Just to make a summary of what he said in that interview:
- Everyone at the TGS is making awful games
- Japanese game developers are making games that are 5 years behind and stuck in the last-gen mindset
- There is no diversity or originality in game play, ideas, or design
- Capcom is barely keeping up
- Japan is behind because when they find an idea that works, they stick with the formula, just tweaking graphics and/or image quality
- Japan is also behind because publishers are not putting $75 million budgets behind the games for development/marketing
- Shadow of Rome failed because it was only superficially westernized
- Resident Evil, on the other hand, succeeded because the main character was American and spoke English
- Japanese games cannot be popular overseas anymore in their pure state; they are like sushi and North America requires California Rolls.
- Monster Hunter will never be a success overseas because it is Japanese to the core and any attempt to change it will make it unpopular in Japan
- Games that sell globally are best, but selling only in Japan is okay if they make a profit
- It's getting harder to make a profit on Japan-only software because the domestic market is smaller than ever
- Buying overseas companies is just a start, it takes a lot of work to yield proper dividends from such a relationship
- Lost Planet 1 was totally okay for westerners, but the team that made Lost Planet 2 screwed up and made it too Japanese and that's why it failed
- You can't take on America head-on, you have to use strategy
- Inafune's strategy was to bring robots into the game and use harsh environments, but Lost Planet 2 lost its way
- He can't do everything he wants to do at Capcom. He's been strong-arming things through but there's still a lot of resistance
- Pay is shitty, leadership is nebulous, and Inafune thinks he can't be on the board or directors because management thinks developers are stupid. That's the difference between Nintendo and Capcom.
- If Capcom changes, the Japanese games industry will change.
- Level 5 rox
- It's too late for Japan to enter the US gaming market, it will take years now. Japan needs to focus on entering emerging markets in China and Korea.
- Japanese gaming is dead
- Inafune loves Japan and wants to save it
- Everyone needs to face up to the reality that the Japanese games industry is dead.
- Capcom is ranked low globally, is dead no matter how you approach it. Resident Evil only sold 5 million copies. Not good enough.
- Inafune fancies himself like the revolutionary samurai Ryoma Sakamoto, who made strong efforts to open up Japan to the West and got assassinated.
- Inafune daydreams about being assassinated in medieval times for being so bad-ass.
I mean, look at that. Look at his criticisms. He hasn't got the slightest clue about what Western games are doing to succeed. Oh yes, Western developers never stick to the formula... what was the top-selling game last year again? Call of Duty 6, was it?