 as Cipangu . The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun , was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia , who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century. The first version of the name in English appears in a book published in 1577, which spelled

9774-588: The Edo period (1603–1868). Modern Japan's economic growth began in this period, resulting in roads and water transportation routes, as well as financial instruments such as futures contracts , banking and insurance of the Osaka rice brokers . The study of Western sciences ( rangaku ) continued through contact with the Dutch enclave in Nagasaki . The Edo period gave rise to kokugaku ("national studies"),

9955-756: The Indo-Pacific region, along with the United States, Australia, and India. Japan is engaged in several territorial disputes with its neighbors. Japan contests Russia's control of the Southern Kuril Islands , which were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945. South Korea's control of the Liancourt Rocks is acknowledged but not accepted as they are claimed by Japan. Japan has strained relations with China and Taiwan over

10136-591: The Intellivision III , "Who was going to pay $ 200-plus for a machine that could only play games?" Commodore explicitly targeted video game players. Spokesman William Shatner asked in VIC-20 commercials "Why buy just a video game from Atari or Intellivision?", stating that "unlike games, it has a real computer keyboard" yet "plays great games too". Commodore's ownership of chip fabricator MOS Technology allowed manufacture of integrated circuits in-house , so

10317-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

10498-755: The Kurils . The Allies (led by the United States) repatriated millions of Japanese settlers from their former colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese Empire and its influence over the territories it conquered. The Allies convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese leaders except the Emperor for Japanese war crimes . In 1947, Japan adopted

10679-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

10860-465: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

11041-670: The National Security Council , the adoption of the National Security Strategy, and the development of the National Defense Program Guidelines. In May 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan wanted to shed the passiveness it has maintained since the end of World War II and take more responsibility for regional security. In December 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida further confirmed this trend, instructing

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11222-426: The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), released in October 1985. The NES was designed to avoid the missteps that caused the 1983 crash and the stigma associated with video games at that time. The Atari VCS (renamed the Atari 2600 in late 1982) was not the first home system with swappable game cartridges , but by 1980 it was the most popular second-generation console by a wide margin. Launched in 1977 just ahead of

11403-453: The Pacific War and two atomic bombings , Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under Allied occupation . After the war, the country underwent rapid economic growth , although its economy has stagnated since 1990 . Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet . A great power and the only Asian member of the G7 , Japan has constitutionally renounced its right to declare war , but maintains one of

11584-423: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

11765-406: The Sea of Okhotsk to the East China Sea . The country's five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido , Honshu , Shikoku , Kyushu and Okinawa . The Ryukyu Islands , which include Okinawa, are a chain to the south of Kyushu. The Nanpō Islands are south and east of the main islands of Japan. Together they are often known as the Japanese archipelago . As of 2019 , Japan's territory

11946-418: The Security Council . Japan is a member of the G7 , APEC , and " ASEAN Plus Three ", and is a participant in the East Asia Summit . It is the world's fifth-largest donor of official development assistance , donating US$ 9.2 billion in 2014. In 2024, Japan had the fourth-largest diplomatic network in the world. Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains

12127-504: The Senkaku Islands and the status of Okinotorishima . Japan is the third highest-ranked Asian country in the 2024 Global Peace Index . It spent 1.1% of its total GDP on its defence budget in 2022, and maintained the tenth-largest military budget in the world in 2022. The country's military (the Japan Self-Defense Forces) is restricted by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution , which renounces Japan's right to declare war or use military force in international disputes. The military

12308-738: The TRS-80 Color Computer sold at $ 379 (equivalent to $ 1,197 in 2023), and Commodore International had just reduced the price of the VIC-20 to $ 199 (equivalent to $ 628 in 2023) and the Commodore 64 to $ 499 (equivalent to $ 1,575 in 2023). Because computers generally had more memory and faster processors than a console, they permitted more sophisticated games. A 1984 compendium of reviews of Atari 8-bit software used 198 pages for games compared to 167 for all other software types. Home computers could also be used for tasks such as word processing and home accounting. Games were easier to distribute, since they could be sold on floppy disks or cassette tapes instead of ROM cartridges. This opened

12489-401: The end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period , the Empire of Japan pursued rapid industrialization and modernization , as well as militarism and overseas colonization . In 1937, Japan invaded China , and in 1941 attacked the United States and European colonial powers, entering World War II as an Axis power . After suffering defeat in

