Giren No Yabou Axis No Kyoui Isopropyl

Speaking in an interview with Edge, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has that Keiji Inafune's comments on the state of the Japanese market at Tokyo Game Show last September were 'discouraging'. Back then, Inafune said that the Japanese games industry 'is done'.

1. Microbial Biotechnology
2. Sara P Cuellarbermudez
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But Wada, who is also the head of CESA in Japan, said the comments from the Capcom developer 'surprised' him. He did also admit that the industry in the country is facing challenges, but insists Inafune's statement was out of line. 'My message by proxy for the Japanese developers who would have heard such a discouraging message is that if they are willing today, then they definitely have the capability to change and face tomorrow,' he said. 'I'll say that it's a challenge. But it's very strange to have such an extremely pessimistic view.'  In the same interview, Wada hinted that the company may start to lean on Final Fantasy less, and start looking at western games development internally more. Mmm ok beetje genuanceerd dus maar dan nog laatste stuk heb ik wel zo iets van ow en daar kom je nu pas achter?

NDS Dragon Quest IX (Square Enix) - 4,109,968 2. NDS Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (Pokemon) - 3,382,597 3. WII New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo) - 2,485,150 4. NDS Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo) - 2,311,948 5.

PS3 Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix) - 1,698,256 6. WII Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) - 1,542,806 7. WII Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) - 1,298,533 8.

WII Monster Hunter 3 (Capcom) - 968,033 9. NDS Inazuma Eleven 2 Fire/Blizzard (Level 5) - 943,615 10. PSP Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP The Best (Capcom) - 911,497 / 1,110,614 11. NDS Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Nintendo) - 717,940 12. WII Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 588,258 / 3,555,555 13. NDS Professor Leyton and the Flute of Malevolent Destiny (Level 5) - 552,085 14. NDS Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (Square Enix) - 522,260 15.

PS3 Yakuza 3 (Sega) - 509,223 16. PS3 Biohazard 5 (Capcom) - 508,959 17. NDS Rhythm Heaven (Nintendo) - 480,326 / 1,830,997 18.

WII Mario Kart wii (Nintendo) - 446,447 / 2,449,762 19. PSP Phantasy Star Portable 2 (Sega) - 443,216 20. NDS Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer of Skies (Pokemon) - 417,226 Als je kijkt naar de verkopen in jap, je ziet een beetje zelfde trend als hier veel wii fit, en veel deel 2 3 etc. Maar je ziet ook duidelijk iets waar japan dus een probleem mee heeft. De verkoop van nieuwe IP's + westerse games is bijna onzichtbaar en niet te zien.

En voor eigen nieuwe creatie die goed verkoopt is ook helaas weinig van te merken: meer over de top 100 hier. Today marks the end of the fiscal year for the Japanese gaming market, and according to figures complied by Famitsu, overall sales are down slightly at 0.6 percent. Software sales were up, which helped keep the downturn minimal, however, hardware sales didn't fare as well. According Enterbrain's market data report, between March 30, 2009 and March 28, 2010, industry sales reached 549,060 million yen, compared to 2008's 552,420 million. Hardware sales came in at 216,180 million yen, which is a 6.6 percent drop from 2008's 231,520 million.

Software totaled 332,880 million yen, which is up 3.7 percent from last year's 320,900 million. DS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi LL hardware topped the system charts with a combined 3,922,762 units, bringing LTD totals to the 30 million mark.

PSP and PSPgo came in second for the year with a combined 2,422,765 units. Here's the hardware sales chart with LTDs: 1. DS: 3,922,762 (30,075,72 2. PSP: 2,422,765 (14,227,354) 3.

Wii: 2,183,938 (10,137,092) 4. PS3: 1,925,429 (4,934,824) 5.

X360: 251,911 (1,253,102) On the software front, DS claimed three spots, with Wii and PS3 rounding out the remainder of the top five: 1. Dragon Quest IX – DS: 4,150,667 2.

Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver- DS: 3,663,655 3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii: 3,587,755 4. Friend Collection – DS: 3,085,838 5. Final Fantasy XIII – PS3: 1,881,972 Dat valt allemaal wel mee, maar als je ziet wat er verkoopt en op welk systeem dan zie je gewoon duidelijk de trend die vanaf dag 1 in dit topic loopt. De draagbare systemen zijn het belangrijkst in Japan en daar hebben Japanse devs het moeilijk mee om aan de man te brengen in het westen. (Als je GEEN Nintendo heet dan he want die verkoopt alles wat los en vast zit overal op de wereld).

Enterbrain CEO Hirokazu Hamamura held one of his periodic market seminars on the 9th. As usual, he offered industry analysis and predictions to the members of the press. Mainichi shared a summary. In a past seminar, Hamamura suggested that Dragon Quest IX could go on to sell 5 million units. He brought out the 5 million figure at this seminar as well, only regarding PSP's Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. Noting that two out of three gamers want to play it (this is presumably from Enterbrain research), he suggested that the game could target 5 million units.

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G has shipped 4 million units across its standard and budget re-releases, making it the biggest PSP game ever. On the PSP in general, he referred to the system as 'A domestic game machine that sells only in Japan.' He seems to have a negative opinion about PSP go, noting that it's selling worse than Wonderswan, a portable game machine released by Bandai in 1999. 'You can now download Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G,' he said, 'but you can't really say that you can play the game properly.'

Many gamers have complained that the PSP go's control layout makes playing Monster Hunter difficult. This wasn't an issue until late last month when Capcom released Monster Hunter in downloadable form for the first time. Sony is even started bundling free copies of the game with PSP go, but sales did not see any form of spike. Even as the standard PSP tops the weekly hardware charts, PSP go consistently sells worse than PS2 and Xbox 360. Hamamura also shared comments on other platforms.

Regarding Xbox 360, he said of Bayonetta, ' The Xbox 360 version is better, but it sold half as much as the PS3 version.' He pointed to this as evidence that software may not necessarily be all that it takes to win in a multiplatform strategy. However, he said that Monster Hunter Frontier Online represents another chance for the system, as it will be the first HD Monster Hunter game. Wii continues to remain a 'Nintendo market,' he said. He cited as evidence Capcom's Monster Hunter 3, which he said had great expectations, but capped off at one million units. In past seminars, Hamamura has indicated that he expected more than this for the game.

On PS3, he made note of the recent success of Sony's Torne DVR kit, likening this to the PS3's popularity in North American and European markets as a Blu-ray player. He seems to be a bit skeptical of Sony's upcoming Move motion controller device, though, stating 'If the price is around ¥10,000, it will be tough. It's possible it could end up as just a peripheral.' Hamamura also spoke about upcoming platforms. On Nintendo's new 3DS system, he played down the importance of the system's 3D capabilities, suggesting that Nintendo could be hiding something major about the system outside of the 3D. On a possible PSP successor, he said 'Of course, it's probably in development, but at present I'm not hearing anything.' Best wel interessant stukje over de Japanse markt.

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? 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? Code: From 2008/12/29 2010/01/031 NDS Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Square Enix) 4,109,7732 WII New Super Mario Bros. Van zulke cijfers zou je toch ook moedeloos worden als ontwikkelaar? Alleen maar langlopende series die weinig vernieuwends doen. Als je een keer wat nieuws doet, mag je blij zijn als je break-even haalt volgens mij.

Idd en dan vinden ze het raar dat japanse games het 'slecht' doen in het westen, en vragen ze zich af waarom westerse games zoveel meer verkopen. Als je als land alleen maar pokemon, fianal fantasy en gundam maakt. (beetje gegeneraliseerd natuurlijk maar iedereen snapt wat we bedoelen). Lost Planet 2 and Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi has said that unless the Japanese games industry evolves and keeps up with western games development, it doesn't have a 'hope in hell'. 'If the Japanese games industry doesn't evolve and simply maintains its current status quo, I really don't think we have a hope in hell,' Takeuchi told Xbox World 360.

