What is Japan good at? Let's hear what Super Smash Bros. Brawl creator Masahiro Sakurai has to say.
"There's really a lot of opinions on this and this is just one of those opinions," Sakurai recently told website Techland. "But, I feel that Japanese game design and game development really isn't a good match for the big-budget Hollywood style game experience.
"There are lot of different factors such as things like the team size and the way development proceeds and is communicated within teams. I mean, there are instances where this trend is more dramatic than others, where teams are either more well-suited to a certain style or not."
"Don't get me wrong: I'm really impressed with Western game design and enjoy a lot of those games. But, personally — and this is something that Nintendo also follows the same philosophy — I trend towards focusing on a gameplay mechanic and working on that mechanic."
In short, Sakurai thinks that game developers should focus on what they are good at. "And, while some may be good at these big budget experiences, others are not, and that could be telling of different trends between Western and Japanese game companies."
While I get what Sakurai and can see where he is coming from, there are Japanese developers like Polyphony Digital or Kojima Productions that excel at big budget games. There are Western developers that are great at producing pricey titles. Then again, just as there Japanese developers brilliant at small budget games, the same is true for Western developers.
E3 2010: Masahiro Sakurai Makes Kid Icarus Fly Again on the Nintendo 3DS [Techland via CVG]