How the Video Game Community Is Responding to Japan's Quake Disasters
Categories: Culture, Video Games - Humor
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| Masahiro Sakurai's Twitter |
| A photo by Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai shows empty Tokyo streets after the earthquake |
There is no doubt this tragedy will affect the video-gaming industry as well. Japan is home to some of the world's most recognized names in gaming, such as Nintendo, Sony, Square-Enix and Capcom. Although these companies were able to escape the recent tsunami and earthquake attacks mostly unharmed, the gaming industry across the world is expected to be severely impacted over the next few months.
Video-game developers and companies have responded to Japan's disaster in a unique number of ways. Everything from creative ways of donation collecting to opening studio doors in order to aid survivors, it's amazing what the gaming industry of Japan and the rest of the world is doing in order to take care of the unfortunate victims of this tragedy.
Major Japanese Games Publishers Donate Generous Amounts of Money to Support Relief Efforts
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| Nintendo's HQ in Japan |
- Nintendo ($3.65 million)
- Sony ($3.65 million and 30,000 radios)
- SEGA Sammy ($2.45 million)
- Namco Bandai ($1.23 million)
- Tecmo ($123,000)
Several Japanese Online Games Turn Off Servers to Conserve Power
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| Flickr user razgrn |
| Namco Arcades such as this one in Japan will be closed to conserve much-needed electricity |
Many video-game companies are temporarily shutting down online game servers in order to conserve much-needed energy. Final Fantasy publisher Square-Enix has shut down servers for online MMORPGs Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, along with the PlayOnline service for "at least a week." Similarly, Konami has also shut down servers for Metal Gear Online. In addition to donating $1.23 million, Namco-Bandai is also shutting down its arcades.
Twitter and Facebook Have Become a Valuable Method for the Japanese to Communicate
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| Hideo Kojima's Twitter |
Luckily, various social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been shown to be valuable sources of communication. According to WebProNews, a significant number of earthquake-related tweets have been trending all week.
Many of the video-gaming industry's most recognized game developers have relied on Twitter to communicate to their fans and loved ones. Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima tweeted that he was safe, No More Heroes designer Goichi Suda sent out various warnings to his staff through Twitter, and The Last Guardian designer Fumito Ueda is trying to make sure everyone's safe. Through Twitter, Smash Bros desinger Masahiro Sakurai even shared very powerful pictures that he took of the disasters.
Whoever said that Twitter and Facebook are a waste of time could not be any more wrong.
Disaster Report 4 Game Canceled as a Sign of Respect
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| A screen shot from Irem's Disaster Report 4 |
The game would have allowed players to take on the role of earthquake survivors, in which they'd have to find various items in order to survive. It also would have featured 3D support, PlayStation Move functionality and a hygiene meter, whatever that is.
Irem made no mention of Japan's current situation in its cancellation announcement.
CyberConnect's Hiroshi Matsuyama Is Opening His Studio to Complete Strangers for Safety
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| Hiroshi Matsuyama: Nice Guy |
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