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Mega Man Designer Explains Japan's Waning Video Game Influence
eldavojohn writes "As one of the creators of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune remembers the days when Japan redefined video games. He believes those days are long gone as he reveals much in his criticisms of Japan's ailing game economy. Inafune says Japan is five years behind — still making games for older consoles with 'no diversity, no originality.' When asked why, he responds, 'A lot of designers, if they find a genre that works for them, they stick with it. A lot of designers just stick to a set formula. That doesn't work any more. You can't just tweak the graphics, work just on image quality. You can't compete on that. The business side is not keeping up with investment. You need to be prepared to invest 4 billion yen or more on a game, and then spend 2 billion yen more to promote it. But Japanese companies can't do that. So we're losing out to the West in terms of investment in games. It's a vicious cycle, a deflationary spiral. Because you don't invest, you can't sell games, and because you don't sell games, you can't invest.' He compares making games for Japan and the US to Sushi and basketball — two popular things but each done in distinctly different ways by the two nations."
"Atari" is actually Infogrames, but with a new name. Likewise "Commodore" is now some European company that apparently produces nothing.
AMERICANS OUTSPEND JAPANESE
That's the gist of the article. The Americans aren't winning because of better quality, but because they have deeper pockets. The same was true in the 70s and 80s but after the 1983 crash, Mattel, Coleco, and Atari folded-up their game divisions, giving Nintendo/Sega/Sony the chance to become top dogs. The Japanese didn't "win" - they simply moved into the giant gaping hole the Americans foolishly left behind.
And now things are tipping back to America, because of folks like Microsoft with deep pockets spending gobs of money.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Someone recently did an interesting survey of Japanese game developers, quizzing them on what games they had played. I'm sorry, I don't remember who was asking and who was answering, but I distinctly remember that one famous and successful Japanese game developer had never played Starcraft. Ever. Didn't even recognize the *name* Starcraft.
So there is definitely a problem; Japanese game developers *only* play Japanese games. Or, at least, are less likely to venture outside of their comfort zone.
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