Lost Planet producer: "western developers are leading the industry"

He's got a point, the main Japanes developers are Square, Konami, Nintendo, and Capcom, against Epic, Bungie, Valve, Insomniac, Id, EA, Rockstar, Bioware, Bethesda...there just are'nt as many great Japanese developers and Western ones. Both sides are doing great things for the industry, it's just that Western devs are doing MORE great things.

Lost Planet is a great game! Hopefully Capcom will move forward with more unique IPs and continue to deliver.

*wets self after reading the 1st post* Was that the best that you could do for naming Japanese developers?

Anyway, since it seems like he's speaking quantitatively (and not of comparing percentages), I'm going to have to laugh at his statement. Unless he's speaking of the 2 shooter genres or sports, Japanese output is of higher quality and quantity at all times. I'm not even sure to what he could be referring.

@3 Dude, what are you talking about!!? Japanese games don't have nearly enough blood or guns in them, no wonder they're going down the toilet. And Japan doesn't have EA. Where else would I get such awesome football games? Who cares if they use the same gameplay, I hear in the next one you can see the individual blades of grass on the field! Adding new content is so overrated, except when it's paid for by micropayments.

Think of the micropayments!

i disagree with his statement.because i feel that japanese developers take more risk open to the different types of games they make as compared to the ones westerners make.
@ # 1, most of those top western developers you stated, their main types of games are fps. were as the japanese developers put out a variety of games wether good or bad. Do you ever think a game like katamari damacy would ever have come from a western developer? japanese developers are in a whole other mindset

I personally like the japanese developed games far more than american developed stuff.

Capcom, Sega, Konami, Nintendo are all my favorite developers.

Blizzard over here in the states is the only american company I feel puts the most into their games.

Games like ResidentEvil Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Mario are all leagues above what any american developer can do. Those series are just more polished than anything like Gears of War, Oblivion, and Call of Duty can ever hope to be.

Theres still something about american made games that makes me feel they arn't putting their soul into the games. They're either to focused on graphics or to focused on not taking chancess and only producing games that will sell. Blood, shooting, violence. Thats what make up most of the american developed games. I for one am not a fan. I've always liked Japanese developed games more though. From StreetFighter kicking MortalKombats ass to SkiesofArcadia being far better than Morrowind.

Just my taste.

Japanese developers are selfish, since they hold back a lot of titles from American release! >=[

And sure, we've got our "blood, violence, and guns" mentality in most of our games...but the Japanese seem to have "big bouncy boobs, girly men, and giant robots" when it comes to their games...or giant girly bouncy boobs. Yeah, they're weird, too.

*I* *LOVE* *CAPCOM*

There games have always (mostly) fkin rocked and they are my favourite dev.

@#6, i agree with you on so many levels. It's almost like they have a more "open/out there" imagination.Take for instance, horror games. Western developers have yet to do any great horror games. The last good ones have all been from japan, (res evil,fatal frame,silent hill,rule of rose etc). Were do we stand in that genre? it's like western games have to contain any of these 3 elements(shooting, sports, fps) to be a succses.

"7. Japanese developers are selfish, since they hold back a lot of titles from American release! >=["
that's true because more than half of the games they release, we wouldn't give them the time of day. They know what types of games sell big over here. And for alot of those big/indie developers, the money,time and risk involved in bringing those different games stateside isn't worth it. Once again look at games like katamari damacy which was a good game but alot of people didn't even bother with it.

#8. "Western developers have yet to do any great horror games."

are you insane? Aliens vs. Predator 2, doom 3, System Shock 2, FEAR spring to mind.....

"Inafune suggests that Japanese companies need to improve working environments, imagining that western developers aren't nearly as over-worked or underpaid as their Japanese counterparts."

Clearly, the man is either insane or an idiot. (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and call him "misinformed.")

I worked for a certain New York-based western publisher/developer for nearly 4 years. I never left before 8PM and usually not before 2AM. 4AM was not unheard-of. Of course, in the middle of this, the company cut out our taxi reimbursement benefit and told us all to take the subway, whatever time of night it was.

Obviously, with the whole EA overtime thing that went on a few years ago, I'm sure my experience is pretty typical of every western developer.

"Quality of life" my ass.

When I look at Japanese games, I see the same thing over and over again. If it's not a sequel, it's the same basic gameplay or theme.

Yet you don't see repetitive gameplay when you've played the 13th first person WW2 shooter released this year?

