Capcom: Japanese industry needs to evolve to catch up with West
If it doesn't "we don't have a hope in hell", says Lost Planet 2 producer
Lost Planet 2 producer Jun Takeuchi has said that the Japanese games industry needs to evolve in order to have a "hope in hell" of catching up with the West.
Speaking to Xbox World 360 (reported by CVG) Takeuchi said: "If the Japanese games industry doesn't evolve and simply maintains its current status quo, I really don't think we have a hope in hell."
"Drastically innovative ideas are needed - and quickly - to equal or exceed the Western games industry," he added.
His comments followed those of Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimota who - speaking to the Financial Times - restated Capcom's stance on working with western-based developers following the poor performances of Airtight's Dark Void and GRIN's Bionic Commando last year.
"As a group, the new titles where development was led from abroad didn't do so well," he said.
The company now plans to create new IPs locally and only use overseas developers for sequels and ports.
He added that he was yet to see Nintendo's 3DS, but that he was "interested" in the handheld, and expressed his view that Microsoft and Sony needed to be open about their motion controller business models in order for them to succeed.
"If there isn't a strong business model message from the platform holders about how they will develop [motion controllers] with users, then I don't think it will go well," he said.
I do think that the reason Japanese developers are behind Western developers in this regard is because these technologies tend to be pioneered by first-person shooters, which is obviously a genre that's not big with Japanese developers.
It remains to be seen if a Japanese only local IP development would produce similar successful fruits of labour. No doubt the level of design and aesthetics would have a high bar. Although, once coudl argue gameplay/story and immersiveness are where some Japaense developers are slightly behind the curve.
One aspect that perhaps needs to be looked into is to reduce the amount of movie CGI cutscenes. A game can still be filmic/atmospheric without extended interactive-less cutscenes....which in this day/age jolts the participant from that level of believability/immersive instant-ness.
If catching up to the west means less games like Valkyria Chronicles or Resonance of Fate and more games like RE5 that are just miles away from the original one then I rather have them not catching up.
On the other hand looke at FF XIII, it tried so hard to please the western audience - yes it sold heaps but then most people agreed that it has lost the magic touch that Final Fantasy usually have.
And I completely agree with Werner that games like Valkyria Chronicles, the original Resident Evil games, Resonance of Fate, even in my opinion Disgaea and Demons Souls are games that make Japanese developers great. They provide a huge variety of gameplay within the same genre as compared to the west its just FPS, hack'n slash "RPG" and racing games.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Haven Tso on 18th May 2010 10:03pm
I love Japanese games, but if they were to evolve into a western style game because of market pressure, then I would be considering being just a retro gamer of the old style Japanese kind.
At least Visual Novels are in a market of their own and don't have to worry about market pressure...
1.Wii Sports (63.46 million)
2.Wii Play (27.38 million)
3.Wii Fit (22.61 million)
4.Mario Kart Wii (22.55 million)
5.Wii Sports Resort (16.14 million)
6.New Super Mario Bros. Wii (14.70 million)
7.Wii Fit Plus (12.65 million)
8.Super Smash Bros. Brawl (9.48 million)
9.Super Mario Galaxy (8.84 million)
10.Mario Party 8 (7.6 million)
Some Japanese companies are doing very well. I think the fact the PS3 and Xbox 360 havnt had stellar sales in Japan is a large part of the reason publishers that target that platform can no longer depend on domestic profit like they have in past generations.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Shane Sweeney on 19th May 2010 8:00am
Rather than ship their existing IP oversees for sequels, I prefer that they went with a more collaborative approach with an already proven studio.
I'm quietly imagining a Resident Evil sequel developed collaboratively with like say, Epic or Valve or Bungie etc.
Unlikely, but my inner geek does somersaults at the prospect :)
Also I agree FFVI was the best FF ever, most solid cast, story, music and Villian.