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[DJIzana]

LoL that information... definitely is click bait.

Sure, for a lot of classic companies, they're likely going away. There will ALWAYS be a market for AAA Japanese games though. Sure, Konami might be going away, Sega has resorted to PC and Mobile games (speaking of which... where ARE their PC games? Valkyria Chronicles? Total War? Is that it?)

Then there's Capcom. Capcom still seems to be doing a fair bit... NOW. You also have first party Sony studios, Level-5 and Platinum Games (to a lesser extent) and CyberConnect2 (who has 2 huge unannounced titles and a VR title we don't know about), Falcom, Nippon Ichi, From Software... you get the point. I'm likely missing more studios as well but... yeah. There will always be a market.

The past 8 years I've basically ONLY played Japanese games. It's only this generation that I've actually started to branch out and include others with my Japanese games that I play. I will neeeeeeeeeever stop playing the games I grew up with.

 

[Zee-Row]

With Konami gone I still think new blood can rise up in Japan.

 

[Davidfoundation]

These are those types of articles people write after they think they know what's going on in the gaming world lol. Sure they all left, but Nomura has so many projects he works on including Kingdom hearts. He handled his business and let others finish what he accomplished. My current fav director is definitely Miyazaki that man is a creative genius.

 

[GravityMan]

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

That was my first thought too.

 

[1337]

What a horribly boring article. I thought I was about halfway when the article suddenly stopped. It is basically stating nothing. And crowdsourcing should be a term a writer for Wired should be familiar with.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

Pretty spot on, actually.

would almost say "hello and welcome to last gen" to the author, but there were some hold outs.

surprising people don't think there have been some deep changes for the worse over the past decade in Japan. Console gaming has been bleeding out there and they aren't super confident in making worldwide blockbusters.

 

[IrishNinja]

I just want to clarify something:

To be totally fair to all parties involved:

mea culpa:

The PSP did have Gitaroo-Man.

you son of a bitch, gonna act like castlevania x chronicles didn't even happen eh

Honestly, the end of Japan console gaming is coming at a good time as I get older and have less and less time to play video games.

But still extremely disappointing.

wow, tagquote all day

This is a GREAT time to be a fan of JP gaming. Xenoblade X, Persona 5, FF15, MGS5, Zelda, etc... But I do fear this may be the the "going out with a bang" of the industry...

and i still haven't finished bloodborne! for real though, most of the devs you just named aren't going anywhere, no idea why kohler's piece is leading to so much chicken little around here

 

[Purple Cheeto]

The era of powerful designer has been over for like 10+ years. A few people might've been clinging to the notion that one designer still means much in the AAA space but they were just in denial.

 

[entremet]

Strange, been in NeoGAF for five years and this is the first time I heard of this.

It's poor form.

The article took time to write. Hosting the article requires money due to bandwidth and server costs. The only way Wired makes money from the article is from page views.

By posting the whole article you limit page views, while having another site benefit from it creation and hosting for free.

It's why mods enforce the rule.

 

[EdwardTeach]

Strange, been in NeoGAF for five years and this is the first time I heard of this.

You shouldn't need to be told, it is just common sense good manners.

 

[Toxi]

A lot of the big Japanese developer-names are still doing great, though:

Mikami just released The Evil Within which is an amazing first effort for Tango - I'm excited to see where they can go from here
Inafune left Capcom and is making Mighty No 9, which looks to have high expectations (and to be fair, looks like it's gonna sell gangbusters & start a great franchise)
Kojima is still getting MGS V out of the door, but I don't think it'll be long before we see him lay his hat down somewhere new.
Kamiya is kicking all kinds of butt over at Platinum Games

Mikami made a game for a non-Japanese publisher, Inafune turned to crowd-sourcing a low budget game, and Konami just screwed Kojima.

You're basically confirming the article's point if you think those are examples of superstar directors having a lot of influence in Japan.

 

[Sapphire Dreams]

It's poor form.

The article took time to write. Hosting the article requires money due to bandwidth and server costs. The only way Wired makes money from the article is from page views.

By posting the whole article you limit page views, while having another site benefit from it creation and hosting for free.

It's why mods enforce the rule.

You shouldn't need to be told, it is just common sense good manners.

I recognized my mistake and I shall never do it again.

 

[Mikeside]

Mikami made a game for a non-Japanese publisher, Inafune turned to crowd-sourcing a low budget game, and Konami just screwed Kojima.

You're basically confirming the article's point if you think those are examples of superstar directors having a lot of influence in Japan.

Does influence in Japan matter as much as international influence?
I don't think the article really HAS a clear point, to be honest.

Mikami made a game that's doing really well (as far as I'm aware - it's very good, at least and reviewed well). Does it hugely matter if the publisher is Japanese?
Inafune crowd-sourced a low budget game, but it's already spawning an animated series, so I'd say it's lighting some fires of it's own. Again, does it matter that it's being published by Deep Silver, rather than Capcom?

Like I said before, Japanese publishers are the ones to worry about, not the developer-'superstars'

 

[Celine]

Does the site you got this from go back to the PS1 and PS2 eras? I think it would be interesting to see how many units those system were selling at the same time from launch as the PS4.

It's not from a site.
Here a comparison for the first 54 weeks (until 30 March 2015 for PS3).
I don't have data for the early PS1 days.

The sales aren't "disappointing," they're actually astounding considering the lack of anything Japanese gamers normally want on the platform.

 

[Herne]

Just to be clear, that's more Hisashi Nogami mentoring Yusuke Amano and Tsubasa Sakaguchi. Hisashi Nogami has been around since the SNES days so he's sort of old guard. Miyamoto wasn't that involved with Splatoon
There's a wide variety of people at Nintendo being trained for the leaderships, with Kosuke Yabuki (Mario Kart 7 & 8), Isao Moro and Aya Kyoguko (Animal Crossing New Leaf) and Yuji Kando (Pikmin 3 Director) for instance

Thanks for pointing that out

 

[RedSwirl]

Y'know I always wondered if there really never is a "second generation" of big Japanese auteurs emerging. Most of the guys who left in recent years had been making games at those publishers since the 80's -- basically the beginning of Japanese console gaming. Very few have stepped up since the SNES days. Most of the guys who made it big afterwards still started working in games in the NES or SNES era. Hidetaka Miyazaki might be the only one of note I can think of right now.

To me it just looks like another sign of the 90's being the peak of Japan's global economic influence in general.

The new triple-A game from Japan seems to be fast becoming what would have been considered a "mid tier" game from a generation or so ago. Judicious production values that don't break the bank. Aimed at the pure gaming audience over casual cinematic appeal. Stuff like Dark Souls, Bloodborne. Platinum titles, even The Evil Within. Plus fighting games.

And that seems just fine, because budget wise those games are not so huge and bloated that they must cater to the lowest common denominator and sell 10 million to turn a profit. And so these games are still the territory of the "auteur".

I think the vast majority of Japanese console games were always "mid tier" compared to titans like Final Fantasy VII, Halo 2, or Metal Gear Solid 2. The problem with Japanese console games is that the middle fell out of console game development in general, taking much of Japan with it.

Today Japan is thriving off the ultra niche, with FFXV, Phantom Pain, and KHIII being possibly the last hopes of AAA Japanese gaming. Capcom will probably make a Resident Evil 7.

 

[Porcile]

Xenoblade Chronicles X looks as much a Tetsuya Takahashi game as anything he's made before and it also looks as ridiculously ambitious and brilliant as any game Kojima has made. Thats just one developer.

 

[Neff]

Except none of these guys ever 'ran the show', ever. Even the most prolific and renowned directors/producers/designers in gaming answer to Mr. Moneybags on some level.

