Yoshi-P: "...the future of the Japanese game industry isn't that bright..."

[Moirear]

This is not new to me. I've been getting this vibe from interviews/statements from various Japanese developers in different genres as well, over the past years. What immediately comes to mind are the devs from various horror games, as well as Hideo Kojima angsting about the latest GTA games in comparison to his Metal Gear series.

The general tenor is usually: the west puts more resources into their games, or is more revolutionary in their design choices, or put more effort into their titles, or they have more potential for innovation.

I don't agree 100%, but what do I know.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's because Japan used to be world-leading in the field of video games up into and through the 90s, but since some shifts around the millenium, there has been a lot of creative energy and major success stories going around for some western developers.

I see potential for healthy competition. If this is going to inspire JP developers to give 200% instead of 100%, it sounds good to me.

[Gormogon]

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Only reason I've noticed that ever become an issue is due to the fact of "competitive" competition which is enforced by "corrupt media" which is no myth since a lot of those reviews have stated that their reviews where "bought out".

Which personally it is an issue because it has only enforced chaos more than it has promoted competition.

If I were to compare the competition approach from the 4th generation most games would mimic a winning formula but kept true to their story and genre and if we compared that same approach to the 7th generation we end up with a horrible format that doesn't work for most games.

Example:
4th gen: Batman, Spiderman, The Mask, Super Star-Wars.
7th gen: Batman, Spiderman, Hulk.

It's sad that most companies would list to reviews especially when they are fixed over listening to their honest fanbase.

[Zumi]

Japan has shifted their focus to cell phone games because that is what their consumers find popular now. But I loved the 13 series I platinumed all 3 games some of the best FF games I have played and I have played all of them.

[Double]

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ReviewtechUSA made a decent argument based on something not directly about, but dangerously close to this situation.

Capcom(A japanese company) is currently throwing themselves up for sale thanks to God-Awful sales from pretty much all their major IPs and horrendous backlash of the community.

Why is this happening?

To be blunt, Japanese companies are just too damn arrogant and stubborn and never admits to being wrong.

Capcom is literally on its last leg and it's exactly because they tried to "Westernize!" ALL their major selling games into some generic trash in order to snag some of that Call-Of-Duty dollar.

They see the major IPs and idolize their games as "success" and "future" when it was the west scavenging for years, trying to compete with Nintendo and their "Immortal" status among the gaming world.

Capcom's problems weren't however the centralization of their games; It was their total disregard and shunning of the playerbase. Now, their own local fanbase doesn't want anything from them and their games are nothing that Call-Of-Duty or any other "AAA" game has out that couldn't do better.

Square's problem was that their sense of direction took a massive hit due to FF13 becoming "Westernized" and SE's arrogance on their part to ignore fanbase. Many western companies have a great idea of how a RPG should play or how they can incorporate the RPG elements into a first-person shooter.

The west took something the east created and evolved it. Japan is still trying to reinvent that wheel for some strange reason.

Japanese companies are falling on their own swords.

And no, I don't believe Copypasta games is or ever will be a good idea no matter how well the criteria works..