'Drastically innovative ideas are needed – and quickly – to equal or exceed the Western games industry.'  His comments are very similar to ones made by fellow Capcom producer Keiji Inafune last year at Tokyo Game Show, when he said that the Japanese games industry was 'finished'. 'Personally when I looked around at all the different games at the TGS floor,' he said back in September, 'I said '˜Man, Japan is over. Our game industry is finished.'  TAM TAM TAM. Square Enix Game Announcement Will 'Change Japanese History' imageSquare Enix is teasing a game with an unlikely partner.

Web portal Yahoo! And the video game publisher have an announcement set for May 21. If that wasn't surprising enough, the teaser site says it will change Japanese history. Maybe they mean literally? A time traveling Sengoku period game could fit the bill.

In their financial report, Square Enix mentioned moving into network games was one of their goals. A partnership with Yahoo suggests this could be a browser based game or another mobile phone title.

Just a couple of days until we find out for sure. Capcom's Kenji Inafune has said that gaming's becoming largely a western market, which is why Capcom is 'fighting the good fight,' in order to get its games to work. Speaking to Videogamer at E3, Inafune emphasizes the point, saying that unless Japanese developers stand up and be counted, it could be too late. '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. '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.'  As for how Capcom Japan is going to make itself stand out from the western crowd, Inafune said it will not only be relying on it's own skill, but those of its branches in the west.

'We can't just rely on our own skill, our own Japanese developer skill and know-how, to steer us through this dark time,' he said. 'It's going to have to come through collaborative efforts and co-operation. It's our US staff, our European staff, working closely with them. 'Of course we are working with a lot of different western developers as well.

It's being able to share their knowledge and information, to collaborate with them on a very in-depth level, that's going to allow us to grow as a company and to be able to understand how the market is changing in the west, and allow us to be competitive in those markets. That's going to be essential for us.'  Inafune's comments are in a similar vein to ones he made during TGS last year, when he lamented that the Japanese gaming market 'was finished'. Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada believes game companies' globalisation efforts have been a failure to date.

'We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed. Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan.

Nobody has succeeded at globalisation,' he told VentureBeat. 'But it hasn't succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the western developers to make games.'  Wada said that his aim is to create an environment 'where completely different ethnic groups can coexist in the same company'.

Eidos, which Square acquired last year, is treated as an equal to the firm's Japanese studios, he said, with former Eidos CEO Phil Rogers now holding the same title at Square Enix Europe. 'It is important that what's in America should be handled by Americans,' Wada said. 'The same goes in Europe and in Japan.

These people who are deeply rooted in their own cultures can engage in their own dialogues. The mistakes I have seen so far are when Japanese people try to do everything the Japanese way, using Japanese workers in different areas of the world.' A popular theme of late is how Japan has lost its edge.

The country isn't where it should be. But, says one game developer, it isn't technology that is holding back Japan. It's ambition.

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima expressed his opinion after watching a TV program on foreign students studying manga in Japan. He was impressed at how driven the foreign students were. 'The Game Industry is very similar,' Kojima tweeted.

'The West is very motivated. The younger generation of Japan is losing. The designers and to-be-designers in the West have the focus, ambition, and ability to make their dream become true. So it is not the Japanese technology or culture that is losing, we are lacking the motivation.' Kojima also notes that fewer and fewer Japanese studying are studying abroad. There just doesn't seem to be the gumption.

In the Post War Era, Japan had no shortage of get up and go. That generation rebuilt the country back up from burning rumble.

Of course, Japan didn't do it alone, but the country did do it. The next generation, likewise, worked hard and helped propel the country towards economic dominance. This generation was born after their war, and their parents had experienced the hardships firsthand. The current generation was born during Japan's 'Bubble Economy' and came of age during the country's 'Lost Decade' of economy stagnation. Is it this generation that lacks motivation? Ik ben het toch niet helemaal eens met die artikelen. Ze gaan de pijnlijke waarheid uit de weg waar het wat mij betreft om gaat.

