Game Face

"Why is Japan so behind the curve when it comes to game development?" asks this thread on 2ch. "Is it because we have less financial resources than foreign game companies? Because we don't rely on engines like they do? Because our planners (directors) aren't skilled programmers? Why?"

Some answers put forth by totally anonymous readers are below. The interesting thing is how many of them echo similar complaints from foreign gamers: an over-focus on the niche otaku demographic, unprofessional storytelling, etc. Personally, I tend to agree with the guys who say Japan needs to turn its so-called disadvantages into assets, but then again, I'm an optimistic kind of guy. Here we go:

-Japanese game developers are born and raised and live in Japan. With games, with art, with otaku culture, and more, we have a distinct background and history. In the future we're going to have to make that a sales point, or find a way to "mine" it. For example, we'll never beat Asia when it comes to the cost performance of rendering realistic-looking graphics. But when it comes to "stylized" (deforume) stuff we can't be beaten.

-Abroad, university grads, grad school grads, and even PhDs make games. The vast majority of Japanese game industry people have a university degree or some game-design school diploma at best. There's no way we can win.

-Japanese game scenarios are the pits. We may be behind in graphics but that isn't a problem so long as they're fun and interesting. The problem is that teams can't focus when they have to carry through a crappy scenario to its end. I don't know whether to describe them as "childish" or "otaku-oriented" or what but a lot of games are just too ludicrous for adults to appreciate.

-A lot of foreign game companies hire pro screenwriters. Here we leave this critical part of the process to directors and programmers and other amateurs.

-The PS1 era had a lot of cool and lighthearted games, but starting with the PS2 "otaku games" became the norm.

-I find it really strange that in an era when we know foreign gamers love first-person shooters that not a single domestic company has even tried to make one.

-The problem isn't a lack of education or technical skill. Believe me there are plenty of over-educated dudes in this industry. The problem is the total lack of ability of management. But you could say that about Japanese businesses across the board.

-We may be behind the curve in some respects, but answer me this: is there any country out there that can beat Japan when it comes to ero-games?

Comments

[feitclub]

I like the way that last guy thinks. Celebrate the positives in life!

[Coffin Jon]

I will triple agree that Japanese game developers have to rethink their way of making games by reevaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Even here in the US, there are plenty of smaller 'indie' studios who make great games with fairly small budgets because they know how to stretch the few dollars they do get. Money may fund games, but it doesn't make them.

[Steve Harrison]

remember when video games were going to 'replace' movies, because of the interactive, immersed environment of the game was vastly superior as entertainment?

Whatever happened to that?

I mean, 40-some years of anime and manga as source material and only NOW we get a decent Hokuto no Ken game that pretty much gives the player the experience of the show? Where's the Star of the Giants game where the training is as important as the ball playing? A game on a par with an American MLB game? Where's the anison version of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, where you can wail to Ichiro Mizuki and Isao Sasaki and JAM project and MIO and such?

Know what I think is the key issue with the Japanese game market? Too much thinking like American companies. "That sold well, let's do another game just like it" yet at the same time "Well, that game tanked, so let's do it again only make it pink instead of green, THEN it'll sell for sure!"

Blargh.

[Jason Moses]

"Where's the Star of the Giants game where the training is as important as the ball playing? A game on a par with an American MLB game?"

Have you tried MLB Power Pros? I know a lot of westerners who swear by that game, and it's about as Japanese as it gets. It also has several modes that emphasize training/life management over actual play. Of course, it's got super-deformed graphics and the like (a trademark of the franchise), but the game itself is deadly serious. Definitely worth checking out.

[MattAlt]

Hokuto Muso is an amazingly well-done game, but it's really an exception, and the last thing Japan needs is relying even MORE on licensed character content.

I in no way think Japan is out of the game (pun intended) when it comes to games. But I do agree with one issue raised by the guys in the original thread. Foreign (read: English-speaking) developers increasing willingness to outsource art & writing work to professionals is a big reason why they are pulling ahead. Hiring specialists with a track record, rather than letting the guy who's temping that day write a script or do storyboards, can (if done wisely) lead to a better game. In Japan, how many game scripts or even rough scenarios have been written by people whose full-time job is writing? (I ask this not rhetorically but with a sneaking suspicion that the answer is very low.)

[Steve Harrison]

I think that's the point I'm sort of driving at, Matt. It sounds like the Japanese game industry is in the same place as the anime biz, that is: Putting the money in the wrong place, spending millions on advertising yet unwilling to hire a writer because 'Toshi can handle that, it's all about the chara image anyway'.

You get your high profile Final Fantasy or big key push Nintendo game, that's an entirely different world from...well, I don't know.

But the KEY is growth, right? So, wouldn't a game that was Star of the Giants (no SD, if you please) with realistic play yet simple, easy controls have a good shot at getting the 'over 18' to buy up a PS3 and have a go at it?

I'm not a game person at all, really, but man, the release of Beatles Rock Band makes me really, really want a PS3 and a nice HD TV. I'm sure I'm not alone in such things here or in Japan.

Mind, I'm probably the only person who would love a FPS version of Zillion, where you ride a Tri-Charger and shoot many, many Noza...

[Gen Kanai]

Replace "game" development with "software" development and you have the same issues writ much larger.