If they go work for some other company, nothing changes, aside from the chance to work with associated IPs, which may be what the article is clumsily attempting to grasp at.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Two more things:

1. I should grab one of my anime-ass anime avatars to fuck with people again on these subjects.

2. Kohler, since you're here, why the emphasis on Japan's few AAA franchises instead of tying into the general whittling down of the number of AAA to a scant core worldwide outside of one parenthesis?

I always wonder what the Japanese game industry would look like today if Japan, as a majority, had backed the PS3 from the beginning instead of the 360.

Would it still be mobile-dominate? Would its death still be prophesized like it has been the past 3-4 years?

Probably, but not as extreme; the "wrong plug" problem of what Japan tends to game on vs what much of what the rest of the world games on would be less of a problem 10 years out, as now only the arid plains of mobile being only true crossover.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

I like Chris. He makes some good points.

Pay him more respect guys, pretty sure he put together the GAF mobile site (I think?)

 

[Savitar]

I love "it's the end" articles.

Just because they're always so laughable. Especially years later.

One could post a whole thread about such things where none of what said came true.

 

[red720]

So they aren't changing/tweaking the game/demo based on feedback?

I think you underestimate the work that goes into making a game if you think these changes are significant compared the the overall design of the game.

 

[Kobun Heat]

Kohler, since you're here, why the emphasis on Japan's few AAA franchises instead of tying into the general whittling down of the number of AAA to a scant core worldwide outside of one parenthesis?

Hi. The whittling of AAA down to each publisher releasing a tiny handful of games per year is certainly the background against which this story takes place. I think it's obvious enough now at this point that it doesn't need to be specifically outlined in each analysis of the game industry, no? I wanted to write something specifically about Japan, which has gone on much longer with the Great Man model of game design than everywhere else.

 

[casiopao]

While I kinda see where u are coming, but don't Ninty is doing quite well on this front? Even if their console is not doing well, the game is fantastic till now.

 

[Beelzebufo]

Wait, is Miyazaki not Japanese?

 

[Game Guru]

Hi. The whittling of AAA down to each publisher releasing a tiny handful of games per year is certainly the background against which this story takes place. I think it's obvious enough now at this point that it doesn't need to be specifically outlined in each analysis of the game industry, no? I wanted to write something specifically about Japan, which has gone on much longer with the Great Man model of game design than everywhere else.

I think just focusing on Japan and not pointing out the lack of auteurs staying with their companies in the west slants the issue far too much. Mikami, Inafune, and Itagaki are working on video games still, and heck, Mikami and Inafune are still making games in the genres they are known for. The Evil Within is certainly a survival horror game like Resident Evil and Mighty No. 9 is certainly a platformer shooter like Mega Man. The only difference is that they aren't at Capcom anymore. Itagaki is also working on a video game with Devil's Third which admittedly isn't like Ninja Gaiden or Dead or Alive. Only IGA of the four you mentioned isn't working on a game, Metroidvania or otherwise. This is no different than Bungie leaving the Halo franchise to work on Destiny or the creators of Modern Warfare leaving Activision to form Respawn and make Titanfall, or for a more current example, former Rare alumni getting back together to make Yooka-Laylee, a 3D platformer in the vein of Banjo-Kazooie. Heck, I'm pretty sure that Hideo Kojima and his team, once they leave Konami, will be hired to make a game because, well, he's freakin' Hideo Kojima! His name on a game box means something!

 

[Xisiqomelir]

Phil Fish was ahead of everyone on this one.

Phil Fish said Japanese games were garbage.

The article is about how it won't be one man running the show any more at any dev house.

 

[Pez]

If Kojima can bring his core group of developers with him when he leaves, then yeah, he could be the great "savior" of Japanese gaming.

But I have a feeling he's going to Kickstart a film...God help us all.

