| Abstract: |
How has the Japanese game industry developed? What impact have the changes in
game hardware and the emergence of smartphones had on the game industry? There
have been several studies addressing this question (Shintaku et al. 2003,
Storz 2008, Uemura et al. 2013, Koyama 2016). Most existing studies, however,
have primarily relied on qualitative research methods, based on surveys and
interviews of respondents. In contrast, this study tackles the same question
with a data science approach. By doing so, we hope to compleme nt the results
of previous studies. We will combine several databases created for different
purposes in our approach. One such database is that of Teikoku Databank
(Corporate DB), which provides information on the financial and credit
standing of companies. The others are the "RCGS Collection," a catalog of the
holdings of the Game Research Center of Ritsumeikan University, and the "Media
Arts Database," a comprehensive catalog of media arts by the Agency for
Cultural Affairs (bibliography DBs), which were created to understand the
cultural value of games. Using the bibliography databases to link the entities
of organizations involved in publishing and developing products to the aspects
of corporate management in the corporate database, we aim to clarify both the
reality of the economy that supports culture and the context of culture
created from economic intentions. This study focuses on the same market among
t he game industry since the main target of the bibliographic database is home
video game software (Console Game Industry).Based on the dataset we developed,
we verified existing findings about the size and scope of the industry
(Console Game Industry) and discovered new ones. In terms of the number of
companies involved in the industry, the 2000s represented the largest number.
As for the number of companies entering the industry, we found it increasing
continuously until the early 2000s, and then stagnating after 2010 (Figure.
1).. For the average number of employees, we confirmed a gradual decrease
until the early 2000s (Figure. 2). Additionally, we found that capital
increased rapidly in the 1980s (Figure. 3), and sales decreased after the
mid-1990s (Figure. 4). Our future plans include using transaction data from
the corporate database in order to clarify the formation and development of
transaction networks. We will also examine the eff ect of events such as the
shift in game hardware generations and the emergence of smart phones. |