“There are tons of terrible Western developers, just like there are tons of terrible Japanese developers.”
It’s fair to say that Japan’s dominance over the console game market has slipped over the past two generations. While some argue that most Japanese game companies simply can’t afford to compete in the ludicrously expensive AAA market – fueling the mass exodus to handheld and social markets – others claim the nation’s developers have lost whatever spark they had during the previous generations. Platinum Games’ Atsushi Inaba, once CEO of the now defunct Clover Studio, argues that Japanese developers are being unfairly maligned.
“I don’t like it when people lump Japanese game developers all together into one group,” he told Edge magazine. “Frankly, I think it’s a joke. What do these people know?”
“Think about Western developers,” he continued. “There are many Western developers making terrible games, and then you see one like Infinity Ward making a game that sells 20 million and everyone goes, ‘hey, Western developers are amazing!'”
“There are tons of terrible Western developers, just like there are tons of terrible Japanese developers. To lump studios together in great masses misses the point.”
Platinum Games was founded by former key members of Clover Studio (Viewtiful Joe, Okami, God Hand). Like its predecessor, Platinum has a reputation for producing outlandish critical darlings that don’t sell particularly well. Unlike games from the developer’s Japanese peers, however, Platinum’s titles tend to sell better in the West than they do in Japan.
“I don’t think there’s a need to be down on Japanese games in general,” said Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance director, Kenji Saito. “Platinum is a company that is trying to push to the front and do big things. But I think it’s true that some Japanese developers are still making Japanese games, and trying to maintain their status quos – that’s their whole strategy.”
Source: Edge via CVG
