torok said:
I think that the problem is that Japanese developers and companies don't have the slight idea anymore of what the western market wants. They create niche games, release games for previous gen platforms and take all the obnoxious decisions that they can. Just look at Capcom. They announced an E3 conference with Street Fighter 5 and a bunch or remasters. WTF. EA or Activision wouldn't do that. If you look at the PS4, it isn't a Japanese consoles. It's a western console. Mark Cerny isn't Japanese and Sony US had more input on it than the headquarters. They had some flexibility where SCEA, SCEE and SCEJ had input on the console. We know that Nintendo is more restrict and that their strategy is defined by the Japanese headquarters, while NOA and the others are basically glorified puppets. So they created a Japanese console and create Japanese games. It's more of a cultural issue and maybe it's a temporary problem. During the PS1 years, the american video game industry was in a low time with a lot of studios and publishers closing. |
I think this is where Nintendo really misses Hiroshi Yamauchi, precisely because he wasn't a game designer.
Yamauchi didn't give a crap about game politics or even the games themselves (lol), he was just a ruthless businessman. If there was money to be made he'd do it, and he was much more pragmatic about market differences. Nintendo would make things like Star Wars games and James Bond games and Killer Instinct and NBA games and baseball games ... because it made sense. Of course Americans like that sort of thing so we'll make it. Simple.
The PS4 is an American console, but 20 years before the PS4, Yamauchi went over his entire Japanese division and signed a deal with SGI for the N64, which was basically a Western console. So he was ahead of the curve.
I think unfortunately modern Nintendo is too mired in the red tape politics of Japanese game development tradition. Too many developers in charge, not enough business men. Too many people at NCL who feel their opinion should be heard because they've worked at the company since 1980-whatever. I really think it was Miyamoto that honestly pushed Yamauchi to make the N64 cartridge-only because he couldn't stand loading times, but as a result Nintendo basically handed over their strong hold on the game market to Sony.
Just stupid decisions like that ... it's really why you want business suits to the run the business, not game designers.
And really I think a lot of these games like Bayonetta 2 and Devils Third are basically greenlight by Nintendo in the "Japanese developer fraternity" type inner circle, they're all buds outside of work and they all talk shop and probably drink sake after work ... but this is not how you run a business by greenlighting games based on "Such And Such-San needs funding for his game, he's a good guy so lets give it to him"
