Inafune can go either way, really. He's seemed to have hated everything about the Japanese Video Game industry since he was kicked out of Capcom, but I really don't know if that's the whole reason for his thinking.

He brings up some good points. Japanese developers really do need to open and cater to a bigger market than rather being on some type of high-horse. Nintendo, although not much of a Japanese dev by today's standards (I guess), can show that games from Japan don't have to automatically convert to "niche" status in America. (I don't think that the Japanese market should totally follow the Western Market, though. This would destroy diversity no matter how you look at it.

 I wonder what is so good from western devs that Inafune keeps insisting on this topic... Are they behind on graphics? story telling? Gameplay? 

 Most Japanese devs are working on limited budgets, yet they still deliver some of the best games on the market.

Yup, we need some more COD clones. Make all the games have a colour palette of black, brown and grey. Sell loads of copies. In theory it seems like it could work, but in a market that is already saturated to the brim with such games, I honestly don't know how much success they will find. They might be better off staying "niche" in the western market and going big in their own market than alienating their own market and failing in the best due to saturation.

I think what Japanese devs need to do is to keep going back to their roots of trying new things. It's a true joy to play a game like Persona for the first time where the premise is so unique it's amazing. Or Catherine which just completely introduces almost a new genre or style of play. Or Ni No Kuni, which takes all that we loved from the past and just polishing it up so much that it has a new feel. Stop making RPGs with the same mechanics, story and art style over and over again. Give me some tale I have never heard of before, give me new gameplay mechanics that completely hooks me in, give me an art style that makes me stare at the screen in awe. These are all things I would trust Japanese devs with, but they have been doing so less in this gen. I hope they can get back to those "expect the unexpected roots" once again.

I've recently been playing Dust: An Elysian Tale, a western indie game that is clearly inspired by the east. And the game just made me realise how epic it was to play Japanese games. An intriguing story, beautiful music, eye-popping hand drawn visuals/animations and gameplay that makes you keep coming back. And this was produced by a one guy mostly. So come on Japan. Get your game on next gen.

If there is one thing you learn from the west, then learn that cloning games is a bad idea.

This is hilarious!

Have you tried  "Ys" and  "Legend of Heroes :Trails in the Sky" (Eiyuu Densetsu :Sora no Kiseki) .  And I'm agree with you , cloning games is REALLY  bad idea !

The question of what does Inafune wan to reproduce from the western market?

What he thinks is that the Japanese market needs to clone their own games more, and have annual releases of games with art and gameplay mechanics from last years effort reused in some new scenarios. Like the sports game industry, the annual release of Call of Duty games, etc... This is the same philosophy that he has always championed at Capcom, look at his game development history: clone clone clone, until we have 157 versions of Megaman.


What word does your spellchecker want to correct "Inafune" to?

The problem is that Japanese games have been "westernized" way to much and with it the quality have gone severely down... atleast for me.

Thanks for that brilliantly insightful response Kain Kusanagi. I imagine in a past life you must have been a parrot. Anyway, looking at the sales data for the PS3/360/Wii gen, the majority of bestsellers in the top 20 globally where *wait for it* Japanese. But let me guess, Nintendo doesn't count, right? Also the highest rated as well, that's gotta hurt some of you jingoistic types. I will say this though, the west has Japan beat in one key area, that of going out of business. Not since the crash in the 80's have I seen so many companies crash and spectacularly burn. Enjoy your bloated AAA tripe and "deep" (lol) stories, because it isn't sustainable and it's gonna implode sooner than later. Guaranteed when the bubble bursts, Nintendo will still be here to once again pick up the pieces, laughing all the way to the bank while doing so.

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~tads12

Not sure how many FPS and franchised sports simulators I have played made by Japanese developers.

If anything, games like Assassin's Creed have shown the opposite trend, western games are becoming more like Japanese titles.

I don't like the way he puts this. It sounds like he wants Japanese studios to churn out western styled games. Almost all the games I like are Japanese, and distinctly so. They need to be confident about their own style!