Pride clouds vision for Japanese devs, says Inafune

Soul Sac is AMAZING!!

look at capcom's resident evil they want it to become call of duty.

I'm perfectly fine with their style of game and development. The only problem is I'd like to fucking play them some day.

Someone needs to make Gihren's Greed into a next gen game. Just saying. I also think that all the wrong games come to the U.S. The bad ones come here, and all the good ones stay over there. Example- I would have preferred G generation Spirits come out here instead of getting that first dynasty warriors gundam bullcrap. That was a HUGE mistake in my opinion. My friends and I had to grow up getting emulators and modding our ps2s just to play these great Japanese games. We use to hotseat on a snes emulator playing SD Gundam G Next.

Pride clouding Japanese judgement... That sure is a rare thing isn't it? In all fairness however, the US market is the same, the developers just do a better job catering to their market than the Japanese market. I have faith in developers providing new and interesting games and concepts to keep me going for quite a while. One of the key areas I see this expanding in is the now-powerful indie market. Games that I didn't think I would ever see are now beginning to become more commonplace. The bigger devs and publishers are starting to notice and take notes. With all of this competition from not just each individual market, but also from different country and developer creates a breeding ground for new and innovative games and ideas. It's a great time to be a gamer right now, and anybody that disagrees really isn't looking hard enough at the offerings on display right now.

@B00GIEL0VE There is also the pride of not recognising or not wanting to admit that you've been bested in many respects. Japanese developers don't need to necessarily beat western developers at their own game (in fact that is likely to be counter productive) but they do have to realise where they have fallen behind and why. Can you believe that many Japanese developers still don't use mo-cap or lip synching tech? They do it all by hand, wasting a load of time and money (no wonder they can't keep up). The Japanese haven't really grasped how to make the technology work for them to help them save time and money.

I'm totally not of the opinion that the Japanese should stay isolated and only make games for their own home market. They don't need to make games that are 'westernised' either (history shows that the consumer can see through a fake and will pass it up: see all the failed western-y franchises this generation).

What they do need to do is bring their unique flair into game design whilst getting up to speed on all the developments over the last 10 years. Even if they can't compete in terms of technology I am sure there is a massive untapped AA market (the term being used to denote production values/tech rather than quality per se).

What they also need to do is build localisation-friendly tools into the game engines. For instance tech that makes it easy to re-lip synch for different languages to avoid having to match 'flappies' (which results in sub-par dub performances).

Another big thing they should do is stop hiring anime-grade voice actors. The quality of writing in Japanese games and the translation is only made worse by actors like that. Japanese dubs of western developed games have been well translated and highly natural for years (even if the tempo of the conversations is somewhat English-y) so why don't they go the extra mile and get good voice work done when going out of Japanese? Maybe those small developers can't afford it but SE certainly can afford to on their next big FF game. There is really no excuse.

Some people are making the argument that a lot of Japanese content isn't translated. This point doesn't really sit well with me as most of the Japanese output for home consoles is in fact localised. The games that aren't localised often are doomed to sell badly or have proved themselves niche titles. I can't think of many sleeper hits hiding behind the language barrier (and I speak the damn language).

This is funny because the Western Industry makes a lot of bad games too, just for the sake of money. It is rare to find a truly good game in the western industry nowadays, some of this "appeal everyone" games aren't cutting on sales and most of them are corridor shooters, I'm sure there's a lot of bad games in the Japanese Industry also, and they do get their rare miracle like the western, Dark Souls for example, of course it is not fair to make an actual judgment when 90% of all Japanese games never get localized for English speaking countries.

Dark Souls did everything right

Well I can think of two things the Japanese market can do... actually GET some of the better games over here and improve localization. Jump Ultimate Stars for example. Its as good as Smash Bros and its an anime game, yet never was brought over to the US. As for localization... there are some games that are brought over with terrible voice acting among other issues that should be amazing games, but are unbearable as a result. Pride might be an issue, but the isolationism is just as bad if not worse.

The problem with japan is that the games that they make games/anime that us western people hate, such as having every...single...detail explained to us. Its like EVERY single japan character has an inner dailouge and EVERY SINGLE villian...HAS TO...tell the hero how and why HE is more powerfull and will not be stopped by the hero.

