"However in countries outside of Japan I think game music is still a potential growth market that has not yet developed to the extent that we are seeing in Japan"

Nobuo Uematsu is drawing a line between maturity and potential. In Japan, game music has grown into a full-fledged cultural industry: albums chart alongside pop releases, orchestral concerts sell out, composers have public profiles, and music from games circulates through TV, schools, karaoke, and merchandising. There’s a historical throughline, from catchy Famicom-era melodies to symphonic suites, that normalized game music as something to be listened to for its own sake, not just as accompaniment to play. Labels, promoters, and media outlets built an infrastructure that treats game scores like any other genre, giving them commercial visibility and artistic legitimacy.

Outside Japan, he sees appetite but not yet the same scaffolding. Fans stream soundtracks, attend touring concerts, and celebrate iconic themes, yet the surrounding systems remain patchier: fragmented rights slow soundtrack releases, radio and press coverage are sporadic, and awards, funding, and education pipelines still skew toward film and television music. Many territories still frame game music as niche or purely functional, which limits investment and career pathways for composers and performers. The gap isn’t about talent or enthusiasm; it’s about institutions, norms, and access.

Calling it a “potential growth market” points to specific opportunities. Clearer licensing and faster, official soundtrack releases could meet demand that currently spills into unofficial channels. Concert circuits, symphonic, chamber, jazz, and club, can broaden beyond occasional tours into recurring seasons tied to local orchestras and festivals. Music education can foreground interactive scoring, elevating game composition to parity with film study. Media coverage and chart systems can carve out space for game albums, turning sporadic hits into a sustained presence. And cross-media strategies, syncs, documentaries, and collaborations with pop and classical artists, can expand audiences.

Uematsu’s assessment is ultimately optimistic: the emotional power and melodic recognizability of game music have already created fans worldwide. What remains is the slow, practical work of building the ecosystem that Japan spent decades refining.