{"id":370698,"date":"2026-06-22T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=370698"},"modified":"2026-06-23T01:05:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:05:03","slug":"shinji-mikami-says-games-should-be-worth-playing-not-just-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/shinji-mikami-says-games-should-be-worth-playing-not-just-watching\/","title":{"rendered":"Shinji Mikami says games should be worth playing, not just watching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In comments on video game streaming recently highlighted by Eika Kano, Shinji Mikami made a pretty blunt point: if someone can watch a whole game<\/a>, come away satisfied, and never feel like touching a controller, that game probably isn\u2019t doing enough.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Kano relayed it, Mikami\u2019s view is that even if a player<\/strong> has already seen the ending on a stream, they should still want to go finish it themselves. For him, that gap matters, because a stream can\u2019t fully transmit the tension, the skill involved, the feel of being in control, the space to experiment, or that last-second rush of scraping through a hard encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yuji Horii has voiced similar worries, going by Japanese-language reporting. The same coverage says Naoki Hamaguchi described it even more starkly, calling it a crisis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers make it pretty easy to see why people in the industry are paying attention. MIDiA says gamers now spend 8.5 hours<\/strong> a week watching gaming video, versus 7.4 hours actually playing. Twitch<\/a>\u2019s Q1 2025 viewership totals tell the same story from another angle: Counter-Strike<\/a> led the pack with nearly 100 million hours watched, with League of Legends, Grand Theft Auto V, and Valorant right behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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