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Keiji Inafune: "Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished."

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Destructoid posted up some interesting comments from Capcom's Keiji Inafune.

Destructoid said:
At a hands-on event for Dead Rising 2, producer Keiji Inafune (father of Mega Man) had some not-so-nice-words about this year's Tokyo Game Show.

After asking the crowd of attendees what they thought of TGS this year (and urging them to be honest in their responses), Inafune expressed disappointment in this year's show and its games line-up.

"Personally when I looked around [at] all the different games at the TGS floor," Capcom's Ben Judd translated Inafune, "I said 'Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished.'"

However, he then uses Capcom's upcoming titles as an example of "kick ass" games coming from Japan. An interesting remark, as Dead Rising 2 is being handled by Canadian studio Blue Castle Games.


While Inafune's remarks may seem harsh, he's not alone in his feelings -- many we've spoken to have told us they were underwhelmed by this year's shows. It's certainly smaller in size, and many Japanese developers (some due mainly to financial reasons) have chosen not to attend this year's show.
Source: http://www.destructoid.com/tgs-09-keiji-inafune-dumps-on-tokyo-game-show-2009-149909.phtml
 

cvxfreak

Member
:lol

I guess it's easy to think Japan's industry is doomed on the basis of TGS when the biggest publisher in the country doesn't attend!
 

Tiktaalik

Member
I kind of agree with him that there's not much interesting coming out of Japan at the moment. I think Capcom and Level 5 are the only 3rd parties that know what they're doing at the moment.
 

Massa

Member
Is it true that the gaming industry in Japan is shrinking? I read something like that (on GAF :lol ) a few days ago.
 

jrricky

Banned
_leech_ said:
Japanese game maker says Japanese games suck.... soooo, do something about it?
Shit, in the TGS thread, I posted how I never knew he was still alive doing translating work.:lol
jrricky said:
Wow!

Benn Judd is still alive?

Terrible times ahead for the Japanese game industry.

EDIT: Is there going to be a TGS next year?
There we go...:lol

I would've sworn Capcom was going to announce MHP3 though.:lol
 
As I said in the other thread, some of the best and most creative games are still coming from Japan. I don't know how anyone can think this unless he's just referring to sales over there.
 
Nintendo is a cash machine, RE5 sold a billion, MGS4 was a true "system seller" success on PS3, DQIX sold a shit-ton. I don't see the problem. TGS may be dead, but Japan isn't.
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with japan's games. There definitely something wrong with having a huge game event where no one announces anything interesting though.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Tiduz said:
man japan is over, were done

BUT HERES SOME AWESOME GAMES FROM MY JAPANESE COMPANY

:lol
I dunno. Capcom has been the only major Japanese publisher to deliver on a consistent basis throughout this generation of consoles IMO, so I can't really fault this guy for his opinion on the matter.
 

grumble

Member
Japan needs to have more teenagers with purchase compulsions.

As for the state of their industry, everyone's pushing out lots of formulaic game design as the costs get higher and the risks skyrocket. Japan's no exception, but I'm not seeing creative death here.
 

AniHawk

Member
Sixfortyfive said:
I dunno. Capcom has been the only major Japanese publisher to deliver on a consistent basis throughout this generation of consoles IMO, so I can't really fault this guy for his opinion on the matter.

Yeah, probably.
 

billy.sea

Banned
The only Japanese made game that people talked about at TGS are Final Fantasy (XIII and Crystal Chronicles), Okamiden, Peace Walkers and some Level-5 stuffs. The rest are all Western-made (Dead Rising 2, Natal, Sony Wand, Heavy Rain, Crackdown 2 etc)
 

Tiduz

Eurogaime
Sixfortyfive said:
I dunno. Capcom has been the only major Japanese publisher to deliver on a consistent basis throughout this generation of consoles IMO, so I can't really fault this guy for his opinion on the matter.

im a big capcom fan but its still pretty weird to say it like he did imo.
 

jrricky

Banned
billy.sea said:
The only Japanese made game that people talked about at TGS are Final Fantasy (XIII and Crystal Chronicles), Okamiden, Peace Walkers and some Level-5 stuffs. The rest are all Western-made (Dead Rising 2, Natal, Sony Wand, Heavy Rain, Crackdown 2 etc)
Oh you fixed the parenthesis.:lol
 

Threi

notag
Its the fault of Japan of caving in and trying to emulate western developement.

I mean what did they expect would happen? Did they think they could emulate western-developed games so much better than actual western developers?
 

Tiktaalik

Member
cosmicblizzard said:
As I said in the other thread, some of the best and most creative games are still coming from Japan. I don't know how anyone can think this unless he's just referring to sales over there.

Inafune's comments are pretty sparse so you sort of have to guess at what he's saying. Personally I think he could be commenting on the sort of "same old, same old" coming from many J devs.

I mean I couldn't point to anything new that's coming from Namco. I guess Tekken 6, which is an obvious new iteration of a classic franchise. Looking at Squaresoft their biggest game is also a sequel to an old franchise.

Capcom obviously is making sequels as well, such as Dead Rising 2, but that is at least a sequel to a new franchise made this generation and that franchises' gameplay is very innovative and new in comparison with Namco and Squaresoft's efforts (it's only the first sequel). Capcom has also announced new IPs and with Okamiden, an interesting take on a sparsely used franchise.
 

clashfan

Member
I think alot of the blame for the depressing TGS can be blamed on Sony. The keynote and press conference just put a damper on things.
 

Threi

notag
Black Rainbow said:
Fortunately, he's quite wrong. Most of the games I play are produced in Japan.
Me too. I play more of and tend to heavily prefer japanese developed games (This is more due to the mentality of western developed games more than anything) but you can't deny that there has been a shift recently.
 