Well Jeff the only thing I can say to that is I hope your company doesn't hear about Japanese employees sleeping under their desks rather than having an apartment. Might give your boss some bad ideas.

@#11, fps,fps,fps and fps!!!

@ #13

and western games are usually all about gun violence. Both East and West definitely have their own identifiable styles and themes. The fact that a FPS like Lost Planet is considered a high risk project by a Japanese company, while most Western developers would consider it a no-brainer, proves my point.

Both regions make awesome games. Shut up and play your goddamn games.

The truth is that you have talented developers all over the world. But you have to see it from his perspective. 10-15 years ago, Japanese developers were the absolute cream of the crop. If it didn't come from a Japanese developer it wasn't worth mentioning.
But now, Western developers from the US and Europe are consistently out peforming most Japanese developers. (from a sales standpoint)
All of this combined with rising development costs and the fact that the Japanese console market has been declining for a few years, and he probably has an "end of the world" scenerio playing out in his head.

@12 - Dev life sucks all over, but did you have bathroom breaks at set times at EA? Because, most Japanese companies have set bathroom breaks. (And other far dumber rules and regulations) I know you had it rough, but you didn't have to work while holding your piss for 30 minutes. :)

#7 Seroth:
"And sure, we've got our "blood, violence, and guns" mentality in most of our games...but the Japanese seem to have "big bouncy boobs, girly men, and giant robots" when it comes to their games...or giant girly bouncy boobs. Yeah, they're weird, too."

Given the choices, I'll take big boobs and big 'bots over blood and guns.

Sorry, if I prefer to see the OUTSIDE of a woman than the INSIDES of one...

@#20

REAL TITTIES!!! > video game breasts...

Not even close. BTW, besides you, most guys prefer the inside *wink wink* of a woman.

@#15. Unit, whats wrong with a First Person perspective?, FPS's are so popular because it's the most involving and intuitive perspective to play a game from. The worst thing about the res evil games, is that it doesn't allow you to opt for an FP perspective.

"Practically on the verge"? So like... they were almost, almost, canning the project?
How far away from actually canning it is that, exactly?

I'm pretty sure that we have the RTS, simulation, and MMO genres on lockdown too. Why is no one mentioning them? Is it because they're on the PC?

Besides that, look at the GOTY awards (this being pulled from Gamespot, because it was the first one that my quick search turned up):

Western:
Gears of War
Oblivion
Company of Heroes
Bully
Viva Pinata
Rainbow 6

Japanese:
Zelda - TP
Final Fantasy
Okami
Dead Rising

That's a 4:6 ratio right there, and the two biggest IPs on the Japan side are old as dirt (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it doesn't show innovation). Besides that, the two Japanese titles that *are* original IP were both put out by the company in question - Capcom.

Japan matters less and less with each passing day, because they haven't learned to adapt.

both do good and bad games. the end.

Though, in the casual, "generations" and mobile markets the japanese are way ahead.

There was an article a few days ago about the death of the Mascot.. but one place it hasn't died is japan. However japanese gamers are a weird mix of VARIED and PREDICTABLE.

They know what genres they like, and they stick to them. However "they" is a much wider group than in the west. Boys, girls, businessmen, businesswomen.. almost everyone plays games.. leading to a much wider market.

Western games are like hollywood movies.. polished, good looking, explosive.. and usually derivative and rehashing a previous concept.

I just wish someone in western games could write a deep, adult story for once.. ..just once..

windsof, I wish FPS had a third person perspective. I can't play those !$@%^ games because I get nauseous. I wish all shooters were like Gears of War or Lost Planet...

"both do good and bad games. the end."

That's the most asinine sentence that I've read in awhile. I really hate people that come into an argument and try to make it seem like a non-issue, and then furthermore have the audacity to declare the argument over.

@24: This sounds vaguely ridiculous, because the thought of George Lucas having anything to do with a deep, adult story is nearly laughable, but I always thought Knights of the Old Republic II had a very deep, subtle story. Until the end, of course. But still well worth your time.

"11.
#8. "Western developers have yet to do any great horror games."

are you insane? Aliens vs. Predator 2, doom 3, System Shock 2, FEAR spring to mind....."

And please dont forget Eternal Darkness!

@ t_m

Following along with my last comment ... heh

"I just wish someone in western games could write a deep, adult story for once.. ..just once.."

