Keiji Inafune says Japanese game industry is over, man

by Ben Gilbert { Sep 27th 2009 at 4:30PM }

Giving Tokyo Game Show attendees a chance to get some hands-on time with Western-developed Dead Rising 2 at a party this week, Capcom's Keiji Inafune stated, "Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished." Bionic Commando producer Ben Judd translated the Mega Man creator's claims to the crowd (that Destructoid captured on video, found after the break), explaining the eulogy as Inafune's reaction to the show floor at this year's TGS.

Unsurprisingly, his words were less harsh about his Japanese company's upcoming titles. "Just so that you all don't think that the game industry is finished, Capcom is doing our best," he said. Next year's Dark Void and Dead Rising 2 -- both Western developed games, mind you -- can't hurt Inafune's confidence, eh?

Tags: ben-judd, capcom, dark-void, dead-rising-2, game-industry, japan, keiji-inafune, street-fighter-iv, tgs, tgs-2009

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

B3astofthe3ast @ Sep 27th 2009 4:32PM

They still have pokemon though.

Bronco-fan @ Sep 27th 2009 4:36PM

That'll change the overall problem Japan has, rehashing a formula that became successful 10 years ago.

SpaceFox @ Sep 27th 2009 5:09PM

I agree... nothing very exciting. I did love the new Bad Company 2 footage though!

SpaceFox @ Sep 27th 2009 5:10PM

Doh! Reply fail! That was meant to go to Ninegauger.

Residentevil72501 (PSN: rankore) @ Sep 27th 2009 5:50PM

True that man, I love me some pokemon lol. I got over 60 hours each on the new ones.

Ridgecity @ Sep 28th 2009 1:42AM

Sadly, Capcom has a lot of responsability of bringing the staleness to gaming. Churning sequels like there's no tomorrow managed to make everyone notice and created "the sequel generation" with the PS2 and the GBA as their kings, now the market is imploding, everyone follows Capcom's moneymaker and now even their original titles do bad because people expect another sequel "upgrade" because only a few franchises sell well and get those so called "perfect game" ratings.

Now, the HD jump never happened in Japan, people are still expecting Final Fantasy, yet the game still is in the works. Hopefully it's not late.

I wonder what Nintendo thinks of this subject? do they also think the gaming industry is dead?

Ninegauger @ Sep 27th 2009 4:35PM

To be fair I think this is pretty much the most underwhelming TGS in memory.

Traceur_Ryuk [All Digital until December] (PSN: Ryuk_shinigami) @ Sep 27th 2009 5:03PM

Agreed. I was expecting a LOT more. I think E3 was much better.

PN04 @ Sep 27th 2009 7:50PM

Part of the problem was Japans reluctance to join the "next gen" most of these developers felt that most everything they wanted to do could have been done on PS2, and when I say that I dont mean online gameplay, even though it could be done the japanese couldn't care less about multiplayer death matches, this is a western influence on the industry that only gains traction because there's so many more of us to sell these games too.

Bronco-fan @ Sep 27th 2009 4:39PM

This was one of the worst TGS' that I can remember, just by the fact that there was nothing really worth mentioning. Biggest moments came from someone who didn't even attend the show (nintendo).

I dunno what it's going to take, but Japan's video game industry seriously needs to wake up and realize it's 2009. I'm not used to the japanese being behind anyone when it comes to technology.

Special Agent Steve @ Sep 27th 2009 4:43PM

Wait.... it's 2009?
WHAT HAPPENED TO 1999!!!!!!

LameDuck @ Sep 27th 2009 5:31PM

Y2K happened.

Wes @ Sep 27th 2009 7:10PM

Japan's been behind in technology is almost every sector for a while excluding x-ray technology, mini-sized devices and some cellphone technology. They kind of remind me of Apple though in regarding to having great fantastic PR that can spin their product into being the most popular, most user friendly, best product, etc etc even if there are competiting products with more features and better technical specs.

Their biggest advantage probably has to be that Japan's industrial sector and government is very protective of Japanese interests and tends to outsource labour less leaving their economy strong. I mean, I can be in Japan, go to a 100 yen shop, department store or stationary store and find pencil's that are made-in-Japan, however, I can't go into a Canadian or American stores and find only products made in China without a single made-in-Canada pencil. Why is that?

