MadWorld's Inaba: Japanese devs are 'too soft'
by Chris Greenhough 
{ Jul 14th 2008 at 5:00PM }
Hey, you reading this! You a Japanese developer? If so, we need a word! Firstly: wow, thanks for reading us -- that's awesome. Secondly, and with the niceties over: you know what your problem is? You're too soft! At least that's what Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba reckons.In an interview with Gamasutra, Inaba suggested that Japanese developers spend too much time concentrating on established franchises, and not enough on amazing, creative new ideas -- ideas such as MadWorld, which is what Inaba is presently working on. If anything, argues the Okami creator, it is Western developers who are now producing the most innovative videogames.
"We don't feel that we're at the top of the industry, but we know that we have to catch up to where Western developers are," he concludes. Is he right, readers?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew H. @ Jul 14th 2008 5:11PM
Too soft?
Sorry, but keeping old franchises fresh takes some resolve.
Mr Khan @ Jul 14th 2008 5:29PM
This seems to be the opinion from within Capcom's camp. I will say this: While you do see a lot of Japanese developers that work off of stagnant franchises (Konami with Castlevania, or Square with FF), many times you see them work within a franchise to innovate, like Nintendo with Mario Galaxy or with the various iterations of Zelda, or with Kojima's studio and his works.
Western developers do more new IPs, true, but their sequels often remain very similar. Japanese developers do fewer new IPs, but often take strides to re-invent the wheel with each game
Undead Priest @ Jul 14th 2008 5:43PM
How's this opinion from within Capcom's camp?
The man doesn't even work for Capcom.
Mr Khan @ Jul 14th 2008 6:25PM
But he used to (well, for Clover if he's working for Platinum), and the guy behind Dead Rising said the same thing
Aaron @ Jul 14th 2008 7:21PM
Oh yeah, I can only hope the Japanese adopt Western game-development mentality. Namely, waste months of development time ensuring the textures in your game are as photo-realistic as possible, treat motion-capture technology as though it's the only way to animate a game character, and OH! make nothing but legions of 'gritty, hardcore' FPS/3rd person shooters in which the main characters scream obscenities at each other throughout the entire game. And then churn out mindless sequels in which no attempt was made to innovate.
Please, Japanese developers, be more like THAT.
phenylketonurics @ Jul 14th 2008 7:36PM
Ohoho, I agree with you, kind sir. We very desperately need more developers with this kind of attitude.
DESPERATELY.
samfish @ Jul 14th 2008 7:41PM
I find there is a lot more raw creativity coming out of Japan than the west, in general.
Bizarre analogy time!
Western studios basically give us a different model car every year, but, although it comes in various colors, it does the same exact thing as last year's model, but with a few more bells and whistles. The Japanese give us something every year that's the same color, but one year it's a car, the next it's a boat or a plane.
That all said, there is still too much unwillingness in both camps to go out there and get crazy with the creative juice flavored cheeze wiz. The Japanese could expand their potential more if they weren't limiting themselves to established franchises and the westerners could expand their potential if they'd try out a different genre every once in a while.
Mike @ Jul 14th 2008 11:23PM
I think the main difference between the Japanese and North American developers is their main influence and how it affects the execution of their games.
Japanese developers seem to develop stories following very manga/anime patterns. North American developers take the Hollywood blockbuster route.
So it's not that Japanese game developers are "soft" but instead take references and story cues from a storytelling format which most people outside of Asia are unfamiliar with.