Mega Man Designer Explains Japan's Waning Video Game Influence

eldavojohn writes "As one of the creators of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune remembers the days when Japan redefined video games. He believes those days are long gone as he reveals much in his criticisms of Japan's ailing game economy. Inafune says Japan is five years behind — still making games for older consoles with 'no diversity, no originality.' When asked why, he responds, 'A lot of designers, if they find a genre that works for them, they stick with it. A lot of designers just stick to a set formula. That doesn't work any more. You can't just tweak the graphics, work just on image quality. You can't compete on that. The business side is not keeping up with investment. You need to be prepared to invest 4 billion yen or more on a game, and then spend 2 billion yen more to promote it. But Japanese companies can't do that. So we're losing out to the West in terms of investment in games. It's a vicious cycle, a deflationary spiral. Because you don't invest, you can't sell games, and because you don't sell games, you can't invest.' He compares making games for Japan and the US to Sushi and basketball — two popular things but each done in distinctly different ways by the two nations."

What about minecraft?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's made by one person, but it's the most commonly owned new game in my circle of friends.

Granted it only rakes in 10 bucks per person, but I imagine he has no shortness of cash.

Indie scene is pretty neat...

[zooblethorpe]

I dunno, the indie game scene seems to have at least some interesting stuff floating around these past few years, like World of Goo [worldofgoo.com], And Yet It Moves [andyetitmoves.net], and Fluidity [google.com]. (The latter two are European, not USian, but hey.)

Cheers,

Re:What about minecraft?

[Anonymous Coward]

He has a shortness of cash unless he gets his Paypal thing sorted out.

Re:Ironic, no?

[JtDL]

I'm actually looking for the article - it was in the XBox Magazine that dealt with the release. In one of the MM9 stages there are platforms that rotate and your character will rotate with them. The graphical rotation was impossible, if I recall the article correctly. The closest article I can find online is http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3752/he_is_8bit_capcoms_hironobu_.php [gamasutra.com] - it talks about the flicker and the limits on enemies on screen at once, but nothing about the elements that made it into the final release that would have been impossible 20 years ago.

Re:Five years behind?

[object404]

If casual games cost $10-15, yeah, I'd buy them.

Uh. What are you talking about? Yes they do. May I redirect you to the $10 and below section [steampowered.com] of the games sold at Steam? There's a ton of gems in there.

May I also redirect you to the Mega-Love Indie Bundles [indiegames.com]: which pack in these excellent indie casual games: Aaaaa! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, Brainpipe, Captain Forever, Cogs, Saira, Space Giraffe or And Yet It Moves, Auditorium, Aztaka, Eufloria, Machinarium & Osmos for $19.99 or all 12 games for $29.99?

Finally, check Steam Game Sales [steamgamesales.com] which lists all the recent promos/sales/discounts on Steam, Direct2Drive, EA & Impulse, updated daily. Look! Stuff's up to 85% off right now!

Every game is a FPS?

[Sycraft-fu]

Tells me all you do is whine, not look. Let's go have a look see at the most recently released titles, and what they are. We'll stick with the PC, since that's what I use:

Civilization 5, Sep 21, 2010: Turn based strategy
Patrician IV, Sep 17, 2010: Real time strategy
Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Sep 8, 2010: Horror
Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker, Sep 7, 2010: RPG (expansion)
Aion: Assault on Balaurea, Sep 7, 2010: MMORPG
R.U.S.E., Sep 7, 2010: Real time strategy
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 5: The City That Dares Not Sleep, Aug 30, 2010: Adventure
Black Mirror II, Aug 30, 2010: Adventure
Ship Simulator Extremes, Aug 27, 2010: Simulation
Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms, Aug 27, 2010: Turn based strategy
Worms Reloaded, Aug 26, 2010: Strategy
Elemental: War of Magic, Aug 24, 2010: Turn based strategy
Mafia II, Aug 24, 2010: Action/Adventure
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Aug 17, 2010: Third person shooter

This is just some of the larger releases in the last couple months (a lot of games come out around this time of year). There are more minor/indy releases. Notice something about that list?

I'm not saying there are plenty of FPS games because guess what? FPSes are fun. Bad Company 2 is one I like myself, as well as Team Fortress 2. However if you think that's all there is the only thing that says is you walk around ignorant of the gaming world. There are TONS of games of every kind out there, many of them quite good. Just open your eyes and look.