You’d think a man working at a Japanese game development studio would be a big fan of Japanese games, but apparently not. Jean Kellams, a writer at PlatinumGames – the people behind Vanquish and Bayonetta – reckons that most games coming out of Japan these days just aren’t all that anymore.
“The problems with Japanese games aren’t that they are [Japanese] games or that they are Westernised games. The problems with [Japanese] games are simple: Most of them aren’t very good games. People don’t buy those. Most games from anywhere aren’t good. That’s why exceptional means exceptional,” he wrote in a lengthy Twitter essay on the topic.
“Most Japanese publishers/developers can’t invest money/manpower enough to compete with exceptional Western productions. Risk is too high. It costs money and sweat to make things stand out, but it also raises the risk. Then marketing is crazy expensive after that.”
Adding that “games sell on spectacle”, Kellams criticised the market mentality that automatically disregards triple-A launches for their own sake.
“They sell because they are good,” he said. “They match great production values with great execution on great ideas. They sell on easy to understand themes.”
He went on to say that Japanese games need to improve on engaging meaningfully with players and, as he described it, “reducing friction”.
“If we have the best ideas, we need to make sure you don’t have to wonder why. Friction means you need to look at a character and identify with what that character is supposed to represent. Friction means never underestimating the intelligence of your audience. Culturally, Japanese design is about being inclusive. They don’t want anyone left behind, so they will add friction to an experience. Except then you move at the pace of the slowest one in a group. It bogs the experience down for people who already get it.”
Source: Siliconera
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Um hello… ever heard of a game called Dark Souls? Oh and what about The entire MGS series?(To mention just a few) It seems tht that guy at platinum games somehow hasnt played some of the great games Japan has made. Of course some games r not going to be good but that doesnt mean that Japan should then be shunned . And when this guy said that Japanese games “add friction to the experience” , saying that the games are too simple , too easy , this man has obviously been playing too many Nintendo games . Its all this negativity toward Japanese developers that has probably made them lose their love of making great games.
Monster Hunter is awesome btw ^_^