Already Happened with Eternal Darkness,

first bullet point in IGN's review:
"Gripping, mature storyline spanning over 20 centuries"

its my personal favorite gamecube game for a reason,


Anyways, lets change "just once" to "a lot more"
to be safe

I appreciate the success Capcom is having and that Inafune sees western development is speaking to western gamser more, but I didn't like either Dead Rising or Lost Planet. They are both games that do half their elements right, and half their elements badly. I think Capcom is confused about its games. I think both these games could have been great if there were not trying to please eastern gamers and western gamers.

#11 "are you insane? Aliens vs. Predator 2, doom 3, System Shock 2, FEAR spring to mind....."

American horror games tend to go for mindless shock value, but Japanese horror games tend to try to be more of a psychological thriller.

23: You're deluding yourself, the west makes 1 or two good MMO games every so often where as Korean developers dish them out in cart-fulls, MMO games are securly in the hands of the Koreans and since games like World of Warcraft, Everquest and stuff like that blows major balls compared to a LOT of FREE Korean MMORPGs on the internet, it says how wrong you really are.
The First person shooter genres and RTS genres are the wests though, since the Japanese don't like these kind of games, though they are trying to push into them, Ys Stratergy is probably the first milestone towards them going in head-first at RTS and it was a quite impressive display at that.

American developers are guilty of one thing, they love franchises and when a franchise gets big... They stop trying. The Japanese also love a fanchise but they, most the time, put a lot of effort into new games in the franchise to keep it alive. Final Fantasy is a prime example, as much as I dislike the series, I have to admit the effort that goes into every one of their titles is phanomanal and truely inspriring, where as when I play Fifa 2007... ... Or, the newest splinter cell... ... ... Eh, I'll stick with the splinter cell before it, thanks.
I don't see how west paves the market way because... We seriously do not, our games are samey and unimaginative most the time, done on a big-ass budget but ending up worse than those on a smaller budget, movie-games which have as much playabilty as throwing a brick at a wall, endless PC shooters which you play JUST for the added option to kill people in odd ways. =/

Lots of young gamers here, apparently. Alone in the Dark did survival horror when Capcom was still doing Street Fighter sequels.

well i have to say the west is better too....i was just looking through some of my games and the only stand out japanesse games were lost planet, dead rising, dead or alive 4, ninja gaiden, and wow thats like the only ones i have for my xbox/ 360 so 4 out of 67

@ 34, the 360 has few good J-Games, which is one of the reasons why i'll probably never buy one

The 360's Western-focused games cause it to lack variety, since western developers think all we want are guns and violence. Anything else out of the west sucks, usually. A few good RPGs (like Oblivion), and no good kiddie games (like someone else said, you would never see Katamari done by Ubisoft or Activision). The west does do good rythm titles (like Guitar Hero)

lack of variety hurts the 360, and will continue to do so, until they get better Japanese support

Americans want to be more Japanese, and the Japanese want to be more like Americans. Cultural diffusion FTW!

Inafune has also made some very interesting comments about the Wii:

"We have more titles coming to Wii than what’s been announced HOWEVER, I must admit, many of them (outside of RE) are not mature titles despite the fact that’s an area Capcom is known for.

By and large, we don’t see the Wii being home to an sizble mature playerbase outside of some of the early adopters. We see it as being very, very broad with a family focus (especially in Japan). If there is a “core player base” on Wii, within two years, it will be largely a younger player (far younger than 360 or PS3)"

@15.

That's funny, you named a bunch of third-person puzzle games in post 8.

@33

Weren't we talking about success in terms of sales, not critical acclaim or quantity? I think the fact that Korea pushes out "cartloads" of MMOs might tell you how well those games are doing.

Western developers are leading the industry. The Team Ninja guy even said it over a year ago.

Japanese developers have perfected the art of telling a story.
-You play as "This" person,
-These are his allies,
-These are his enemy's,
-This is the weapon he gets,
-This is the direction he will go,
-Here is what he sees when he gets there,

Resident Evil, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Silent Hill.... Good games I suppose, however I never really enjoyed any of them, I might as well have watched a movie.
Japan has spent time perfecting these story based games, American developers have instead started working on a new format, Sandbox.


Sandbox style games are where the industry is headed.. and Japan is bringing up the rear. Yes yes, story based drivel will still be made and bought by lots of people.

So does this mean all of Capcom's upcomming games will variant shades of grey and brown?

I hope they don't adopt the Western tendency to use washed color pallets.

