“Personally when I looked around [at] all the different games at the TGS floor,” Capcom’s Ben Judd translated Inafune, “I said ‘Man, Japan is over. We’re done. Our game industry is finished.’”
After the Tokyo Game Show this year the famed Mega Man creator had nothing positive to say about the state of the Japanese gaming indusrty. Speaking to a crowd of attendees he asked what they thought of TGS ’09 and expressed his dissappointment in this years line-up. However, Inafune did take the time to note that Capcom’s upcoming title Dead Rising 2 will be one “kick ass” game emerging from Japan, eventhough it’s being handled by Canadian studio Blue Castle Games.
Is the Japanese gaming industry really falling behind?
Right now the most innovative game to grace this gen was developed by Media Molecule, a small European studio. Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, even praised the critically acclaimed PS3 exclusive Little Big Planet. The action-adventure genre has been pushed to new heights by the American company, Naught Dog with Uncharted 2 and it took only 18 months to do so. French studio Quantic Dreams is said to be pushing the story telling envelope with their upcoming title, Heavy Rain.
The only game I’ve played so far that’s come out of Japan and has taken me by surprise is FROM SOFTWARE’s Demon’s Souls. Konami’s MGS4 offered nothing new in terms of gameplay. Neither did Capcom’s Devil May Cry 4 or Resident Evil 5. Square Enix’s attempts to ‘expand into the western market’ by releasing mediocre games have failed as well.
Was Inafune exaggerating a bit only to prove his point, or is their trouble ahead for the Japanese gaming indusrty?
Tweet
Written by: Sakinah
- Contributing Editor
#1 by Jay on November 14th, 2009 [ 69287 Points ]
I think its the gaming industry as a whole. No one is taking chances on new IPs and innovations in gameplay are taking a back seat to graphics and visuals (well, the Wii tries to innovate gameplay, but most of their games are shovelware). I also think it’s all this multiplayer gaming that is devolving storylines because there’s been a lot of focus on that as opposed to a robust and memorable single player experience. I think the gaming industry peaked during the PS2′s heyday.
#2 by Darrin on November 18th, 2009 [ 15187 Points ]
I would challenge this notion that Japanese studios dominated the gaming industry in the past.
OK, they did dominate the old 8/16-bit era consoles and arcade machines, but in the home computer game world, almost all games were made by American/European studios.
2009 is probably the first year that my favorite game was made by Japanese devs: Demon’s Souls. Patapon 2 was pretty good as well.
#3 by Fleakitten on November 18th, 2009
I disagree. Nintendo is the company that dragged the gaming industry out of the brink of extention in ’85 after the American companies destroyed it in ’83. Sony took it a step further with the Playstation. That’s where all the big hits and fresh ideas from the Japanese come out, during the PS1,PS2 era.
The big Japanese devs have been playing it safe this gen by releasing HD versions of the 20th installment of a series with no innovation instead of releasing anything fresh. The only few gems I can think of have been Demon’s Souls, Folklore, White Knight Chronicles and Lost Planet.