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

Chemo

Member
I guess he hasn't seen No More Heroes 2. Japanese gaming isn't dead, the good shit just isn't blockbustery anymore.
 

gifife

Member
cosmicblizzard said:
Not like bald space marines and Unreal engine are much better.

I'm personally getting sick of regional archetypes in general. I want to see a female protagonist with scars all over her face and an eye patch.
2nu0hef.jpg
 

Firestorm

Member
How to fix Japan: license out MT Framework so Japanese developers can concentrate on making good games rather than making engines that were supposed to be done 2 or 3 years ago!
 

Dresden

Member
Firestorm said:
How to fix Japan: license out MT Framework so Japanese developers can concentrate on making good games rather than making engines that were supposed to be done 2 or 3 years ago!

Sad but true.
 

Cynar

Member
Firestorm said:
How to fix Japan: license out MT Framework so Japanese developers can concentrate on making good games rather than making engines that were supposed to be done 2 or 3 years ago!

yes :D
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Kilgore Trout said:
I think Other M is a joint project for a reason. Nintendo won't let them do just whatever they want.

My worries don't stem that much from possibilities of her being sexualised (Masahiro Sakurai already took care of that) as much as I fear a TSUNDERE factor dropping on her character.
 

Shadow780

Member
Regulus Tera said:
My worries don't stem that much from possibilities of her being sexualised (Masahiro Sakurai already took care of that) as much as I fear a TSUNDERE factor dropping on her character.

I want to throw an awesome face there, but I fear the consequences.
 
That’s obviously a massive exaggeration, but I do agree with him when saying that this TGS was a huge disappointment, just like 2009 in general.

I honestly think this year has easily been a very weak year, and one of the worst years in quite a while in terms of gaming if you were to ask me.
 

Russell

Member
Who cares if Japan is over. The most important market is North America, anyway. And last I heard, North America is doing AWESOME as far as video games go.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Russell said:
Who cares if Japan is over. The most important market is North America, anyway. And last I heard, North America is doing AWESOME as far as video games go.

And yet a Japanese company is the one that dominates the North American market.
 

Barrett2

Member
Russell said:
Who cares if Japan is over. The most important market is North America, anyway. And last I heard, North America is doing AWESOME as far as video games go.

Pretty sure most American publishers are also having financial difficulties.
 

ksamedi

Member
I think that they are bringing much less innovation (except for Nintendo) these days. It probably has to do with the high cost of developing for the HD consoles. Second thing is they are trying to imitate western developers which they shouldn't do at all. They will fail miserably.
 
Yes, a bunch of significant Japanese third parties drove into a ditch thinking Sony's headlights were working. Capcom's driving an ATV, they always steer into a ditch and come out just fine, so of course they're not loaded down with problems. They drive wherever they want, through the Saturn swamps, over the GameCube hills, and their suspension always holds up.

As for the rest of the industry, they'll be fine if they get back on the fucking highway. Level-5's sport compact seems to be cruising down I-419!
 

laserbeam

Banned
ksamedi said:
I think that they are bringing much less innovation (except for Nintendo) these days. It probably has to do with the high cost of developing for the HD consoles. Second thing is they are trying to imitate western developers which they shouldn't do at all. They will fail miserably.

High costs and the head up their ass mentality that they have to develop for the PS3 even after seeing that it wasnt gonna rule the industry are certainly factors to the decline of console games though in general its not limited to Japan.
 
A Twisty Fluken said:
Yes, a bunch of significant Japanese third parties drove into a ditch thinking Sony's headlights were working. Capcom's driving an ATV, they always steer into a ditch and come out just fine, so of course they're not loaded down with problems. They drive wherever they want, through the Saturn swamps, over the GameCube hills, and their suspension always holds up.

As for the rest of the industry, they'll be fine if they get back on the fucking highway. Level-5's sport compact seems to be cruising down I-419!

Even though I don't completely agree with it, this is probably the best analogy I've heard describing the situation.
 

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
While this has been alluded to earlier, I think his statement is only really true if you entirely ignore the DS and (to a lesser extent) the PSP.

