Support NeoGAF

[Salz01]

Asian developers focus on fun. Western developers focus on politics.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Japanese games made a huge comeback during the mid-to-late PS4/XBO generation. That’s when they cracked the code on HD game development. Now that they don’t have to worry about “HD towns r hard” they can deliver on what they do best — quality gameplay.

Japan has found a better balance in development costs, there is no need to go for top graphics, as long as it is good enough it is fine and they can focus more on gameplay.

Oh god yes, there was a stark contrast at the start of the PS360 generation

Western developers, many of which were PC centric, had already been producing HD games for a couple of years and just hit the ground running when that gen started, porting games to 360 was quite easy too and they suddenly had a console with a large user base to do it. Unreal Engine 3 only having documentation in English really helped too.

Japanese developers, who used to be ahead in terms of 3D due to the arcades (especially Sega and Namco) instead were leaning into the growing handheld and mobile market and just weren’t prepared at all for HD

Final Fantasy XIII producers: Traditional RPG towns are tough to do in HD

Lots of fans think it would be great to see the classic Final Fantasy VII remade in full HD glory on a platform like the PS3, but Final Fantasy XIII producers Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama say it would be really tough to do. In a recent interview with Ultimania, they say that the limit...

www.engadget.com

Wow, that’s feels so long ago having not long finished the gorgeous Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

I feel like a lot of the graphics in “photorealistic” games is just overkill now, such as the peach fuzz on Aloy’s face.

The market seems to think so too, while the likes of DigitalFoundry gush over Hellblade II and Alan Wake 2 the market rejects them (the latter lost money) because they’re quite satisfied with graphics already.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Gamers want to play fun games and right now Japan (and other Asian countries) are the ones offering fun games. The West seems mostly concerned with cramming objectively insane political ideologies down the collective throats of gamers and that is being completely rejected for good reasons

 

[lughnasadh123]

This comes across more as wish fulfillment rather than any kind of serious market analysis.

 

[deriks]

Identity politics and other bullshit ahead of the game per se was the cause, while the east just made the videogames and that was it

It's been a while the west is loosing it's appeal. I agree with having another direction, but holy shit... remember when the most of worries was having generic bald guys? Those times were actually good

 

[BattleScar]

I was with you until you brought up the DEI nonsense. I don’t conflate bad storytelling with DEI policies, something most people who complain about it don’t even fully understand, because the truth is, poorly written characters and stories exist regardless of diversity efforts. Bad writing is just bad writing.

Kna mean? Games like Baldur’s Gate 3, God of War, and Cyberpunk 2077 are proof that diversity and inclusivity don’t ruin storytelling. These games have been massively successful despite incorporating different relationships and perspectives organically, because it's done without making it feel forced or performative.

This is the thing, people don't actually know what DEI is or does.
Most of the DEI hiring is probably taking place in technical teams, art departments, sound design, music, game design, and so on. Most of these are things that are not perceptible on the surface. The vast majority of large scale productions people love to whine about for DEI are usually very competently made. But nobody cares about that. They just see a woman with pink hair on the boxart and start frothing at the mouth (unless its an anime woman with pink hair).
Its just a bunch of clueless opining on an intangible "threat".

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Identity politics and other bullshit ahead of the game per se was the cause, while the east just made the videogames and that was it

It's been a while the west is loosing it's appeal. I agree with having another direction, but holy shit... remember when the most of worries was having generic bald guys? Those times were actually good

Mass Effect and Gears of War, for example, were at their height in the PS360 generation Western developers, the reason for the trend was apparently down Unreal Engine 3 not being suited to hair and grass rendering.

Unreal Engine 3 was much better at rendering skin and metal, so many games went with that look.

Of course, Kotaku weren’t fans

It's Time We Put The Bald Space Marine Away. It's Time To Make Games For More People.

Not everyone knows the joy of playing as a protagonist that is like them—someone with the same skin color, with the same hair style, with the same sexual orientation, or the same gender. Sometimes, 'who you are' is not an in-game option simply because you are not the target audience. What choice...

kotaku.com

 

[RetroGamingUK]

This is the thing, people don't actually know what DEI is or does.
Most of the DEI hiring is probably taking place in technical teams, art departments, sound design, music, game design, and so on. Most of these are things that are not perceptible on the surface. The vast majority of large scale productions people love to whine about for DEI are usually very competently made. But nobody cares about that. They just see a woman with pink hair on the boxart and start frothing at the mouth (unless its an anime woman with pink hair).
Its just a bunch of clueless opining on an intangible "threat".

