It’s no secret that Japan is not the undisputed champion of gaming anymore. I’m not saying that they don’t make great games still, but their dominance over the market has been dying for some time now. Tatsuya Minami, Platinum Games president and CEO, recently wrote a blog post about his feelings on the current state of affairs in Japanese games.
He cites the lack of fresh games concepts, not many new IP’s, and old game play mechanics as the culprit. The blog post is a great insight into the thought process behind one of my current favorite Japanese development studios.
However, the current games business is struggling. The “fresh surprises” I mention are becoming few and far between, especially in our home of Japan. Not so long ago, Japan lead the world’s games business, and it was not a stretch to call games a uniquely Japanese specialty; however, now it appears that Japanese games companies have lost their vigor.
What do you guys think? Has Japan lost their touch? Or are they still going strong?
[Source: Platinum Games Blog]
The majority of the games I play on current gen systems are Japanese, but I do recognize the fact that they’ve fallen as game makers substantially over the years. I play RPGs and prefer the quaint, antiquated charm of JRPGs, but I cling to these games increasingly out of familiarity and less because of quality or overall innovation. It’s a sad thing, because I used to retrieve a lot of Japanese culture from their games, but now it’s increasingly tough to get any foreign personality from these games. The Western approach has taken over to such an extent that even Japanese games are muddled in trying to be American.
A welcome exception outside the RPG realm is SEGA’s Yakuza franchise. It has embraced its foreign locale and sensibilities, and it’s all the better for it. Platinum has done well at creating new IPs as well, so there’s still hope yet left, but game makers in Japan still have a long way to go to avoid being eclipsed by American and European developers.