12670-411: The head of government has the power to appoint and dismiss Ministers of State , and is appointed by the emperor after being designated from among the members of the Diet. Shigeru Ishiba is Japan's prime minister; he took office after winning the 2024 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election . The broadly conservative Liberal Democratic Party has been the dominant party in the country since

12851-490: The samurai . In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War , samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government at Kamakura . After Yoritomo's death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shōgun . The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class. The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281 but

13032-513: The 1923 Great Tokyo Earthquake , the passing of laws against political dissent , and a series of attempted coups . This process accelerated during the 1930s, spawning several radical nationalist groups that shared a hostility to liberal democracy and a dedication to expansion in Asia. In 1931, Japan invaded China and occupied Manchuria , which led to the establishment of puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932; following international condemnation of

13213-664: The 1950s, often called the 1955 System . Historically influenced by Chinese law , the Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period through texts such as Kujikata Osadamegaki . Since the late 19th century, the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. In 1896, Japan established a civil code based on the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch , which remains in effect with post–World War II modifications. The Constitution of Japan , adopted in 1947,

13394-562: The 1983 crash led to the decline of consoles in the UK, which was offset by the rise of LCD games in 1983 and then the rise of computer games in 1984. It was not until the late 1980s with the arrival of the Master System and NES that the home console market recovered in the UK. Computer games remained the dominant sector of the UK home video game market up until they were surpassed by Sega and Nintendo consoles in 1991. Japan Japan

13575-433: The 1983 crash. The company created the proprietary 10NES system, a lockout chip which was designed to prevent cartridges made without the chip from being played on the NES. The 10NES lockout was not perfect, as later in the NES' lifecycle methods were found to bypass it, but it did sufficiently allow Nintendo to strengthen its publishing control to avoid the mistakes Atari had made and initially prevent bootleg cartridges in

13756-530: The 8-bit era by producing unlicensed NES games. Initially, Nintendo was the only developer for the Famicom. Under pressure from Namco and Hudson Soft , it opened the Famicom to third-party development, but instituted a license fee of 30% per game cartridge for these third-parties to develop games, a system used by console manufacturers to this day. Nintendo maintained strict manufacturing control and requiring payment in full before manufacturing. Cartridges could not be returned to Nintendo, so publishers assumed all

13937-475: The Asian regions. Outside of Japan, Nintendo placed its Nintendo Seal of Quality on all licensed games released for the system to try to promote authenticity and detract from bootleg sales, but failed to make significant traction to stalling these sales. As Nintendo prepared to release the Famicom in the United States, it wanted to avoid both the bootleg problem it had in Asia as well as the mistakes that led up to

14118-543: The Atari VCS, the four programmers developed their own games and cartridge manufacturing processes. Atari quickly sued to block sales of Activision's products, but failed to secure a restraining order , and ultimately settled the case in 1982. While the settlement stipulated that Activision must pay royalties to Atari, this case ultimately legitimized the viability of third-party game developers. Activision's games were as popular as Atari's, with Pitfall! (released in 1982) selling over 4 million units. Prior to 1982, Activision

14299-632: The Famicom in the United States. A planned deal with Atari to distribute the Famicom in North America fell apart in the wake of the crash, resulting in Nintendo handling the international release themselves two years later. Additionally, retailer opposition to video games was directly responsible for causing Nintendo to brand its product the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) rather than a "video game system", and using terms such as "control deck" and "Game Pak", as well as producing

14480-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

14661-435: The Japanese consoles effectively went uncontested over the next few years. By 1986, three years after its introduction, 6.5 million Japanese homes – 19% of the population – owned a Famicom, and Nintendo began exporting it to the U.S., where the home console industry was only just recovering from the crash. The impact on the retail sector of the crash was the most formidable barrier that confronted Nintendo as it tried to market

14842-534: The Mattel and Atari systems and hiring away their trained game programmers. While Mattel and Coleco implemented lockout measures to control third-party development (the ColecoVision BIOS checked for a copyright string on power-up), the Atari 2600 was completely unprotected and once information on its hardware became available, little prevented anyone from making games for the system. Nintendo thus instituted

