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."
Inafune: Japanese devs won't admit there's a problem [VideoGamer.com]