[The CronoLink]

Knowing how to program will do absolutely nothing for games. Good storytelling will do absolutely nothing for games. Superb graphics will do absolutely nothing for games. Awesome music will do absolutely nothing for games. Games are in the entertainment business and therefore their purpose is to be fun, but because they are games and not, say, books, that "fun" doesn't come by reading the game but by playing it.

Am I the only one who noticed these 2ch comments blatantly miss the 800lb gorilla in the room: Nintendo? Because last time I checked Nintendo was still a Japanese company. And the top one in the game business in the world at that.
For example, in less than 5 months New Super Mario Bros Wii has sold more than 3.6 million units in Japan (and it's still selling a lot per week), and that's a game that barely has any pretense of a story or even compare to the recent Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid games in terms of graphics or sound. Heck, even New Super Mario Bros DS is even worse than NSMBW in those aspects and more and yet right now has almost sold 6 million units and it is still selling in Japan even after 4 years of its initial release. Dragon Quest is another game very popular in Japan, as well as another bunch of games.

Looking for a solution on foreign devs is only going to make the problem even worse because they are in bad shape too. Just in the last 2 years, game companies have laid off quite a lot of employees, shut down studios or even filed bankruptcy. The middle ground has been almost completely wiped out, leaving only smaller little companies and the higher AAA game companies. Why not try to understand how is Nintendo so successful, specially being their own?

[thewilleffect]

The thing with Nintendo's success is that they to are in a niche. Luckily for them the niche they fill is a very large one that just about everyone can understand. Their games are largely child like in many ways which fills that need, but ultimately fills the same place that adults have of returning to a simpler place which in return sells those same games to them as well.

The solution is the audience. Until the audience itself stops lying to itself about what they want how are game dev's/publishers going to change their ways when the audience who are buying these games are happy with the same rot material they've been playing for 20 plus years now from Nintendo? A busines decision always hinges on one thing. You go where the money is. No one is trying to rob any banks here, but they are trying to keep the lights on.

[MattAlt]

This op-ed piece from the Japan Probe shows that the provincialism the 2ch commenters are discussing, the insularity and homogeneity of many Japanese devs compared to their counterparts abroad, isn't just an issue in the game industry:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20100414a2.html

"Japan is the only major developed nation where almost none of the men and women of influence — in the realm of ideas, business or government — are from foreign backgrounds."

I don't think the solution is turning blindly to foreign devs. It is making use of foreign talent to make games that appeal to non-Japanese as well as Japanese. That could be as simple as hiring a foreign screenwriter to do a draft, or as integral as hiring bilingual foreigners to work on the team.

It is incredible to me, in 2010, how few non-Japanese work in positions of power in the Japanese game industry -- and I do not think the issue is a lack of talent. It's communication skills -- both on the side of foreigners trying to break into the industry (who need to learn more Japanese & culture so they can break out of the localization "ghetto") and the Japanese dev teams (who need to learn to work with people who aren't necessarily Japanese, and at a level that is higher than simply localization.)

[The CronoLink]

Thinking about it, has there ever been foreign-made game that had any kind of impact or influence in Japan? Zelda, Sonic, Castlevania, Street Fighter; all these are Japanese games that made waves overseas but I can't come up with anything the other way around.

[Steve Harrison]

Matt, at this point I'd settle for hiring native English speakers (bi-lingual or not) to spell and grammar check the English used in games (and anime and...you know, everything) and LISTENING to them.

Want to hear what I consider a great tragedy happening right now? Hokuto no Ken, the whole dang TV series, is prepping to be released on DVD in the US. The company just can't seem to come up with the scratch to hire an actual translator, so the subtitles will be generated by using English scripts prepared by Toei themselves 20- some years ago. Translations that seem to skip all kinds of 'difficult' concepts, you know, because only Japanese can even begin to understand a made-up fighting art...

That's the other barrier that needs to be broken down, that surprisingly odd (in this day and age) provincial attitude.

(other example, I note the English Tamashii site has gone bye-bye. Another good job, carefully thought out and implemented by Bandai.)

[James]

Should story be such a big part of gaming? I remember back in the 80's, the 'story' was just a few lines of text at the beginning of game, telling why you're running from left to right killing ninjas/robots/aliens/zombies.

If I want a story I'll read a book or watch a film. All I value is gameplay itself. I want an experience that satisfies a different part of brain to that which is satisfied by narrative. That's why my favourite video game of all time is Tetris...

[Aceface]

And speaking of Tetris,that is one foreign made game that had some impact in Japan...

[The CronoLink]

I'm not sure about Tetris. It's of Russian origins (or Soviet, if you might) but the one who made the successful version (because at the time there were already other version of tetris for ibm pc, amiga, atari, etc) were Nintendo (publisher) and Bullet Proof Soft (developer), which both are Japanese companies.

Anyway, games should be more arcade-like: easy to pick-up, easy-to-learn/hard-to-master, highly addictive, enjoyable in short bursts, and sociables. Anything is else is the icing of the cake.

[jerry]

"-A lot of foreign game companies hire pro screenwriters." Didn't do much good, if true.

Bioware's team of writers is one of the few decent teams of writers in the entire industry, worldwide, IMO. And I don't think their lead writer, Karpyshyn, is a screenwriter.