Epic dev says Western developers are taking over

Japan can't keep up with the US technically, according to Gears man Cliff Bleszinski.

Speaking to Xbox World 360 magazine, the Epic designer said that, in his mind, the reasons for this are two fold:

"Part of the problem is, technically, Japan just can't keep up with the US," Cliffy said when asked whether Epic had plans to move into Japan, Korea and China.

"Would they benefit from using the Unreal Development Kit? To be frank, this is largely not my department," he continued in a moment of diplomacy before saying, "Knocking on Japanese doors and saying 'hey, if you use this you can cut through a lot of the costs of building your own engine plus have a better game that comes out sooner and costs less money.' It's pretty much that simple"

Bleszinski also attributes the growing dominance of Western gaming to a decline in console gaming in Japan:

"There's been this fundamental shift. And it seems like part of the problem is not a lot of people play console games that much in Japan anymore. It's all moved to this really weird mobile-type situation."

This kind of view on the Japanese gaming industry seems to be widely held, even in Japan. Lost Planet 2 producer Jun Takeuchi said last month that the Japanese gaming industry doesn't have "a hope in hell" of catching up to the west if it doesn't evolve.

Namco on the other hand believe that Japanese games companies are in demand because they help top game studios "improve themselves".

Source

Nintendo, Sony Japan, and Polyphony Digital beg to differ.

He is sorta right, its not that Japan cant keep up its that they refuse to.

They still are stuck with the 1990's JRPG with the hero saves the day, yada yada yada. Capcom is one of the few companys that realizes this, thats why they changed RE4 and RE5 to a more action packed game.

@MakingMusic

Good points, but the article is talking about Game Developers, Nintendo has the weakest console this gen, and they dont really push their console to the limit. Now Polyphony is really working their asses off, they're working harder than most US game developers are.

Double Post....

"Internet tabloid alert: I said *nothing* about Japan not being able to keep up with the US regarding tech. There are plenty of existing and upcoming Japanese titles that look amazing. I have nothing but the utmost respect for those devs." - Cliffy B.

This sounds more to me like more ramblings of developers who are mad that their preferred medium (HD consoles) aren't popular in a specific region (Japan).  And they're pointing the finger at what they think could be the only problem.  It CERTAINLY couldn't be how the games are made, and it certaily couldn't be the system, so it must be the fans and Japan itself!

Once again I say, way to go.  Japanese fans sure are gonna go running out and buying all those beautiful console games if you keep calling them ignorant and telling them 'they don't know what they like'.  Sure, Japan is full of mindless drones who just skip over console games because they don't know any better.  And America is the land of the free where everyone knows consoles are superior!  Which is why the DS is also the most popular system here.....oops.

Also, I find it completely ironic for a developer to be trying to give advice for 'cutting costs' when they work on HD consoles making multi-million dollar games with flashy cinematics and are trying to chastise an industry that is build on being frugal.  Or did they not notice that DS and Cel Phone based games cost 1/10th the amount to make?

Of course they didn't.

Does "really weird mobile-type situation" mean we won't be seeing any Cliffy designed DS games?

Also, I'm actually not convinced with the belief that licencing engines produces better games.  IMHO there is a fair amount of evidence that the savings might not be as large as expected and that the final result is not guaranteed to be automatically polished.

Nice plug for Japanese developers paying Epic for Unreal Engine, though.

I would agree that so far this gen, technically, the big engines have been Western based.

I think this is probably the key point

I have to disagree that 'Western Developers are taking over', if you look at the really commercially successful games this generation, most are made in Japan:

Mario Galaxy

New Super Mario Bros

New Super Mario Bros Wii

Final Fantasy XIII

Dragon Quest IX

Wii Sports

Wii Fit

Mario Kart Wii

Super Smash Bros Brawl

Brain Training

Nintendogs

Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver

Monster Hunter

Metal Gear Solid 4

Animal Crossing

Why are we all getting worked up over a misquote/made up shit?

Cliff said he's never said it and there's no evidence he's said this.