Total bull, this is exactly what this is all about.  He wants Japanese gamers to get into Western games to justify his companies push to focus on the western market.  He's stated many times that SE in the last few years has been trying to focus on the western market and this sounds exactly like another of his off-the-cuff speeches where he tries to blame everyone else for not following his vision.  A vision which has been hurting SquareEnix for quite a long time.

Yes, quite a few gamers in Japan focus too much on games from their own country.  But its the same in America.  Using Modern Warfare is a horrible example as tons of people who bought Modern Warfare are the perfect example of what he was arguing about, Americans who only buy games that 'look and feel western' and probably don't even buy a single game from SquareEnix in their life.  He should be less focused on trying to waggle his finger at groups of people and their tastes and instead try to make games to appeal to those tastes.  Or better still, trying to find a way to get those closed-minded groups to buy new games, instead of just trying to chastise them in interviews.  Especially since he is head of a company that is one of the forefronts of 'Japanese' interests in gaming.

shiiiiit...I dont blame them, I cant stand western made games everything about them makes me cringe, and I also blame them 100% for the terrible todays outlook of wat a "Mature game" is...ugh Japanes needs to retake the crown of Market Leader and put us back on the right track...I never want another western lead gen EVER

The XBOX isn't 'all western games'.  And frankly, it wasn't even all the games on the XBOX which turned the system towards the 'Mature/Sports/FPS' angle.  And if you really look into things, the PS2 helped with that 'Mature' trend a LOT.  Or did you not notice games like God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, etc.

Aside from all this, there are good western made games.  There's tons actually.  Just like there's bad Japanese games.  Tons.  Just like anything, its about finding the 10% of good stuff.  And western games have good games just like Japanese made games.

??? what's a weaboo?

Mangas are the equivalent of a comic book(or graphic novels for some people)

::blasts some Jrock::

@ kenryuku - where did I say xbox at all? I mean in general that includes that tasteless gow...I look how much changed SW side since the took control

Devil May Cry, Onimusha, and Dynasty Warriors beg to to differ.

The number of misguided generalizations being tossed around in this thread is pitiful.

It's not at the same level. Japanese games have achieved great success in America. How many western games achieved great success in Japan by comparison? It is very clear that westerners (except for the western otaku who think that almost all western games suck and play almost nothing but Japanese games) have a more culturally diverse gaming diet. Look at Nintendo (biggest, most successful publisher worldwide), look at Capcom, look at Square-Enix (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts are multi-million sellers in the west. Parasite Eve, FF Tactics and some other Square IPs sold quite well too. Name one million selling wrpg in Japan), look at Konami, Sega, Sony (GT, Dark Cloud and what not), etc. Which western companies are having this kind of success in Japan? I'm a fan of Japanese games but for my fellow otaku to make some silly excuse like "well western games suck, thats why the japanese won't buy them" is just wrong. If they gave them a chance, they'd see that there are lots of awesome western games out there to play.

It could just be a problem of marketing or something in the end. It boggles my mind that the Japanese can accept McDonalds (yes its popular there), can accept Apple, can accept Microsoft Windows, can accept western fashions and popular culture (they go crazy for western celebrities there) but still shun the video games.

The sales of franchises like Final Fantasy and Resident Evil show that Japanese developers have found much more success in the West than Western devs have found in Japan. I can't think of a single Western franchise that has managed more than 500k in sales in Japan since Crash Bandicoot for the original PlayStation. The only one that has come close was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which achieved 410k (which also goes against the idea that the Japanese don't enjoy the occasional bit of Mindless violence).

LOL at people saying that there are no "classic" western games...

Fallout (series), X-wing (series), Half Life, Starcraft, Balders, Elders, Populous, Sim City, Maniac Mansion (series)... all of those games are classics and most have great stories. Just as compelling as the titles being bandied about here.

Need I mention, PONG, without which the industry as we know it would not exist - or would at the very least be significantly delayed.

Come on, don't go positing your biased opinions as fact. There are classics on both sides.

I guess you won't be playing LittleBigPlanet with me anytime soon...