StreetsAhead
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Because the article's title was changed... POOF
Not at kotaku.com.au
Because the article's title was changed... POOF
Agree. THQ, Midway, Zynga, Curt Schilling, none of it gets coupled with a stream of "western culture is weird" articles, and none of it ever turns out to reflect on western culture as a whole.
Just look at this article.
Virtually every one is a western studio, but the overall narrative in the gaming media is still that Japanese developers are struggling.
It's one of those things that you can't explain to someone who hasn't closely followed gaming media on multiple sites for the last 6 years. They either saw it or they didn't. For those paying attention, it's obvious that Japan has been under assault in the press for years.
Individual Western companies. When it's about Japanese companies, it's about all of them. Nobody's holding up THQ as an example of why Western game development is irrelevant.
I think he'll be fine. He mentioned on his twitter that he got chewed out by Inaba, but nothing serious.
Except the instances where it's about individual Japanese companies, and not Japan as a whole. Which is most of the time. And there's as many, if not more articles criticizing the game industry in its entirety.
Then again, if we saw American or European companies losing a ton of marketshare, then we probably would get articles examining why it might be happening to those regions.
For those paying attention, it's obvious that Japan has been under assault in the press for years.
Still my favorite Kamiya tweet:
Doesn't seem like a good example to me. He always says, "next week in game magazines" to reply to dumb questions. It was pretty obvious that guy tweeted him just trying to provoke a response.
I've never seen him be an ass to someone who asked a genuine original question that wasn't stupid.
How is it an anomaly? Different markets care about different thing for different reasons. These markets change, too.
Kind of like how the ZX Spectrum and Amiga were big in the UK, but barely exited in the US. Or how the lack of console support in Korea led to PC games being huge there. Same goes for most of Eastern Europe. It's only an anomaly if you compare Japan to post-2009 USA.
People have pretty bad memories if they so quickly forget that the PC platform was ridiculed and ignored just a few short years ago. The early years of the PS3/360 generation sucked for getting good PC versions of games. It wasn't until around 2009 or so, and mostly thanks to Valve leading the digital distribution effort, that PC gaming has had such a resurgence in popularity.
How is it an anomaly? Different markets care about different thing for different reasons. These markets change, too.
It's one of those things that you can't explain to someone who hasn't closely followed gaming media on multiple sites for the last 6 years. It would just take too much effort to collect all the articles, the comments, to dissect all the various instances where tone was unnecessarily harsh and demeaning. They were either there to see it or they weren't. For those paying attention, it's obvious that Japan has been under assault in the press for years.
Well, there's the fact Japan is the only 1st world nation that doesn't buy or develop games for the PC platform?.
Well, there's the fact Japan is the only 1st world nation that doesn't buy or develop games for the PC platform? It's big in the west, it's big in Korea and China, but Japan in unique in it's indifference. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's hardly controversial to point that out and wonder why one country that is so big on games doesn't care for arguably the biggest gaming platform.
Well, there's the fact Japan is the only 1st world nation that doesn't buy or develop games for the PC platform? It's big in the west, it's big in Korea and China, but Japan in unique in it's indifference. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's hardly controversial to point that out and wonder why one country that is so big on games doesn't care for arguably the biggest gaming platform.
When Plunkett saw Kamiya's tweets, why didn't he contact Kamiya before posting the article? Wouldn't that have made for a better article? Don't you think it's ridiculous to take a couple of BRIEF tweets that were made in response to some questions and use them as the foundation of your article? That's sort of like the opposite of what twitter is all about.
I like it how you seem to imply that everyone here who dislike how Kotaku did this stuff immediately qualifies as a Kamiya fanboy. I also like it how you seem to imply that what Kotaku did here is not such a big deal for people to get frustrated about, particularly when they call themselves "journalists."
Anyways, if, someday, a person taking something that you post over the internet--be that a twitter, a facebook post, or anything else--without your permission (stealing it, in other words) and use it to make something that can easily be perceived as slandering you for their own profit (in Kotaku's case, clicks to their website), you'll be okay with it?
If proper news source like The Sunday Telegraph or any other reputable news organization did this shit would be flying all over things so fast for them it's not even funny.
It's controversial if you call them "clueless" and act like it's impossible to choose to play games on something else, instead of being uninformed. Kotaku implies that anyone not being interested in Valve is an alien concept to anyone in the west, and is a uniquely Japanese phenomenon.
The very same day, they wrote articles about the SteamBox. What is the SteamBox? It's Valve launching a streamlined PC in the west for people who aren't interested in PCs and prefer a more streamlined console experience. Hell, even Totilo himself wrote about 2012 being the year he finally got interested in PC gaming again, meaning he wasn't for a long time before this year.
