Personally, i hope they manage to turn it around. It would be better for everyone.

The biggest problem is the japanese market itself beeing too niche with their own tastes. Dragons dogma though, proved that its possible to make games that please both markets. The problem is the western market can also be shallow at times but is also very prone to advertisement, wich is something eastern publishers usually hold back on, given its risky for them.

Also, western reviewers seem to be biased and usually welcome japanese games with suspicion. Dragons dogma is a great game that has some faults, and so is skyrim, but you see completely different scores. For some reason some faults seem to be easier to overlook than others, and i think that is related to pressure the western publishers put on western publications. A power the japanese companies dont have or choose not to use.

We all know the Japs still largely make the best games. If you disagree you have pleb taste.

No, just no. The vast majority of the video games I purchased up until the current generation were Japanese but they seem to have driven off of a cliff lately.

The challenge that Japanese developers as a whole have failed to rise to is the PS3's architecture. If the PS3 was less powerful and more developer friendly there really wouldn't have been much of a change between the current and former console generations. That being said, it is alarming to see so many Japanese development teams, including the ones within Sony, struggling to utilize six year old hardware. This also seems to have compounded the already existing problem of increased risks and diminished rewards causing developers in general to create too many sequels in lieu of making new intellectual properties. Hopefully hardware manufacturers learn from their mistakes and Japanese developers hire more qualified personnel.

The Japanese still make the most innovative and fun games. The problem is the West is more into graphics than gameplay.

While I'm sure Dragon's Dogma has its share of faults perhaps the one criticism that caught my eye was the omission of online or co-op play. It was vilified for having no multiplayer. Such criticisms were never aimed towards Skyrim or other SP oriented RPGs. I feel Western Critics are entirely oblivious to their own hypocrisy and bias.

Baynoetta was pretty awesome, and that was Japanese.

It would've been good that the article mention Nintendo as an exception.

Also, what about Street Fighter IV, I thought it did well.

The funny thing about all this is that American games have more tangible themes imho, but a the same time are very pulpy. Japanese games are usually more deep, but lack a touch with reality.

I hope that the j-games will be able to take the best of both worlds, as I don't see the American studios offer that in the long run, if hollywood is any indicator of it. Too much emphasis on the visuals and epicness rather than substance i find.

Youre quite right about nintendo. SFIV did really well. and there is a few more great japanese games. But on the whole the Japanese developers are losing their grip to the west.

The Japanese gaming industry has a lot of problems, but in regards to the software. I would wager that the majority of the problem lies within the traditionalist mindset. Japanese developers are fundamentally making the same games they were making ten years ago, or even twenty years ago. Which are largely linear affairs. While Western studios have embraced a sandbox design philosophy. Which places emphasis on giving players freedom to do as they wish.

The problem is that Western audiences have evolved, and the Japanese audience has remained intractable to even the hint of changing how they view or play games. Since the West isn't going to regress, and expect less from their games. Then the Japanese consumer must evolve to accept that games can be a more liberating affair. The way this is going to happen is for the Japanese gaming industry to stop coddling them as it were.

Japanese developers need to start forcing the issue, and be entirely unapologetic about what they are doing. The point has to be gotten across to Japanese gamers that things are going to change, and they are going to need to change with them. That means that Japanese developers are going to need to muster up the courage to shock the ever loving shit out of their fans. They can't just drag the consumer in Japan kicking and screaming the whole way. They are going to half to turn them around, and slap them right in the face. They are going to have to tell them like it is. Either your going to be with me as I try to catch up, or I am going to abandon you completely.

The point is Japanese developers need to make radical departures from what they have been doing. The gamers in Japan may throw a tantrum for a while, but after a couple years they will settle down, and they will adapt to the new normal. This is a culture historically speaking that will be intransigent right up until the point where the issue is forced, and then just buy right into the new way of doing things. So why wait to do it at the beginning of a new generation. When it would be better forced at the end of a generation.