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[Garlador]

At least a dozen. More experience in different genres would be a definite plus.

That's nonsense.
Sometimes, a filmmaker can make a masterpiece with one movie, a musician can create a single perfect song, an author can write one life-altering and timeless book...

They don't have to "prove it" a dozen times over to be any less amazing or influential.

In fact, considering many games can take up to 3-4 years to make, if they wanted to make a "dozen" games with that development schedule, it might be nearly 50 years before they've "earned it" by that "make a dozen" criteria.

 

[GiantBreadbug]

I'll be more uneasy when western journalists stop claiming Japanese game developers to be dead/irrelevant/not as great as they used to be.

Then I'll be scared

 

[Nintendojitsu]

making one game takes years. please list individuals that have made that many that are revered across the board.

No thank you! Chores on a forum are worst than the ones in videogames. DIY!

 

[Haunted]

Oh man, I totally forgot about Ueda. He could've fit in that article as well.

 

[andymcc]

I'm well aware....but Sony and Bandai Namco publish Miyazaki's games. I'm hoping the Japanese publishers give him a chance to move beyond Souls-like games if he's interested in trying something new.

From publishes their own software in Japan.

 

[Jpop]

I feel really insulted by this for some reason. I loved the PSP; still do and it was a fairly successful platform so I don't know why somebody would say that.

Probably meant to put Vita, but forgot that it existed.

 

[Nightengale]

Oh man, I totally forgot about Ueda. He could've fit in that article as well.

He doesn't fit the narrative though, because Ueda's still being indulged by Sony on TLG. /s

 

[LiK]

No thank you! Chores on a forum are worst than the ones in videogames. DIY!

oh please, you can't even list one? good job.

 

[Zia]

Why did you steal the entire article?

--

Anyway, I think they've been sputtering along in pretty much the same fashion as they have for nearing a decade. You've seen the rise of directors like Miyazaki and Kamiya, but it's no better or worse than it was last gen. Which is to say things are pretty gloomy.

 

[Somnid]

Issues with the article aside the overall point that the power is shifting from directors to publishers (much the way it's always been in the West) is pretty true. Game design as it gets bigger is more driven by committee rather than the crazy ideas of a couple people.

There's not a lot of companies that are really director driven and have managed to retain their core talent. Nintendo, Platinum, From, Level 5 etc. Interestingly these also happen to be run by notable game designers. Still, that's no guarantee of success either.

On the whole I see the large companies like Square, Sega, Konami etc to construct more monetization engineered games en lieu of concentrated talent and push the same mass-market swill that much of the Western pubs have been doing for some time, whether that be AAA or mobile. Their defecting talent may likely breed new companies that eventually step up to fill their shoes.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Well..... i can not say I agree.

 

[Barry Burton]

But Miyazaki, Bloodborne...

1. It's first-party funded. Sony, Nintendo and MS are more willing and able to take risks with new IP than the third party publishers.

2. Bloodborne is also more modestly-budgeted than big-budget, epic AAA releases like MGSV, Final Fantasy XV and RE6. At the same time, From Software has been very productive getting games out between Miyazaki releases.

In fact, everything I just wrote about Miyazaki/Bloodborne/From/Sony could easily be applied to Kamiya/Bayonetta 2 & Scalebound/Platinum/Nintendo & Microsoft. Platinum and From have adapted to the current climate, that's why they are in high demand by the platform holders (new and existing IP) and the big Japanese third parties (existing IP).

It's the big Japanese third party publishers and their internal studios that are becoming dinosaurs.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

No thank you! Chores on a forum are worst than the ones in videogames. DIY!

You're the one who claimed Miyazaki wasn't "God status" and then gave some weird arbitrary requirements to have that status. Either engage in the conversation and give some better examples or GTFO.

 

[Ridley327]

Oh man, I totally forgot about Ueda. He could've fit in that article as well.

Ueda is a bit of an extreme outlier, as he started out as being a big auteur game director, whereas everybody else (including Kojima) had to work their way to that point, often through several other projects.

 

[akashhhhh]

I wish people saying Kohler is wrong/ignorant/sensationalist would back their position with some...you know, evidence.

 

[mclem]

This reads like Kojima is actually dead. It might be worth finding out where he ends up and what he does there before we go too far with this.

 

[DJSharpeCheddar]

ITT: Poor reading comprehension.

 

[Haunted]

He doesn't fit the narrative though, because Ueda's still being indulged by Sony on TLG. /s

Just like Kojima on MGSV!

