Inafune: Japanese "Game Industry is Finished"

[John Funk]

Inafune: Japanese "Game Industry is Finished"

Onimusha and Dead Rising creator Keiji Inafune is unhappy with Tokyo Game Show '09, and considers it evidence that Japan's game industry is on its last legs.

At a hands-on preview event for Dead Rising 2, reports Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/tgs-09-keiji-inafune-dumps-on-tokyo-game-show-2009-149909.phtml], veteran Capcom designer Keiji Inafune - creator of Onimusha, Mega Man and Dead Rising - asked attendees for their honest opinion of the Tokyo Game Show thus far. Inafune followed with his own personal damning rebuke of the show:

"Personally when I looked around [at] all the different games at the TGS floor," he said via a translator, "I said 'Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished.'"

However, Inafune-san thinks that there are still some awesome games coming out of Japan - namely, Capcom's. Presumably, this means that he thinks Dead Rising 2 is pretty damn kickass (but that may be because it's being developed by a Canadian studio, Blue Castle Games). This may also have something to do with his desire to work with Halo studio Bungie [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94695-Onimusha-Creator-Wants-to-Work-With-Bungie].

Still, this doesn't seem to be just self promotion, if the aforementioned Destructoid report is to be believed - apparently Inafune's sentiment is shared by many gamers on the show floor, thanks to a smaller TGS showing. We can blame that on the economy for now, though.

(Via VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2009/09/25/keiji-inafune-seems-rather-disappointed-with-tgs-09/])

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[Radeonx]

It seems to me that most of the games coming out of Japan are sequels for games that have spanned over the years. I hope Inafune is wrong, but, I don't know. The American game industry is prospering, it seems, though.

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

Y'know making Mother 4 could probably fix this.

 

[GloatingSwine]

I think Tomonobu Itagaki had the best perspective on this. The Japanese game industry is in danger of turning inwards like the film industry there, to the point that they can occasionally create things that reach a specialist audience elsewhere, but most of their output is specialised for the narrow Japanese market.

It's nice that there are people thinking about this though, one of the biggest strengths of the games market has been that development has been a global process, with great games and ideas coming from all over the place, and national boundaries falling away where they wouldn't otherwise.

 

[A random person]

Right now I'm skeptical since I'm used to people saying "x is dying/selling out/getting worse." I sure hope this isn't the case, though, many of my favorite games come from Japan.

 

[Sparrow]

Fuck. That's some pretty bold comments.

Surely JRPG's will never die though.

 

[Simalacrum]

nyuuuuuu Japanese gaming industry you can't die?! where will we get all our wacky yet truly original gaming from??? D': the narrow-minded Westeners can't do what you do!

 

[Therumancer]

Itigaki has an axe to grind though, and arguably is responsible for a lot of the trends that represent Japan's game development issues. I look back at the whole "Ninja Gaiden" thing where the guy is so anti-western that he set up the western version to play one difficulty level higher and then released what amount to the normal/defauly level with an insult calling Americans dogs. I still remember this. Of course he now believes that he's been cheated out of millions so of course he has an axe to grind with the gaming industry and would love to think that it's dying.


The overall point is correct however that Japan has so much inherant racism that anything they develop with an outside market in mind, or plans to release to an outside market, meets with a lot of domestic scorn. I've talked about this before, based on what I read a while back in a lot of translated periodicals and such. Part of the basic problem is that if game-series "X" (whatever "X" may be) sees a US translation/release then a lot of the Japanese go absolutly ape-crap and start accusing the developer of being a group of race/cultural traitors, betraying their unique and special things to the "round eyed child races".

This is apparently more of a factor than you think, and since these guys live there you kind of see why it might be a problem. Trying to balance domestic sentiment with profiteering off the bigger American and European markets is an issue.

Compounding the problem is also censorship, not just current issues, but ones that have been ongoing for a while. A lot of creators (for obvious reasons) don't like having their visions messed with for a US release. This can include sex, violence, or just differant ideas on what is going too far. One example from a while back is of course "Xenosaga" where there is a substantial differance in how a certain bad guy removes a special macguffin from a humanoid construct that looks like a little girl (attempting to avoid spoilers). The Japanese version has him brutally ripping it out, the English translation has him waving his hand over her, conjuring a sphere of light, and collecting that. The former "original version" making a heck of a lot more sense overall.

So basically to release to the US there are race issues, creativity issues, and other factors. The current economic problems of course don't help, nor does the censorship crusade which no company has the nards to stand up to at this point, nor does America getting increasingly complacent in pushing it's own culture. This latter point tied to the fact that in more successful decades the US was pushing through shows like "Melrose Place" and "90120" which lead to more popularity of America and it's own ideas (to the point of some nations fearing they were losing theirs to ours) but we stopped pushing such things. In backing down, playing along with information embargos, etc... we've also hurt our trade and again a lot of the "OMG I want this to go to America" sentiment.

I point this out because a while back I seem to remember reading about how less and less translated American television was being shown in Japan. It's been a trend for a while, and I think that to an extent it's made relations a bit more sour culturally.


Feel free to disagree, a lot of this is based on trends I've noticed and things I've read going back years.

