Last year, Keiji Inafune wasn't shy about telling everyone about the dire state of Japanese gaming. And that hasn't changed.
Former Capcom boss and Comcept founder Inafune spoke to GameSpot about how Japanese developers still aren't up to snuff; in fact, he said since his statements, he thinks things might've gotten worse. Said Inafune:
"I had wanted Japanese games to be better. But looking back on the last couple of years, it hasn't changed. I had hoped it would have gone better, but because it hasn't changed, it's probably gotten worse. But compared to when I started being vocal, now everybody knows for sure that it's not in a good state. They just haven't come to a conclusion as to what they should do, so I'm still hoping it will be better."
That's the silver lining, really. Everyone's attention was drawn to the seemingly obvious fact that even the best Japanese franchises were starting to pale in comparison to the Western masterpieces. Previously, another outspoken gaming personality, Tomonobu Itagaki, suggested that budgets simply aren't high enough for Japanese game projects.
Inafune also reiterated his belief that Japanese devs have to learn how to go global, and they're not really trying:
"There are a lot of specific problems, but a good example would be that this is GDC. It's the Game Developers Conference. Out of the Japanese creators, how many of the major ones are here at the show? It's very limited, and that itself states that Japan is not taking global business seriously. They should be here at the show, giving sessions and mingling with the rest of the world more, intentionally. But I don't see that, and that's one of the biggest problems…that Japan is not looking at the global perspective. We all know for sure that we have to go global, but the actions are not there."
Personally, I think what we really need is for Hideo Kojima to come through big time with MGS5 (and maybe that secret project, too), and for The Last Guardian to make an appropriately large splash. That could help a lot but of course, there's still a long ways to go…
