In his final year at Capcom, Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune started to become as well known for his criticisms of the Japanese game development industry as for his games.
Now that he's left Capcom, he further expressed where he feels the Japanese game industry is struggling.
"The reason why I'm quitting is basically because I think that the game industry itself must change the way it goes about making games," he said in an interview with Japanese website 4Gamer [Google translation], posted in complete form on gaming forum NeoGAF.
"You might think I'm being hypocritical, but the really big wall that the Japanese game industry is hitting is the changing of its creators into salarymen," Inafune said.
He decried the fact that developers at the companies work with a sense of security -- knowing that lifetime employment is an option spoils game creators, and creates a system where "not working hard becomes advantageous."
"When I was about 20, I was really passionate and entered the game industry, but now I'm in my mid-40s. It's a matter of my age. My generation is, for better or worse, holding the game industry back."
The 23-year Capcom veteran's last position at the company was head of global production, and he oversaw games including Lost Planet and Dead Rising -- titles that successfully targeted Western audiences.
His statements, the translation of which were verified by Gamasutra, described a bureaucratic, bloated Capcom as an example of out-of-control budgets in the industry and why internal production is falling by the wayside -- games including Dead Rising 2, Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 are a few examples of recent and upcoming Capcom games developed outside of the company.
Inafune said that at Capcom, there are 700 employees working on three or four titles. "...It's common for a project to cost 3 or 4 billion yen ($37.5-50 million)," he explained. Inafune said he made 2006's Xbox 360 title Dead Rising with less than 10 internal staff, and was able to create a global hit.
Now, Inafune wants to find out whether people buy games like Resident Evil and Mega Man because of the series' relationship to him as head of R&D, or because the franchises have a life of their own. He's wants to find proof of the value of the Inafune "brand."
"For Capcom, it doesn't matter whether a game has the Inafune brand or is made by some anonymous producer," he said. "That's ultimately why I made the decision to leave. It's sad to leave, proving that point. It was really sad."
"Being completely independent, I want to expand my creativity. If I take on work for a some publisher, it would come with restrictions, and lots of things would no longer be possible. I want to avoid that if possible. Publishers have things that they're good and bad at, as well as good points and bad points. I want to use my best discretion and carry on in such a position."
This is the only answer, in which he talks about creativity and to tell this statement vague is an understatement. The rest of his lengthy answers is about his believe the Capcom games he worked on were hits, because he was responsible for them and some boring business talk, that could have come from an A&R Manager in the music industry.
"You might think I'm being hypocritical, but the really big wall that the Japanese game industry is hitting is the changing of its creators into salarymen,"
Nothing against creative freedom, but right now, I don't have the impression, that most developers in this business want to do something different, from what the big bosses up there are telling them to do.
Developing 1st person Gun Games, 3rd person Gun Games and Gun Games, were you can change the point of view from 1st to 3rd person seems to be everything the creators are interested in. So, I don't see any difference, if these developers are controlled as pawn or behave as pawns, because they want to. In the end, it is the same.
Ironically, the japanese games that don't try to mimic western Gun Games are more succesful then those, that try to, Professor Layton 10+ million, Wii Fit 20+ million, Monster Hunter 10+ million. But I think someone like Inafune doesn't even take notice of these games, they are to japanese for his taste, regardless the fact, they sell worldwide better then his games.
I love this quote.
"Even with technical skills, they often lack adequate ideas and concepts for utilizing those skills."
the extended interview which is linked above has some interesting parts, too.
Hope some other will follow on public declarations like this.
This is the only answer, in which he talks about creativity and to tell this statement vague is an understatement. The rest of his lengthy answers is about his believe the Capcom games he worked on were hits, because he was responsible for them and some boring business talk, that could have come from an A&R Manager in the music industry.
Yuji Naka, anyone?
Free agency.
You can't control a free-thinking, core creator.
The money people have it, on their shoulders, what direction this industry will move in. (I mean, outside of the make money part.)
Developing 1st person Gun Games, 3rd person Gun Games and Gun Games, were you can change the point of view from 1st to 3rd person seems to be everything the creators are interested in. So, I don't see any difference, if these developers are controlled as pawn or behave as pawns, because they want to. In the end, it is the same.
Ironically, the japanese games that don't try to mimic western Gun Games are more succesful then those, that try to, Professor Layton 10+ million, Wii Fit 20+ million, Monster Hunter 10+ million. But I think someone like Inafune doesn't even take notice of these games, they are to japanese for his taste, regardless the fact, they sell worldwide better then his games.