15023-761: The National Police Agency is administered by the National Public Safety Commission . The Special Assault Team comprises national-level counter-terrorism tactical units that cooperate with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads . The Japan Coast Guard guards territorial waters surrounding Japan and uses surveillance and control countermeasures against smuggling, marine environmental crime , poaching, piracy, spy ships, unauthorized foreign fishing vessels, and illegal immigration. The Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law strictly regulates

15204-479: The North American video game industry, as American video game companies were increasingly licensing products from Japanese companies, who in turn were opening up North American branches. By 1982–1983, Japanese manufacturers had captured a large share of the North American arcade market, which Gene Lipkin of Data East USA partly attributed to Japanese companies having more finances to invest in new ideas. As

15385-589: The Pacific Ring of Fire , making its islands prone to destructive earthquakes and tsunamis . The first known habitation of the archipelago dates to the Upper Paleolithic , with the beginning Japanese Paleolithic dating to c.  36,000 BC . Between the fourth and sixth centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara , and later Heian-kyō . From the 12th century, actual power

15566-624: The Pacific . Throughout areas occupied by Japan during the war, numerous abuses were committed against local inhabitants, with many forced into sexual slavery . After Allied victories during the next four years, which culminated in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender . The war cost Japan millions of lives and its colonies , including de jure parts of Japan such as Korea , Taiwan , Karafuto , and

15747-417: The United States (9.9 percent), and Australia (9.8 percent). Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, and raw materials for its industries. The Japanese variant of capitalism has many distinct features: keiretsu enterprises are influential, and lifetime employment and seniority-based career advancement are common in the Japanese work environment . Japan has

15928-447: The United States, leaving only a fraction of the market to Atari. By 1989, home video game sales in the United States had reached $ 5 billion, surpassing the 1982 peak of $ 3 billion during the previous generation. A large majority of the market was controlled by Nintendo; it sold more than 35 million units in the United States, exceeding the sales of other consoles and personal computers by a considerable margin. New Japanese companies entered

16109-566: The United States, the computer game market was able to gain a strong foothold in 1983 and beyond. Developers that had been primarily in the console games space, like Activision, turned their attention to developing computer game titles to stay viable. Newer companies also were founded to capture the growing interest in the computer games space with novel elements that borrowed from console games, as well as taking advantage of low-cost dial-up modems that allowed for multiplayer capabilities. The computer game market grew between 1983 and 1984, overtaking

16290-439: The VIC-20 and C64 sold for much lower prices than competing home computers. In addition, both Commodore computers were designed to utilize the ubiquitous Atari controllers so they could tap into the existing controller market. "I've been in retailing 30 years and I have never seen any category of goods get on a self-destruct pattern like this", a Service Merchandise executive told The New York Times in June 1983. The price war

16471-632: The Western markets. These strict licensing measures backfired somewhat after Nintendo was accused of monopolistic behavior. In the long run, this pushed many western third-party publishers such as Electronic Arts away from Nintendo consoles and supported competing consoles such as the Sega Genesis or Sony PlayStation . Most of the Nintendo platform-control measures were adopted by later console manufacturers such as Sega, Sony, and Microsoft, although not as stringently. With waning console interests in

16652-535: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

16833-403: The actual demand for cartridges in 1982, which contributed to the stockpiling of unsold inventory during the crash. Inexpensive home computers had been first introduced in 1977. By 1979, Atari, Inc. unveiled the Atari 400 and 800 computers, built around a chipset originally meant for use in a game console, and which retailed for the same price as their respective names. In 1981, IBM introduced

17014-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

17195-469: The amount of new software coming in would only allow a few big hits, that retailers had devoted too much floor space to systems, and that price drops for home computers could result in an industry shakeup. Atari had a large inventory after significant portions of the 1982 orders were returned. In addition, the rapid growth of the video game industry led to an increased demand, which the manufacturers over-projected. In 1983, an analyst for Goldman Sachs stated

17376-476: The capital, settling on Heian-kyō (modern-day Kyoto ) in 794. This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged. Murasaki Shikibu 's The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan's national anthem " Kimigayo " were written during this time. Japan's feudal era was characterized by the emergence and dominance of a ruling class of warriors,

17557-550: The civilian ownership of guns, swords, and other weaponry. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime , among the member states of the UN that report statistics as of 2018 , the incidence rates of violent crimes such as murder, abduction, sexual violence, and robbery are very low in Japan. Japanese society traditionally places a strong emphasis on collective harmony and conformity , which has led to

