With its anime character designs and references to real-life locations like Akihabara, newly released PS5 gacha phenomenon NTE is as Japanese as a game can be. But it’s made by Chinese dev Hotta Studio, under the Perfect World umbrella.
This has prompted plenty of consternation within Japanese development circles: why can’t Japan make an open world game like this?
In a post which kickstarted the discussion, shared by Inside Us Games consultant Alwei on X (or Twitter), he described the aforementioned open world’s scope and scalability as “terrifying”.
As you’d expect, Japanese players have flocked to NTE in droves, and the country is helping to drive the release’s global success. It’s been top of the PS5’s most downloaded games for a week now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be replaced any time soon.
But despite this evident commercial success, Alwei believes building a similar style of game in Japan would be “impossible”. He argues the amount of resources required on a massive scale would be difficult to match, and new laws involving employment regulations and overtime means domestic developers simply wouldn’t have enough time.
Japan is, of course, notorious for its long work hours – but it seems it can’t compete with the output of Chinese studios at this point, which not only work long hours but can also pull from unprecedentedly large talent pools.
In a really great blog post, spotted by Automaton, game producer Ukyo says this is just one of the problems.
He points out that Chinese studios are willing to invest massively into bringing characters to life, pouring huge amounts of money into animation and even supporting media, like short movies and songs. These all help fuel the gacha aspect of games like NTE, because they make players want to spend on new characters.
But he also notes that some of this may be cultural as well. He points to the console ban in China which occurred from 2000 to 2015, and helped build a market more drawn to live service games, like MMOs.
Games like NTE have massive, living worlds – but they’re designed to be iterated on over time. They’re never complete. This is a different mentality to in Japan, where the market has been built on “finished, one-time purchase” titles, like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
All of these observations mirror those of ex-PS Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, who said last year that games in China are strong “because they are made in an environment which allows for hiring a large number of personnel who can work long hours”.
Ultimately, while we can certainly appreciate how difficult it would be for Japan – or any other country, for that matter – to match what titles like NTE are doing, that doesn’t mean they don’t have strengths of their own.
Already this year we’ve seen Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem release to critical acclaim; two “one-and-done” titles which have sold millions upon millions of copies worldwide.
Maybe it really is impossible for Japan to make a game like NTE, but that’s okay. It’s still making plenty of titles we love just as much.