BananaBoat @ Sep 27th 2009 7:47PM

Japan's problem is that they seem to strictly adhere to a policy of "if it works, don't change it". RE5 is a good example, with the inability to move and shoot despite the games industry having moved on from that gameplay mechanic years ago. They fear that if they change aspects of what has worked in the past, they won't be able to sell any games in the future. No one in upper management is willing to be the scapegoat that ordered change and then failed, so you have executives crushing any independent thought out of fear that they'll get blamed when the whole thing goes awry.

Honestly, I don't know how you'd go about fixing the problem. Copying western gameplay mechanics can only get you so far (or using western engines, like that one RPG disaster from Square that was built on Unreal 3). It's obvious to almost everyone in the Japanese games industry that the profits from Japan alone aren't enough to sustain western-style development budgets (consider GTA4 at a cost of 100 million+ dollars. You won't find any game made in Japan that comes anywhere near that). How then do you compete with western developers without having western-style budgets at your disposal? It's a question that is only going to become more important over the next couple of years.

F1: Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu @ Sep 27th 2009 9:19PM

And ever since Y2K my toaster's been hissing at me.

FraGNeM @ Sep 28th 2009 3:50AM

RE5 is not a good example. The game clearly took western-inspired gameplay mechanics to heart. The control scheme WAS changed (individual joysticks for movement and shooting which allowed strafing, as an example).

Not allowing players to move and shoot was a conscious design decision that intentionally increased the challenge and tension of the game.

CheeziePotato (PSN: talic10 | XBL: InfiniteMovie) @ Sep 28th 2009 4:16AM

@BananaBoat
I think a better example would be Pokemon. Ever since the first Pokemon games the gameplay hasn't changed a bit. Compare one of the Game Boy Pokemon games to Zelda Links Awakening DX. The way you move Link or the Pokemon trainer with the D-Pad is the same, right? You move in four directions. Now compare Pokemon Platinum to Zelda Phantom Hourglass. You still control the trainer in four directions with the D-Pad and everything looks the same, except for the graphics, of course. But in Phantom Hourglass you control Link in all directions using the touch screen. You're right Japan does have that "if it works don't change it", but not all game developers do that. Zelda and Mario are famous across the whole world and they change a lot of the gameplay, but Pokemon is famous mainly in Japan and is the 2nd most selling game franchise in the world, so they didn't change anything, because they didn't want to screw up anything. Just like how Nintendo still does text instead of voice acting.

Discotheque @ Sep 27th 2009 4:43PM

Well Japan is faaar behind in terms of engine development. Europe has them beat on that. And game design is questionable, since you can only really have an opinion on that. But personally I think Japan is pretty much behind in all aspects. I look forward to Dead Rising 2 though.

The only Japanese developer I'm really fond of these days is Suda51 (he's like the David Lynch of videogames lol).

The Dark Wayne [Planeteer: Power of the Batusi] @ Sep 27th 2009 7:04PM

Europe is far ahead really? What European games are having UE3 level graphics? Risen? The Witcher? Call of Juarez? Aside from England, Europe is just about as behind as Japan

Freestyle Farfetchd @ Sep 27th 2009 7:25PM

Try Crysis

sam @ Sep 27th 2009 7:25PM

@Wayne: Given that England (actually, Britain - Rockstar North anyone?) is the biggest country in European game development, saying that 'aside from England, Europe is behind' is a little bit... er... silly?

I'm still liking Japanese-developed games (Phoenix Wright, to give a Capcom example) ahead of any other region, but it's certainly not from the perspective of advanced technology - I play Nintendo systems so advanced technology is ruled out right from the gate...

Wes @ Sep 27th 2009 7:36PM

This is only a guess but he could potentially be referring to Guerrilla Games based out of Amsterdam? The game Kill Zone 2 had relatively decent physics, pretty good lighting, etc.

Although, I'd be hard pressed to say its necessarily better than UE3 or Rage's engine. I'd rather say they are on a fairly even playing field. Japan is a bit far behind though.

There is one company that comes to mind when it comes to game engines though which would be Square Enix. They have their own engine called the Crystal Tools engine which is fairly new. I've always found FF games to push the limits of graphics or at least look far more beautiful than the previous versions. For example, I found FF8 to look much better than FF7 and FF7 to look more unique than FF6 with its new, 3d perspective over traditional 2D JRPGs. I'm not sure if FF13 will be ground-breaking but I'm confident it'll be very 'pretty' if you will. I just wish we could see FF13 running off top of the line PC hardware.

The Dark Wayne [Planeteer: Power of the Batusi] @ Sep 27th 2009 9:16PM

im excluding england because most european games dont come from England, excluding a few choice developers like Crytek and Guerilla, just as you exclude Suda 51, most european games are low budgeted poorly made crap, so i dont see how Europe has such a huge edge over Japan. If you had said America and England, but most of the European continent is still pretty behind

CheeziePotato (PSN: talic10 | XBL: InfiniteMovie) @ Sep 28th 2009 4:22AM

Media Molecule anybody? You know the developers of LittleBigPlanet, innovative game of the year.

mahouneko @ Sep 28th 2009 4:26AM

Um, the people who made the original Operation Flashpoint (Bohemia Interactive) aren't British, they're Czech, I think.

solarshadows074 @ Sep 27th 2009 4:49PM

look at kojima practicing his titty rub.

CheeziePotato (PSN: talic10 | XBL: InfiniteMovie) @ Sep 28th 2009 4:23AM

He's teaching the boys how to do it right

DomoBraden @ Sep 27th 2009 4:51PM

I blame Inafune. If he would just make Mega Man Legends 3 this would be a non-issue. Okay, not really, but still....

Biggie @ Sep 27th 2009 5:57PM

Hum that would be good.

albinogoldfish @ Sep 27th 2009 8:27PM

god I have found a kindred spirit, I thought I was the only one looking forward to a new Legends game

Mr Khan @ Sep 27th 2009 4:52PM

It's this attitude that's exactly why Capcom's game design is going where it is. They feel the need to whore themselves out to what they perceive to be "Western Values."

Japan certainly needs some innovation, but its not going to come from clumsily trying to turn everything into a Gears clone, or injecting more blood and/or tits into everything.

Josh @ Sep 27th 2009 6:12PM

I agree completely.

Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Sep 27th 2009 6:12PM

if japan injected more tits into their stuff, the entire world would die of boob overload.

Ed @ Sep 27th 2009 8:14PM

@sly: That's a great way to die.

matias @ Sep 29th 2009 4:04PM

I completely agree, they won't get anywhere with that mentality, and copying everything from the western industry (wich I don't personally like, too many shooters and obsession with guns and graphics), innovation is always good, but I don't think the japanese industry is really dead, most innovations have come from them this genration, blu-ray, motion controls, and some of the best games, like valkyria chronicles, mario galaxy, no more heroes, and more.

Bane @ Sep 27th 2009 5:00PM

I agree. The days of the great Japan games are gone sadly. Everyone is buying US made games.

THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ Sep 27th 2009 6:06PM

The shift does seem to be towards European and North American devs. It all moves in cycles though, so this shouldn't be taken as a eulogy.

eNrique @ Sep 27th 2009 5:04PM

I smell...

I smell...

BULLSH¡T

Markez @ Sep 27th 2009 5:07PM

Certainly it's a foolish and inaccurate statement, but that's something of the point. The comment was moreso to draw out a shock response and attention, it wasn't a comment expected to be taken seriously at face value.

F1: Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu @ Sep 27th 2009 9:21PM

Then take a shower bull fucker!

Chris @ Sep 27th 2009 5:07PM

Capcom! Woo! Yeah!

Who was that guy?

THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ Sep 27th 2009 6:10PM

LOL I just watched that. I need him to walk around with me. When I turn a paper in or provide another under-whelming sexual performance he can pop out and yell,"Trey YEAAAHHHHH!!!!!". Capcom has been taking a step towards retro recently and I am okay with that. SFIV was outstanding as was Mega Man 9.
(They will need that guy though when SpyBorgs releases SPYYYYBOORRGGSSS YEAHHHH!!!! lol)

Ziggy @ Sep 27th 2009 5:20PM

Only when developers worry about difficultly and gameplay will we have good games, the focus is on downloadable content, and graphics, which is pretty the equivelent of selling out.
Looking good, and adding a little bit content that should be in the game in the first place.