It's no secret that industry thinking tends to consider Japan as falling behind the West. Japanese developers have themselves said as much. In response to the growth of the West and the stagnation of the East, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has called for an "alliance" of Japanese companies. That sounds ... sinister.
"Therefore, we should consider some sort of 'Japan Alliance'.
... Individuality is important. It's not forcing everything into a single corporate brand. The ideal is a holding company under which several companies and brands can hang."
So, Wada wants to create a some sort of stable. Kind of like the nWo in WCW, only without Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.
It's an interesting idea, but will alligning companies do much to stop Japanese development from stagnating, or will it just consolidate the problems? Tecmo and Koei will be a telling example of how mergers will affect the market and I imagine Wada will be looking at it closely. Somehow though, I don't think the joining of companies such as Tecmo and Koei will do much to turn the Japanese game industry on its head.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
5:10 AM on 10.22.2008
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...maybe I'm still just bitter since they milked dry and destroyed the Katamari series
The main reason for the stagnation is, that western developers were faster to move on to current gen console developement, while Japanese developers ignored the 360 and still continued to make games for the PS2.
Miyamoto is the Scott Hall of this group, whatever the hell that means.
This is so much easier with 2000 of us and, holy shit, we only need one payroll department now so let's sack the rest. Same goes for HR... Hmmmm, wistfful RPG anybody?
Throw in a 4 year old with tits and we got the west in out pockets.
Great quote
This is also kind silly, but hey, if they think it'll work, more power to them.
Except on the DS of course, where there's not a single decent western game. Perhaps Japan should move entirely to handhelds.
When it comes to Japan, a thousand heads are A MILLION TIMES WORSE than one.
But really, are the Japanese developers really unaware of what their problems are or are they uncertain how to properly address them? I hope it's the latter because the former is just too damn obvious for words--especially when you have vastly different games from the West to compare them to.
But really, are the Japanese developers really unaware of what their problems are or are they uncertain how to properly address them? I hope it's the latter because the former is just too damn obvious for words--especially when you have vastly different games from the West to compare them to.
Perhaps there's more 'game design' schools popping up or simply just more players in the US. The pendulum has swung back.
So tightening up the graphics on level 3 worked after all? Westwood College is vindicated!
I agree with the whole getting old: lady-boy spikey hair main characters and 10 year olds with knockers, we've past that.
Other than that I suppose this wouldn't be a truly horrible thing, it's not like they could get any worse! Worst case scenario this is a plot for a hostile take over of all the gaming companies in Japan, minus the hostile part.
Anyway, perhaps Japanese developers should take a gander at good ol' Capcom. They have been doing quite well in the west, both in retail and digital markets. If anything, the lesson from Capcom is to forsake the Japanese audience a bit in return for worldwide acceptance.
They should be embracing new concepts and gameplay ideas, and stop just rehashing the same badly scripted, generic shit over and over again.
When is the last good mech game you played? The japanese invented the damn genre, why isn't there any amazing fast anime mech combat games out there? Unreal tournament with mechs and giant laser swords? kkthx.
and japanese rpgs... lose the random encounters, spiky haired protagonists, awkward silly game mechanics. play mass effect, oblivion, fallout 3. Feel free to steal ideas, hell, western developers do all the time!
I could go on, but I doubt it will make any difference. Lets hope their silly alliance actually helps