Indeed, people focus too much on the DEI politics in the product, when the actual problem is DEI causing issues with development of the product.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

It's been a while the west is loosing its appeal. I agree with having another direction, but holy shit... remember when the most of worries was having generic bald guys? Those times were actually good

When would you say the tide turned? For me I noticed a decline in American games and big improvements in Japanese games around 2017.

 

[Idleyes]

2017 sounds about right. Almost anything that reaches peak commercial success eventually suffers a decline in quality as palm rubbers enter the scene. The community of out-of-touch profit seekers grows, leading to low quality products flooding the market.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

 

[Idleyes]

Identity politics and other bullshit ahead of the game per se was the cause, while the east just made the videogames and that was it

It's been a while the west is loosing it's appeal. I agree with having another direction, but holy shit... remember when the most of worries was having generic bald guys? Those times were actually good

Bruh, Metroid had a female protagonist long before for-profit media started pushing the idea that DEI is a problem. Baldur’s Gate 2 had same-sex relationships way back in 2000. What another user mentioned, and I agree with, is that maybe people are just tired of it being constantly talked about (or as they put it, "shoved in their faces").

My suggestion? If it bothers folks that much, they should hold the people who keep bringing it up accountable by not buying their games. Because at the end of the day, if the gaming community can get tired of hearing about DEI, they can also get tired of hearing people complain about DEI. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm already there.

 

[Exede]

I think it's not Japan alone, more like Asia in general.

 

[Gamerfan81]

The Western Studios are like Budlight, instead of appeasing their loyal fanbase which has made them insanely rich and profitable, they instead cater to such a tiny majority that affects their bottom line, which then leads to having a damage reputation, loss sales, profitability, etc.

 

[Clear]

This is the thing, people don't actually know what DEI is or does.
Most of the DEI hiring is probably taking place in technical teams, art departments, sound design, music, game design, and so on. Most of these are things that are not perceptible on the surface. The vast majority of large scale productions people love to whine about for DEI are usually very competently made. But nobody cares about that. They just see a woman with pink hair on the boxart and start frothing at the mouth (unless its an anime woman with pink hair).
Its just a bunch of clueless opining on an intangible "threat".

The big mistake is people believing that game dev is somehow democratic, when actual creative control is extremely centralized to a handful of individuals who are tasked with steering.

If activists are promoted into these senior positions they can profoundly affect the end result. Especially given the MO of a lot of these types is to shame and threaten people who disagree with their views into submission, and to build bubbles of support via cronyism.

 

[adamsapple]

"Crash"?
uh .. ok .

 

[viveks86]

Why are these related? Japan is making good stuff and getting rewarded. The US has been churning out crap, making bone headed decisions or not releasing anything at all for years. Still won't call it a "crash" though, but definitely a slump.

 

[Aenima]

Not just Japan, but Asia. If Anything Japan could be next if they dont distance themselves from the DEI practices that some Japanese devs already adopted, while China and Korea have a players in mind as they main focus, as well as most Japanese devs still do. And thats reflected in they products.

You make a product for a certain audience, if the audience likes, you get money in return. In this case the product are videogames, and the audience are gamers. The west has been pushing political agendas as much as possible alienating the target audience to try atract some kinda of audience that dont buy videogames. Asian devs still know who are the target audience.

 

[Calverz]

Concord and Xbox. There’s your answer.

 

[Kacho]

The Western Studios are like Budlight, instead of appeasing their loyal fanbase which has made them insanely rich and profitable, they instead cater to such a tiny majority that affects their bottom line, which then leads to having a damage reputation, loss sales, profitability, etc.

They had a good thing going for a while too. It's a shame. Wolfenstein 2 was the first game where I could tell something was off, I just couldn't put my finger on it. Since then things have gotten progressively worse and my purchase habits have changed dramatically. I'm glad we have Japan and other asian devs picking up the slack. They get 90% of my money these days.

 

[Gambit2483]

East to the West

 

[Sinfulgore]

Not at all. Call of Duty will outsell every Japanese game released this year. Warners Bro's Hogwarts legacy outsold Elden Ring. Some bad games are being made in the West but that doesn't discredit all the successful games. Japan isn't winning anything at least not in the US.