Its like they cant have a single scene in any game or anime that is without words. They cant figure anything out without some kind of inner dailogue from the charactor. Some of the most powerfull scenes in movies/games have been WITHOUT any wrods and they are western ones.

The core of the issue is this: Japan used to feed arcade and console games to itself and the rest of the world meanwhile the West only fed point-and-click tittles for PCs. One day, Microsoft decided to launch its own Western-friendly-designed console, Western developers gathered to develop for it and the void that the Japanese game industry used to fill became an industry in itself where Japan hardly had any space left.

The Western game industry expanded and cannibalized the Japanese presence in Europe, Oceania and America [the continent].

The Japanese game industry used to fed the West whatever they wanted because the West did not have anywhere else to resort for games but now the West can sustain its gaming needs for itself and its gamers prefer its tittles over the Japanese for logical and cultural reasons.

The cowboys and blue-blood princes from the West crushed the samurai and they can't accept it because of cultural pride.

Three continents are a much bigger market than one island country and they are losing all four because the Western game industry is very slowly crawling into the Japanese market year by year.

Veeery slooowly.

Japanese developers are too "prideful" to make games that sell in the west? Seriously? Is this for real?

How the hell are we to judge whether Japan's market is suffering from "stagnation" or "low quality" if 99% of Japanese titles never even make it here? The problem with Japanese developers is not that they don't make games that cater to westerners, it's that they don't bother to bring their games over to the west. PERIOD. On the off-chance that they do, they never market their titles to make them known more, and they frequently allow the content of the games to be altered over here to make them suit the western audiences "tastes" to where they aren't distinguishable from western titles.

You call this "pride"? What a crock full of shit.

If they really did have some pride in what they do, they'd wouldn't be afraid to bring every single one of their games over with no alterations or censorship in their international localizations, regardless of whether the content appeals to a western audience. If they had some pride in their work, the Japanese companies would make every conceivable effort to change the western audiences' tastes to be more like theirs, NOT THE OTHER GODDAMNED WAY AROUND.

They definitely should be more efficient about making games in general, but they need to focus on what they're good at doing and sell it to the world exactly as they do in Japan. After all, what's the point of having a Japanese developer release something here if all they do is copy something that US/European companies have years of doing without introducing something unique?

Look not to what Capcom's been doing--Look to Konami instead. In TGS 2010, when the developers of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance were asked about what they thought about Japanese companies releasing games to an international audience, they said while it is beneficial to do so, Japanese developers shouldn't just copy what western companies can do--They have to do what they're good at doing and make something that only a Japanese developer can make and can't be easily be replicated by western developers:

http://www.gamespot.com/metal-gear-rising-revengeance/videos/metal-gear-solid-rising-tgs-2010-interview-6276320/

Skip over to 3:44 and watch until the end. THIS is the kind of pride that every Japanese developer should have.

japanese gaming is only healthy when it comes to handheld

I hope they never learn from Western Studios. Keep making original, and weird, but awesome games Japan.

I'm fine with most aspects of Japanese game development, but.. their decisions on what platforms to release games on is by far the worst part about them.

Capcom and their Monster Hunter IP is perhaps the biggest example I can give of complete idiocy. Hardcore series has been released mostly on casual platforms instead of something hardcore like the PC or even the 360/PS3. It's mindboggling.

And on PC; Japan focuses on consoles instead of PC due to how proliferated consoles are there over PCs. Compared to western markets (NA/EU), PCs are FAR more prevalent and have so much more horsepower than consoles which would allow them to create incredible games.. but they just don't bother with the platform. It took the Dark Souls petition to wake up FROM SOFT; what's it going to take for the rest?

When are dumb, fat Americans going to start making games that appeal to other cultures as well? Funny that it's always everyone having to make games for Americans, but not the other way around. The next Call of Duty fuckfest better be a metroidvania, or American devs are going to have to start "soul searching" and figure out what's wrong with them.

GTA5 better not be as stupid as it normally is also. It better have Zelda-esque action adventure gameplay, otherwise GTA will continue to be shit, and its developers will have to start "soul searching" in order to figure out what's wrong with them, and how they can make their games better so as to not only appeal to American idiots.

