If you guys don't know why western console gaming has become so popular, its quite easy. Western devs who were console only were struggling to understand out to make better games than the Japanese. Microsoft brought in the PC devs to the console realm to make their lineup look more appealing. Bethesda and Epic, Bioware, Valve and Microsoft purchased Lionhead and Bungie whom were also PC devs whom finally had a reason to be on consoles full time while still making multiplats for PC instead of just part time. Rockstar was one of the untouchable western console devs during that time. As time went on the console realms profitability eclipsed PC gaming outside of Blizzard. 

Remember before the Xbox came out.. PC gaming was still extremely strong. Having the top PC devs making console games made console gaming stronger and made Japanese development seem sad in the process.

Think about it.

Games have gotten worse in general... Blizzard, bioware, SE, Nintendo are all worse than their heyday. They still make some good games though. And there's still plenty of gems.

I've yet to see a really great game come out of kicks tarter. I'm excited for a lot of games like dreamfall, project eternity, that space game etc. But I've seen no proof kickstarter is something amazing, it's just devs getting people to invest and take the risk without a payoff. In return, they get a game they hope will be what they want.

I have to agree on this.

Wait until Atlus releases Persona 5, then he'll have to retract every sentence. Save the Japanese industry Atlus.

What are his complains exactly? That there are not enough indie developers in Japan? that's the complain that I got from his statement, which doesn't relate to the issues people are mentioning in this thread.

I personally don't know anything about the indie scene in Japan, and if I understood Inafune correctly, there doesn't seem to be that many there, or if there is, it's harder for them to complete their games and the reason why he mentioned Kickstarter.

If this if the franchise that will bring Japan out of the hole, be my guest...let them try.

Lets take a look:

SEGA - A shell of their former selves. They have completely turned their backs on their image and fans in the west. They have their names on some of the worst shit this entire generation. Im am glade they pulled through but their was a time when I thought they were done for.

Sqaure Enix - The biggest disappointed from Japan. They actual managed to do mostly nothing the entire gen. Horible management led to to first disaster in FF history wit 14, never got versus, No KH3, 13 left no impresion, sullied DQ.. list goes on.

CAPCOM - Self disaster. Managed to damage every IP thats not Street Fighter or Monster Hunter. They fucked up MvsC3, SFxT, DmC, MegeMan, Ace Attourney, Resident Evil,.. They are losing fans fast

Namco Bandai - Pretty much a anime license company. We cant ever expect to see anything from them. Have completely turned their backs on the growth of tales. They keep under delivering in the Soul Calibur line , Tekken Sales a dropping

Sony Japan - Took a lunch break and never came back.

Konami - Who? only relevant due to Kojima. Castlevania is on its way to death if something is not done to breath life into the series.

Tecmo Koei - Sucks. They put the hurtin on NG series. Dynasty warriors is relic.

Platinum games - They just cant make games that people want to buy. MGR is like their most successful game, but thats because its metal gear. Bayo's sells came mainly from being mark down.

What happened to Mistwalker? - Making a surfing game on Iphone. What a fall.

Yuji Naka and probe - Does nothing

We have smaller developers like Compile Heart and Imageepoch and Grasshopper that do more harm than good. Neptunia and Toki Towa are embarrassments. Compiled Shit is just bad in general. Suda51 is hack and is looking like he's headed for his next bomb. Nis, Vanillaware, Gust and Atlus are ok to cool they can do very little to wake Japan up.

Level 5 - I remember when this company was touted as next SE. Yea fuckin right. What have they done this entire generation?

Its so frustrating to watch them willing go into obscurity.. no fight.. nothing. Japan regularly does nothing. They have their times when a cult classic pops up every now and then.

Japan's ability to make any impact on the industy this. Minus Nintendo, all the top games in every genre are going to come from western developers.

In terms of sales and popularity, I agree.

In terms of creativity, neither one wins, unless you count the indie scene in the west, and that is debatable.

Ni no Kuni didnt even do anything for genre. Definitely nothing for market. Ni No Kuni is actual is what is wrong with Japan. Living off the past hardly building a future.