 

[Clear]

Not at all. Call of Duty will outsell every Japanese game released this year. Warners Bro's Hogwarts legacy outsold Elden Ring. Some bad games are being made in the West but that doesn't discredit all the successful games. Japan isn't winning anything at least not in the US.

Where are the big new IP's? All I see is legacy IP in terminal decline.

Hollywood is at the forefront of this downward trend, and western games are going the exact same way for the same reasons.

 

[Lionel Richie]

I don't think Japan could be classified as a "winner" here because they have always been winners, except for the PS360 days which took them a long fucking time to adjust. Since Atari fell the industry has been largely dominated creatively by Japan, with some punctual but extremely relevant exceptions (mainly PC centric games).

 

[Idleyes]

The Last of Us Part II (Ellie kissing Dina)

"Why do they keep pushing this agenda? Just let me play the game!"

Forspoken (Freya as a Black female lead)

"More woke trash. Where are all the strong male protagonists?"

Final Fantasy VII Remake (Cloud cross-dressing in the Honeybee Inn)

"Lmao, classic moment. Japan is keeping gaming fun!"

Nier Automata (2B in high heels and blindfolds)

"Art. Pure art. Western devs could never get this right!"


I'm sure this has nothing to do with anything. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Trilobit]

I know it's a bit superficial, but if Western developers are so ideologically motivated to make female characters look masculine then I feel perfectly fine not supporting them with my dineros.

 

[PuppetMaster]

It's mostly due to the exchange rate and the value of the YEN dropping like a rock the last few years.

In dollar terms, costs to make games have gone down. And profits made overseas in euros or dollars just have more value now than ever in the last 30 years.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Even though I'm more of a western gamer but hope to see the eastern side doing better and better, at least they got less shitty woke trash. And it's been awhile since the western side made a game I really like. Still waiting for Fallout 5, Elder Scrolls VI, GTA VI, Starcraft 3, and Dawn of War 4.

 

[ReBurn]

True, but Microsoft got a lot right under Peter Moore’s leadership

Microsoft got a lot right for Xbox 360, no doubt. I think Peter Moore played a part, but there was also some lightning in a bottle. 360 arrived a year before the PS3, sold at a lower price, and came out of the gate swinging with great games and marketing deals. It caught Sony completely off guard and in the time it took them to get their footing 360 got a really good foothold. If Sony hadn't stumbled it's possible things would have been different. Peter Moore didn't make Sony build a complex, overpriced console.

The decline of Xbox started on the back half of that gen with Microsoft started making mistakes. They updated the dashboard to bring it in line with Microsoft corporate tile UI crap and began pulling back on first party releases. By the time Xbox One launched the Xbox brand had no identity other than Microsoft corporate and that's not exactly what people think of when they think of fun. Microsoft forgetting what Xbox is and taking the focus away from great first party games hurt them way more than anything Sony or Nintendo did.

 

[Felessan]

Indeed, big differences with Japan this generation
- not jumping in entirely with live service fad

WTF?
Japan went all-in into service since like 10 years ago, the amount of resources that went there are several times higher than any western company invested. SE have 2/3 of company run service games (and it's what keeping them afloat, their HD games are failed business). Konami and Namco also heavy into mobile business, while Capcom, although coming late, taking grounds there
It's actually their advantage because unlike western companies they did R&D on live-service games long ago and while most western companies struggle to find a proper blueprint, asian companies just keep creating more and more innovative live service games.

Japan benefits from ... less reliance on exploitative live-service models, something the U.S. gaming industry, by comparison, has struggled with due to shareholder-driven decisions and corporate consolidation.

Delusion bubble is strong here. Japan IS a gacha land (and gacha is term origin in Japan)

 

[GloveSlap]

Yeah. Western companies gave away their market share on a silver platter.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

The decline of Xbox started on the back half of that gen with Microsoft started making mistakes. They updated the dashboard to bring it in line with Microsoft corporate tile UI crap and began pulling back on first party releases. By the time Xbox One launched the Xbox brand had no identity other than Microsoft corporate and that's not exactly what people think of when they think of fun. Microsoft forgetting what Xbox is and taking the focus away from great first party games hurt them way more than anything Sony or Nintendo did.

Yeah it’s like Microsoft Corp saw that they’d gained a foothold in the living room and decided to take over and just Microsoft the hell out of the thing.

Windows metro UI
Internet Explorer
Skype

No one wanted that crap on their GAMES console, but Microsoft didn’t get it.

Robbie Bach and J Allard must’ve felt pretty depressed seeing their baby just turned into a soulless grey computer like that.

That Xbox One reveal, after 12 years I’m still like WTF

 

[Sinfulgore]

Where are the big new IP's? All I see is legacy IP in terminal decline.

Hollywood is at the forefront of this downward trend, and western games are going the exact same way for the same reasons.

They don't need big new IPs. All they need to do is create games people want to play, that's it. I don't see any IPs in decline, some studios have made bad games but that doesn't really damage the IP. If the next DC game from Warners Bros is good then Sucide Squad's failure won't matter just like in Hollywood. The Marvels was a massive flop at the box office but that didn't impact Deadpool 3.

 

[sainraja]

Japan is winning because it is delivering the products that people want.

This doesn’t have to come at the expense of Western media, however Western media has been in decline for 10 years or longer at this point.

Western media just reports the news?

 

[tr1p1ex]

Japan has real problems. Some companies might benefit from a cheaper yen.

This is why. Exchange rate is much more favorable.

For example, Nintendo brings home around 35% more yen for every dollar of sales in the US today than it did when the Switch launched.

That and I would guess Japanese companies were more fiscally conservative (more prudent) and didn't 'overbuild' in the pandemic.

 

[Idleyes]

Delusion bubble is strong here. Japan IS a gacha land (and gacha is term origin in Japan)

Bruh, this thread is about Japan benefiting from America's gaming slump. Let’s be real, American gacha games were never a big enough market to compete with Japan in the first place due to cultural difference, so there’s no "slump" for Japan to suddenly capitalize on. There was never any real gacha game competition.

The few successful Western games that could be loosely categorized as gacha tend to rely on battle passes, season passes, premium cosmetics, and loot boxes, and those games are far from struggling. It should be obvious I’m talking about AAA and AA PC and console games, not mobile games, lil bruh bruh. Judging by the rest of the posts I'm not alone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Calico345]

No one is ever truly a winner in this industry due to fluctuations in the market and trends. It is only about who is ahead right now. Eventually, they all fuck up one way or another and someone else steps into a better position until they fuck up. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Felessan]

Bruh, this thread is about Japan benefiting from America's gaming slump. Let’s be real, American gacha games were never a big enough market to compete with Japan in the first place due to cultural difference, so there’s no "slump" for Japan to suddenly capitalize on. There was never any real gacha game competition.

The few successful Western games that could be loosely categorized as gacha tend to rely on battle passes, season passes, premium cosmetics, and loot boxes, and those games are far from struggling. It should be obvious I’m talking about AAA and AA PC and console games, not mobile games, lil bruh bruh. Judging by the rest of the posts I'm not alone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You are talking delusions as many others while trying to push faulty narratives. Yes, some western publishers faulty and japanese ones benefits from it. But the reasoning why it happens pulled straight out of delusional fantasies.
Japan went full scale diverting most of it's resources towards gachas long time ago - there are practically no longer a local market for japanese games, only "international focused, Japan flavored" games, while 15 years ago it was "Japan first, international some time later" with vast amount of A, AA and AAA games suited for local market . Those were killed by live services, forcing old-school guys go to exile and cater to westerners with their games. Actually if you look at the market, current rise is nothing more than partial comeback, Japan games were very strong in 00', occupying like half of market, and then they shrunk and mostly dissappeared in 10', leaving the whole field for western games. Exactly because that period was Japan's window of transition to live service games. And now as West prepare themselves for GaaS transition, those japanese SP guys who did survive transition, get some opportunity to come back, now in "niche versus niche" format.
Telling that Japan "has less reliance on exploitative live-service models" is ignorance and pure bullshit because companies like SE simply survive on gaas cashflow, they would be long bankrupt if not their gaas cash cows.

Also - there are quite a few successes of western live service games, and we get more and more of them, the problem simply that western gamedev lag behind asia by 5+ years, so it essentially still in very early stage, the reason we see so much failures now. Asian gaas games already matured and polished and yes, they do occupy AA/AAA space and they are everywhere, you can try to snicker them off as a "mobile" games, doesn't make them occupy console/PC playtime any less.
Basically it's because asian service games are on offense, western devs have to divert a lot resources to made service games of their own, and because they are unskilled it takes a lot of time and have a high percentage of failure. And diverting of resources create more room for SP focused "niche" asian developers. Western devs can't win in this situation, they only can decide which loss is smaller - either they maintain SP share but loose GAAS share, and this is unfavorable as GAAS keep eating SP games share, or they abandon part of SP share right now to try defend on GAAS front.

 

[Clear]

They don't need big new IPs. All they need to do is create games people want to play, that's it. I don't see any IPs in decline, some studios have made bad games but that doesn't really damage the IP. If the next DC game from Warners Bros is good then Sucide Squad's failure won't matter just like in Hollywood. The Marvels was a massive flop at the box office but that didn't impact Deadpool 3.

I hate to break this to you, but nothing lasts forever.

So much stuff that was huge in the zeitgeist when I was a kid would get at best an ironic nod of recognition now, far more likely a blank look.

Without reinvention and innovation things just fade into irrelevance and oblivion over time.

People just get bored.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

Asian developers are just giving us what we want while Western devs (Europe included) are giving us what game journalists want.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Japan wants to make money.
Western developers want to be activists. On the shareholders dime ofcourse.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Japan wants to make money.
Western developers want to be activists. On the shareholders dime ofcourse.

The shareholders are the activists, that’s why this can’t be quickly undone

 

[Idleyes]

You are talking delusions as many others while trying to push faulty narratives. Yes, some western publishers faulty and japanese ones benefits from it. But the reasoning why it happens pulled straight out of delusional fantasies.
Japan went full scale diverting most of it's resources towards gachas long time ago - there are practically no longer a local market for japanese games, only "international focused, Japan flavored" games, while 15 years ago it was "Japan first, international some time later" with vast amount of A, AA and AAA games suited for local market . Those were killed by live services, forcing old-school guys go to exile and cater to westerners with their games. Actually if you look at the market, current rise is nothing more than partial comeback, Japan games were very strong in 00', occupying like half of market, and then they shrunk and mostly dissappeared in 10', leaving the whole field for western games. Exactly because that period was Japan's window of transition to live service games. And now as West prepare themselves for GaaS transition, those japanese SP guys who did survive transition, get some opportunity to come back, now in "niche versus niche" format.
Telling that Japan "has less reliance on exploitative live-service models" is ignorance and pure bullshit because companies like SE simply survive on gaas cashflow, they would be long bankrupt if not their gaas cash cows.

Also - there are quite a few successes of western live service games, and we get more and more of them, the problem simply that western gamedev lag behind asia by 5+ years, so it essentially still in very early stage, the reason we see so much failures now. Asian gaas games already matured and polished and yes, they do occupy AA/AAA space and they are everywhere, you can try to snicker them off as a "mobile" games, doesn't make them occupy console/PC playtime any less.
Basically it's because asian service games are on offense, western devs have to divert a lot resources to made service games of their own, and because they are unskilled it takes a lot of time and have a high percentage of failure. And diverting of resources create more room for SP focused "niche" asian developers. Western devs can't win in this situation, they only can decide which loss is smaller - either they maintain SP share but loose GAAS share, and this is unfavorable as GAAS keep eating SP games share, or they abandon part of SP share right now to try defend on GAAS front.

Look, I enjoy a spirited discussion as much as the next guy, but I suck at it. Especially when I have to sort through a bunch of gish gallop.

FFXIV is SE’s only successful GaaS game, if that were all they were surviving on, they wouldn’t be funding or selling Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth, Dragon Quest, or Octopath Traveler. Clearly, their revenue streams go beyond just live-service cash flow. So yeah… bye, Fentanyl Felisha.

Honestly I think Sony has been helping SE screw themselves and SE is starting to realize that but that's a completely different argument I'm not wasting time diving into like a large portion of your post. I'd rather be playing video games.

Also, Japan’s gaming industry “going full gacha” is an obvious exaggeration. It was more of a cultural shift than an active decision, and as with any trend, companies looking to profit naturally jumped on it. It happened organically, which is why it was so successful. To say Japan “went full gacha” is to bibbidy-bobbidy-boop games like Dark Souls, Persona 4, and Bloodborne out of existence.

Hell, even now, games like Final Fantasy XVI, Monster Hunter Rise, Elden Ring, Persona 5, and Like a Dragon aren’t gacha games, yet they dominate both Japan and international markets.

Lastly, (takes a breath) western publishers aren’t failing because they “lag behind” Asia’s GaaS model, they’re failing because they suck at implementing it. with how saturated that market is over here I can't help but see that argument as wind-up punch & zoom into orbit levels of nonsense, The west has been hiring talent from Japan and Asia in general for years, just as Japan has collaborated with or hired Western talent in return. The West has all the tools, they just suck at using them.