Werkelijke kunst vertoond zich over tijd, de latere Metal Gear Solid delen zijn wmb de grootste pulp die we recentelijk hebben kunnen aanschouwen in gamelandje, dus Kojima is de wrong person to ask. Ook de latere Final Fantasy delen worden nu al veel minder gewaardeerd dan de delen voor VII, er begint zich gewoon een beeld af te tekenen dat Japanse games een compleet verkeerde richting in zijn gegaan in de jaren vanaf 98 ongeveer.

Teveel focus op techniek en visuals, te weinig op de speler. Teveel proberen te vertellen met slecht geschreven scripts.

Daar kun je een generatie mee voor de gek houden, maar eens barst die bubbel. De opmars van westerse RPGs en storytelling (ook in Japan) is niet zo verwonderlijk, ze stellen nog steeds de speler centraal en hebben dit nog verder uitgebouwd door de wereld om je heen te laten veranderen (Fallout 3) en diepere dialogen em karakters (Mass Effect) neer te zetten zonder daarmee de gamer te verwaarlozen. DAT is de richting waar de industrie naar toe gaat en waar alles al op wees eind jaren 90.

Japan heeft de boot gemist. New Super Mario Bros. Wii has nudged out Dragon Quest VI and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 to become the biggest-selling Japanese game in the first half of 2010, according to Famitsu. Here's the upside-down top 20: 20. NDS Inazuma Eleven 2 – 186,066 in 2010 / 1,129,681 life to date 19. PS3 Final Fantasy XIII – 193,179 / 1,891,435 18. PS3 Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition – 258,961 17.

PSP Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP the Best Reprint – 294,446 / 330,591 16. WII Mario Kart Wii – 329,570 / 2,779,332 15. WII Wii Sports Resort – 366,833 / 1,909,639 14.

NDS The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks – 376,054 / 696,994 13. NDS Pokemon HeartGold/SuperiorSilver – 393,862 / 3,776,459 12. NDS Pokemon Ranger Path of Light – 475,275 11. PS3 Hokuto Musou – 544,807 10. PS3 Yakuza 4 – 552,531 9. PSP God Eater – 605,316 8.

WII Super Mario Galaxy 2 – 613,290 7. WII Wii Fit Plus – 695,295 / 1,993,828 6. PSP Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker – 727,823 5. PSP Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep – 728,286 4. NDS Tomodachi Collection – 1,012,437 / 3,324,385 3. NDS Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 – 1,194,584 2.

NDS Dragon Quest VI – 1,293,916 1. WII New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 1,401,895 / 3,887,045 AKA gewoon weer zoals in 2009 eigenlijk zelfde lijstje met oude ip's en veel DS + PSP games in de verkoop. Tomonobu Itagaki has joined Keiji Inafune in kicking the Japanese games industry while it's down, saying it's currently dying. Speaking with Edge, the Valhalla Games Studios boss backed up comments that Inafune, Capcom's global production boss, made at Tokyo Game Show back in September last year. 'I agree,' said Itagaki when asked about if he echoed the Capcom exec's words. 'Japan failed to import capitalism, or rather, it failed to understand the lessons of capitalism, of the free market economy.

What I'm talking about isn't just limited to the games industry. I'm talking about what has happened in Japan since the '60s. Japan's destiny – the destiny of this era – was already determined then.' Het probleem ligt het hem in een aantal factoren in mijn optiek. Desondanks wat 'RPGer' ons met zijn onzouten en ongegronde mening (latere MGS games zijn pulp?

Leuk, zomaar termen uit de lucht grijpen) lag de focus bij J-RPG's juist altijd op verhaal en op storytelling, production value lag bij de oosterlingen altijd hoog in het vaandel. De Final Fantasy reeks was hier uiteraard altijd het paradepaardje van.

