Keiji Inafune: Japanese Developers Have No Motivation

6 responses to “Keiji Inafune: Japanese Developers Have No Motivation”

1. 

   oggob

   November 2, 2010 at 11:16 am

   Hence why GT5 will be the greatest game that has ever been conceived!

   Polyphony never stop working!

   🙂

   Reply
   1. 

      Karachi King

      November 2, 2010 at 12:08 pm

      Hopefully they can take the “greatest game ever conceived” and turn into a “game that actually gets released”, instead of just working on it forever.

      Reply
2. 

   AmbroseIV

   November 2, 2010 at 1:40 pm

   Nothing against the story Mark, but we hear this all the time from the Japanese developers – I partly agree and partly disagree. It’s not something unique to the Japanese market.

   Games are costing more and more to develop, people are less inclined to take risks because of the potential for a significant loss, so when they strike a franchise they want to milk it (there must be 30 Final Fantasy games by now, right?). And why not, you need a guaranteed source of income. To suggest there is a heightened risk of failure and layoffs in Japan is naive: our own developers seem to be dropping like flies and in the recent past we’ve seen big layoffs in Canada and companies like MS shutting studios down. Western devs often claim to give up food and sleep as development cycles near end, just to get everything finished.

   Inafune also briefly mentioned the benefit of having independents in Western markets: it does help with innovation when they’re free to take risks, income is important but I think most considered themselves lucky to get a RoI. Japan only suffers in this respect because their market is so isolated commercially – an Australian or US indie can distribute an english game all over the world, whereas a Japanese localised game is going to have a significantly reduced market options. Either way I expect there’s less incentive to do it because the game just doesn’t get enough exposure in a limited market.

   But overall, I don’t think the Japanese are doing too badly. They’ve got Sony, Capcom and Nintendo, while devs like Platinum are coming out with Bayonetta and Vanquish. If the Japanese business model needs a change, worlwide it needs a change because it’s all the same. Then again, maybe he’s just (in part) saying “Hey! Hey! Look at us, we’re still cool!”, which is nice if you can get the media.

   Good interview but a bit abstract, a bit too much waffling.

   Reply
   1. 

      Mark Serrels

      November 2, 2010 at 2:02 pm

      Yeah, I felt like I had to go through a lot of waffle to get to the meat of things. Still, great to read something where someone has been so open.

      Reply
3. 

   plmko

   November 2, 2010 at 5:21 pm

   Oh please Mr Inafune, don’t blame your own failings on 3 games in a row on the Japanese industry. The industry may not be in it’s greatest form right now but it has certainly brought us great games this generation.

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4. 

   Steve0410

   November 3, 2010 at 12:23 pm

   Of course there’s no motivation left for Japanese developers. Every Monster Hunter/Final Fantasy/Pokemon/generic JRPG will release and sell millions of copies in their backyard regardless of quality or innovation.

   I understand wanting to be in your comfort zone but Pokemon and Dragon Quest etc have barely evolved in decades. And every time something wants to experiment with something different (FFXIII) it’s greeted with derision in the West, but STILL pulls a massive profit.

   This speaks more about the Japanese consumer than it does about the developers. If the customers were more discerning, they’d actually put the fear of God back into developers to evolve. But if every game’s a surefire success, why bother? Especially when whatever you push out will still make a tonne of money? If these companies were making ‘Western’ games, they’d sink faster than Midway.

   Reply