17738-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

17919-678: The collapse of the market for home Pong console clones, the Atari VCS experienced modest sales for its first few years. In 1980, Atari's licensed version of Space Invaders from Taito became the console's killer application ; sales of the VCS quadrupled, and the game was the first title to sell more than a million copies. Spurred by the success of the Atari VCS, other consoles were introduced, both from Atari and other companies: Odyssey² , Intellivision , ColecoVision , Atari 5200 , and Vectrex . Notably, Coleco sold an add-on allowing Atari VCS games to be played on its ColecoVision, as well as bundling

18100-454: The combination of low supply and low prices. By that year, Gutman wrote, "Video games were officially dead and computers were hot". He renamed his magazine Computer Games in October 1983, but "I noticed that the word games became a dirty word in the press. We started replacing it with simulations as often as possible". Soon "The computer slump began ... Suddenly, everyone was saying that

18281-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

18462-503: The console market, but overall video game revenue had declined significantly due to the considerable decline of the console market as well as the arcade market to an extent. The home computer industry, however, experienced a downturn in mid-1984, with global computer game sales declining in 1985 to a certain extent. Microcomputers dominated the European market throughout the 1980s and with domestic production for those formats thriving over

18643-565: The console with a licensed home version of Nintendo's arcade hit Donkey Kong . In 1982, the ColecoVision held roughly 17% of the hardware market, compared to Atari VCS' 58%. This was the first real threat to Atari's dominance of the home console market. Each new console had its own library of games produced exclusively by the console maker, while the Atari VCS also had a large selection of titles produced by third-party developers. In 1982, analysts marked trends of saturation, mentioning that

18824-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

19005-427: The crash shook a then-booming video game industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing home computers and video game consoles. Analysts of the time expressed doubts about the long-term viability of video game consoles and software. The North American video game console industry recovered a few years later, mostly due to the widespread success of Nintendo's Western branding for its Famicom console,

19186-790: The crash was happening in the United States, Japan's game industry started to shift its attention from arcade games to home consoles. Within one month in 1983, two new home consoles were released in Japan: the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) and Sega 's SG-1000 (which was later supplanted by the Master System ) heralding the third generation of home consoles retrospectively. These two consoles were very popular, buoyed by an economic bubble in Japan. The units readily outsold Atari and Mattel's existing systems, and with both Atari and Mattel focusing on recovering domestic sales,

19367-470: The demand for video games was up 100% from the previous year, but the manufacturing output had increased by 175%, creating a significant surplus. Atari CEO Raymond Kassar recognized in 1982 that the industry's saturation point was imminent. However, Kassar expected this to occur when about half of American households had a video game console. The crash occurred when about 15 million machines had been sold, which soundly under-shot Kassar's estimate. Michael Katz,

19548-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

19729-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

19910-457: The earth. You have to wonder how tenuous the connection will be between the game and the movie Marathon Man . What are you going to do, present a video game root canal?" By September 1983, the Phoenix stated that 2600 cartridges were "no longer a growth industry". Activision, Atari, and Mattel all had experienced programmers, but many of the new companies rushing to join the market did not have

20091-628: The emergence of a Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara ). The period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literary culture with the completion of the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired artwork and architecture . A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population. In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved

20272-531: The end of the home-computer price war, one of the causes of the crash. The crash in 1983 had the largest impact in the United States. It rippled through all sectors of the global video game market worldwide, though sales of video games still remained strong in Japan, Europe, and Canada from the beleaguered American companies. It took several years for the U.S. industry to recover. The estimated US$ 42 billion worldwide market in 1982, including arcade, console, and computer games, dropped to US$ 14 billion by 1985. There

20453-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

20634-578: The expertise or talent to create quality games. Titles such as the Kaboom! -like Lost Luggage , rock band tie-in Journey Escape , and plate-spinning game Dishaster , were examples of games made in the hopes of taking advantage of the video-game boom, but later proved unsuccessful with retailers and potential customers. The flood of new games was released into a limited competitive space. According to Activision's Jim Levy, they had projected that

20815-400: The field to a cottage industry of third-party software developers. Writeable storage media allowed players to save games in progress, a useful feature for increasingly complex games which was not available on the consoles of the era. In 1982, a price war that began between Commodore and Texas Instruments led to home computers becoming as inexpensive as video-game consoles; after Commodore cut

