Namco Bandai VP says Japan no longer sets video game benchmark

The West has surpassed Japan in terms of its creative and technological output in the video games industry according to Namco Bandai vice president Olivier Comte.

"It's complicated for me to talk but what I can say is - and this is me speaking as a consumer - five to ten years ago Japanese developers were at the top worldwide," Comte told CVG When asked whether the Japanese games industry is dieing.

"Coming from Japan was a benchmark - it was synonymous with 'video games'. In the last five years this hasn't been the case."

"All the creativity, all the technology is coming from Western developers; Epic, BioWare, Crytek, Ninja Theory, whatever," Comte continued.

"I think today they are a little bit in advance compared to Japanese developers."

Namco Bandai are trying to buck the trend, however:

"What Namco Bandai is doing is pushing out and signing some very good products outside of Japan and I hope we will continue to do this," said Comte. "As for other companies, I don't know."

There does appear to be some concern for the Japanese games industry, even in Japan itself. 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.

Read our full interview with Namco Bandai's Olivier for more on Enslaved, PC piracy and Japan.

 Source computerandvideogames.com

I completely disagree with the above:

I have seen more creativity from Nintendo this generation than any other developer; Japanese or Western.  I would also say that Japanese games still set the benchmark in both sales and quality.

Yes this statement by Namco no less is very debatable. It's really strange that a company based in Japan would say this to begin with.  

i think hes right. the games which have been defining this GEN have all come from developers west of japan.

whether its a european, U.K or U.S developer. There the ones who seem to be doing new things or setting the bench mark for graphics and creativity.

But nether the less i do still like what japan does.

Ew that is a poorly written article, wonder what has made Namco go out and make all these comments lately lol

Quite the opposite, all defining games this gen came from Japan, namely from Nintendo. Though it should be pointed out that Nintendo isn't a good representation of average japanese developer, while Namco-Bandai is (4/5 of their sales are from Japan).

he hd pay cut

Don't you know Nintendo is another problem.  - Namco!

In all seriousness, I really don't know why Nintendo or Sony are excluded from this. For some reason I think namco is just trying to look for every possibly excuse to explain sales.

Also I would have never thought creativity and epic were ever going to be in the same sentence.

Fallout 3

Enough said.

I'd rather have a game like 3D dot heroes, Demon's Souls or Little King's Story over any grey GoW clone, thank you. And Namco, plz bring over Tales of Graces and then go die in a hole or somthing. You talk crap.