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]