 

[GoonerTRON]

I have to agree, the one Japanese game I have played in years being Bloodborne feels more like a western developed game.
All the console games I played as a kid were Japanese. The industry changed very quick.

 

[petghost]

Well it def seems like aaa is struggling in both jp and the west but it's looking fucking rough in Japan for the big projects.

 

[GoonerTRON]

Well it def seems like aaa is struggling in both jp and the west but it's looking fucking rough in Japan for the big projects.

Proper Pokemon game in 3D open world on home console, I feel it's really that simple.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

There will ALWAYS be a market for AAA Japanese games though. Sure, Konami might be going away, Sega has resorted to PC and Mobile games (speaking of which... where ARE their PC games? Valkyria Chronicles? Total War? Is that it?)

Then there's Capcom. Capcom still seems to be doing a fair bit... NOW. You also have first party Sony studios, Level-5 and Platinum Games (to a lesser extent) and CyberConnect2 (who has 2 huge unannounced titles and a VR title we don't know about), Falcom, Nippon Ichi, From Software... you get the point. I'm likely missing more studios as well but... yeah. There will always be a market.

The past 8 years I've basically ONLY played Japanese games. It's only this generation that I've actually started to branch out and include others with my Japanese games that I play. I will neeeeeeeeeever stop playing the games I grew up with.

The article isn't about whether or not Japanese AAA games will continue to be made, it's about whether or not such franchises will be under the sole purview of a visionary director like Kojima. Kyle Bosman drew much the same conclusion: Video game franchises are being wrested away from the notion of being 'directed by' one creator.

And I'm not sure you can include Falcom/NIS in your list of AAA publishers.

 

[Beelzebufo]

Proper Pokemon game in 3D open world on home console, I feel it's really that simple.

That sounds so not fun though haha. The best part about Pokemon is battling/trading people which is made a whole lot easier on handheld, and stuff like training/breeding is a lot more tolerable when watching TV or something else.

 

[QaaQer]

I figured the first page would be obvious fodder for that tripe but I see the whole thread's been this way. Oh well

There are a couple of good posters, but yeah not much discussion. :/

Non-platform holding Japanese AAA games are disappearing as are the larger than life celebrities. It isn't surprising, the Japanese console market is in severe contraction which started in 2006. One need only look at the number of console million sellers in Japan over the period of 1995-2014 to see how dramatic it has been.

Think of it like this: there will never be another huge Jazz mega celebrity like Miles Davis. This isn't because there are no talented trumpet players but because not enough people care about Jazz in the US in 2015 and there is no money in it. The era of the Jazz superstar is over.

 

[Dash Kappei]

Strange, been in NeoGAF for five years and this is the first time I heard of this.

You haven't been paying attention then

"
Full transcriptions of articles and whole or partially-scanned images (e.g. magazine scans) are prohibited. Standard fair-use policies apply, and sources should always be attributed. "

 

[hatchx]

But EAD has produced the best games so far this gen? Followed closely by FROM Software. No mention of that? If anything Japan is making a nice bit of a comeback this gen.

 

[Haunted]

Wait, is Miyazaki not Japanese?

The exception to the rule, though From can't be considered one of the traditional Japanese powerhouses.

Singular Japanese auteurs are not being housed by the big publishers anymore and have to strike out on their own. Kojima isn't the story here, he's just the latest in a long list.


It's no coincidence that the most personal, the most "authored" games we've seen in the last couple years have come out of the indie space while more and more people have recognised and are complaining about the "design by committee" nature of many AAA products (not a Japanese-only issue, certainly).

 

[monlo]

I don't understand how this article exists when it's the big western devs who have fallen way down lately

 

[Haunted]

But EAD has produced the best games so far this gen? Followed closely by FROM Software. No mention of that? If anything Japan is making a nice bit of a comeback this gen.

This is about individual, powerful developers whose ideas and design highly influence and completely shape a game made internally at the biggest Japanese publishers from start to finish (and how we've seen these people leave their home companies over the last couple years because the companies aren't ready to leave that much responsibility in the hands of a single person).

