Japanese Gaming Industry Dying

ForTheCity

http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/166988/inafune_the_hope_of_the_japanese_.php

2009: "Our game industry is finished."

2010: "...everyone’s making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind."

2011: "... people just aren't hungry enough any longer... there needs to be something that gets that feeling back."

2012: "Time is running out and we should have realized this when I made that bold statement a few years ago."

Keiji Inafune has settled into his role as the doomsayer of the Japanese industry. Since quitting his role as the head of Capcom's R&D in 2010, he's struck out on his own, forming three companies in 2011 alone.

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Basically in the article Keiji Inafune (he was the illustrator and co-creator of megaman, head of R&D at capcom) says that the japanese gaming industry is way behind. they rely to much on the older people creating games because they think it will succeed. they don't give the younger generation a try.

 

is japanese gaming really going to die? To be honest it has really struggled to me since PS3 and Xbox 360 came out. I haven't heard of any good games from japanese companies for them. 

//\//\oo

Well, he is right in the sense that Japan is nowhere near the gaming giant it was in the 80's-90's.

Dark Souls, however, begs to differ.

 

GTwander

It's only true on a global scale, and because of nationalization and thick skulled consumers.

In the 80's-90's Japan was just about the only source of in-home entertainment, especially in consoles, and they wouldn't even touch the solely western PC game market. Eventually the western developers had to walk away from arcade machines, because that choice all but completely died out here, and instead of dealing with licensing a product for Japanese consoles - they started moving to PC games, or trying to head a new console to emerge into *that* market. Now, how many consoles do you actually remember coming out in the last 20 years that couldn't inch past the golden trinity of Nintendo, Sega and Sony (later MS)? The answer is none, and Atari was hit the worst over time.

Nowadays the platform matters very little. Most people have console, and almost everyone has a PC... but what is keeping any company from going global is heavy nationalism from the consumer-bases. As a pretentious example; look at the treatment of Korean vs Western MMOs without *any* information about a product. There is already a set divide and expectations. The same applies for just about any game, movie, music group - anything - that crosses international borders. People just allow culture clash and their own personal layer of jingoism state their case as to why to avoid a product.

Skyrim is, by all means, a masterpiece of modern gaming across the world... except for one place where is simply didn't sell as well, and met a lot of harsh critics for whatever reason. The place?... Japan... a place that survives off it's sales within it's own borders - as any developer will have to these days. I believe the global economic climate, as well as simple mentalities place-to-place, are going to make it impossible to market games internationally without a disguise - like a distribution method such as Steam (which, for all I know, isn't used in the East for the same reasons games don't sell).

Also, Japan is behind on other games simply because they refuse to accept any foreign influences.... unlike Western games, which are all about ripping one product off and attempting to do it better. It's not so much that the OGs aren't letting new talent shine, as much as the heads controlling the money being too afraid to try something that hasn't been tried-and-true since the inception of the industry. It's why turn-based RPGs are still the majority of choices there, even when action-RPGs are few and far-between, and typically sell much better all the same. Perhaps they are too afraid to oversaturate their own market, because it could literally kill retro gaming there... like it has here.

Khaeros

In 1987, a man named Hironobu Sakaguchi had been hard-pressed to make a solid living out of the gaming industry.  He decided to put the effort of seven people behind one last game.  If the idea fell flat, he would give up game development and get a new job, leaving his former studies behind him.

 

That's why it was named Final Fantasy.

 

Unfortunately, creating an 'influential game for generations to come' gives you a footnote.  Being the young, new developer that has all the expectations of a rose-coloured past put on your shoulders gives you the ire of your elders.

ForTheCity

Originally posted by Khaeros

In 1987, a man named Hironobu Sakaguchi had been hard-pressed to make a solid living out of the gaming industry.  He decided to put the effort of seven people behind one last game.  If the idea fell flat, he would give up game development and get a new job, leaving his former studies behind him.

 

That's why it was named Final Fantasy.

 

Unfortunately, creating an 'influential game for generations to come' gives you a footnote.  Being the young, new developer that has all the expectations of a rose-coloured past put on your shoulders gives you the ire of your elders.

I didn't know thats why they named it Final Fantasy. Interesting.

I believe also the Western culture and the Eastern culture are too different. We in the US play consoles and PC games and those in Asia play console and arcades. When I'm in Hong Kong or when I visited Japan, the arcades are still very much alive. But Japan is so small and it can't continue to make huge sales off only Japan. Even though something is successful there, it won't be successful worldwide and that in the end is the downfall. Plus majority of the games are only Japan only as they cater towards Japanese or Asian.