14 DAY TRIAL // Japan has a bit of a history when it comes to opening up to the West, and some things don't really change. While things have mellowed out since the Meiji era, Japan still has its problems in negotiating and communicating with the States, and it looks like video games have been caught in the crossfire. As one of the biggest video-game producers, it was inevitable that the two industries, the American and the Japanese ones, would eventually join forces but, when they did, sparks flew. Just a few weeks ago, Resident Evil producer Jun Takeuchi voiced his difficulties in collaborating with Western studios, and now the head of Capcom itself has shared a similar opinion.
During a Q&A session held this week, Capcom's President, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, stated that, “Our experience with Bionic Commando has demonstrated the difficulty of outsourcing the development of new title[s] to overseas companies. Nevertheless, we cannot develop a sufficient number of titles without using the resources of these companies. This is why we plan to continue using these alliances.” So, while its developing partners don't rise to the standards that the Japanese company would need, at least they make up with sheer numbers and raw manpower.
“We are considering ways to separate the roles of activities in Japan and overseas. We plan to develop new titles primarily in Japan. Overseas companies may be used mostly to develop titles for existing game series with well-established characters and universal themes. Overseas companies will also handle certain parts and/or lineups of such games,” Tsujimoto added.
All in all, it looks like the main reason for the less-than-perfect collaboration of Capcom and overseas studios could just be the perfectionist nature of the Japanese. Of course, since they keep releasing seriously good titles, one can't really blame them. It's not that the West doesn't come up with games just as good, if not even better, it's just that Japanese companies are less likely to make the mistakes than, let's say, randomly picking, Infinity Ward does. And, even if the two working studios would be a perfect match in developing potential, cultural differences are bound to come up. Small things and details are bound to be lost in translation.