Terwijl wij westerlingen met games als Fallout, Diablo en Baldurs Gate op de proppen kwamen en laten we nou heel eerlijk zijn, dat zijn games die niet bekend werden vanwege hun sterke verhaallijn of de manier waarop het verhaal verteld werd. Het probleem ontstond echter toen wij westerlingen gingen aantonen dat wij wel degelijke RPG's konden maken die zowel enorm hoge production value hebben als goede gameplay en nog belangrijker ze waren ook nog eens toeganglijker. Amerikanen die op X-box Live elke 2 minuten je oren vol tetteren met puberale spreekwoorden konden ineens ook Mass Effect en Fable gaan spelen. Hierdoor werd wel een markt opengebroken voor RPG's, die vroeger alleen voor de echt zweterige bebrilde nerds waren bedoeld. Het probleem alleen is dat de oosterlingen deze markt nooit hebben kunnen aanboren en daardoor hebben een hoop publishers het idee dat ze geld mislopen. Vandaar dat we nu ineens ook een hoop games vanuit japan zien komen met westerse insteek, bijvoorbeeld Vanquish.

Dan zijn er nog de cultuur vershillen. Het is overduidelijk dat Japanners (of aziaten) een beetje een ander beeld hebben van ons westerlingen dan dat wij van ons zelf hebben en vice versa.

(testosteron Daarom valt het ook zo enorm op waarneer een japanse developer een western-achtige game ontwikkeld. Maar westernse games hebben ook nooit echt aangeslagen in Japan en veel japanse games hebben in het westen nou ook niet echt een grote groep gamers weten te bereiken. Bij mij is het in ieder geval onduidelijk of japanners nu echt zo moe worden van al die games die 'zoveel op elkaar lijken'.

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En dat zou ook voor een hoop andere moeten gelden. Want ruim de helft, als het niet meer is, van alle games die daar uitkomen komen hier niet uit. En dus kan ik niet een gegronde mening hierover formuleren. Echter vind ik japanners zeker niet zonder vernieuwing, aangezien men bij Final Fantasy 12 toch een hoop wijzigingen hebben doorgebracht, en chapeau daarvoor aangezien Final Fantasy een beste hardcore fanbase heeft. Jammer alleen dat het hoofdpersonage in de game geen totaal invloed had op het verhaal, hij had in de eerste 5 minuten dood kunnen gaan en het verhaal had zich alsnog ontpopt zoals dat het deed in de game.

Het blijft al met al lastig voor japanse developers, als zij voor de westerse markt gaan, waar veel meer geld in ligt, dan moeten ze wel hun eigen markt in Japan opofferen en vice versa. Code: 001 NDS Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Square Enix) - 4.100.968 / 4.100.968002 NDS Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver (Pokemon Co.) - 3.382.597 / 3.382.597003 WII New Super Mario Bros. At last year's Tokyo Game Show, Capcom's Keiji Inafune (Mega-Man, Dead Rising) famously declared that the Japanese game industry was 'finished'.

It was a wake-up call. But Japan, he says, still slumbers. 'I said that comment hoping that the Japanese creators were going to wake up,' Inafune told VideoGamer.com.

'However, there has been no change whatsoever to the situation since last year, so I'm still very pessimistic.' According to VideoGamer.com, Inafune thinks a change of attitude is required for developers to turn things around. 'I feel that many people in the industry are still living the glory of the '80s and '90s, so they don't admit that there is a problem to start with,' he says. But there is. Just look at the domestic market, which has shrunk. 'Therefore it's really important that we realize that we're behind the Western market now, get humble and start learning what's going on. Otherwise the Japanese market is going to disappear completely.'

Q.: Why do you think Japan is so behind? A.: A lot of designers, if they find a genre that works for them, they stick with it. A lot of designers just stick to a set formula. That doesn't work any more. You can't just tweak the graphics, work just on image quality. You can't compete on that. The business side is not keeping up with investment.

You need to be prepared to invest 4 billion yen or more on a game, and then spend 2 billion yen more to promote it. But Japanese companies can't do that. So we're losing out to the West in terms of investment in games. It's a vicious cycle, a deflationary spiral. Because you don't invest, you can't sell games, and because you don't sell games, you can't invest.

Q.: You've tried to tailor your games more to the West. But sometimes that's been a challenge, like Shadow of Rome. Can you talk more about that? A.: Shadow of Rome was a failure.

We westernized the game in a very superficial way. We simply thought, 'If we do this, they're going to like it.'

 But I realized we were being very superficial: to us it was turning eyes blue and changing the hair color. But we needed to go deeper than that. We need to study the West more seriously. So I've started going overseas much more often. I want to find ideas that are global.