 

[Lunar15]

Didn't Wired give Bayonetta 2 one of their top honors in last year's GOTY?

That said, the article is right in that AAA development in japan is fast approaching some sort of end.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

I wish people saying Kohler is wrong/ignorant/sensationalist would back their position with some...you know, evidence.

Final Fantasy XV, too, previously was the domain of Square Enix’s last remaining Big Name Director, Tetsuya Nomura. But after years of development hell, he quit (or was asked to quit) the project and replaced by upstart director Hajime Tabata*

the largely forgettable Sony PSP platform

So it’s crowdsourcing the development of XV.

The Japanese triple-A game looks like it’s headed towards an extinction event. The new consoles are selling poorly there**,

*

Spoiler

And Nomura himself then moved on to SQEX next biggest title, Kingdom Hearts III. But Nomura still having an important role doesn't fit Kohler's narrative, so let's ignore that right?

**

Spoiler

The "extinction event" comment is sensationalist. The "new console are selling poorly" is a poor use of something that doesn't serve as evidence for his claim. The X1 is selling poorly...because well it was always going to sell poorly in Japan. The Wii U is selling poorly, but it's selling poorly everywhere, not just Japan. Yes, the PS4 sales are average, but I wouldn't straightup call them poor.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

From publishes their own software in Japan.

I actually forgot they have published games in the past. What was the most recent one?

 

[kamineko]

Eh, the title and tone do come off as exaggeration/bait, and the PSP is kind of a weird choice in terms of constructing a case.

That said, the Kojima thing was shocking to me. I just didn't ever imagine something like that could happen. Yeah, it looks like Konami might be getting out of the gaming business, but still... to me it felt more momentous than just some staffing issue. The man is a giant.

I do think it's early to say what this fiasco means for the industry in Japan, but I do feel that the ramifications reach beyond just Metal Gear and Konami.

 

[BrianRoyale]

So we just ignore that he's instead co-directing KH3?

Exactly. He didn't get fired he moved on to direct the next big game for them, though he did spend way too much time on FFvs13/FF15. But he's still with SquareEnix doing another big game. Weird for this dude to omit such a big fact.

 

[shouamabane]

Isn't this inevitable? Of course guys from the 80s and 90s are going to move on.

 

[Haunted]

This reads like Kojima is actually dead. It might be worth finding out where he ends up and what he does there before we go too far with this.

Like Kohler says, it's most likely that he'll have to go at it with a new studio, instead of being internally housed by a major Japanese publisher. Of course it's impossible to say 100% one way or the other, but that didn't happen with any other of the big names who left their "home companies" during the last couple years.

If I had to rank probabilities of Kojima

1. retiring
2. going into movies
3. going independent
4. going into consulting
5. picked up by smaller dev studio
6. picked up by a big Western publisher
7. picked up by a big Japanese publisher

I'd say that 7. is among the least likely. If I had to wager, I'd say it's going to be 3. with his next project being picked up by a big Western publisher (just like Mikami).

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Miyazaki at From Soft is a bit of an odd case in that he's now the president of the company so he has a great deal more freedom than your average game director.

I'm guessing we'll see a new game from Keiichiro Toyama (Silent Hill, Siren, Gravity Rush) pretty soon, whether that's Gravity Rush 2 or a PS4 remake of the first game.

 

[Dynomutt]

That's what happens when someone has no business decides to write a game article. He lives in a vacuum.

 

[DrWong]

I wish people saying Kohler is wrong/ignorant/sensationalist would back their position with some...you know, evidence.

There's nothing really new here regarding the Japanese industry and its position/relevance in term of AAA in the global gaming industry. Japan is not less relevant than last year, or a few years back since it lost its "leadership" and the Koijima "affair" doesn't change that. Plus, Konami will milk the Metal Gear IP in a true AAA way (anualization) without him.

The "Japan must AAA compete" lense is off I think, and an old stuff. That said, Japanese publishers are trying in the AAA development but with western ressources/IP (Square-enix, Sega secured a few big guns) instead of local ressources.

As for the creative side of the topic, I think it's still ok when I look at the just released Xenoblade X (Does Nintendo count ?)

 

[140.85]

Kohler tends to get little carried away with his conclusions but overall he's onto something here. It's foolish to assume that things are going to stay this way, though.

It may not be a stretch to say that there will never be another Kojima...

I'd say this is the very definition of a "stretch", Chris.

 

[Yasumi]

Save us, Hiroshi Matsuyama.

 

[PSqueak]

80 million PSPs sold. Yeah. It was really forgettable.

