Game Republic boss Yoshiki Okamoto believes that Western game development is more advanced than in Japan, claiming that it's "almost too late" for Eastern devs to catch up. Claiming it'll take more than "a single lifetime" for his homeland to reclaim the same kind of status it enjoyed in the Famicon days, the former Capcom producer really seems down on his country's progress:
It's almost too late. During the Famicom (NES) era, Japanese video games comprised 70 percent of all video games. And currently, it's like 15 or 20 percent, isn't it? Now, Western games are more advanced. For games like GTAIV, those guys are spending something like 5 or 10 years to make them. Even if we thought about catching up with them now, they'd still be making progress. But, not necessarily giving up, it's just not possible to catch up in a single lifetime.
Is it really that bad? Companies like Capcom are certainly doing what they can to keep up, but considering the Japanese market seems slighty more fond of tradition and sticking to what it knows (there's a reason why Dynasty Warriors is so popular there) while we've seen recent design feats like Braid and Portal in the West, it may indeed take a long time for Japan to catch up.
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Contest:
10:38 AM on 09.10.2008
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MOST western developers are at least looking at the present or the future of games. They're pushing boundaries or at least "keeping up" with gameplay concepts, design, innovation, etc.
MOST eastern developers are at most only keeping up. Most are looking back and trying to relive the glory of their snes and ps1 days. Nostalgia is nice and all, but it doesn't make for a good argument that you're progressing. I can count the games that couldn't be done on previous consoles (graphic fidellity not included) from eastern developers with one hand AND i can count innovative game design from them with one hand also - all of them coming from nintendo's hardware creativity push.
I just don't see why a game's origin should matter or why this is a concern.
As a metaphor:
A movie is a movie. If it's good it's good, if it's bad, it's bad. Apocolypse Now is a great movie, and it didn't matter who directed it...but guess what, uwe boll's movies stink. That's an observation accompanied by years of "study."
Most of the developers of Japan aren't getting this gen at all. They're mostly making ps2 games on the ps3 and xbox games on the xbox360. Dead Rising, which is the best exception I can think of at the moment, was MARRED and RUINED by old-time game design decisions. It could have been a fun game for me if that weren't the case. Even Wii-Fit involves "unlocking" crap.
Make your JARPS!!! Make your Katamaris!! Don't follow the trend, please!!!
I would hate to see a world where every game that came out was a Gears of War or a Grand Theft Auto.
What Okamoto is saying is the truth though. I love japanese games, possibly more than western ones. I remember well once when western games were pretty average or lame in comparison.
The west has studied the japanese and learned a lot of good things, while also creating 3D tech and thinking forward. I say the PC market plays a big part in this in the west, whereas in japan, PC aren't as popular. A game like Portal was created by unknown talent, and graphics are always being pushed forward by games like Crysis.
Its true, many japanese developers are guilty of not trying anything different enough from what made them successful, we need only look at Square for evidence of this.
And if not Square, take a look at some recent japanese games. The most original games coming from japan seem to be on DS, Ouendan and Trauma Center. Both from Inis and Atlus, who are both small developers
Arc Systems are another developer, though small will try something new from japanese standards. Platinum Games again small in size but showing and creating cool stuff.
Perhaps its the case that large japanese developers/publishers want to take less chances, but this will eventually hurt them. On top of that, the lack of them building their own or investing in newer 3D engines also makes their work look very dated.
I'm glad some are waking up to the facts, and this isnt japan bashing either, just plain truth.
That being said more Katamari games and weird games I think would sell here, they just don't bring them to the US
If the question is whether Japan will ever dominate market share like they did during the Famicon/NES days, the answer is clearly no. There are just too many great developers in America and Europe, and now places like South Korea are starting to make inroads as well. If it's about technological advancement, I really doubt it's that big an issue, considering that hardware itself is usually Japanese.
And as long as were considering the Japanese market "sticking to tradition", if you peek at the sales figures from any given month in a Western country they will be dominated by sequels, sports games, movie license titles, and Nintendo games. That doesn't look very encouraging to originality and innovation.
I laughed at that...well only cause Capcom is meh these days.
I can understand where he's coming from though. You didn't see many big time western games during the 90s and it was only so few that stood out. GTA didn't get so big till 3, FPS while only really big in the PC crowd, began growing thanks to their slow move to the consoles during the DC/PS2 days. Where the West seems to stick to graphic pushing and adding/changing gameplay, the Japanese are tending to stick to their usual good selling roots. Not saying it's a bad thing but a change wouldn't hurt.
But then you have to realize that Japanese don't like FPS and are big on Fighters and RPGs. Competitive fighing games are kinda dying in the US and RPGs apparently aren't as big as MMORPGs in America.
Also, Capcom is the best publisher/developer out there.
I agree with you. I don't want Japan to change the way it makes games, at least for the reason of 'the west are doing it better'. I'd rather allow them to change when they get bored with it.