Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global Contexts by Mia Consalvo

Abstract

Reviewed by: Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global Contextsby Mia Consalvo Dal Yong Jin (bio) Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global Contexts. by Mia Consalvo. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016. Pp. 272. $32. In the early twenty-first century, the videogame industries witnessed tremendous changes. Historically, several advanced economies, including the United States and Japan, developed console games and became global leaders in the videogame markets. However, less-developed countries, including South Korea and China, have rapidly produced online games with the growth of high-speed internet services. The contemporary milieus surrounding the global videogame industries and markets continue to shift, as new technologies such as smartphones and tablets become new platforms for mobile games. Mia Consalvo's Atari to Zeldais a valuable contribution to the literature because it is time to think of the continuity and change in the global videogame industries. There are several major merits that make the book unique. Most of all, Consalvo successfully documents the history of the Japanese gaming scene by bringing together institutional analysis with in-depth interviews. While investigating games and localization processes, the book develops rich historical contexts for the progress of Japan's games and videogame industries, and the complex relationships between Western developers, hackers, and gamers, as well as Japanese game developers. This book succinctly addresses the evolution of Japan's videogames in both national and global contexts. [End Page 604] Consalvo also carefully analyzes certain key theoretical frameworks, such as localization, glocalization, and studio studies. While admitting the significance of globalization theory, she mostly utilizes John Urry's cosmopolitanism as the major theoretical framework for mapping out not only the growth of Japanese games as influenced by global videogames, but also the advancement of Western games as hugely influenced by Japanese videogames. The result is a concrete and convincing model for studying global videogames and game industries. The structure of the book is effective as well. It juxtaposes relevant themes back to back; therefore, game scholars, gamers, and developers will easily understand the major arguments. The first three chapters primarily examine the ways in which global gamers have enjoyed Japanese video-games, either by relishing game stories, characters, and gameplay or by reconfiguring the code of several games through hacking and translating them for mostly Western gamers. This part clearly identifies how both hackers and translators in Western countries have developed a unique participatory culture. Since Consalvo personally played all games analyzed, which is itself admirable, readers are easily able to learn the variety that local developers have offered gamers outside Japan. The next three chapters shift from the local to the global. Consalvo employs Urry's cosmopolitan disposition as a main framework for her empirical evidence on the ways in which Japanese videogame industries advance the global appearance of local games. It also provides the reasons why "Japan's console giants have moved from a strong early history of game development and sales to an industry allegedly on the brink of global irrelevance" (p. 151). With the cases of two console game corporations, Capcom and Level-5, Consalvo delves into console game corporations' strategies, which are sometimes successful and at other times not. In the final two chapters, Consalvo addresses the effects of Japanese game developers on North American developers—looking at how their own interests in games have taken shape and what role Japanese games might have played in the process. Through Jennifer Whitson's studio studies, this part asks us to think of the reasons why and how game developers in studios have created videogames and changed their business models. Of course, there are a handful of issues that the book could have developed further. The major shortfall is a simple acceptance, with no further elaboration, of the dichotomy of the West and the East. After discussing Edward Said's 1978 Orientalismseveral times, Consalvo should have discussed Stuart Hall's notion of the West as a "historical, not a geographical construct," a notion of particular relevance to Japan, given its cultural, technological, and political modernity. An extensive discourse on the same issue might provide a richer and better understanding of the power relationships between Japan's videogames and...