Niko Partners is warning that Japan might be about to get absolutely wrecked in the Chinese gaming market because geopolitical beef between the two countries keeps getting worse. The analytics firm pointed out that Japanese games make up around 30 percent of all foreign titles that get approved in China, which is a massive chunk of the market that publishers really do not want to lose.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made some comments about potentially getting involved if China tries to reunify Taiwan, and Beijing is not happy about it. China has already started canceling flights, issuing travel warnings, blocking seafood imports, and pausing film approvals from Japan. Video game approvals could be next on the chopping block, and that would be a disaster for Japanese devs who depend on Chinese players. The Switch 2 launch in China might be cooked if this keeps escalating.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made some comments about potentially getting involved if China tries to reunify Taiwan, and Beijing is not happy about it. China has already started canceling flights, issuing travel warnings, blocking seafood imports, and pausing film approvals from Japan. Video game approvals could be next on the chopping block, and that would be a disaster for Japanese devs who depend on Chinese players. The Switch 2 launch in China might be cooked if this keeps escalating.
