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?
I don't get it. Both east and west are full of clones and technical problems. Why, exactly, are the Japanese being seen as behind when every problem they supposedly have is mirrored everywhere else?
However, I agree that TGS was awful, though mostly because barely anything of interest that we didn't already know about was shown.
Japan's not the only one lacking creativity and originality. The games industry in general is.
But that only applies to regular industry development. Indie and doujin games are showing a whole freaking lot of innovation right now. And really, there are still some bright shining stars of hope in regular development, too.
I agree. The problem isn't nation-specific. It's game-design in general. IMO, production costs have outstripped production capacity, and innovation has had to play second fiddle to milking the cash cows.
The only advantage that the west has, is that the west has been exposed to Japanese games almost as long as Japan. So we're equally accustomed to both eastern and western games (barring date sims and horse racing). In Japan, western games are probably still "newish". Japanese gamers and devs are probably just fascinated by something new. Once the novelty wears off, we'll all be in the same global gaming crisis boat.
Core gaming is on the decline. That's why Nintendo made the DS and Wii. To make new gamers. All most of the third party companies have done is cater to their existing fanbases, but that pool of fans is gradually shrinking. If they don't make new fans (new customers), they'll eventually not have enough sources of revenue to stay afloat, and it's adios muchachos, since we're para-phrasing Inafune via Bill Paxton.
This is because Japan is facing population and economic decline. In fact, most of the gaming industry's growth has been while riding a huge tidal wave of economic growth. Now that growth waning and the tactics that got Sony and Microsoft where they are will no longer keep them ahead of the game. That was Nintendo's business plan from the get-go (if anybody bothered to pay attention to what they said). They did research, and found that gaming was on the decline. The DS and Wii were built not to compete with Sony or Microsoft, but to compete against gamer disinterest in the midst of population and economical decline. Most of the "growth" in the game industry in the past few years has been due to Nintendo making new customers. All Sony and Microsoft have done is cannibalize each other from the same pool of Core gamers. The price cuts won't keep momentum for their systems going for very long either. The only reason Nintendo had a price cut was they slacked off on their game development. Hopefully they'll be more on the ball in the next few years in that regard.
So yes, what Inafune is saying is most certainly grounded in fact. They can't rely on their existing pool of customers (Japan) anymore, they're gonna have to go out and make new customers. And if they're really serious about that, then they should be making more games for the Wii and DS. Any game developer with half a brain that wants to have even a remote chance of surviving the upcoming turmoil that the game industry will be facing should be hugging Nintendo's legs tight.
Core gaming on the decline? Have you ever read any sales figures ever? If it is in decline, if anything it's because of the wii, not the other way around
I said Nintendo is out to make new *customers*. Sony and Microsoft and the rest of the game industry has been finding every way possible to squeeze every little bit of revenue out of Core gamers as possible, hence why you get charged for Downloadable Content, why Live is subscription based. Among core gamers, profit may have gone up, but *they aren't making new customers*, they're only milking their existing ones for as much as they possibly can.
Sony and Microsoft want to milk the expanded market, as shown by their attempts at motion controls, but therein lies their problem: They don't look at them as customers, only as sources of revenue. Sony and Microsoft don't understand the expanded market, don't understand them as customers, and so their motion control efforts are very likely going to flop. At least Sony had something to show during TGS, all Microsoft did was get a bunch of developers together to talk about how awesome Natal will be and then proceeded to not show any software. Dazzling.
Nintendo made the expanded market, and in this market, Nintendo's former weaknesses have become their strengths, and now what put Sony and Microsoft ahead in the last few years is dragging them down.
actually Wayne i think the point he's trying to make is that Nintendo is attracting people who never played game's before so that they can START playing games. just because this audience is playing "CAUSAL" game's doesn't necessarily mean that they won't play "CORE" games. see the problem lies with people thinking that a "CORE" game means it has to have blood and the ability to dismember limbs. look at game's such as the FF series, Zelda series, Mario series, Metroid series and Megaman series. to the best of my knowledge i can't remember ANY of those game's having blood and dismemberment of limbs. people just ASSUME that "CORE" game's are all about that (blood and dismembering limbs). as i said before just because they play "CASUAL" game's doesn't mean they won' t play "CORE" game's. why? because people and their taste's in many different areas change. one day i may only like eating veggie burger's and veggie salad but thats not to say i won't try a hamburger or steak or pork. if you ask me Nintendo is ONCE AGAIN saving the video game industry as a whole.
