Wow, never knew this. Then, he's smart indeed...

Found it: http://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/368023/Tetsuya+Takahashi+Talks+Xenoblade+Chronicles+X/

"This is just my personal view, but I think that Monolith Soft should continue making the kind of games that can't be made within Nintendo"

Its no secret, Japan is almost its own market. Nintendo is one of few companies that manages to have very successful games in both the west and Japan.

Many of the Japanese games we play in the west were designed for us. While the games designed for Japanese consumers tend to do modest numbers here.

People who make troll accounts really need to get out more often. Maybe watch Star Wars. To get outside, once. -StarOcean

I still haven't played XCX, but I'm curious to see what they have in store for the NX.

Given the general trend of Japanese developers to be very set in their ways and views, and to be quietly prejudiced this way, I find this comment very surprising only by the fact that it's something he outright said. It's always been pretty clear he preferred a more open, Western style of development even in the Xenogears days with how the plots go.

And I'm not taking any shot at Japanese games with any of the above comment. I genuinely enjoy many Japanese games. I just think it's simply interesting that he bucks the usual trend so openly, and I think his games thrive for that reason. That's very true of other devs too, like From Software in recent years.

Actually, more specifically he wanted Japanese game development to get better but I'd still like a to see reference for his preference ...

I always wondered why the city in the game is American city instead of a Japanese one... Apparently this guy really loves the west.

It may be his preference, but XCX is very much like a Japanese game. The open world aspect does have its European roots and open world style is mostly a found in European games, but art style, combat style, the characters, all the robots, destruction of Earth, are elements mostly found in Japanese games.

While Takahashi has traditionally taken a lot of European science fiction and philosophy and incorporates it into his story and setting, this is actually something much more commonly done by the Japanese in games and anime than actual European or US TV or game developers. In fact, Takahashi has done this in more interesting ways than any other game developer in the world has ever done. He should toot his own horn more.

On mobile vs. console, I am not sure if he realizes this, but the console industry in Europe has been on the decline for around 5 or 6 years now, and mobile is sharply rising.

But I think it is nice to know someone's background to understand where his/her work comes from.