I don't think that Japanese games can't ever be popular overseas again. But they won't be popular any more in their pure state. It's like sushi. Everyone loves sushi in the West, but you can't just serve sushi over there like it is in Japan. Het hele interview (niet zo lang) is zeker het lezen waard.

Sara P Cuellarbermudez

Het lijkt me een zeer intelligente man en ik denk dat hij, zeker vanuit het businessperspectief, honderd procent gelijk heeft. Als wereldwijd verkopend bedrijf is het gewoon niet rendable om typisch Japanse games te maken die niet aanslaan in de westerse wereld. Op zich zijn er genoeg Japanse games die het fantastisch doen in Europa en daarvoor hoeft ook het 'typisch' Japanse niet voor te wijken. De Nintendo-games en Bayonetta zijn nog steeds echt Japans terwijl ze toch een wereldwijd publiek aanspreken. Ik denk dat, zoals hij zelf ook zegt, Lost Planet 2 echt een voorbeeld is voor hoe het NIET moet. De structuur van die game is gewoon vervelend en logisch, in ieder geval vanuit het perspectief van de westerse gamers.

Maar Capcom kan het best, ik denk dat ze met Dead Rising 2 al een game hebben die de hele wereld geweldig vindt en dat de volgende Resident Evil ook al deze zaken in acht neemt. Japanese Games Industry: Insert Coins To Continue Another year, another Tokyo Game Show, and to the surprise of many, this year was better than last year's abysmal showing.

This reverses an annual trend in which the relevance and worth of Japan's top trade show lowered annually, bottoming out with last year's show, at which Capcom's Kenji Inafune declared the Japanese games industry as 'finished'. Japanese Games Industry: Insert Coins To Continue Things weren't always so dreary. Not so long ago, the twice-yearly TGS was the premier games show in the world, and even Nintendo rode on its coattails with its Spaceworld event (which always fell close enough to allow foreign press to attend). But something changed. Some peg it on rising costs associated with making HD content, some on changing Western tastes and competition from former PC game developers who have made the shift to consoles in recent years.

Still others claim that it's an issue with Japanese business culture's inability to deal with rapid and unforseen change. Truth be told, it's probably a combination of these factors that resulted in the recent low fortunes of Japan and TGS. But this year gave a glint of hope. That hope came in two forms. The first was Japanese developers who didn't bother to pander to the West, and didn't care about Western perceptions of their games.

Level-5 is a perfect example of this. The second ray of hope was the appearance of Japanese developers who could make Japanese games without alienating the West. Nobody did that better this year than Capcom. Ni no Kuni is a dream come true for Japanese children. No other game at the show was as focused on the Japanese market and had the same mass appeal.

I got my hands on the Level-5 and Studio Ghibli collaboration at the show after several hours in line, and found myself in two minds. On one hand, it's a beautiful game with ineffable charm that PS3 owners will be rubbing in the face of their less fortunate friends. On the other, the core gameplay was kind of boring. Despite this, the game was a hit among showgoers both foreign and Japanese, and I think I know why.

'The Japanese industry is feeding on itself and becoming more myopic all the time,' a friend in the industry told me. 'It's all masturbation,' he continued, and he used Sega's Yakuza: Of The End as an example.

The game's trailer displayed a young girl in a school uniform, tied up and gagged. While the Western audience saw the trailer and forgot the girl in favour of the zombies and giant monsters destroying Tokyo, Japanese forumites gravitated towards the girl and the sexual connotations that could be perceived in the scene. 'That's who they make games for these days,' said my friend. While it may not be apparent to foreigners, it was hard to argue with him.