20996-514: The financial risk of selling all units ordered. Nintendo limited most third-party publishers to only five games per year on its systems (some companies tried to get around this by creating additional company labels like Konami 's Ultra Games label). Nintendo ultimately dropped this rule by 1993, after the release of the successor Super Nintendo Entertainment System . Nintendo's strong-armed oversight of Famicom cartridge manufacturing led to both legitimate and bootleg unlicensed cartridges to be made in

21177-450: The first IBM Personal Computer with a $ 1,565 base price (equivalent to $ 5,245 in 2023), while Sinclair Research introduced its low-end ZX81 microcomputer for £ 70 (equivalent to £339 in 2023). By 1982, new desktop computer designs were commonly providing better color graphics and sound than game consoles and personal computer sales were booming. The TI-99/4A and the Atari 400 were both at $ 349 (equivalent to $ 1,102 in 2023),

21358-761: The first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Oda Nobunaga used European technology and firearms to conquer many other daimyō ; his consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period . After the death of Nobunaga in 1582, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi , unified the nation in the early 1590s and launched two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597 . Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son Toyotomi Hideyori and used his position to gain political and military support. When open war broke out, Ieyasu defeated rival clans in

21539-516: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

21720-423: The full national release early the following year. Following 1986, the industry began recovering, and by 1988, annual sales in the industry exceeded $ 2.3 billion, with 70% of the market dominated by Nintendo. In 1986, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi noted that "Atari collapsed because they gave too much freedom to third-party developers and the market was swamped with rubbish games". In response, Nintendo limited

21901-433: The future. During the holiday season of 1985 Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to go to New York small markets about putting their products in their stores. Minoru Arakawa offered a money back guarantee from Nintendo that they would pay back for any stock that was left unsold. In total Nintendo sold 50,000 units, about half of the units they shipped to the US. The U.S. video game crash had two long-lasting results. The first result

22082-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

22263-415: The government and industrial corporations; as a result, environmental pollution was widespread in the 1950s and 1960s. Responding to rising concerns, the government introduced environmental protection laws in 1970. The oil crisis in 1973 also encouraged the efficient use of energy because of Japan's lack of natural resources. Japan ranks 20th in the 2018 Environmental Performance Index , which measures

22444-633: The government to increase spending by 65% until 2027. Recent tensions, particularly with North Korea and China, have reignited the debate over the status of the JSDF and its relation to Japanese society. Domestic security in Japan is provided mainly by the prefectural police departments , under the oversight of the National Police Agency . As the central coordinating body for the Prefectural Police Departments,

22625-403: The home computer was a fad, just another hula hoop". Computer Games published its last issue in late 1984. In 1988, Computer Gaming World founder Russell Sipe noted that "the arcade game crash of 1984 took down the majority of the computer game magazines with it." He stated that, by "the winter of 1984, only a few computer game magazines remained," and by mid-1985, Computer Gaming World "was

22806-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

22987-444: The industry crash were not felt until 1985. Despite Atari's claim of 1 million in worldwide sales of its 2600 game system that year, recovery was slow. The sales of home video games had dropped from $ 3.2 billion in 1982 to $ 100 million in 1985. Analysts doubted the long-term viability of the video game industry, and, according to Electronic Arts ' Trip Hawkins , it had been very difficult to convince retailers to carry video games due to

23168-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

23349-578: The largest earthquakes in its recorded history - the Tōhoku earthquake - triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster . On May 1, 2019, after the historic abdication of Emperor Akihito , his son Naruhito became Emperor, beginning the Reiwa era. Japan comprises 14,125 islands extending along the Pacific coast of Asia. It stretches over 3000 km (1900 mi) northeast–southwest from

23530-593: The market than in the 8/16-bit era. Replacing the security chips in most modern consoles are specially encoded optical discs that cannot be copied by most users and can only be read by a particular console under normal circumstances. Accolade achieved a technical victory in one court case against Sega , challenging this control, even though it ultimately yielded and signed the Sega licensing agreement. Several publishers, notably Tengen (Atari Games), Color Dreams , and Camerica , challenged Nintendo's control system during