The article was definitely controversial, and insulting to Kamiya.
Why do you think the PC became so big in the west? Because that's where western developers made their best games after the '83 video game crash. The NES, Master System, Genesis (Mega-Drive), SNES, Saturn, PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Gamecube... most of the western efforts on these systems were pretty bad. These were all systems from Japanese hardware manufacturers and were heavily supported by Japanese developers. These were the platforms where all of the games were for Japanese players. That's why PC gaming didn't become popular in Japan.
Meanwhile, western developers put their best efforts out on the PC from 1983 until 2002 or so when the original Xbox launched. That's why the PC platform is so huge over here. It wasn't even until the Xbox 360 came out that most of the big western developers fully shifted gears to console development. Coinciding with that we saw a huge drop in popularity with the PC in the west. Support for the PC from 2005 - 2009 or so was comparatively quite shitty.
So, no. There's nothing strange about Japan's lack of PC support. For the longest time, Japanese consumers were more likely to have some kind of console in their home than a personal computer that could play video games. All of the support for games was on consoles.
Well yes, that's why I called it a dumb headline and twitter exchange. Though, the idea of a major game developer being completely indifferent to the PC is an alien concept, at least in the west, where there are almost no game major developers that hold the same stance.
Well yes, that's why I called it a dumb headline and twitter exchange. Though, the idea of a major game developer being completely indifferent to the PC is an alien concept, at least in the west, where there are almost no game major developers that hold the same stance.
So he did get in a bit of trouble with Inaba over Gaijin-gate? What'd the tweet say?
Well yes, that's why I called it a dumb headline and twitter exchange. Though, the idea of a major game developer being completely indifferent to the PC is an alien concept, at least in the west, where there are almost no game major developers that hold the same stance.
But he's not completely indifferent.
Bayonetta 2 studio Platinum Games wants to work on Nintendo 3DS, PC next
September 25, 2012 By Anthony John Agnello
Platinum Games’ Atsushi Inaba discussed his studio’s future after Bayonetta 2 in a new interview, citing Steam and 3DS as his destinations.
Why have most western developers been totally indifferent to dedicated handhelds? Are they clueless?
Right. Somehow this didn't make it into Kotaku's article. Seems they're pretty "clueless" about Platinum Games.
Why have most western developers been totally indifferent to dedicated handhelds? Are they clueless?
I realize you're probably being sarcastic, but I did want to point out that most handheld gaming happens while commuting, and public transit in the West is far less common than it is in Japan, hence its lack of adoption.
Oh, come the fuck on.
The article wasn't about Platinum. It wasn't saying that Kamiya was clueless, it wasn't saying that Inaba was clueless, and it wasn't saying that Platinum was clueless. The headline--which has been changed after rightful criticism--did, but not the article.
This is the most positive interpretation of the situation I've seen.All it did was use tweets from a popular Japanese designer as a springboard for explanation as to why PC gaming isn't that popular in Japan.
Huh? Other than their shameful promotional "documentary", Polygon has been pretty great since launch. Or at least I haven't seen anything even close to a Kotaku level of insincerity and disingenuousness.Lol how is Kotaku still around, it's almost as bad as Polygon.
Still my favorite Kamiya tweet:
Presumably because Plunkett did not write the article (Eisenbeis did), nor did he publish it (that would have been Totilo)?
This is the most positive interpretation of the situation I've seen.
I wasn't being sarcastic. Flip that around for Japan's perspective and tell me how portable gaming PCs are compared to handhelds, especially on a cramped series of islands where small devices are valued more than bulky machines.
The other factor is just sales numbers. Handhelds don't sell that well in the west right now, though even when they did, the west basically ignored any significant investment in the platforms. Flip that around for Japan's perspective. PC games don't sell at all in Japan, so they haven't developed for it.
it took a little while, but kotaku defenders are now at a grand total of 4!
You can take issues with the author's claims. You can say that Blizzard doesn't localize PC (three of the four titles listed were Blizzard games) in Japan because their games haven't sold well previously (I have no idea if this is true or not). You can say that Japan is xenophobic and just prefers Japanese devices (and the concept of 'gaijin' as a perjorative, as well as the attempts at sabotage towards the original Xbox by Japanese playtesters, might be a place to start). You can say a lot of things and make people look bad or good or whatever.
But... if you are a reasonable, intelligent human being, you should be able to grasp the fact that the article's author merely took tweets from a noted game designer as a way to explain why PC gaming isn't all that popular in Japan.
It's not attempting to slander him or even make him look bad, and now that the title's changed, there's nothing in that piece that can be used to insult Kamiya.