However, Ni no Kuni is unmistakably Japanese, but not bogged down by the over-sexualised young girls, self-flagellating protagonists and fan service that have come to define Japanese pop-culture and games in the minds of many. It's a game for everyone, including those like me who grew up loving Japanese games, but have found themselves feeling alienated by the direction the industry has taken. The Western debut is still a fair way off, apparently Level-5 hasn't even started looking for a localization team for the game. Though the developer wants to make money outside of Japan, it's not going to stop doing what it does best in order to accomplish that goal. Yet while Level-5 was busy courting the Japanese market, and companies like Tecmo-Koei clumsily stumbled over themselves to appeal to the West, Capcom made it clear that it knows how to appeal to both while making it look easy. As the new Devil May Cry drew internet fire, the forum-posting masses missed out on Asura's Wrath, a new action game from the makers of the '˜good' Naruto games, CyberConnect2. The game's trailer featured a muscular badass taking on an army and a planet-sized Buddha by himself.

The aesthetic is unmistakably Japanese, in an old-school anime style, as opposed to the precocious girls and effeminate men that have dominated Japanese games for the past half-decade. It's a refreshing change of pace, especially after looking around at other companys' offerings. Asura's Wrath is most definitely not a game for everyone – only the hardcore need apply – but it's a sure bet that players won't have to sit through long soliloquies of adolescent angst from an adolescent character. It seems that Inafune's declaration of death for the Japanese industry was a little premature. Sure, this year's TGS was nowhere near as jam-packed as those from the PSone and N64 salad days, but at least Japan seems to be on its feet again. Hopefully, next year's show will be even stronger.

Ryan Winterhalter. Best leuk geschreven en zeker interessant om te lezen.

A survey conducted by Goo Research has shown that the Super Mario series is the most wanted in Japan for 3D treatment. Mario Kart was second, followed by Final Fantasy. If you want to make people use PS3 3D, Sony, get Square to do an exclusive version of FFXV, or something. These results are based on asking 1,072 Japanese internet users which video games they would like to play on a big-screen 3D television. The sample was 68 percent female and included a broad age range.

Full list below. Via What Japan Thinks and 1UP. Super Mario 2. Mario Kart 3.

Final Fantasy 4. Resident Evil 5. The Legend of Zelda 6. Super Smash Bros.

'Musou' (i.e. Dynasty Warriors) 8. Monster Hunter 9. Street Fighter 10. Dragon Ball 11. Gran Turismo 12. Winning Eleven 13.

Metal Gear Solid 15. Tomb Raider 16. Ace Combat 17. Silent Hill 18.

(tie) Virtua Fighter 19. (tie) Love Plus 20. Ridge Racer 21. The House of the Dead 23. Medal of Honor 26. Call of Duty 27. Virtual-On 28.

(tie) Need for Speed 29. (tie) Panzer Dragoon 30. Space Harrier ALLEEN maar oude bekende, kijk iedereen vind mario kart leuk en ik wil ook wel een deel op de 3DS. MAAR originele titels en innovatie gameplay en IP zal toch een grote rol moeten spelen wil de 3DS groeien tot de status van de 'gewone ds'. Capcom R&D boss Keiji Inafune's said he is quitting the publisher at the end of the month. He's been at Capcom for 23 years.

He was promoted as head of the R&D group back in April 'A manager's work means evaluating your subordinates and speaking your dreams. Anyone who can do both of those can be a manager. I thought that when I came here, and I still think that now,' he said in a blog post entitled 'Sayonara'.

He added, having started out as a designer and having recently made it to the top of Capcom's development hierarchy, he has nowhere else to go. Inafune, who's also stood down from his post as CEO at Capcom subsidiary Daletto, was the creator of Mega Man as well as help establish franchises such as Dead Rising, Lost Planet and Onimusha. He hasn't said where he's going to go next.

Since last year, Inafune has been outspoken in his comments on the Japanese games industry, saying at TGS last year it was 'finished.'  At this year's event, he said it wasn't quite dead 'as long as Capcom is still around,' before sticking the knife into the publisher with further comments, saying it had been 'barely keeping up.' Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune may have gotten the hell out of Capcom so fast that his office chair's still spinning, but that doesn't mean there's not time for one last parting jab. Actually, make that six or seven parting jabs. And then maybe a baseball bat to the face. 'In short, it's like a communist state. Working as hard as you can is your own loss.