23711-744: The market to challenge Nintendo's success in the United States, NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and the Sega Genesis , both released in the U.S. in 1989. While the TurboGrafx underwhelmed in the market, the Genesis' release set the stage for a major rivalry between Sega and Nintendo in the early 1990s in the United States video game market. A second, highly visible result of the crash was the advancement of measures to control third-party development of software. Using secrecy to combat industrial espionage had failed to stop rival companies from reverse engineering

23892-641: The middle of the year because of weak demand even as prices remained low, causing shortages as sales suddenly rose during the Christmas season; only the Commodore 64 was widely available, with an estimated more than 500,000 computers sold during Christmas. The 99/4A was such a disaster for TI, that the company's stock immediately rose by 25% after the company discontinued it and exited the home-computer market in late 1983. JCPenney announced in December 1983 that it would soon no longer sell home computers, because of

24073-484: The more successful third-party companies like Activision due to poorly informed consumers being drawn by price to purchase the bargain titles rather than quality. By June 1983, the market for the more expensive games had shrunk dramatically and was replaced by a new market of rushed-to-market, low-budget games. Crane said that "those awful games flooded the market at huge discounts, and ruined the video game business". A massive industry shakeout resulted. Magnavox abandoned

24254-625: The most developed state in Asia and as an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea and the southern half of Sakhalin , and annexed Korea in 1910. The Japanese population doubled from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million by 1935, with

24435-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

24616-535: The name Atari Corporation , and they directed their efforts into developing their new personal computer line, the Atari ST , over the console business. Lack of confidence in the video game sector caused many retailers to stop selling video game consoles or reduced their stock significantly, reserving floor or shelf space for other products. Retailers established to exclusively sell video games folded, which impacted sales of personal computer games. The full effects of

24797-546: The name as Giapan in a translation of a 1565 Portuguese letter. Modern humans arrived in Japan around 38,000 years ago (~36,000 BC), marking the beginning of the Japanese Paleolithic . This was followed from around 14,500 BC (the start of the Jōmon period ) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture. Clay vessels from

24978-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

25159-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

25340-565: The northern islands. Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife as of 2019 , including the brown bear , the Japanese macaque , the Japanese raccoon dog , the small Japanese field mouse , and the Japanese giant salamander . There are 53 Ramsar wetland sites in Japan. Five sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their outstanding natural value. In the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, environmental policies were downplayed by

25521-508: The number of titles that third-party developers could release for their system each year, and promoted its " Seal of Quality ", which it allowed to be used on games and peripherals by publishers that met Nintendo's quality standards. The end of the crash allowed Commodore to raise the price of the C64 for the first time upon the June 1986 introduction of the Commodore 64c—a Commodore 64 redesigned for lower cost of manufacture—which Compute! cited as

25702-982: The occupation , it resigned from the League of Nations in 1933. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany ; the 1940 Tripartite Pact made it one of the Axis powers . The Empire of Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). In 1940, the Empire invaded French Indochina , after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan. On December 7–8, 1941, Japanese forces carried out surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor , as well as on British forces in Malaya , Singapore , and Hong Kong , among others, beginning World War II in

25883-434: The only 4-color computer game magazine left." With the release of so many new games in 1982 that flooded the market, most stores had insufficient space to carry new games and consoles. As stores tried to return the surplus games to the new publishers, the publishers had neither new products nor cash to issue refunds to the retailers. Many publishers, including Games by Apollo and U.S. Games , quickly folded. Unable to return

26064-509: The original burial clarified that only about 728,000 cartridges had been buried in 1982, backed by estimates made during the excavation, and disproving the scale of the urban legend. Atari's burial remains an iconic representation of the 1983 video game crash. By the end of 1983, Atari had over US$ 536 million in losses, leading to Warner Communication to sell Atari's consumer products division in July 1984 to Jack Tramiel , who had recently departed Commodore International. Tramiel's new company took

26245-528: The period are among the oldest surviving examples of pottery. The Japonic -speaking Yayoi people entered the archipelago from the Korean Peninsula, intermingling with the Jōmon ; the Yayoi period saw the introduction of practices including wet-rice farming , a new style of pottery , and metallurgy from China and Korea. According to legend, Emperor Jimmu (descendant of Amaterasu ) founded

