Inafune says Japanese industry has "gotten worse"

@loopy_101 I actually think they would agree with him, as they are the exceptions, not the rule, and I'm sure that they are annoyed by the lack of risk other Japanese companies take as well. That said, the West isn't much better off.

@MadGamer132 At least Mr Inafune will have fun with all the money his kickstarter is bringing in. It's currently at almost 1,3 million dollars and there are 28 days to go.

Many hyped kickstarter games are coming in a year or so, but already Shadowrun Returns has come out and received good reviews.

When they talk about games they're talking about the sales. Japan hasn't been able to sell that many games in the west. And developers have fallen behind in some ways. For instance, it took Japan a LONG time to adapt the concept of camera control in some games. When Devil May Cry 4 came out and we STILL had to deal with fixed cameras that was a bit much. Some developers got really great with what they did. Nintendo was always pushing the bar, for instance. But the JRPG... the way it's gone downhill is something I wish never happened. By that I mean that the genre itself has evolved very little in the past 30 years. It's been kind of sad. When I played Lost Odyssey and the turn based combat was what it was... it felt very dated. It was "traditional" (and Japanese developers love tradition) but also very dated. That's not to say Japan has not been very creative. Games like The Last Story or Xenoblade Chronicles are saviors of the JRPG genre. Final Fantasy XII may not have been popular, but the concepts were unique. Japan can still turn out something creative and "non-traditional," when they want too.

Although... you say that western developers milk popular game concepts to death. And you say this as though Japanese developers have not done the same thing... when they've been just as guilty (sometimes more guilty) than western developers. Allow me to explain:

Japan, like western developers, really like to keep running with an idea when it is successful. And they will also mimic it to death in other games (did you notice how many platformers tried to be Super Mario Bros? Or how many games tried to be Wii Sports for a time?). But Japan also suffers quite heavily from sequelitis just as bad as western developers. How many Mega Man games did we get. Last I checked it was over 100. How Final Fantasy games did we get? Castlevania, Mario, Zelda... And this is before we include any spinoffs in some of them. Dragon Quest, Seiken Densetsu, Pokemon, Metal Gear Solid, Digimon, Macross games (at least in Japan)... DYNASTY FREAKING WARRIORS!, Kingdom Hearts, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Soul Calibur, Wild Arms, Suikoden (damn near any JRPG), The "Tales of..." series... it's not like the Japanese industry isn't milking. And we haven't even talked about these games getting reissues (some of which don't make it over seas). People can talk all day about HD remakes but this is very tame compared to how Nintendo, Square-Enix and Capcom have subjected us to the same game over and over and over again (almost guaranteed once a gaming generation now). How many remakes or ports of the first Final Fantasy do we need, really? Counting the NES release, the dual pack with the second one later on (Japan only), The Wonderswan (also only in Japan), Mobile phones (again... Japan only... at least I think but I could be wrong on this one) the Playstation, the GBA, and the PSP. And I still haven't named them all (because some are only in Japan). Or how about the copious amount of times Nintendo has released the original Super Mario Bros? The NES, a second NES release with Duck Hunt, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, The Classic NES series, the virtual console on Wii... the virtual console on Wii U, the virtual console on 3DS, the reissue of All Stars on the Wii, the hack to unlock it in Animal Crossing. And how many times within the past decade has Nintendo put Ocarina of Time out on the shelves again? We have the Master Quest, and then we have the Zelda Collection and then we've got the 3DS version. Don't forget the virtual console. And don't even get me started on how many times I swallowed Final Fantasy IV from 2001 to 2010 or so. The GBA and DS remake came out less than a year apart. And then a PSP remake followed not long after. That isn't including the two versions released in Japan initially or the absurd number of remakes it has gotten in Japan that never made it stateside! And then Final Fantasy IV also got "The After Years." Don't forget Final Fantasy VI. Super Nintendo, Playstation and GBA. Though spread out more apart, Square seems to be intent on making you remember these games... and they keep releasing them for a new generation.