@DaneGamer @dussan2 Im not saying rehashing or reusing is good thing, but it's not bad either.

Call Of Duty. the standard for multiplayer FPS experience these days. COntrols as well.

When I like something I want more of it. Pretty up the graphics, add something fun you may have taken out of the last game but don't lose perspective for what made the game great to begin with.

I applaud a lot of these companies and designers for trying something new, but what Japan is doing is looking at numbers and thinking they need to bring the same experience to teh west. Why are all the good JRPG's on the handheld consoles?

Hm, why do people think western means Americanized, hellllloooooo, we Europeans DO exist and we do contribute to the games industry on a massive scale

See, I call BS with this. Dark Souls prime example of japanese gaming done right. It swhen they try to emulate the US games that they fail miserably. They are getting their asses smoked by Western devs is the r community involvment.

Sqauare: How long have we asked for Final Fantasy 7 for this gen consoles? It is not that freakin hard. FF13 graphics, use the SAME battle system and release with voices. ANd you win.

Namco: WTF is wrong with you and why on god's geen earth did you think making a Battlefield wannabe Ace Combat would be fun? Remember Ace Combat 3, 4, and 5? Do that but longer with better graphics. Rinse and repeat assoles. Where is the Tenchu update?

Konami: Dont' get me started.

Capcom: Total hit or miss. Good idea with the update in RE4, but seriously, either learn how code a real 3rd prson shooter engine or get someone else to do it for you.

Tecmo: You murdered Ninja Gaiden.

I could go on and on.

Every Devloper should hold their unique perspective of what their game should be. The market is what's really holding their creative flow back and also making anticipated titles to become stale on release, but it is also what pushes games out faster for the most part.

Funny, a Japanese Dev wanting to invigorate their games by using western ideas. Right at the time when western games are stagnating to the point of crisis, and Japanese games are becoming more popular in the west.

That's crazy.

Everyone making games for americans is the worst fucking idea EVER

Oh and your westernization of the DMC franchise also didn't work. DmC was an amazing resounding SALES FLOP. DMC4 sold far better. LOL. Come to think of it, what was the last Capcom game that did sell well? They've been pretty fail lately.

Finally. Someone in Japan understands what's gone wrong with their industry. Inafune couldn't have laid it out any plainer.

I think the problem is inherently cultural. Japanese don't like admitting fault when they have been in a dominant position for so long. That would be an enormous loss of face for them, and saving face matters greatly to Japanese. In their minds it is better to ignore the truth and just pretend nothing is wrong than own up to their decline. It will be very difficult to break themselves out of this cycle.

just give us Elder Scrolls 6 please..oops, wrong forum

Japan still has the talent but not the huge budgets to create gaming studios that resembles an assembly plant like EA or Ubisoft.

I'm sad that the gaming market will be americanized like the movie world ... lot's of gun everywhere, no story, lot's of blood and explosion ... Everything that will try to be different will be crush by the American culture.

So we will see a FPS mario game ... a sand box Final Fantasy and a RTS Pokémon game ...

So let's the end of the creativity take what is left of this industry

But don't the Japanese developers do pretty well for themselves in Japan? (Not a rhetorical question.)

Overall, there may be more gamers in the whole of the west than in Japan, but does that mean the Japanese industry should change in order to appeal to us? So what if the best selling game from Japan is 11th in the charts? So long as it's not losing the developers money, let them get on with it.

This all strikes me as capitalists looking down their noses at the Eastern industry for being traditional.

giant lips giant lips giant lips

I know that a lot of people here disagree with him because there are some new Japanese games out there that are good. But really, how many games in the last 3-4 years form SquareEnix (not counting their western studios), Namco and Konami have you been excited about? (Capcom... seems to have adapted/is adapting)

I feel that the smaller (relatively, they're still quite big) *** developers like Platinum Games, Atlus and Level 5 have doing a better job than the bigger names, though. Moving on, it's not going to be easy to develop a game that is well received by Japanese/Asian and Western audiences (though it's possible), and that's the challenge they'll have to aspire to accomplish.

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Hes not only an idiot. Hes a joke. He made a MH rip off, a ninja gaiden rip off.

Thats it

sales=quality to him?

hes a fool