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.