I get that many of you guys love the man, and instantly hate anything that makes him look bad (), but come on. A little moderation would be nice. What we should have had were a bunch of comments condemning Kotaku for a sensationalist headline that diminishes the content within. Instead, we've got a bunch of people just shitting all over Kotaku for very little good reason.except, for some reason, his games.
All it did was use tweets from a popular Japanese designer as a springboard for explanation as to why PC gaming isn't that popular in Japan.
Because Japan loves mobile gaming. I feel like I might be wrong but think of it this way:Why have most western developers been totally indifferent to dedicated handhelds? Are they clueless?
Doujin games in general go on PC, not bullet hell games. Commercial bullet hell games are arcade/console only.Or "Many publishers don't view PC as an important platform." Well yes, many publishers wouldn't....because they don't develop for it in the first place. Really the only games that seem to come from the japanese pc market are bullethell games and visual and erotic novels. If they aren't this, then they're things like Ys or recettear.
They're very popular if we're talking about stuff like Netflix or music streaming sites, but they're not popular in regards to gaming; yet. And you have to remember that Kamiya likes to make action games and prefers 60 FPS, so he'd probably look unfavorably on lag."Personally I don't like cloud thing, cuz it seems kinda unstable to me. Just personally." which is basically "I don't know or am unfamiliar with this product, so I am apprehensive about it" even though outside of japan these services are absurdly abundant and popular.
All it did was use tweets from a popular Japanese designer as a springboard for explanation as to why PC gaming isn't that popular in Japan.
I'm an expert.As I said, I might be wrong. Bullet hell games are not something I know the complete background on
"Personally I don't like cloud thing, cuz it seems kinda unstable to me. Just personally." which is basically "I don't know or am unfamiliar with this product, so I am apprehensive about it" even though outside of japan these services are absurdly abundant and popular.
Interestingly though, Japan's internet is more like europe's and not the north americas or south americas (which has tons of caps on ISP services, mostly through rising internet use on aging hardware).Anyone with bandwidth caps would feel the same way, or anyone living in a rural area without highspeed internet, or anyone who likes to collect games. It's not at all a uniquely Japanese phenomenon to have a few reservations about cloud gaming. He even went out of his way to say it was just his personal opinion at the end. They took that and spun it into a representation of all of Japan. I can see how he would get annoyed.
It seemed to me like he was talking about cloud services, not cloud saving or cloud gaming.Are they really? The main representative of "Cloud" that I know of is Onlive, maybe Quake LIVe and the Square-Enix service. If by "Cloud" Kamiya meant cloud gaming then he might have a point, but we dont know if Kamiya mixed up the terms and it meant Steam, we simply are not sure, but that didnt stop the writer from assuming what he meant.
It seemed to me like he was talking about cloud services, not cloud saving or cloud gaming.
This may be a silly question, but does someone like Richard Eisenbeis get paid by Kotaku for his postings? And if so, how much? I ask because nothing he's posted seems to be anything particularly special - many TV anime and movie reviews, some opinion pieces (like the very bad Kamiya article which essentially gives the Japanese developer perspective on PC gaming based on some casual tweets with very little else to substantiate the points he is arguing). It seems like anyone who lives in Japan and has a working TV set could do what Eisenbeis does, unlike, say, Ashcraft's articles which, while sometimes silly and insubstantial, seem to have a bit more meat to them in terms of research, sourcing, etc.
I guess what I'm asking is, does Eisenbeis Live off his Kotaku earnings or is this just a part-time gig for him?
Wow, I never saw that story.http://www.1up.com/news/resident-evil-bayonetta-creator-brush
Heres an example of unprovoked Kamiya.
This may be a silly question, but does someone like Richard Eisenbeis get paid by Kotaku for his postings? And if so, how much? I ask because nothing he's posted seems to be anything particularly special - many TV anime and movie reviews, some opinion pieces (like the very bad Kamiya article which essentially gives the Japanese developer perspective on PC gaming based on some casual tweets with very little else to substantiate the points he is arguing). It seems like anyone who lives in Japan and has a working TV set could do what Eisenbeis does, unlike, say, Ashcraft's articles which, while sometimes silly and insubstantial, seem to have a bit more meat to them in terms of research, sourcing, etc.
I guess what I'm asking is, does Eisenbeis Live off his Kotaku earnings or is this just a part-time gig for him?
I doubt anyone producing content for Kotaku does it for free.
He probably isn't being paid *that* much for this particular post, though.
Wow, I never saw that story.
If he wrote that all himself, that's pretty impressive. Seems like it'd belong on a proper blog rather than Twitter, though. Guess he just likes the attention.
The bit about the boot is pretty stupid, but pretty hardcore. "Living hell"...
What? No one gets paid for making posts on GAF.
He does some blogging on platinum's facebook I believe. Or he used to at least.