Japanese game console development is playing second fiddle to DS / portable development.

Has Capcom ever really taken the market leader seriously? What have they released for the DS so far other than:

1) Ports of GBA interactive story games (I like Phoenix as much as the rest of you, but it's not quite "heavy support")
2) Mega Man Battle Whatever Sequels
3) The RE port
4) Viewtiful Joe

I'm sure I'm missing something, but Capcom never really appeared to be heavily supporting the primary Japanese system...
 

Pein

Banned
DavidDayton said:
While this has been alluded to earlier, I think his statement is only really true if you entirely ignore the DS and (to a lesser extent) the PSP.

Japanese game console development is playing second fiddle to DS / portable development.

Has Capcom ever really taken the market leader seriously? What have they released for the DS so far other than:

1) Ports of GBA interactive story games (I like Phoenix as much as the rest of you, but it's not quite "heavy support")
2) Mega Man Battle Whatever Sequels
3) The RE port
4) Viewtiful Joe

I'm sure I'm missing something, but Capcom never really appeared to be heavily supporting the primary Japanese system...
okaminden and castlevania is serious support
 
Uh...kinda easy to prove this. Are sales of Japanese games worldwide up or down from last gen? I think many Japanese devs are going to eventually go the way of the dinosaur, outsourcing their money making IP's to western studios.
 

Mooreberg

Member
Most of the PSOne/Saturn games I owned that were not based on an American sports league property were made by Japanese developers. Last gen was pretty evenly split for me. This gen has been Western developers by a wide margin. Maybe if 3D platform games weren't close to extinct and somebody had introduced a 3D fighter franchise that I haven't already been playing for 10 years I'd be playing more Japanese games but that hasn't been the case.

Dreamcast was really the last system for me where, other than sports games, what made it great was defined by Japanese development.
 
What he's really talking about is how small this year's TGS is and how there were a small number of new titles being shown there and he's absolutely right, this year's show is a big disappointment compared to past years (Though Capcom do have a decent lineup)
 

Firestorm

Member
DavidDayton said:
While this has been alluded to earlier, I think his statement is only really true if you entirely ignore the DS and (to a lesser extent) the PSP.

Japanese game console development is playing second fiddle to DS / portable development.

Has Capcom ever really taken the market leader seriously? What have they released for the DS so far other than:

1) Ports of GBA interactive story games (I like Phoenix as much as the rest of you, but it's not quite "heavy support")
2) Mega Man Battle Whatever Sequels
3) The RE port
4) Viewtiful Joe

I'm sure I'm missing something, but Capcom never really appeared to be heavily supporting the primary Japanese system...
Capcom is doing great. I think he's talking about the other companies.
 

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
Firestorm said:
Capcom is doing great. I think he's talking about the other companies.

That was my point. Everyone else is focusing their efforts on the DS. This could be why a Capcom rep would see the TGS as being so pathetic.

Granted, I -did- forget about Castlevania.

(sips lemonade)
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Japan is totally fucked...unless you like, you know, fucking open your eyes. There are lots of great game coming out of Japan.

Oh my god, many japanese games are made for the domestic market, and may not appeal worldwide?! This is shocking. That's nothing like American games, which sell like gangbusters in Japan...right? RIGHT?!

Sure, there's a slump in Japanese game development, but it would be fucking stupid to say it's finished. Japanese gaming has found its niche in portable gaming and lower budget titles that emphasize solid gameplay mechanics over powerful tech, but does that make them terrible? Hardly.
 

Firestorm

Member
DavidDayton said:
That was my point. Everyone else is focusing their efforts on the DS. This could be why a Capcom rep would see the TGS as being so pathetic.

Granted, I -did- forget about Castlevania.

(sips lemonade)
Why would he see it as being pathetic that things are on DS?
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Kilgore Trout said:
I think Other M is a joint project for a reason. Nintendo won't let them do just whatever they want.
Considering how Nintendo Japan seems to view the character, I'm not sure that'll be much better.
 

ymmv

Banned
Andrex said:
Just counting my current-gen console games...

Western: 11
Japanese: 15

Eh, don't know about finished. Once you become a fan of their specific genres and gameplay it's pretty hard to just pull out.

