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

In an interview with CVG, Hutchinson stated, “I think there’s a subtle racism in the business, especially on the journalists’ side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do.”

Living in an era where Inversion and Final Fantasy XIII-2 – both Japanese developed – got severe dressing-downs for their overall quality, that’s definitely up for debate.

He goes on to state, “Just think about how many Japanese games are released where their stories are literally gibberish…There’s no way [a western developer] could write it with a straight face, and the journalists say ‘oh it is brilliant. Then Gears of War comes out and apparently it’s the worst written narrative in a game ever.”

Considering he prefers Gears over Bayonetta, it’s not hard to guess where the “gibberish” comment is aimed at. Which is funny, considering that no one praised Bayonetta for it’s story – not even for it’s tongue-in-cheekiness treatment.

Now if he brought up Final Fantasy 8’s odd narrative, we’d be inclined to agree. This is a game that needed Mulholland Drive’s “Death Dream” theory to properly explain what the hell was happening.

Then again, he did go on to praise Nintendo for “continuing to reinvigorating it’s franchises” by the way. The same Nintendo who was criticized for not innovating much in New Super Mario Bros. 2 but still delivering a fun experience overall.