I don't think the Japanese game industry is finished, but I *DO* think the game industry as it stands now is finished. I hope the censorship is licked, but any way you look at it I think part of their problem is exactly what Itigaki (surprisingly) seemed to say: they need to be more receptive to global marketing. Basically drop all of these "Japanese exclusive" crud.

Back a few years ago they were able to snub America with Final Fantasy X (International, and Final Mission) things are however changing and despite how much "fun" that was for a lot of their gamers, I'm guessing they are having trouble meeting their bottom line being Japaneo-centric.

 

[Quadtrix]

Y'know making Mother 4 could probably fix this.

No, it wouldn't. Mother 3 was the perfect conclusion. Everything was resolved at the end, and the shear impact the ending left on the player can never be topped.

 

[shotgunbob]

Considering he made Dead Rising and Dead rising 2 is Dead rising 1 at a casino I wouldnt talk

 

[GloatingSwine]

Itigaki has an axe to grind though, and arguably is responsible for a lot of the trends that represent Japan's game development issues. I look back at the whole "Ninja Gaiden" thing where the guy is so anti-western that he set up the western version to play one difficulty level higher and then released what amount to the normal/defauly level with an insult calling Americans dogs.

Not quite. The difficulty modes in Ninja Gaiden are the same all over, the insulting difficulty level is aimed at everyone who thought the Xbox game was too hard, no matter where they are. There's been a shift in expectations though, such that these days US and European gamers expect games to be harder (Metal Gear Solid these days tends to have it's hardest mode called "European Extreme" for this reason), whereas back in the old days Japanese gamers were the ones who expected brutal beatings. (Hence Super Mario Bros. 2, which in Japan is The Lost Levels, and is the US and Europe is a reskinned Doki Doki Panic).

Itagaki is really engaged with western development, and his new project with his current studio, Tokyo Vikings, reflects that (it's a wargame).

 

[GloatingSwine]

Considering he made Dead Rising and Dead rising 2 is Dead rising 1 at a casino I wouldnt talk

There's truth in this. Dead Rising is so strongly aimed at the Japanese hardcore gamer that all the things they love about it were really heavily criticised elsewhere. Especially the save structure. See, the Japanese hardcore gamer won't save until he's sure he's absolutely aced every section, and he'll only use one "perfect save" at a time. Dead Rising is designed to cater to that, but everyone else finds it annoying and restrictive, because gamers elsewhere don't play like that.

Dead Rising is actually a perfect example of how not to do international game development.

 

[WhiteTiger225]

It seems to me that most of the games coming out of Japan are sequels for games that have spanned over the years. I hope Inafune is wrong, but, I don't know. The American game industry is prospering, it seems, though.

Or FF clones. Or DMC clones.

Bayonetta is proof that any form of originality is dying pretty quick as of late. Japan is just hitting it first because Japanese games are the biggest followers of game cloning in my opinion.

 

[WhiteTiger225]

Bayonetta is proof that any form of originality is dying pretty quick as of late.

Hardly. It's being made by people who were involved with Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe, i.e. it's tongue-in-cheek.

Viewtiful joe was a original concept for a platformer. Devil May Cry was new... long long ago, and has been cloned 80 times since. The new resident evils "Comeback" was alright, but they werent exactly original (Especially the view point they use)

Bayonetta being called "Tongue in Cheek" is just as funny as when one bad disaster movie was SO bad universal refused to release it until it was relabeled as a comedy XD

 

[ae86gamer]

If they made Shenmue 3 it might change. >_>

Anyways, I hope what he saids isn't true.

 

[funksobeefy]

My firs thought was "man thats the same picture they used for hte last article on this guy"

Then I read the article. Well I would agree, I have yet to see anything new and exciting come from japan in a long. Like sure the pokemans are all good and a new mario golf is good for the drunken party but where is any of the new stuff?

 

[Treblaine]

Hmm, I think he is on to something.

Looking at my favourite 12 games of 1998; 5 out of 12 were made in Japan. In 1999 half the games I consider the best 12 of that year (12 as in one for each month, go figure) were Japanese games.

But now in 2008 only 3 of my 12 fav are Japanese (Ninja Gaiden 2 / Lost Odyssey / DMC4) and 2009 takes 2 or maybe 3 (depends how good Lost Planet 2 turns out) out of 12, thanks to the 2D fighters of Blazblue and Street Fighter 4 (technically 2.5D).

That is just my opinion though I have been seeing a trend throughout this decade (2000-2009) of western developer accepting the challenge when Japanese developers threw down the gauntlet in the 90's with games like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil.

It was one thing to see western developers grow some balls but Japan really does seem to have lost its game with so many Japanese games franchises floundering and really good Japanese games just being fewer and far between.

I mean when was the last time a truly classic game came out from Japan?

Classic like Ocarina of Time or Metal Gear Solid or Silent Hill?

 

[eelel]

It seems to me that most of the games coming out of Japan are sequels for games that have spanned over the years. I hope Inafune is wrong, but, I don't know. The American game industry is prospering, it seems, though.

I agree but he seems to me to be really pesimistic.