If you think that applies to EAD and the games you mention... well, here's a simple test. Without looking it up on wikipedia, can you even name the directors of Super Mario 3D World? Mario Kart 8? Splatoon? Nintendoland?

Do you think these games are the result of a single, authorial vision? Then they're not really relevant to the point of the article.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

This is about singular, powerful developers whose ideas and design highly influence and completely shape a game from start to finish.

If that'd apply to EAD and the games you mention... well, here's a simple test. Without looking it up on wikipedia, can you even name the directors of Super Mario 3D World? Mario Kart 8? Splatoon? Nintendoland?

Do you think these games are the result of a single, authorial vision?

In many cases, it's really about who the PR decides to promote as "the guy".

 

[Rydeen]

Wow, it seems 75% of the responses in this thread didn't read the article AT ALL. Kohler isn't saying good games aren't coming out of Japan this gen, he's saying director / creator run titles are pretty much dead in Japan, as they are in the West, and he's right.

I generally do not like what the video game industry has become at all, huge corporate publishers that aren't willing to give credit where credit is due. It's actually worse than Hollywood. Sure, studios have the final say as to what films get greenlit, but they still have the decency to give directors credit for their work in the process.

Also to those saying From Software's Miyazaki: He may be a great developer, but he's far from being the household name that Miyamoto and Kojima have become. And throwing out publishers as evidence that creator driven projects aren't dead is completely missing the point. Publishers aren't individuals.

I don't understand how this article exists when it's the big western devs who have fallen way down lately

This article was written as a response to Kojima being fired from Konami, Western publishers have been a lost cause for a long time, so that's kind of a non-story. The days of people like David Crane, Howard Scott Warshaw, Shigeru Miyamoto, the Johns, Roberta Williams and Ron Gilbert being promoted as the creators of their games are long gone. If Western publishers had their way, they'd want consumers to assume that all games popped into existence from the magical EA / Activision / Ubi-Soft machine.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

There are a couple of good posters, but yeah not much discussion. :/

Non-platform holding Japanese AAA games are disappearing as are the larger than life celebrities. It isn't surprising, the Japanese console market is in severe contraction which started in 2006. One need only look at the number of console million sellers in Japan over the period of 1995-2014 to see how dramatic it has been.

Think of it like this: there will never be another huge Jazz mega celebrity like Miles Davis. This isn't because there are no talented trumpet players but because not enough people care about Jazz in the US in 2015 and there is no money in it. The era of the Jazz superstar is over.

I like this post.

Hi. The whittling of AAA down to each publisher releasing a tiny handful of games per year is certainly the background against which this story takes place. I think it's obvious enough now at this point that it doesn't need to be specifically outlined in each analysis of the game industry, no? I wanted to write something specifically about Japan, which has gone on much longer with the Great Man model of game design than everywhere else.

Fair enough. I get ya; it is a complex, interwoven issue.

 

[njean777]

Wow, it seems 75% of the responses in this thread didn't read the article AT ALL. Kohler isn't saying good games aren't coming out of Japan this gen, he's saying director / creator run titles are pretty much dead in Japan, as they are in the West, and he's right.

I generally do not like what the video game industry has become at all, huge corporate publishers that aren't willing to give credit where credit is due. It's actually worse than Hollywood. Sure, studios have the final say as to what films get greenlit, but they still have the decency to give directors credit for their work in the process.

Also to those saying From Software's Miyazaki: He may be a great developer, but he's far from being the household name that Miyamoto and Kojima have become. And throwing out publishers as evidence that creator driven projects aren't dead is completely missing the point. Publishers aren't individuals.