I was just about to clock this lol! Like suuuuuuure, 80 million is so forgettable. That was a severe weak attempt to shade the psp.

But this article is a damn joke. Especially considering, Nintendo was not mentioned once.

Did you two missed the second part of the sentence where he acknowledges it went out to become one of the best selling FFs in recent times?

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Hideki Kamiya (Platinum Games)
Katsuhiro Harada (Tekken)
Yoshinori Ono (Street Fighter)
Kazunori Yamauchi (Gran Turismo)
Yoshinori Kitase (Final Fantasy)
Masahiro Sakurai (Smash Bros.)
Hideo Baba (Tales of)
Hidetaka Miyazaki (From Software)
Katsura Hashino (Persona)
Yuji Hori (Dragon Quest)
Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts)

In the author's mind, perhaps these designers don't exist anymore.

The whole article is full of his assumptions like that, most of which are wrong. It is a really poor article.

 

[Bagu]

What I got out of that article is that Chris Kohler doesn't know what crowdsourcing means.

Not too surprising, he doesn't know what vaporware means either.

 

[Ridley327]

Did you two missed the second part of the sentence where he acknowledges it went out to become one of the best selling FFs in recent times?

No, because the line about that was more about the critical reception. Crisis Core and Type-0 sold less than any major console entry in that era.

 

[Lostconfused]

Katsuhiro Harada (Tekken)
Yoshinori Ono (Street Fighter)

Harada is in charge of multiple projects. His role is more of a business manager than a designer now. As far as I understand it.

Ono is kind of in a similar, or PR, position since Street Fighter is outsourced to other development studios?

 

[DarkLordMalik]

What happened next was even more surprising: Tabata shot an 84-minute video in which the survey results, broken down by territory, were dissected and chewed over bit by bit.

Does the author not know about the Active Time Reports or he purposely omitted the information about Tabata doing an Active Time Report when possible in order to give fans an update on the game's development? Because the way he worded it, it sounds like he was surprised to see Tabata making a long video about the results.

Harada is in charge of multiple projects. His role is more of a business manager than a designer now. As far as I understand it.

Ono is kind of in a similar, or PR, position since Street Fighter is outsourced to other development studios?

Well they are still the leading figures behind the development of both series. Ono for Street Fighter and Harada for Tekken. I was just pointing out that they still exist and yet there is no mention of them in the article.

 

[Clear]

I feel really insulted by this for some reason. I loved the PSP; still do and it was a fairly successful platform so I don't know why somebody would say that.

PSP was the only purpose-built handheld gaming device to ever successfully compete with Nintendo's offerings. 80+ million units over 10 years is pretty enviable.

 

[Pyrrhus]

I'd say this is the very definition of a "stretch", Chris.

I don't think he's stretching. The entire environment that lead to us knowing names like Kojima, Nomura, Kamiya, Mikami, Sakaguchi, Itagaki, and others has eroded. These guys are in their 40s and 50s now. Their glory days were 15 to 20 years ago. Do we have a new crop of famous young buck rockstar developers to replace them now? Everyone keeps pointing to Miyazaki, but he got famous off the back of a Sony exclusive. You got anybody else?

Japanese publishers largely don't make big, '90s style prestige games headed by personalities anymore. They don't want somebody big and famous enough to be able to sling their weight around . They want lots of interchangeable cogs who can make games quickly, cheaply, and anonymously. The kind of game Japan makes has largely changed, outside of outliers like Nintendo and Sony first party development, which the article talks about.

Kohler has made his career chronicling and lauding the Japanese games industry. He's not being unfair or making this a case of of sour grapes. He's just relaying the modern state of things.

 

[Kasumin]

.
The new consoles are selling poorly there, while mobile games with pseudo-gambling mechanics explode.

Source

The article may come off as sensational, but I think this observation is spot on. At least, from the trends I've been observing.

 

[Xpliskin]

This article and title reek of ignorance.


Anything for clicks I guess.

 

[spekkeh]

The game designers are less powerful because first they worked for a company and now head their own studios.

Okay what.

 

[andymcc]

I actually forgot they have published games in the past. What was the most recent one?

Dark Souls 2.

 

[DNAbro]

Notice the two companies where people are leaving from.

Also Nonura is in charge of KH3 so it's not like he's been sacked.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Did you two missed the second part of the sentence where he acknowledges it went out to become one of the best selling FFs in recent times?