26426-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

26607-440: The president of Atari's electronic division, stated that the console market was too saturated as 30 million consoles were sold by 1982, out of the 35 million households with children between the ages of six and sixteen. Prior to 1979, there were no third-party developers , with console manufacturers like Atari publishing all the games for their respective platforms. This changed with the formation of Activision in 1979. Activision

26788-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

26969-435: The public really likes an idea, it is milked for all its worth, and numerous clones of a different color soon crowd the shelves. That is, until the public stops buying or something better comes along. Companies who believe that microcomputer games are the hula hoop of the 1980s only want to play Quick Profit." Bill Kunkel said in January 1983 that companies had "licensed everything that moves, walks, crawls, or tunnels beneath

27150-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

27331-467: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

27512-417: The retail price of the C64 to $ 300 in June 1983, some stores began selling it for as little as $ 199. Dan Gutman , founder in 1982 of Video Games Player magazine in an article in 1987, recalled in 1983 that "People asked themselves, 'Why should I buy a video game system when I can buy a computer that will play games and do so much more?'" The Boston Phoenix stated in September 1983 about the cancellation of

27693-488: The same period, there was minimal trans-Atlantic ripple from American game production and trends. Partly as a distant knock-on effect of the crash and partly due to the continuing quality of homegrown computer and microcomputer games, consoles did not achieve a dominant position in some European markets until the early 1990s. In the United Kingdom , there was a short-lived home console market between 1980 and 1982, but

27874-460: The stigma carried by the fall of Atari until 1985. Two major events of 1985 helped to revitalize the video game industry. One factor came from increased sales of personal computers from Commodore and Tandy, which helped to maintain revenue for game developers like Activision and Electronic Arts, keeping the video game market alive. The other was the initial limited release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in late 1985, followed by

28055-468: The study of Japan by the Japanese. The United States Navy sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to force the opening of Japan to the outside world. Arriving at Uraga with four " Black Ships " in July 1853, the Perry Expedition resulted in the March 1854 Convention of Kanagawa . Subsequent similar treaties with other Western countries brought economic and political crises. The resignation of

28236-578: The suppression of individual rights . Japan's constitution prohibits racial and religious discrimination, and the country is a signatory to numerous international human rights treaties. However, it lacks any laws against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and does not have a national human rights institution. Japan has faced criticism for its gender inequality , not allowing same-sex marriages , use of racial profiling by police, and allowing capital punishment . Other human rights issues include

28417-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

28598-519: The team's existing familiarity with the Atari VCS, other publishers had no such advantage. The rapid growth of the third-party game industry was easily illustrated by the number of vendors present at the semi-annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). According to Crane, the number of third-party developers jumped from 3 to 30 between two consecutive events. At the Summer 1982 CES, there were 17 companies, including MCA Inc. , and Fox Video Games announcing

28779-408: The total cartridge market in 1982 would be around 60 million, anticipating Activision would be able to secure between 12% and 15% of that market for their production numbers. However, with at least 50 different companies in the new marketspace, and each having produced between one and two million cartridges, along with Atari's own estimated 60 million cartridges in 1982, there was over 200% production of

28960-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

29141-403: The treatment of marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities , refugees and asylum seekers . Japan has the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP , after that of the United States, China and Germany; and the fifth-largest economy by PPP-adjusted GDP . As of 2021 , Japan's labor force is the world's eighth-largest , consisting of over 68.6 million workers. As of 2022 , Japan has

29322-534: The unsold games to defunct publishers, stores marked down the titles and placed them in discount bins and sale tables. Recently released games which initially sold for US$ 35 (equivalent to $ 99 in 2021) were in bins for $ 5 ($ 14 in 2021). The presence of third-party sales drew the market share that the console manufacturers had. Atari's share of the cartridge-game market fell from 75% in 1981 to less than 40% in 1982, which negatively affected their finances. The bargain sales of poor-quality titles further drew sales away from

29503-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

29684-443: The video game business entirely. Imagic withdrew its IPO the day before its stock was to go public; the company later collapsed. Activision had to downsize across 1984 and 1985 due to loss of revenue, and to stay competitive and maintain financial security, began development of games for the personal computer. Within a few years, Activision no longer produced cartridge-based games and focused solely on personal computer games. Atari