Sid Icarus, you just made me throw up in the back of my mouth a little bit. I truly hope that the pitiful "open-ended" gameplay model doesn't overtake structure games.

americans dont make memorable franchise characters at all.. look at gta nobody ever mention the guys name.. look at crash bandicoot hahah americans really are about fps im glad gears tried something different.. if it werent for the japanese americans will never make zelda, mario, solid snake, cloud, and all those timeless characters.. nobody even gives a shit about the characters in american games.. u dont see massive fan sites about them.. the japanese know how to make memorable and timeless characters.. the gaming industry would be crap without the japanese..

"americans dont make memorable franchise characters at all.. look at gta nobody ever mention the guys name.. look at crash bandicoot hahah americans really are about fps im glad gears tried something different.. if it werent for the japanese americans will never make zelda, mario, solid snake, cloud, and all those timeless characters.. nobody even gives a shit about the characters in american games.. u dont see massive fan sites about them.. the japanese know how to make memorable and timeless characters.. the gaming industry would be crap without the japanese.."

1) You're an idiot.
2) Learn to end sentences instead of relying on the ellipsis.
3) The reason that Japanese create "memorable" characters is both because they tend towards heavy-handed storytelling and because the Japanese had the industry under their thumb for a long time.
4) The reason that no one remembers the guy from GTA 3 is because HE DIDN'T HAVE A NAME.

Okay people, THere are some pretty stupid arguments. And they are all... well, wrong. I think the best argument is about how both have good and bad. If anything, we in the US are so used to our own ideals that the japanese are exotic. I feel I should address them.

#43 "americans dont make memorable franchise characters at all.. look at gta nobody ever mention the guys name.." Well... perhaps. But Let's start with Kratos, Ratchet, Jak, Daxter, Gordon Freeman, Master Chief, Lara Croft, Prince (Prince of Persia) Sam Fisher, Max Payne...... And hell if we want to throw in more western devs, we hacve to add in Conker and Rayman.

#35 "The 360's Western-focused games cause it to lack variety, since western developers think all we want are guns and violence" Most games are about Violence anyway. Resident Evil, Silent hill... But what about The Sims, Spore, Populace, Myst... Black And White. And for a fun time. You can make it through postal 2 w/o actually killing anyone.

#32 "American developers are guilty of one thing, they love franchises and when a franchise gets big... They stop trying. The Japanese also love a fanchise but they, most the time, put a lot of effort into new games in the franchise to keep it alive. " Oh my, and what ahppened to my dear Sonic and Megaman franchises. Tales.. series But don't get me started on JRPGs..... Or even.. the beloved Katamari Damacey series. Cause as good as the origonal game is... the sequals faded away in the "More Of The Same" way that Doom 3.

#31 "American horror games tend to go for mindless shock value, but Japanese horror games tend to try to be more of a psychological thriller." The already mentioned Eternal Darkness, Phantasmagoria, and Nocturn... But then these are older games. But, of course, American or western games... 2 of those long before Resident Evil.

#24 "Though, in the casual, "generations" and mobile markets the japanese are way ahead." All I have to say is Western brought about the Sims, Bejewled.... and a bunch of other games that don't get press because they are casual games.

and finally.. the most assinine of the arguments
#4 " most of those top western developers you stated, their main types of games are fps. were as the japanese developers put out a variety of games wether good or bad. Do you ever think a game like katamari damacy would ever have come from a western developer? japanese developers are in a whole other mindset" Would Katamari Damacey be made over here? No... but Would Spore or the Sims be made over there? Civizalaztion, Populace, Railroads, Rollercoaster Tycoon. But let's talk about putting out the same crap over and over again. The Japanese RPG, a new one is released one a month... All about some effiminate boy who is the only saviour of the world, by finding some weird mystical object... and by his side is some energetic bouncy chick...... Or another game where some boy collects something. There is a set of repeats in the western world, there is the same in the eastern world.

One thing for sure, the Japanese developers (or perhaps the entire Asian culture) are more humble.

There is no doubt that on the PC Western game developers dominate. On consoles the debate can go on forever. Western developers tend to focus on communications/multiplayer, graphics wows and FPS, which go HTH. Japanese developers tend to make games with better story lines, gameplay, and music. At the end, I hope there are more cases like Metroid Prime where Japanese and Western developers work together to create a truely remarkable game.

I for one can't stand turn based fighting!!!!! But I know poeple who do... like my dad.