I'm not sure what you're talking about. The full sentence reads thus:

But after years of development hell, he quit (or was asked to quit) the project and replaced by upstart director Hajime Tabata, whose smaller-scale Final Fantasy games on the largely forgettable Sony PSP platform turned out to be, against all expectations, the best-received series entries of the last decade

First of all, they weren't the best-selling FFs in recent times, that's not what the article says, because even Kohler is smart enough to know that would be wrong.

Second, the part that many of us were mocking is bolded. Calling the PSP platform "largely forgettable" when it sold 80 million devices is quite silly.

 

[genjiZERO]

I've always thought it as annoying that Itagaki gets credit for Ninja Gaiden considering he had nothing to do with the best two games in the series - NG1 and 2 (NES). Off the tops of their heads does anyone know who directed these games?

What I think this article fails to remember is that the auteur director thing didn't become common until the PS1 generation. Other than Horii and Sakaguchi (who didn't even direct 6 the best in the series) it wasn't really important in the SNES and NES generations. And while we can argue about which was the best there is no doubt they count as being part of the Golden Age of Japanese gaming.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

The article may come off as sensational, but I think this observation is spot on. At least, from the trends I've been observing.

Xbox One: Selling poorly like everyone expected. Nothing really noteworthy considering that MS put zero effort into its presence in Japan.
Wii U: Selling fairly poorly worldwide, not just in Japan. Again, not really noteworthy as an indicator of a trend.
N3DS: Selling averagely, because Japan is saturated in the 3DS and the N3DS doesn't provide enough of an upgrade for most people to go out and adopt the N3DS en masse.
PSV: Selling quite nicely considering how dead it is in the rest of the world, but still fairly average.
PS4: Selling averagely.

So in what trends in Kohler right about consoles selling poorly? The abandonment of consoles for mobile in Japan seems to also go hand in hand in consoles offering the Japanese gamer a product that A) doesn't match their lifestyle and B) doesn't give them experiences they're interested enough in. To a large extent, consoles selling poorly seems to mostly have to do with them being mediocre products. It's not some tidal wave of destruction for Japanese AAA gaming that writers keep predicting. The market is down, but like most markets, there are cycles, and the market will resurge in some way at some point. And anyways, what does this have to do with Superstar Japanese devs disappearing? The reality is that these Superstars were from the 80s and 90s. Their time (well some of them) has come and past, and new Superstar devs will come along.

 

[Sephiroth_GR_]

I don't think he's stretching. The entire environment that lead to us knowing names like Kojima, Nomura, Kamiya, Mikami, Sakaguchi, Itagaki, and others has eroded. These guys are in their 40s and 50s now. Their glory days were 15 to 20 years ago. Do we have a new crop of famous young buck rockstar developers to replace them now? Everyone keeps pointing to Miyazaki, but he got famous off the back of a Sony exclusive. You got anybody else?

Japanese publishers largely don't make big, '90s style prestige games headed by personalities anymore. They don't want somebody big and famous enough to be able to sling their weight around . They want lots of interchangeable cogs who can make games quickly, cheaply, and anonymously. The kind of game Japan makes has largely changed, outside of outliers like Nintendo and Sony first party development, which the article talks about.

Kohler has made his career chronicling and lauding the Japanese games industry. He's not being unfair or making this a case of of sour grapes. He's just relaying the modern state of things.

Platinum Games? Tango Gameworks? Atlus? Level-5? It's not like game developers are athletes or female pornstars (the older they get the worse they get). We're transcending from an era of super star game developers to...teams. Japanese developers will be fine...

 

[Ridley327]

The game designers are less powerful because first they worked for a company and now head their own studios.

Okay what.

Look no further than Platinum. They make big games, but they're at the mercy of who is interested in footing the bill. They don't have the ability to make a game on the scale of Bayonetta 2 or Scalebound on their own, which gives them a disadvantage if they were still at Clover, where they'd have a consistent level of financial security than they have as a work-for-hire studio. That changes a lot of the power they're able to wield, even if the talent is willing.

 

[Toxi]

Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts)

In the author's mind, perhaps these designers don't exist anymore.

The article specifically mentions Nomura. Square removed him from directing FFXV.

 

[Steroyd]

Holy hyperbole Hatman!!

I will not deny that Japaneese development has taken a nose dive last generation, but damn this is jumping too far into the other side of the spectrum, Nintendo are still hitting it out of the park, the only thing you can criticise them for is their hardware decisions, Bloodborne and Miyazaki still exist and Kojima hasn't even laid out what he's doing once he's doing after MGS.

And Lol Square.