Japanese gaming is dead?

The global Head of Production at Capcom, Keiji Inafune, believes Japanese Developers should westernize their games.

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"I look around Tokyo Games Show, and everyone's making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind," the Mega Man and Dead Rising creator told the New York Times.

"Capcom is barely keeping up. I want to study how Westerners live, and make games that appeal to them."

That's certainly a little gloomier than Inafune let on during Capcom's TGS press event, where he said "the Japanese game industry isn't dead as long as Capcom is around".

Source: http://kotaku.com/5642476/japanese-developers-making-awful-games

Now, this worries me coming from a someone who's made great IPs and such. Capcom is, or used to be one of my favorite developers but the idea to westernize Japanese IPs just rubs me the wrong way.

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I want to study how Westerners live, and make games that appeal to them.

Please don't just look at the FPS fanbase and call it a day, for the love of gaming.

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"I think Japanese gaming is dead. When I say these things, I'm called a traitor. But I love Japan. I want to save it."
"It's like we're still making games for the last generation of game consoles." And Inafune's ire isn't just aimed at competitors -- he cited Lost Planet 2 as a clear failure to connect with audiences everywhere. "Lost Planet 1 was designed for the Western market. But the guys who made Lost Planet 2 were misguided. They made it too Japanese. They made it like Monster Hunter."

Inafune is willing to compromise here: "We basically want to make games that will sell globally, but some games might sell only in Japan.That's O.K. – as long as we make a profit on it." Still, he warned that Capcom remained complacent in the ranks of worldwide competitors, who are already targeting bigger markets like China. "I'm always so shocked when I see global sales rankings," he said. "I think: Wow, Capcom's ranked so low. However you approach it, we're dead. Resident Evil sold 5 million copies. That's still no good."

Inafune is well aware of how harsh his comments appear among Japanese creators -- who are "always so ambiguous" -- and expects to be treated like a "lunatic." He'll either be in full control of Capcom and the Japanese industry within the next five years ... or be relegated to playing cards with Yu Suzuki in a basement somewhere.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/20/keiji-inafune-remains-critical-of-japanese-games-deems-even-cap/

Yes, I'll agree that some games could use some western touches, but to completely change the pace of Japanese gaming sounds absurd. You guys remember back in the day when the west was the one trying to catch up to Japan in the gaming industry? Now it feels as if the hare is preying on the fox this time around.

On a side note:

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or be relegated to playing cards with Yu Suzuki in a basement somewhere.

Anyway,VGH Community, what are your thoughts on this? Will succumbing to westernization save the Japanese gaming industry, or will it cease it? Is Inafune really a loony?

i know its sad to say but nowadays its all about the money so they may go down the roads of profit rather than what their fans want, they would rather have the rest of the worlds money than say the japanese game fans respect. You never know by some stroke of luck it might not change, but at the end of the day they are a business and business needs money.

I just feel like western games fuck up so many good eastern games just because they are trying to influence and get a more broad sense of audience. I mean what's better than seeing a buncha white people playing Silent Hill or something. I just hate how they tweak it, to the point that it gets watered down and lose its credibility.

I was reading this earlier, I find it so saddening because there are so many good Japanese games that seriously get fucked over because developers try to westernize it. Resident Evil was a perfectly good series, and with RE5 I think they tried to change too much from RE4, and RE4 was already a huge change from 1,2, and 3. Capcom has a lot of games coming out in the next few years, it will be interesting to see how this will play a role in their development.