Yoboman

Member
It's a completely unambitious industry that is scared of any change and innovation. When they do strike Gold with something they drive it into the ground. Not only that but the completely inverted nature of the industry is what has made it so bad. Completely shunning western products for no good reason, and ignoring progression in the industry

This is no surprise at all. But it is a sad thing, because there is obviously a lot of talent in the industry. Probably pushed down the ranks because creativity isn't allowed to flourish in that environment
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Black Rainbow said:
Fortunately, he's quite wrong. Most of the games I play are produced in Japan.
I'd say about 95% or more of the games I play are Japanese-developed.

I'm also playing new retail games a lot less this generation than I have in the past, despite the fact that I'm spending just as much time gaming as I ever have.

FWIW, I don't think these two observations are coincidental.
 

~Kinggi~

Banned
Japan is definitely lagging behind, at least most devs are. Some are able to keep up and stay fresh.


Ironically i think Japan should just pool all their resources into making Final Fantasy games.

1000 guys working for 3 years with a billion dollar budget, thats the ticket.
 
Not like Capcom did much to help. Where the hell was Street Fighter? Instead of teasing us with updates every damn week they could have just made an announcement and released a few screens... Anything. F U CAPCOM


And yeah, I find myself playing less and less Japanese games these last two generations excluding fighters. They just keep dishing out more of the same, and releasing worse and worse sequels (hello RE5). Capcom is as guilty as any JP dev even if they have a few gems.
 
Sixfortyfive said:
I dunno. Capcom has been the only major Japanese publisher to deliver on a consistent basis throughout this generation of consoles IMO, so I can't really fault this guy for his opinion on the matter.

I know some people are gonna get pissed at me for saying this but the way I see it Capcom is as stuck in the previous gen as the rest of Japanese developers. The only thing they've managed to achieve was to successfully update their graphics engine to make their games look great. Other than that the mechanics, gameplay, animation and presentation of their games are all previous gen. Both DMC4 and RE5 felt like playing a previous gen games. Lost Planet was mediocre and not on par with western games either. I know there's much praise for Capcom but I don't think it's well deserved.
 
Tiktaalik said:
Inafune's comments are pretty sparse so you sort of have to guess at what he's saying. Personally I think he could be commenting on the sort of "same old, same old" coming from many J devs.

I mean I couldn't point to anything new that's coming from Namco. I guess Tekken 6, which is an obvious new iteration of a classic franchise. Looking at Squaresoft their biggest game is also a sequel to an old franchise.

Capcom obviously is making sequels as well, such as Dead Rising 2, but that is at least a sequel to a new franchise made this generation and that franchises' gameplay is very innovative and new in comparison with Namco and Squaresoft's efforts (it's only the first sequel). Capcom has also announced new IPs and with Okamiden, an interesting take on a sparsely used franchise.

The problem is that the west isn't really making anything new either. On both sides of the world, the creativity mostly lies in the hands of indie/small devs like Media Molecule and Marvelous. You can say "it's all just shooters and sports games" from the west just like you can "it's all RPGs" from Japan.

~Kinggi~ said:
Japan is definitely lagging behind, at least most devs are. Some are able to keep up and stay fresh.


Ironically i think Japan should just pool all their resources into making Final Fantasy games.

1000 guys working for 3 years with a billion dollar budget, thats the ticket.

:lol

Because Japan only has 1000 people in the industry, right?
 
fortified_concept said:
I know some people are gonna get pissed at me for saying this but the way I see it Capcom is as stuck in the previous gen as the rest of Japanese developers. The only thing they've managed to achieve was to successfully update their graphics engine to make their games look great. Other than that the mechanics, gameplay, animation and presentation of their games are all previous gen. Both DMC4 and RE5 felt like playing a previous gen games I know there's much praise for Capcom but I don't think it's well deserved.

i agree. and as much as i like sf4, that shit is really street fighter EX 4, isnt it? i mean, let's be fucking honest.
 

~Kinggi~

Banned
cosmicblizzard said:
The problem is that the west isn't really making anything new either. On both sides of the world, the creativity mostly lies in the hands of indie/small devs like Media Molecule and Marvelous. You can say "it's all just shooters and sports games" from the west just like you can "it's all RPGs" from Japan.



:lol

Because Japan only has 1000 people in the industry, right?
Exactly 1000, yes
 

jax (old)

Banned
well, I've lost all interest in nintendo games
(what games!?)

and


my most anticipated game of all time right now is Uncharted 2.


and I want new R+C. The last game I got was Batman Arkhams and the one before that was pacific rift/gears2/killzone2/infamous... all big western games. well... there was RE5...


so...

he might be right.
 
Barkley's Justice said:
i agree. and as much as i like sf4, that shit is really street fighter EX 4, isnt it? i mean, let's be fucking honest.

Yeah, when they tried to do something new with the series (SF3) we didn't see another street fighter sequel for 10 years. I blame it on consumers also. And SFIV is hella better than the EX series. You crazy.
 
In Capcom's defense, they're probably the most Western-friendly Japanese developer. (Not really counting Nintendo here)

They understand the 'culture' of games better than most Japanese companies. See their Unity website as a good example. I actually used Capcom-Unity in a presentation recently on how companies can connect with their customer/fanbases.

But Inafune is on point: I think Western devs have come a LONG way since the 80's and early 90's. It's like the U.S. & Europe have learned a lot of lessons from our competitors overseas, but they're not learning from us.

It's been a one-way street so long that Japan has fallen behind in a big way.
 
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