Japanese Gamers Vote on Their Favorite Developers

Do you have a favorite game developer? One who makes your interest in a game spike the minute you know they’re involved? Turns out a lot of Japanese gamers do too. Some might surprise you, some might not. Japanese site Freshers(フレッシャーズ) conducted a poll last month asking 500 people if they played video games. Those who answered “yes” (138 people) were then asked if they had a preferred game developer. The 73 that said “yes” to both were then asked which game developer that was. The valid results were tallied as follows: #1 Nintendo (30 votes) “They have a lot of series that I like, like Mario and Zelda” – 31 year old male “Because I like Animal Crossing, the Mario series and Pokémon.” – 23 year old female Editor’s note: Sorry about the “demale.” Typo has been noted and fixed.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1613824634","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"kotaku-east","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"kotaku-east","TAGS":"nintendo,square-enix","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); #2 Square Enix (18 votes) “I like the Final Fantasy series and their games have a lot of in depth playability.” – 30 year old male “I’ve played their game series like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts more than any other.” – 31 year old female #3 Capcom (6 votes) “I’m really into Sengoku Basara.” – 26 year old female “Because I like Monster Hunter. I like the Felyne characters.” – 24 year old female #4 Tecmo Koei Games (5 votes) “I like how Asian style games like Nobunaga’s Ambition and Samurai Warriors are their main products.” – 29 year old male “I love the Nobunaga’s Ambition series!” – 24 year old male #5 Atlus (3 votes) “Games like Persona 3 and Persona 4 are masterpieces.” – 25 year old female Sony, Konami, and Level 5 tied for 6th place (2 votes apiece) with Spike Chunsoft, Sega, and Bandai Namco tying for last (1 vote apiece). Given the option for multiple possible answers, the top 3 developers remained the same with Nintendo in the lead, Square Enix in second, and Capcom coming in third. The breakdown is as follows: #1 Nintendo (41 votes) #2 Square Enix (31 votes) #3 Capcom (22 votes) #4 Sony (20 votes) #5 Tecmo Koei (14 yono apk votes) #6 Konami (13 votes) #7 Sega (12 votes) #8 Level 5 (10 votes) #9 Atlus (9 votes) #9 Bandai Namco (9 votes) #11 EA (5 votes) #12 Spike Chunsoft (3 votes) #12 From Software (3 votes) #12 Nippon Ichi Software (3 votes) #12 Microsoft (3 votes) #16 Marvelous AQL (2 votes) #16 Arc System Works (2 votes) #18 SNK (1 vote) #18 Takara Tomy (1 vote) Other developers(2 votes) Interestingly – or perhaps, naturally – it isn’t until #11 that a yono arcade foreign developer (EA) appears on the list. Other developers popular in the west like Ubisoft, Bethesda, and Rockstar are a complete no-show in the voter consciousness – which isn’t to say they’re nonexistent, just that domestic developers seem yono business sbi far more prevalent in the Japanese game market. 3位カプコン 2位スクエニ 1位は……？ あなたがひいきにしているゲームメーカー、ブランドはどこ？ [フレッシャーズ報道] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. To contact the author of this post, write to cogitoergonihilATgmail.com or find him on Twitter @tnakamura8