14 DAY TRIAL // The Japanese game market is slowly fading away, as most of the big games right now come from and have their success in the West, according to Capcom's Kenji Inafune. Capcom itself has started a move for the West with titles like Dead Rising 2 or Dark Void, clearly aimed at a North American and European audience rather than a traditional Japanese crowd.
“Every year that I come to E3, year in and year out, the one thing I’ve noticed is that it seems like the Japanese game developer share seems to be getting smaller and smaller,” he said for Videogamer. “If you look at the major titles, they’re now primarily western. If you look at all the different signs and all the billboards, most of those are western titles. A lot of the key announcements are also western titles. I think to myself sometimes, if we keep on this course, the Japanese gaming market will disappear totally.”
The only way Japanese developers and publishers will survive is by working with their colleagues from North America and Europe. Sharing knowledge, ideas and gameplay philosophies is of capital importance, if Japanese entertainment software companies are to make it through these difficult times for the local industry.
Dead Rising 2 is just one of the titles meant to establish Capcom as a big name on the Western market. The game is a survival horror that pits players against hordes of zombies. The developer, Blue Castle Games, is boasting huge numbers of enemies rendered on screen, going up to a staggering 6,000 zombies present in a given scene. Furthermore, a crafting component will be included, allowing the manufacture of weapons from parts found in the title's levels. Dead Rising 2 will release on the 31st of August in North America and the 3rd of September in Europe for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC.