Keiji Inafune, who has been instrumental in creating a name for Japanese game developer with his involvement in franchises such as Mega Man, Resident Evil, Onimusha and the upcoming Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, recently spoke to GameSpot at PAX Prime about how things have gotten worse for the Japanese gaming industry.
“Ultimately, it’s probably gotten worse than when I was talking about it before. And that’s a shame. But there are options out there. And there are many options that Japanese independent developers can pursue to gain more control, to own their own IP, et cetera.
“And Kickstarter is one of those fantastic options. And so, one of the reasons why I was interested in doing this Kickstarter wasn’t just because potentially being able to connect with the fans, but also potentially being able to show other Japanese independent developers that there is a way, that there are options.” Inafune recently began a Kickstarter for his game Might No. 9.
Of course, he believes that the industry “still lots of great solutions” if developers begin delivering “great content” to get consumers to “stand up and listen and support it”.