Japanese Game Developers Go West

donniebaseball23 writes "More and more Japanese game studios and publishers are looking toward the West. But as the industry becomes more global, is this really such a bad thing? From the article: 'Gameplay is an art that transcends borders, and it simply makes good business sense to keep your eyes open for opportunities no matter where they present themselves, as Zenimax, EA and THQ clearly have. Far from ruining the Japanese gaming industry, it may in fact save some of the best Japanese developers from considering retirement or a career change. They'll be able to make games on their own terms with their own original IP, and shouldn't it ultimately be about these creative types being able to realize their visions?""

A dose of different reduces the boredom

[meerling]

This is a good thing, just so long as we don't have to play another "war of the three kingdoms" game, I'm utterly sick of those.

80s gameplay is wasted on AAA titles

[Anonymous Coward]

Japanese franchises barely evolved. Final Fantasy ran into that trap.

Re:A dose of different reduces the boredom

[nhat11]

Kind of like all those WW1/2 games

Re:80s gameplay is wasted on AAA titles

[Iburnaga]

Experimenting is right. Question: "How much can we slack before the customers realize that they're playing a movie?" Hypothesis: "A whole f*#&ing lot." Results: FFXIII Conclusion: In conclusive.

Re:80s gameplay is wasted on AAA titles

[Ethanol-fueled]

The problem is that there's only so many times you can do the whole "evil demon-zombie tries to take over the world and humble scruffy hero with funny-looking friends acquired along the way run FedEx missions to get the ultimate sword of NecroNegro to vanquish the evil Demon who becomes MegaDemon at the last minute which happens in heaven/hell/memoria/the end of time/the beginning of time. Fuck, man. How many have they made?! They should have called it quits after 8, and even that was full of trite emo-kid shit. I knew the series was going to shit the second I saw the preview of the characters for FF9. The best part of FF12 was listening to the theme in the intro screen, the rest was just fucking boring. The problem with a lot of titles on the newer consoles is that they seem to concentrate on eye candy rather than better gameplay.

Not a big fan.

[tycoex]

To be honest I hate it when these Japanese company purposely tweak their game to try and make it more "Western friendly." I enjoy Japanese games, I like Nintendo, I like Squaresoft, and I like Western games for what they are.

Studios need to focus on what they are good at. A lot of American gamers like Japanese games, I'd much prefer if Western games and Japanese games stayed good at their own thing instead of trying to copy each other.

What's better, one great Japanese game, and one great Western game. Or a single sub-standard Japanese/Western game?

Re:80s gameplay is wasted on AAA titles

[phantomfive]

Surprisingly, you can do the same plot over, and over and over again, and still have it be good. In fact, it is rare that you find a new plot. It's all been done before. The telling is what matters, not the story itself.

Re:Yeah, right...

[toutankh]

I find the "sequel driven" claim a bit strange. I mean it's not exactly like the western market is sequel-free. How many Halo sequels have we had recently? I'm not event talking about Need for Speed or all the EA sport games (I remember playing FIFA'94, we are in 2010, and I don't think they skipped a single year). Oh well I have to go play Fable 3 (while waiting for Mass Effect 3) so I can't really elaborate on such a list.

Re:"Original IP"

[VortexCortex]

Original Ideas... done.

IP (Intellectual Property AKA Imaginary Property) is a made up term that muddles your meanings.

Copyright & Patent laws both exist, are very different despite both being made of ideas. Lumping them together is stupid. Copyrights covers a single verbatim work and allows for "fair use", patents cover any derivative work and have no fair use. Copyrights lasts for 70 years beyond the creators lifetime, patents are limited to around 18 years from granting. Copyrights are granted automatically upon creation of an original work (in the US), patents must be applied for and creating an "original" work does not guarantee a patent will be granted.

Stop using IP. It's a confused and confusing term.

Huh?

[Dreth]

I don't get it, aren't video games in Japan a lot more open-minded? It's always in the U.S. that we're stuck with the same type of titles, most of the interesting, oddball, creative games come from Japan (Okami, Katamari, etc.)

Re:The Japanese don't really need the west

[thetoadwarrior]

Yeah why have any variety at all when we can just have Halo and GoW clones.

Re:Not a big fan.

[allwheat]

Two words: Teriyaki Chicken

It's the most popular Japanese food tailored to Americans, other than sushi, but it's nowhere nearly as tasty as lots of Japanese food that Japanese people actually consume themselves.