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PlatinumGames' Inaba: Many Japanese Developers 'Too Soft'
by Brandon Sheffield, Staff [PC, Console/PC, Exclusive]
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July 14, 2008
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Talking as part of an in-depth Gamasutra profile, Okami creator Atsushi Inaba has been suggesting that "a lot of Japanese developers were too soft" in recent years, allowing the West to move ahead in terms of creating unique titles.
However, Inaba, who founded PlatinumGames with a number of important Clover and Capcom alumni in order to innovate in the Japanese marketplace, and whose firm recently signed a four-title deal with Sega, explained of his company's ethos:
"Of course, the vision is that we want to create games that have a worldwide appeal, but that still retain that spirit of Japanese game development that has the same sort of flavor that Japanese games have. But we still have to stand toe-to-toe and shoulder-to-shoulder with the big studios of the West and the big-name titles.
Personally, I feel that a lot of Japanese developers were too soft. They got too used to working on franchises, and they figure, "As long as I work on this franchise, we can make money, and everything will be fine."But it stifles creativity. To combat that, the vision for this company is to create new and unique titles, and to not rely on past success.
Before, Western developers had very grand dreams when they were developing games. However, the console specs couldn't support these grand visions of designs that Western developers have.
However, as consoles have caught up or in some cases surpassed a lot of PCs, it's possible for Western developers to create games that have a great balance of really advanced technology and really advanced game design.
We don't feel that we're at the top of the industry, but we know that we have to catch up to where Western developers are. Our hope is that one day, we could surpass the quality of the top Western developers and take their place at the top."
The full Gamasutra profile of PlatinumGames is now available, including three separate interviews - one with Tatsuya Minami and Atsushi Inaba speaking about the formation of the company and its ethos.
In addition, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe creator Hideki Kamiya discusses his upcoming PlatinumGames title Bayonetta, and Shigenori Nishikawa comments on his new PlatinumGames project - the black-and-white, hyper-violent and darkly comedic Mad World (pictured), for the Nintendo Wii.
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The Japanese still make superior games in my opinion, but they still really need to check out what is being done outside of Japan.