29865-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

30046-469: The video game industry was doing very well. Home consoles were growing in popularity in Japan while home computers were surging across Europe. United States sales fell from $ 3 billion to around $ 100 million in 1985. Despite the decline, new gaming companies started to make their way onto the scene such as Westwood Studios , Code Masters , and SquareSoft , which all started in 1985. All of these companies would go on to create numerous genre-defining titles in

30227-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

30408-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

30589-416: The world in 2019 for inbound tourism . The 2021 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Japan first in the world out of 117 countries. Its international tourism receipts in 2019 amounted to $ 46.1 billion. The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2% of the country's total GDP as of 2018 . Only 11.5% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation. Because of this lack of arable land,

30770-569: The world's strongest militaries . A developed country with one of the world's largest economies by nominal GDP , Japan is a global leader in science and technology and the automotive , robotics , and electronics industries . It has one of the world's highest life expectancies , though it is undergoing a population decline . Japan's culture is well known around the world, including its art , cuisine , film , music , and popular culture , which includes prominent comics , animation , and video game industries. The name for Japan in Japanese

30951-438: Was also a significant shift in the home video game market, away from consoles to personal computer software, between 1983 and 1985. 1984 is when some of the longer-term effects started to take a toll on the video game console. Companies like Magnavox had decided to pull out of the video game console industry. The general consensus was that video games were just a fad that came as quickly as they left. But outside of North America

31132-724: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

31313-481: Was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo . Go-Daigo was defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, beginning the Muromachi period (1336–1573). The succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords ( daimyō ) and a civil war began in 1467 , opening the century-long Sengoku period ("Warring States"). During the 16th century, Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries reached Japan for

31494-418: Was founded by four former Atari video game programmers who left the company because they felt that Atari's developers should receive the same recognition and accolades (specifically in the form of sales-based royalties and public-facing credits) as the actors, directors, and musicians working for other subsidiaries of Warner Communications (Atari's parent company at the time). Already being quite familiar with

31675-468: Was held by military dictators ( shōgun ) and feudal lords ( daimyō ), and enforced by warrior nobility ( samurai ). After rule by the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates and a century of warring states , Japan was unified in 1600 by the Tokugawa shogunate , which implemented an isolationist foreign policy . In 1853, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West , which led to

31856-589: Was one of only a handful of third-parties publishing games for the Atari VCS. By 1982, Activision's success emboldened numerous other competitors to penetrate the market. However, Activision's founder David Crane observed that several of these companies were supported by venture capitalists attempting to emulate the success of Activision. Without the experience and skill of Activision's team, these inexperienced competitors mostly created games of poor quality . Crane notably described these as "the worst games you can imagine". While Activision's success could be attributed to

32037-583: Was one of those companies most affected by the crash. As a company, its revenue dropped significantly due to dramatically lower sales and cost of returned stock. By mid-1983, the company had lost US$ 356 million , was forced to lay off 30% of its 10,000 employees, and moved all manufacturing to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Unsold Pac-Man , E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , and other 1982 and 1983 games and consoles started to fill their warehouses. In September 1983, Atari discreetly buried much of this excess stock in

32218-508: Was recorded on July 23, 2018, and repeated on August 17, 2020. Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands. They range from subtropical moist broadleaf forests in the Ryūkyū and Bonin Islands , to temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands, to temperate coniferous forests in the cold, winter portions of

32399-513: Was so severe that in September Coleco CEO Arnold Greenberg welcomed rumors of an IBM 'Peanut' home computer because although IBM was a competitor, it "is a company that knows how to make money". "I look back a year or two in the videogame field, or the home-computer field", Greenberg added, "how much better everyone was, when most people were making money, rather than very few". Companies reduced production in

32580-448: Was that dominance in the home console market shifted from the United States to Japan. The crash did not directly affect the financial viability of the video game market in Japan, but it still came as a surprise there and created repercussions that changed that industry, and thus became known as the "Atari shock". Prior to the crash, Jonathan Greenberg of Forbes had predicted in early 1981 that Japanese companies would eventually dominate

32761-431: Was the world's fifth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer in 2022. Its exports amounted to 18.2% of its total GDP in 2021. As of 2022 , Japan's main export markets were China (23.9 percent, including Hong Kong) and the United States (18.5 percent). Its main exports are motor vehicles, iron and steel products, semiconductors, and auto parts. Japan's main import markets as of 2022 were China (21.1 percent),

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