Tue, Sep 02, 2008 | 09:19 BST

Ryan Payton: Japanese devs feeling heat from the West

Ryan Payton, formerly of Kojima Productions, now unemployed in Seattle, thinks the sun is setting on high-end game development in The Land Of The Rising Sun.

“The Japanese public seems to be disinterested in next-gen and high definition gaming,” he told Kotaku. “There is a stigma still attached to western technology there.”

“There have been a lot of good mainstream games built for the Japanese Xbox 360,” he continued. “But they only sold a small number of copies. I think that kind of drained a lot of expectations.”

Most telling, however, are the panicked reactions of those who hedged their bets on “next-gen” gaming.

“It’s apparent, everyone knows it in Japan,” he said. “The developers here feel the pressure. They’re starting to develop more with the West in mind and the tech is in the West now. I’m surprised at how many titles have been produced on the Unreal 3 Engine.”

More poignant commentary, along something about hobos, through the link.

By Nathan Grayson

9 comments

Blerk
02/09/08, 9:30 am

I think he’s right – the West has really taken the reins this generation, and Japan’s been pretty much left in the dust. On the hi-defs, that is. And therein lies the point – why should Japanese developers care about the hi-def consoles when the Japanese public don’t seem to. It’s a shame, really – a large amount of variety could potentially be lost here. I’d love to know the real reason why the Japanese man on the street isn’t interested in the PS3. Someone ask him.

patlike
02/09/08, 9:43 am

He’s certainly right about UE3 – it’s taking over the world.

The more this generation goes on, the more I think Miyamoto was talking about Japan specifically when he dragged out his “if we go for graphics we’re doomed” line over and over again it the last generation. Maybe that’s where Wii sprang from originally.

Blerk
02/09/08, 9:45 am

Of course, if they’d built a machine that was capable of running U3 they could’ve taken over… everything.

patlike
02/09/08, 9:48 am

They would have foregone their magic “make money from hardware” formula, then. Wii spits in the face of Unreal Engine 3.

Blerk
02/09/08, 9:59 am

I bought a Wii at the weekend.

patlike
02/09/08, 10:03 am

Ooooh, blimey. Which games? Have you got a 360 yet?

Blerk
02/09/08, 10:44 am

It’s for the kids for Christmas, thought I’d get the shopping done early so that I’m not caught out when they go out of stock again. Only got Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games so far, because I got that bundled in for free.

I played it for ten minutes to make sure it worked and it made my arm hurt. I’m too old for this shit.