Platinum Games: “Lumping All Japanese Developers Together is a Joke”

There are terrible Western developers as well, says executive director Atsushi Inaba.


Western devs and Japanese devs don’t really get along. If it’s not some one on this side talking about the decline of the industry, then it’s Platinum Games’ Atsushi Inaba striking back.

Speaking to EDGE, the executive director obviously doesn’t “like it when people lump Japanese games developers all together into one group. Frankly, I think it’s a joke. What do these people know?” Certainly not many people have attempted to type-cast a single gaming industry as a whole as most people have done for Japan.

But using this logic to say all Japanese devs are terrible isn’t gonna fly. After all, as Inaba points out, “Think about Western developers. There are many Western developers making terrible games, and then you see one like Infinity Ward making a game that sells 20 million and everyone goes, ‘hey, Western developers are amazing!’

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance director Kenji Saito added that, “I don’t think there’s a need to be down on Japanese games in general. Platinum is a company that is trying to push to the front and do big things. But I think it’s true that some Japanese developers are still making Japanese games, and trying to maintain their status quos – that’s their whole strategy.” Which really isn’t that different from Western developers, as the yearly sequels to COD and Assassin’s Creed will tell you.

Source: CVG

japanese developersMetal Gear Rising RevengeancemultiplatformPlatinum Games