14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese developers aren't what they used to be, at least that's what Sony Computer Entertainment executive Shuhei Yoshida thinks. In a recent interview with VideoGaming 247 he had the following to say regarding the current state of Japanese game development.
"What’s happened since the days of PS2; technology becomes more sophisticated, and more and more intense graphics technology. The technology base has shifted from Japan to the US and Europe. There are also talented people, engineers in the US and Europe, and it’s relatively easy to form a large team that required to create this generation of games. That’s not the case in Japan. Because they don’t have a large base, like the movie industry; there aren’t a lot of people in the high end of computer graphics. That’s making the many great developers in Japan make slow progress."
Although this isn't the best of times for game developers in Japan, many of them currently having RPG and casual titles under development, which are not the favorite of the European and American public, most of them still make a decent profit on the local market. The reason for this shift from high end graphics and intense gameplay titles to these types of games is the fact that they require only basic gameplay features and graphics which don't really push the edge in terms of visual effects.
Mr. Yoshida also points out that several of the games that were developed in Japan, like Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots or Gran Turismo 5, which had really successful teams working on them, are rare examples of quality high-end titles, but they are just an exception, because all the rest don't even come close to them.
All we can really hope now is that Japanese developers get back on their feet because we've seen some really stunning games coming from them in the past. It would be really bad if they focused only on titles designed for their local market, instead of creating games for the whole world.