Shadow Hog: I'm not a fanboy, first and foremost. I got a PS2, Wii, DS, and PSP. And between my DS and Wii, and all the games I have for both, I have precisely one first-party Nintendo game: New Super Mario Bros., which quite frankly is lackluster compared to my GBA copy of Super Mario 3. But I do agree that I have missed 2D gaming. In fact, according to Nintendo, their 3D Mario games (well counting Sunshine and Galaxy) have never sold as well as their older 2D versions, and even though I said it was rather lackluster, New Super Mario Bros. sold like 20 million copies. That has to be the motivation for them making a new 2D Mario for the Wii, just simply because as you have said, we have hardly seen any 2D games in a long time.
But I think the thing people don't realize when they talk about the people that Wii appeals to, it's not "casuals". My first gaming console was a 2600. I have the hindsight to recognize that a lot of these Wii games go back to the straightforward conventions of arcade gameplay. Games like Trauma Center, House of the Dead Overkill, New Super Mario Bros., Smash Bros., these are all games you could play at an arcade. Heck, you could pare down Monster Hunter and it wouldn't be unlike Gauntlet, only with pseudo-mythical dinosaurs. We aren't "casual" gamers, we're *ARCADE* gamers who want to be able to play our games right away, with minimal fuss, play for a little bit, put down, and then come back to later. We want games we get enjoyment from right away.
Back in the day I played M.A.S.H. for the 2600. Part of the game entailed rescuing wounded soldiers in a helicopter and then the other half entailed operating on them ala Operation, removing bullets from their bodies without touching the edges. Now we got Trauma Center, and it's pretty much the same thing, only now instead of a joystick, I'm using the Wiimote. And I can play it with a friend. But how long has it been since I played a game like M.A.S.H.?
So I do agree with your sentiments wholeheartedly, and I'm hoping now that game developers will drop the stupid storylines, and start making simple and fun 2D games again. I mean, we've seen something of a revival of adventure games on the DS, so I think it's only fitting that good old 2D platforming have their day in the sun once more.
One thought: it's because this generation they have to split their main console focus across two consoles to compete globally: PS3 in Japan and 360 everywhere else. They're just so used to developing mainly for one console worldwide that this time it caught them by surprise (and I am ignoring the Wii because it's not targeted towards core games).
Let's look back at time to assess:
8-bit: West: NES Japan: NES
16-bit: West: SNES Japan: SNES
Playstation/N64 era: West: Playstation Japan: Playstation (by a LOT)
PS2/Xbox/GC era: West: PS2 - thought some Xbox, but those were mainly Western games Japan: PS2 by a couple thousand miles. I don't even think Japan even knew what an Xbox was
Current gen: West: Xbox 360 Japan: PS3
And lets not even get started on the insanely long development times. Mind you, this time last generation we had 2 FInal Fantasy titles and another on the way. We don't even have the first FF title of this generation yet! And yet, we've seen mutliple Western series pump out not one but TWO games in a franchise for current gen consoles. I think that's just unacceptable moving forward.
Counting out Wii invalidates your analysis, because pretty much every big core Japanese game who's development was started in 2007 or later has gone to Wii (or DS), that's where their market is trending, much moreso than PS3 or 360, who are getting games that have been in development from the dark days before anyone could have guessed that Wii would own this generation.
Graphic-wise, USA always had and has the lead. The reason it seems Japanese games are falling behind is because they seem to have lost their creativity and originality. Remember Chrono Trigger back in 1994? It totally kicked the ass of Duke Nukem 3d and Doom.
