The Development Process, Scale and Scope of Console Game Industry in Japan: Through Analysis of a Multiple Connected Dataset

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.