Vanquish Producer Attacks the Idea of East/West Developer Divide

[Logan Westbrook]

Vanquish Producer Attacks the Idea of East/West Developer Divide

Sorting developers by their location is a mistake, says the former CEO of Capcom's Clover Studio.

Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba, who has previously worked on the Phoenix Wright and Viewtiful Joe series, has challenged the idea that Japanese developers are trailing behind their Western counterparts.

Inaba, who served as producer for Vanquish, said that it wasn't particularly useful to separate developers into East and West. He thought that a better division was good developers and bad developers. He felt that it didn't matter where a studio was based, as the teams that had great ideas and talent would succeed, and those that didn't would fail. He made it clear though, that he wasn't saying that Platinum was by any means perfect.

One of the chief proponents of the idea that Japanese developers were lagging behind the West was another Capcom alumni, Keiji Inafune. Inafune famously said [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103614-Dead-Rising-2-Producer-Blasts-Japanese-Game-Industry] that Japan made "awful games" and that Western developers were five years ahead. Inaba disagreed with the Inafune's assessment however, saying that all that was happening was that some publishers weren't doing so well at the moment, and it didn't represent any sort of widespread collapse.

Source: Play [http://www.play-mag.co.uk/general/there-is-no-eastwest-divide-platinum-games/]




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[CardinalPiggles]

of course it is.

we already knew that im sure

 

[Fearzone]

Japan's got it's own thing going on, and thank goodness for that. Maybe your average Japanese RPG won't have as many particle effects and won't be pushing as many polygons, but it won't take 10 hours to finish either. And dollars to donuts the story will be better.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

no kidding, the whole East/West division borders on racist at times. And Inafune's whining made him sound like an insecure, spineless wimp.

 

[Jkudo]

Well there is a clear difference in the type of games coming from the west and east, but i wouldn't say japan is behind. There are good and bad developers. Platinum is just a great one. Honestly i do tend to divide them, mostly because i see traits in eastern games that i wish were in western ones and vice versa. So as much as it pains me i cant say that i completely agree, i disagree with Inafune but i agree with Kojima.

 

[cerebus23]

hes got a point i just think that the old guard over there has gotten too stagnent in some ways.

but in other ways just the sheer cost of game development and time might have destroyed some of the old school things we took for granted in the older games. like the days when final fantasy had open worlds to explore and things to discover up to the modern day where it probably cheaper and quicker to create a linear game rather than a game the scope of ff7 or 8.

 

[Ghengis John]

I will support Keiji Inafune's sentiments if only because they make me feel suuuuuuuuuuuuuupeeeeeeeiiiioooooooorrrrrrr!

I dont really agree with him, western and Japanese games play differently, compare FF to fallout for example, completely different. The only Japanese game I know of that isnt like the others is Demons souls. The reason there is a divide is we make different games, japan makes the majority of one type, we make another, I think wester games are better (imo) and we make different types of games to them.

Allthough vanquish looks fun.

While I do agree with Inaba's sentiments that we should really be looking at things from a good/bad developer standpoint, you would also have to be blind not to recognize that there are stylistic and thematic differences at play between eastern and western developers. So I also agree with "this isn't". I don't necessarily believe the Japanese are lagging behind, they just do things differently. While I prefer western Rpg's for the most part and Japanese fps are all but non existent I can't say I've ever seen Americans produce a good fighter. And the Japanese produce some great quirky titles like Katamari or Reccetear.

 

[katsumoto03]

Well, Western games put more focus on story, gameplay and character aspects that are more prominent and popular and the West. Same with Japan and the East.

That said, I'll take a Bioware game over a Squeenix game any day.

 

[WanderingFool]

Inaba, who served as producer for Vanquish, said that it wasn't particularly useful to separate developers into East and West. He thought that a better division was good developers and bad developers.

Well, yes, there is a devide between god and bad developers, but there is also a difference between Eastern and Western developers too; this is something that cant be completely ignored.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

A lot of Western developers use elements that we would class as "Japanese," and vice-versa. Beyond that? A lot of the best games being nowadays are typically European. Crysis, Amnesia, Minecraft - games audiences would typically associate with a Western (read: American) audience, coming mostly from Sweden...!

"Japanese" is not typical of any particular genre, and neither is "Western," or "Eastern." People use the term "JRPG" to describe a game that they associate with a feel that it's an RPG of Japanese origin, not so much that it is an RPG of Japanese origin (see: the Paper Mario series).

 

[demoman_chaos]

There generally is a difference between East and Western games, but there are some who break the norm. The RPG's have a very clear difference. Elder Scrolls vs Final Fantasy. There are some Japan made WRPGs and some western made JRPGS.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Inaba, who served as producer for Vanquish, said that it wasn't particularly useful to separate developers into East and West. He thought that a better division was good developers and bad developers.

Well, yes, there is a devide between god and bad developers, but there is also a difference between Eastern and Western developers too; this is something that cant be completely ignored.

It's important to qualify this as a cultural gap, and not a genre gap.

 

[WanderingFool]

Inaba, who served as producer for Vanquish, said that it wasn't particularly useful to separate developers into East and West. He thought that a better division was good developers and bad developers.

Well, yes, there is a devide between god and bad developers, but there is also a difference between Eastern and Western developers too; this is something that cant be completely ignored.

It's important to qualify this as a cultural gap, and not a genre gap.

Yes, of course. That is important to note.

 

[Rad Party God]

I think that the whole idea of separating studios is a bit dumb. There are amazing japanese games and there are amazing western games. I think that it's what makes them so enjoyable in their own right.

I grew up playing mostly japanese games, I rarely saw a good western title. Now that the west has flourished, Japan seems quite intimidated by the sheer amount of quality titles coming from the west. In that case, they could've considered making even better games, but no, the decided to give their babies to the west. Just look at Castlevania and I don't have to mention the new Devil May Cry...

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Yeah, I pretty much agree separating devs into bad and good sections sounds win.

I mean overall it seems like most games out of Japan are somewhat uninspired turn-based RPGs with (cue Yahtzee rant) undernourished teenagers. I can't say it's all bad or uninspired though, Katamari FTW. Also it's not to say Western games can't suck too, cuz they often do!

 

[Scars Unseen]

Tell you what: when all major Japanese games get released worldwide, I'll stop thinking of Japanese gaming developers as separate from their western counterparts.

 

[Something Amyss]

After playing Vanquish, the joke that sprung to mind related to the headline was sorting them into good and bad, which the dev probably didn't want with Vanquish being the title on people's minds.

Too bad they ruined it for me. :'(