This article was written as a response to Kojima being fired from Konami, Western publishers have been a lost cause for a long time, so that's kind of a non-story. The days of people like David Crane, Howard Scott Warshaw, Shigeru Miyamoto, the Johns, Roberta Williams and Ron Gilbert being promoted as the creators of their games are long gone. If Western publishers had their way, they'd want consumers to assume that all games popped into existence from the magical EA / Activision / Ubi-Soft machine.

IDK i feel like putting somebodies name on the box when hundreds of people also worked on the game isn't giving credit where it is due. Kojima may have a big part in MGS, but so do all the other people who worked on it. That is why I actually like that they just put the developers name on the trailers instead of one person (now). "Kojima productions presents" is far more fair then just putting "Hideo Kojima presents". Same with From. "From Software presents" is far more fair and befitting than "Miyazaki presents".

 

[Shard]

Yea, most of these people are still around, they just moved to different places of work.

 

[FairXchange]

Japanese devs keep churning out gems with Souls series and Bloodborne, so right now they hold the momentum in terms of my gaming interests.

If Obsidian was making the next Fallout, I'd be really leaning toward Western devs holding the crown, as that's not the case it belongs to From Software in terms of my personal tastes.

 

[Rydeen]

IDK i feel like putting somebodies name on the box when hundreds of people also worked on the game isn't giving credit where it is due. Kojima may have a big part in MGS, but so do all the other people who worked on it. That is why I actually like that they just put the developers name on the trailers instead of one person (now). Kojima productions is far more fair then just putting "Kojima".

Do you also think movies shouldn't credit the director? That we should just go in knowing Warner Bros, Fox or Disney released the movie and that's it? Hundreds of people work on films, but the director is given a huge chunk of the credit because they guide the overall vision of the film. Games should be the same way, especially with somebody like Kojima. When I played Metal Gear Solid games, it wasn't just about playing that series, it was about playing a Hideo Kojima game, a man who has very specific tastes, ideas, and concepts about game design and structure.

The problem is this is regressive, it gives all the power to the huge companies that produce these games and none of the power to the individuals toiling away. With a creator being credited, it at least is an inroad to other people being credited for individual aspects of development. By not crediting anybody, there is no opportunity for that, and the big publishers know that.

 

[Necromanti]

Yea, most of these people are still around, they just moved to different places of work.

I'd say it has hit the more niche (yet well-loved) cult hit designers the hardest, since quite a few have gone on to work on mobile titles with very limited success.

I love "it's the end" articles.

Just because they're always so laughable. Especially years later.

One could post a whole thread about such things where none of what said came true.

Except...this is something that has been true for a long time now.

Some of the posts here are making me feel like I read the wrong article.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Wait, is Miyazaki not Japanese?

Miyazaki is also the President of From. In all other cases the auteurs were simply developers with exceptional influence, not upper management.

 

[Agent Unknown]

So "crowdsourcing" is the new "vaporware" apparently. Feedback gathered from a demo for a Final Fantasy sequel which required purchase of a full retail game in order to access said demo doesn't fall under the definition of "crowdsourcing" or being 'Farmville'd' whatsoever. Was Kojima "crowdsourcing" about 14 years ago when he said that if people hadn't enjoyed and given positive feedback on the MGS2 demo that he would have felt the need to start over?

Also the article glosses over the fact that Nomura while yes, based on what we know apparently needed to be moved off FF XV, is for all intents and purposes still valued at SE as he works on KH.

I think it could be said despite a new market landscape that needs to be navigated, power directors are still quite alive in Japan, just at other companies other than Konami, that being companies who still care about making games. In the off chance we find out something that turns the Konami debacle on its ear, this article changes nothing and Kojima was given a raw deal and treated very badly by Konami.

Also, the article refers to the PSP as "forgettable"? Seriously?

 

[herod]

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.

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

It was either a terrible attempt to bash the PSP, or Chris Kohler is just a dolt. I can't decide which is more likely. It really just speaks to the stupid sensationalism of the entire article.

How do sales figures contradict a forgettable library? What a weird argument.