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Took em a while to figure out consoles just don’t deliver the good anymore
If only we could finally convince Vanillaware to release for the Steam Deck!
Net cafes are already a thing there, but personal gaming at home has always been dominated by the portable market or consoles, partially because Japanese companies are the ones making 2/3 of them, but also because the majority of the “gaming” demographic are younger people who live in small studio apartments in Tokyo, and would opt to have a TV with cable television and consoles in their living rooms.
With streaming becoming a big thing, at home media centres are slowly shifting to personal laptops (especially during the pandemic). I have maybe seen two actual gaming PC towers when I lived there (because again, you can go to a net cafe/PC bang for that), but a lot of the gamers I knew were slowly shifting to modest gaming laptops for their at home setups.
I don’t know how much this form factor is catching on over there, but there’s also a mini PC category these days. For $500 and change, you can have a gaming PC that fits in the palm of your hand and is more powerful than a PS4 Pro.
I have no doubt there is at least one small, enthusiastic group in Tokyo dedicated to building/promoting miniPCs lol. That city has a niche for EVERYTHING that has penetrated Japanese social consciousness.
Vtubers has a really big influence on teenagers in Japan, and most of their gaming is done on PC. There are even videos of vtubers looking through steam sale, I’m really not surprised it’s gaining traction.