Before proceeding, it would be useful to provide some background on the intertwined history of Japan and Korea’s gaming industry. While both Japan and Korea have dominated the gaming industry, they have done so during different time periods and therefore with different levels of technological advancement. Post World War II Japan revolutionized the gaming industry until Korea became the dominant player during the late 1990s. A brief history of the development of both countries’ gaming industries follows.

The Japanese video game industry was primarily developed by well-established entertainment corporations and import/export businesses in consumptive post-war Japan. The social consequences of the introduction of the television and home entertainment, the leisure boom, and the outbreak of mass domestic consumption allowed technology to grow rapidly, solidifying the foundation for the video game industry to grow on. Japan’s game industry began with modest success by cloning and distributing popular American arcade games, but the pivotal point was when Japanese game company Taito released Space Invaders to global success in 1978. This led to the widespread proliferation of Arcades in Japan, which still remain popular as social spaces to this day. Consumer electronics and toy manufacturer companies concurrently developed the home gaming console, which added the convenience of being able to play games from home, solidifying Japan’s dominance in the game industry (Game Studies). Eventually, Japan also pioneered mobile gaming on platforms like the “keitai” (mobile phone) and Game Boy (PC World).

Due to nationwide anti-Japanese sentiment as a result of World War II, Korea was averse to importing Japanese goods and even banned many of Japan’s cultural imports. While Japanese-made consoles, in particular, were never banned, prohibitively expensive import duties were placed on consoles to encourage purchasing of domestic goods over Japanese goods. Additionally, Korea’s rapid development of its broadband infrastructure and high-speed Internet along with its high urban population density encouraged multiplayer gaming. As a result of both of these factors, arcade and console gaming never really took off in Korea (PC World). Eventually, PC bangs (Internet cafés) exploded as the business of choice for many entrepreneurs and became the realm of youth as a cheap place to spend time, creating the perfect conditions for Korea to become a major player in the MMO game industry (Chan, 2006; Chee, 2006, Ambiguity).

A key distinction to be made here is that Korea’s gaming industry developed during a more recent and modern time period where networked technology was the norm. This was instrumental in determining what types of games were to be played by youthful friend groups. The ability to connect with various people all over the world to play video games was absent during the beginning of Japan’s gaming industry. Korea’s gaming industry was fortunate enough to develop during a more technologically advanced time, which made the act of gaming just as much about the social aspect as it is about the act of actually playing the game.

Citations: 

Chan, D. (2006). Negotiating Intra-Asian Games Networks: On Cultural Proximity, East Asian Games Design, and Chinese Farmers. The Fibreculture Journal.

Chee, F. (2006). Online Gamers and the Ambiguity of Community. AoIR Internet Research Annual: Volume 4, 165-180.

Game Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2015, from http://gamestudies.org/1302/articles/picard

Why gamers in Asia are the world's best eSport athletes. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036844/why-gamers-in-asia-are-the-worlds-best-esport-athletes.html