Looking at my own games library I find that the majority of my PS2 games came from Japan, but most of my 360/PS3 games come from western developers. The balance has shifted completely.

PS2 Western: 16
PS2 Japanese: 48

PS3 Western; 32
PS3 Japanese: 17

360 Western: 29
360 Japanese: 14
 

NeoGIF

Member
He's definitely right about this year's TGS. This is probably one of the most boring and disappointing TGS I've ever seen.
 
I am sick to the back teeth with hearing about Japanese devs griping about how they have fallen behind the west. Even a broken record is right twice a day, or so they say. It's good to hear someone having a sense of humour about the whole thing.
 

Neo C.

Member
thetrin said:
Japan is totally fucked...unless you like, you know, fucking open your eyes. There are lots of great game coming out of Japan.

Oh my god, many japanese games are made for the domestic market, and may not appeal worldwide?! This is shocking. That's nothing like American games, which sell like gangbusters in Japan...right? RIGHT?!
There's a difference: The market in Japan is shrinking, while the market in the USA and especially Europe still has the potential to grow. Therefore either japanese developers will need to make more games with global appeal or the japanese government will need to change their immigration policy, if they want the japanese game industry to grow.
 

OnPoint

Member
DavidDayton said:
While this has been alluded to earlier, I think his statement is only really true if you entirely ignore the DS and (to a lesser extent) the PSP.

Japanese game console development is playing second fiddle to DS / portable development.

Has Capcom ever really taken the market leader seriously? What have they released for the DS so far other than:

1) Ports of GBA interactive story games (I like Phoenix as much as the rest of you, but it's not quite "heavy support")
2) Mega Man Battle Whatever Sequels
3) The RE port
4) Viewtiful Joe

I'm sure I'm missing something, but Capcom never really appeared to be heavily supporting the primary Japanese system...

Megaman ZX. You forgot those.
 

jax (old)

Banned
Japanese developers didn't have to make PS3/next gen level graphics/engines if they couldn't cope.

A lot of the PSN/XBL titles are from EUR/US developers - pain/geometry wars/braid/flower/wipeoutHD!/puzzlequest + + + + +


they could have stepped up to do something else, fill a different niche. DID SOMETHING. They didn't. I mean, all those DLC games all look great too. Full on 1080p (maybe maybe not) and not all wholely development/resource hungry.


They've sort of failed in their imagination and how to take on the market.
 
Yoboman said:
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.

Is there any industry that isn't a lot like that? Film and television (meaning the big studios) do the exact same thing. Seems like the natural flow of capitalism to me. (Not that that makes it a good thing.)
 
Japan is a more insular society than most of videogame-producing western civilization. Resultantly, they've been slow to adapt and haven't generally taken global tastes into account, with the exception of a few producers or companies. Capcom is definitely one of those companies. Level-5 may be another (though their content is very "Japanese" they succeed in making it marketable to a western audience). Nintendo has found a viable path to global success with their strategy. But posting a single title, a few games or even a few publishers that know how to make globally appealing titles for current consoles doesn't prove anything. Many Japanese studios do not seemed to be inspired or challenged by western masterworks like Fallout 3, Mass Effect or GTA IV (the examples are not important, I'm just offering some critically and [generally] publicly loved games).

That's not to say there's no good content being produced in Japan. There is, especially on the handheld front. But that ties into them playing, for the most part, to the tastes of the Japanese gaming public. Which is not an altogether bad strategy, but there is tremendous opportunity in the western world that many companies, Capcom excluded, have failed to capitalize on.

thetrin said:
Oh my god, many japanese games are made for the domestic market, and may not appeal worldwide?! This is shocking. That's nothing like American games, which sell like gangbusters in Japan...right? RIGHT?!

What does this mean on a basic level though? That Japanese developers/gamers do not care for western games, regardless of quality, and Japanese publishers mistakenly overlook overseas markets. I don't see how either of those can be good things, for the gaming public or the publishers.

I think Inafune has been making comments of this nature for at least a year or two and I think he makes a good point.
 
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