Problem would be that exactly; while Western developers have incorporated what made Eastern-made games so popular (story elements, narrative, and graphics), the East has followed what made Western games fail, creating characters over story and graphics. In other words, the East seems to try to make characters in a persona to such Western Characters like Duke. Well I see that way.
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.
Its all in the economy. As the game industry continues to grow and game development becomes more in line with Hollywood style productions and budgets, Japan's strong yet relatively small economy (when compared to the US and EU) can't keep up. I mean, the GDP of the US and EU is over 13 trillion while Japan's is around 4 trillion. The country's economy simply isn't built to sustain high-end titles that lead the flock worldwide now days.
The best thing that Japanese developers could do is adapt and expand to other markets when it comes to development. The automobile industry in Germany and Japan flourish with their designs being made in the homeland while the manufacturing is done overseas. No reason for Japanese designers to incorporate westerners to execute their designs.
GEIMU OBAA! Make your time. Good to hear another notary reiterating what many have mused before. Though somehow hearing it come out of Ben Judd's mouth reduces the impact, and Inafune-san clearly said shimatta, which Ben didn't translate (odd considering his normal potty level).
I get the sense that Japan doesn't seem to be targeting a player demographic that returns any respect to the industry (mass market phone/DS/Wii owners), so how can a developer feel proud of the games on display at TGS? Putting food on the table is important, but where's the leadership?
Right now western design is leading in sales, hearts and minds. Now we have Kojima taking the reins of Castlevania, and Team Ninja trying Metroid, because those guys sell gangbusters in the west. It's like the publishers are scrabbling around for a paradigm shift anywhere they can find it.
Capcom seems to be a front-runner for outsourcing at the moment, and I think the results have been good, but not phenomenal, and they certainly aren't released on schedule. When Rockstar and Epic and Konami make a game, it's a tight cohesive experience. Bionic Commando for example feels like a lot was lost in translation, with "how did they possibly fuck that up?" moments.
I dunno, with the cost of developing games that will be cancelled, ridiculed, panned, pirated, DRM'd, censored, and may not even be released in half the world, I can imagine how some of these old school demigods believe the industry isn't changing for the better right now, and it's time to grab hold of it again.
I don't really get this 'Japanese gaming industry is over', almost all of the games I enjoyed the most this year, last year, and the year before that, were Japanese developed. From The World Ends With You, to Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Phoenix Wright, etc. 2 of the 3 competing video game consoles are Japanese. Both of the handhelds are Japanese. A good deal of top selling games are Japanese. All the games I played as a kid, growing up through school, Sonic, Zelda, etc. were Japanese, and will always be in my memories. I find it very hard to believe that the Japanese game industry is over.
Done? oh please, Halo , My Pony this , and Petz me that , dotn forget another generic FPS on PC, another RTS , or worst NFS and EA will save the game industry?
If the Japanese videogame industry is dead then videogames are DEAD simply! People like Inafune kill the industry. I don't think a Japanese developer need the help of the West. When this happens the game is ruined. Dead Rising 2 with his Chuck Norris and his leather jacket with flames WTF is this crap?!? Whoever says that Wester developers are more creative than Japanese is just a 18 year old boy who started playing videogames now!
He said, "Owatte shimatta!" Which gramatically translates to "It's over/We're done" There is no expletive implied there. If anything it adds an exclamation mark to his statement and a sense that they let it happen (when they shouldn't have).
I don't doubt that he was disappointed in Japan's showing this year, but it seems to me that his goal in saying that was more to emphasize Capcom's image as a "last hope" type of company for Japan's gaming industry.
Interesting that he is in front of an XBox 360 backdrop. I am really amazed at the stupidity of Japanese companies that release games that are great titles for Japanese cultural bias; exclusively on the 360. No one owns these machines in Japan...they need to stop shooting themselves in the foot and code to the PS3. Sure, they won't get the cash infusion from MSFT, but then again, they will have top 10 sales in Japan at launch when they need the marketing buzz.
