Impact of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on the video game industry

The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake had a significant impact on the nation of Japan, including one of its most well-known economic sectors, the video game industry.

At the same time, the Japanese gaming industry took on relief efforts to assist those most directly affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Capcom's shares fell 14.4 percent, and the company announced closures of ten amusement arcades in the Tōhoku and Kantō regions due to damage.

Anoop Gantayat writing for IGN, however, speculated that most video game sales in Japan stopped when the earthquake occurred.

He further noted that the top seller, Dynasty Warriors 7, sold 75 percent fewer copies compared to the previous week, when it debuted at number one.

[26] Soon after the disaster struck, rumors began circulating that Pokémon series creator Satoshi Tajiri, among other Japanese celebrities, had died in the tsunami; however, this turned out to be false when he tweeted that he was, in fact, alive.

[31] The iPad, which companies began developing games for soon after its release,[32] was expected to be available in short supply due to components that are manufactured in Japan.

[34] Due to production disruptions, Sony announced that it may decide to limit the initial release of PlayStation Vita to one region by the end of 2011.

[35][36] Investment research company Zachs described the situation as uncertain, adding that if there is a radiation leak at Fukushima's nuclear plants, it could shut down operations all over Japan.

[29] Kevin Gifford of 1UP.com noted that the country's "strained" distribution networks and the number of consumers focused on the events of the disaster would result in losses should a video game be released.

[38] Some games, due to their subject matter being perceived as too similar to the real-life events, have had their releases delayed indefinitely, including Sony Computer Entertainment's MotorStorm: Apocalypse.

"[21] Irem's upcoming release of Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4: Summer Memories and Poncotsu Roman Daikatsugeki Bumpy Trot 2 has been cancelled altogether (with the former being re-announced in 2015 with a different title, developer and platform), with the publisher issuing an apology; the game would have been the fourth in a series of survival action games where players would need to escape a city after the onset of a major disaster, specifically a large earthquake in Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4.

[39] The two Final Fantasy games along with the PlayOnline service accounted for 11 percent of Square Enix's energy consumption the previous month.

These include a number of demos for video games such as BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II, Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle Royal, and others.

An event planned to be held for the release of Ryū ga Gotoku of the End to allow fans to have their copies signed in Hiroshima and Osaka was also canceled.

The ending of the game is a cliffhanger that depicts humanity's downfall due to a virus infection and mass-suicide; this included a scene in which a newscaster commits suicide live on air.

[26] Sega promised to donate all proceeds earned from Football Manager 2011 and its Sonic the Hedgehog titles available for iOS platforms for a week, beginning on 15 March 2011.

[50] Capcom lowered the price of the iOS version of Street Fighter IV from $4.99 to $0.99, donating the proceeds of its sales from that point on to tsunami relief.

[52] Arc System Works employee Toshimichi Mori commented that he was in talks with his company on making download content to donate some of the proceeds.

[55] Level-5 donated 10 million yen, as well as pledging to release charity items through its video game Inazuma Eleven Mobile.

[50] EVE Online players are able to donate the game's in-game currency, which will be converted into real-world money and given to the Red Cross,[62] and players of select Facebook games by Zynga, such as FarmVille and CityVille, can purchase special in-game items, whose profits would go to helping support the Japanese relief effort.

[64] NEXON Corporation announced that all profits made from specific in-game items for sale in their games, such as MapleStory, will go to the relief effort.