I guess we see things differently, huh? Look, I’ll admit I’m ignorant about plenty of things and I’ve been wrong before, but delusional? Never. That would require ignoring undeniable evidence, and you haven’t brought any to the table yet, lil’ bruh.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Crash? What?

 

[Felessan]

FFXIV is SE’s only successful GaaS game, if that were all they were surviving on, they wouldn’t be funding or selling Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth, Dragon Quest, or Octopath Traveler. Clearly, their revenue streams go beyond just live-service cash flow. So yeah… bye, Fentanyl Felisha.

No.
They have 2 successful MMO (FF14 and DQ11) and a number of mobile titles. Besides FF14 all other service games are mostly for local market, so they not widely known overseas.
Their HD games division operating at loss for quite some time already, and it was specifically their push for live service games way back to FF14 1.0 to have constant stream of revenue/profit to continue do SP games.

Also, Japan’s gaming industry “going full gacha” is an obvious exaggeration. It was more of a cultural shift than an active decision, and as with any trend, companies looking to profit naturally jumped on it. It happened organically, which is why it was so successful. To say Japan “went full gacha” is to bibbidy-bobbidy-boop games like Dark Souls, Persona 4, and Bloodborne out of existence.

It did went full gacha. And a limited number survived SP games that went global doesn't change that besides them there is a barren ground.
CyGames commented on that when they established their SP games studio. They are rich as they have a number of popular gacha games and they have experienced staff (a lot of people from SE worked on FFT, FF11, FF12 went to them) - so they have no problem with money or expertise. Where they do have problem is a general staff. Mobile gamedev have more money and better job prospective, so most graduates and best go there. A few that insist on working on SP games go to the big established houses like Nintendo or Capcom. Others, like small or new studios got scraps and it incredibly hard to get a quality people for them.

Hell, even now, games like Final Fantasy XVI, Monster Hunter Rise, Elden Ring, Persona 5, and Like a Dragon aren’t gacha games, yet they dominate both Japan and international markets.

Metaphor sold 110k copies for the whole 2024 in Japan, Dragon Dogma 2 95k - it's hardly a "dominate". And overall game sales dropped ~triple from 15 years ago (some went to digital, but not much)

Lastly, (takes a breath) western publishers aren’t failing because they “lag behind” Asia’s GaaS model, they’re failing because they suck at implementing it. with how saturated that market is over here I can't help but see that argument as wind-up punch & zoom into orbit levels of nonsense, The west has been hiring talent from Japan and Asia in general for years, just as Japan has collaborated with or hired Western talent in return. The West has all the tools, they just suck at using them.

Hahaha, as hiring a person or even a small team would help solve the issue. It doesn't work this way - you need to understand and build the whole pipeline around gaas and it's huge - game design with properly thought monetization, infrastructure, content delivery, and they all interwined and should be adjusted according other parts. The scope far too great for one or several few to know in detail, the best way is to get someone who already have it helps you, like Blizzard helped Bungie and Bungie tries to help Sony.

 

[kevboard]

the original order was restored.

Japanese games shat on western games from Gen2 to Gen6. and now we are back to that reality, after they had a bit of a stumble getting into the HD era during Gen7 and Gen8

 

[Arsic]

Asia seems to have more visionary directors at the helm. They also focus on gameplay as the key pillar stone for what they set out to make.

The west has abandoned both of these currently.

 

[A.Romero]

I'm not sure. Clearly Japan is having a Renaissance but I wonder if overall sales would be worse if the west wasn't performing bad. Back in the PS2 days there were bangers from both sides of the pacific and good games sold well regardless of their origin.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Japan isn't even close to making games as good as "the west". Stop this nonsense immediately.

GTAVI will outsell everything Japan produces for the next 7 years.

 

[Gamerfan81]

Japan isn't even close to making games as good as "the west". Stop this nonsense immediately.

GTAVI will outsell everything Japan produces for the next 7 years.

Japan's best games sell very well along with having critical acclaim from fans. Sure some Western titles and franchises like Madden, NBA 2k, and COD outsells everything, but I still wouldn't cal that quality.

Seems like you think just based on sales a game is considered quality because of that criteria. It's like saying Michael Bay films are great because they generate so much box office revenue therefore his films are better than Martin Scorsese's films.