Not working hard becomes more advantageous. But doesn't that get in the way of making games? You can't make good games by just taking it easy,' Inafune said in an interview with 4Gamer (as translated by NeoGAF). Granted, Inafune hardly views this as a holy moral crusade. He's just as guilty as anyone else, he admitted.

'I was in the position of being a naysayer, and yet was assured a paycheck the next month. No matter how much one is late or skips work, or even no matter how lousy a game is made, the next month's paycheck was always guaranteed,' he explained. 'There are a lot of people who take their company's commitment for granted and don't work as hard as they should.

This could be said of the entire industry, and of course Capcom is no exception.'  He added that if he tried to do anything 'brashly' within Capcom but was met with commercial failure, he'd have been demoted. Fortunately, Inafune's world isn't all doom and gloom.

Western developers, consider Inafune your biggest fan. 'There are of course publishers who keep developers '˜like pets' but overseas there are more independent developers. For them, the goal is to make a hit, grow the company, sell it or do an IPO, and make lots of money. It's the American Dream,' he said. Anyone care to hazard a guess where Inafune's gonna end up next? We feel like he might be trying to tell us something here. Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi believes the Japanese game industry is in a bit of a sad state, and has suggested the sector does its best work after it has hit a downward slope.

Speaking with GamesTM magazine, Takahashi said the industry in Japan needs 'an injection of life' to get it out of its zombie state, and start making more 'genuine, original games'. 'I think the Japanese industry is like a zombie,' he said.

'We don't know what to do until we're at the very bottom, and only then can we start looking at where things are going wrong. 'When we go down, we see new technology like PlayStation Move and things pick up a bit. We never hit rock-bottom, and it's like a zombie that never dies. It needs an injection of life. I think in Japan there's too much a focus on sequels. There are too few genuine original games being made and, for me, that is why Japanese gaming is not doing so well at the moment.'  Takahashi left Namco Bandai back in September after starting to feel as if he 'didn't belong there anymore'.

He's now overseeing the re-design of a park in Nottingham, and works at his studio Uvula, which he co-founded with his spouse back in October. PSP outsels the DS in Japan in 2010 The year-end report by ASCII lays it all out, and it's exactly as we expected. The PSP and DS sold like hotcakes. Or rice cakes.

The PSP was the only system to show sales growth over 2009 numbers, pushing out some 60,000 units over last year, to 2,729,718 units sold in 2010. That just barely edges out the DS with its 2,719,544 units. I'vew always wondered how a PSP hater would fare in Tokyo for a week.

Everyone there has their PSP out, everywhere you look. I suspect snide, under-the-breath remarks and IRL trolling would slowly give way to a realization that the PSP is a great little game system with plenty of good games in its library. Or that everyone in Japan loves Monster Hunter.

The ASCII numbers show that Monster Hunter Portable 3rd was the second best-selling game in Japan for 2010. Over 3 million people bought a copy in 2010, which probably has a lot to do with the PSP sales numbers. The top seller? It's Pokemon Black/White, of course, with some 4.7 million copies sold. But it's not a fair contest as MHP3 only had a month on the market. Check out the full 2010 rankings for Japan after the jump.

PSP is Japan's best-selling console of 2010, Pokemon Black/White the top game Joystiq Japanese hardware sales, 2010:. PSP - 2,729,718. DS - 2,719,544. Wii - 1,592,563. PS3 - 1,542,258. Xbox 360 - 231,258.

PS2 - 83,030 Japanese software sales, 2010:. Pokemon Black/Pokemon White - DS - 4,734,064. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd - PSP - 3,163,750. New Super Mario Bros.

Wii - Wii - 1,692,401. Wii Party - Wii - 1,385,541. Dragon Quest VI - DS - 1,354,841. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 - DS - 1,305,750. Tomodachi Collection - DS - 1,112,298.

Diana L Cardenascha…

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii - 931,534. Inazuma Eleven 3 Spark/Bomber - DS - 930,580. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - PSP - 844,980 En uiteraard zien we weer de zelfde verkopen in software voor Japan, als in de afgelopen jaren er zit totaal NIETS nieuws tussen.

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