Kotaku: yoshiki okamoto

Former Capcom Employee Talks Sexuality of Street Fighter IV Developer's President

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:00:00 MST

Developer Dimps is responsible for developing Street Fighter IV for Capcom. Dimps president Takashi Nishiyama? "Pretty sure bisexual," outs former Capcom employee Yoshiki Okamoto.

In an interview with newly engaged James Mielke, Okamoto (1942, Forgotten Worlds, Folklore) dishes about the Dimps executive, who lives in the same apartment building:

Mr. Nishiyama used to work at Capcom as well, so we bonded over the hard work we shared there, and we've been good friends ever since. Both of us had long stretches where we weren't in a relationship, but he would always be sharing a room with some guy. Not me, I mean we were friends. Just friends. I'm pretty sure Mr. Nishiyama is bisexual. But I'm straight. I only like girls, but he likes both. Mr. Nishiyama taught me how to turn my ideas into game design documents, but he didn't teach me about men.

Oh. Okay. If this is true and not just Okamoto making crap up, hey, more power to president Nishiyama. If this is not true and is just Okamoto making crap up, he should be more careful with things he says publicly.

Those interested in hearing about Okamoto's company Game Republic and his sexlife, swing over to 1Up.

Yoshiki Okamoto Explains What's Up With Game Republic [1Up Thanks Brandon!]

Folklore Dev Was Working On Tom And Jerry For Brash [Update]

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:00:00 MST

Game Republic, (in)famous for its work on Genji and Folklore, as well as its founder Yoshiki Okamoto, was working on a Tom and Jerry game tie-in with an upcoming movie, according to a new interview.

That's an "incredible fantasy world"?

Okamoto told 1UP at the Tokyo Game Show that his team was developing the Tom and Jerry game for Brash, which specialized in movie-licensed titles like Alvin & the Chipmunks, Jumper and Space Chimps. The publisher was reported to have shut down operations in November, according to Variety.

Tom and Jerry wouldn't have been Game Republic's first licensed venture. It developed Dragon Ball: Origins for the Nintendo DS and Brave Story: New Traveler for the PSP.

No word yet on whether Game Republic's plans for Tom and Jerry have been shelved, but one Game Republic game that North Americans shouldn't hold out for is the PlayStation Network title Dark Mist. Okamoto says that he doesn't expect SCEA to release it in the region, despite already being localized.

Update: Apparently not! That "[laughs]" should have tipped me off that Okamoto was just being facetious about making a Tom and Jerry game. I don't get Japanese humor, y'know! Game Republic is rumored to be working on both a Clash of the Titans remake and a second 300 video game.

Yoshiki Okamoto Explains What's Up With Game Republic [1UP]

Why Isn't Grand Theft Auto HUGE In Japan?

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:00:00 MDT

Game developer Yoshiki Okamoto is best known for his years at Konami and Capcom, where he worked on titles like Gyruss and Forgotten Worlds as well as his involvement in Final Fight and Street Fighter II. He's an industry vet and has been around. When he looks at the current Japanese game landscape, Okamoto says there's at least one thing that does not compute:

Rockstar is not unsuccessful in Japan, but their success here is on a much smaller scale than elsewhere in the world market. The low Japanese sales of the sandbox-style GTA series simply do not make any sense to me.

But does it to you?

Big in Japan: Yoshiki Okamoto, Monster Hunter and cultural divides [Guardian Games Blog] [Pic]

Microsoft Passed On Genji Dev's Other Xbox 360 Exclusive

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:30:39 MDT

Believe it or not, Genji developers Game Republic made a game for Microsoft that it thought was even less marketable than Every Party, the team's lame duck party game that never made it out of Japan. Game Republic president and former Capcom designer Yoshiki Okamoto tells 1UP that the Folklore devs were nine months into a project that Microsoft just wasn't interested in. Why would Microsoft pass on a uniquely Japanese title, one with the Okamoto pedigree?

Okamoto theorizes that Microsoft had simply given up on the Japanese market. After showing their follow up to Every Party to Microsoft, the publisher passed. But development continued at Game Republic, hoping that the company would come around. Okamoto calls the gamble "a major mistake for us and a bad move for our company early on."

What we're interested in knowing is how this mystery title could be any more unappealing that both Genji games?

Okamoto says that the canceled Xbox 360 game "is gone for good" so it will remain a question for the ages, we suppose.

Game Republic's Canceled Xbox 360 Game [1UP]

"Western Games Are More Advanced Than Japanese"

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:20:00 MDT

Gloom and doom time. Well, for Japanese game developers. While the country's game makers seems to be down on themselves of late, it's hard to separate that from stereotypical Japanese humility and plain old self-realization. Here's Genji developer Game Republic head and former Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto talking about whether Japan can catch up with the West:

It's almost too late. During the Famicom (NES) era, Japanese video games comprised 70 percent of all video games. And currently, it's like 15 or 20 percent, isn't it? Now, Western games are more advanced. For games like GTAIV, those guys are spending something like 5 or 10 years to make them. Even if we thought about catching up with them now, they'd still be making progress. But, not necessarily giving up, it's just not possible to catch up in a single lifetime.

Man, that Okamoto, talk about a downer. Chin up, Japan, chin up.

「日本はもうゲーム先進国ではない」 [IT Media via 痛いニュース] [Pic]

Okamoto Warns Of Atari Caliber DS Crash

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:40:13 MDT

Game Republic's Yoshiki Okamoto, a twenty year industry vet whose credits include Street Fighter II, Resident Evil and, more recently, Folklore, tells Gamasutra he fears the Japanese game industry may be in danger of suffering the same fate that befell Atari in the early '80s. If you're too young to remember, a glut of software for the Atari 2600 and its peers, the majority of which we'll be nice enough to describe as liquid feces written in assembler, flooded the market, resulting in a industry crushing crash.

Today's problem? A glut of software—particularly "brain" games—for the Nintendo DS published by inexperienced companies looking to make a quick buck.

"People are talking about how the second 'Atari crash' is around the corner," Okamoto tells Gamasutra "And Nintendo is the one that has to figure out a way to stop it."

He warns that the over-inflated market may come back to bite Nintendo in the corporate ass, that it would be "foolish" to allow history to repeat itself. While it may seem unlikely that a company on the scale of Nintendo, one who is flush with cash and whose key economic interests lie in the video game market—as opposed to the Warner Bros. of the eighties—will be as heavily impacted by a change in tastes and a deflated market, but he may have a point.

We suspect that Nintendo themselves will be fine, with me-too publishers pulling out of the pseudo-educational game market when the shine wears off. We also won't shed a tear when they're gone.

For the full and extensive Okamoto interview, check out Gamasutra.

Yoshiki Okamoto: Japan's Game Maverick Speaks [Gamasutra]