It isn't just Nintendo and Square-Enix either that constantly repackage and reissue games. How many times did CAPCOM release Street Fighter II? That game had pretty much it's own franchise. They're doing the same thing with Street Fighter IV right now. How many times did Capcom push Resident Evil onto us? The original, the director's cut, the Gamecube remake, the DS remake and even a port to the Wii. Or how about Resident Evil 4? Gamecube... then a PS2 port. Then a PC port, then a Wii port, then an HD remake (and fans even demanding a 3DS remake). Namco is pretty notorious too. The "Tales of..." series has so many sequels and spinoffs in Japan it's a wonder how it's only the third biggest selling JRPG franchise in that country. Tales of Phantasia got a Super Famicom release, a Playstation release, a Playstation Portable release and a Gameboy Advance and that's just what we know about. Tales of Destiny is almost worst. Getting a PSX release, a Playstation 2 remake, a PSP remake and then a director's cut put on PS2 and the PSP.

My point is that you're NOT WRONG about the Western Industry because Good God do they ever do this to a disturbing degree... but the idea that the Japanese industry hasn't done this exact same thing is just madness. The idea they can be excused from it is just madness. The idea that japanese developers don't share this guilt is madness. They repeat popular concepts all the time. And they've been doing this for a really really long time. And many of their franchises have a very specific template that they don't often let their games deviate from. You already knew what you were going to have to do in the next Zelda years before it came out. Even though Super Mario Galaxy had some of the most creative levels ever it still followed the formula established by Super Mario 64 ten years prior. Why, even Mario 3D Land is just a hybrid of Super Mario Bros. 3 with some Super Mario Galaxy thrown in there. Nothing in that game is new. Mario Kart has survived making the same game over and over again. Final Fantasy saw no need to change much of its formula AT ALL until the tenth installment and even then it didn't stray too far. And Mega Man almost NEVER changes its formula. Ever. Even Inafune's kickstarter is pretty much just about making another Mega Man game. It's just not being called Mega Man.

You're not wrong about western developers I'm only trying to demonstrate that this is done all over the place and that this idea of milking is not new to the industry.

And who exactly do you think these Western Developers learned to do that from? Japan. Because they were already doing this... and it was working out great for them.

@xMat7x Actually im very bored of all these batmans ,assassins creeds ,bioshocks and all these boring sandbox games .....But new generation players seems to enjoy these bad stuff...in my opnion new generation players and casual players are the true killers of game industry nowdays.

@xMat7x I disagree .Japanese industry is not like before ,but some developers are still making good games...There are 5 japanese games or even more in my top games of this generation... Of the games that you mentioned, the only really good game in my opinion is The Last of us.

@xMat7x There's some very good European developers as well, MercurcySteam,CD Projekt RED,Media Molecule, just to name a few.

@xMat7x Well it's not their fault they don't make games for casuals.

@Aristowi I have no problem finding great games to play, quite the opposite, but I generally agree with you. The industry is too big for its own good. It has also moved so fast, that people who're under 30 can get nostalgic about the good ol' days of gaming. That's quite bizarre when you think about it, because I feel like people under 30 are too young to get nostalgic and say things like "back in my days...". We're half the age of the old people complaining about the music/movies nowadays.

Music from e.g. The Witcher 1 is 10 times better than most of the things modern artists cram out. I hardly ever listen to new music, I have lots of great computer game music I can listen to.

@wexorian "AC milk with no innovation"

I'm really sick of seeing people say this. Honestly, go AC by AC to see the massive amount of BRAND NEW content they bring to each yearly release.

@wexorian apparently you guys don't play many PC games- there's still ton of innovation in the West from both large PC developers and indie folks.

@wexorian i have no idea in what world inafune lives if he hasn't seen the west industry is as bad or worse than the eastern

@Poodger I wouldn't say its any worse than last time he said this though, yeah there has been some crap like Only the bravest but I think FFXV, KH3, Deep Down all look like very promising AAA Japanese developed titles and that's not to mention MGSV. I think going into Next Gen there is a lot of hope for the Japanese industry (though to be fair I've always loved Japan if only for some of the quality RPG games they put out) these games look to be hallmarks of that industry. Assuming Atlus is picked up by a respectable company games like P5 could be fantastic and in my opinion Catherine was a very innovative and promising title, it may not have been in house at Atlas but nevertheless it was under their guidance. I like the Japanese scene and I hope TGS can show what strength they still have in the industry.

haha yep!

@Bayonetta2013 It's fine that you like those games, but it doesn't make them good and it doesn't make his opinions any less true.

@Zeeksie Lol I like your avatar.

@csward i strongly believe shenmue should be handed over too rockstars, its the only way i'll be excited about the series again. japanese game developers aren't doing shit with it & even if the were it wouldnt be all that great.