Yamaoka: Japanese game development 'is in trouble'

[wraggster]

The man who makes Silent Hill sound so creepy, Konami's Akira Yamaoka, has been working with an American team to bring you Silent Hill 5 and as a result, has a pretty unique perspective on how Japanese and U.S. teams compare. His conclusion? The future isn't particularly bright for Japanese houses. "[The U.S teams'] graphical and technical ability is amazing," he says. "There's a huge gap, actually. They're very advanced. I'm Japanese, and I think this is not just with Silent Hill but with the whole of the industry -- I look at what American developers are doing and I think wow ... Japan is in trouble."

He elaborates on the problems, citing too much pressure on aging developers and the language barrier slowing some development. We would have guessed that the troubles would stem from trying to work under the constant threat of ninja attack, but it should be noted that we're not big readers.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/26/ya...is-in-trouble/

[JKKDARK]

I didn't notice this difference on other other games

[Elven6]

I can agree with them, compare Blue Dragon to Mass Effect, etc.

[goity]

He means shigeru miyamoto makes just about every single nintendo game?

[shadowprophet]

It's a very opinionated, um er opinion. Final fantasy 13. metal gear sold 4. mario galaxy. zelda tp. just to name the first to come to mind are all japan developed games. those arent anything to sneeze @.
I think this guy, this silent hill guy was just taken out of context a little. You know he gives a compliment to his team, and it gets taken out of context and boom a mole hill becomes a mountain. I will agree. There are a lot of very good american developers. Even on par or better then a lot of japanese devs. But I dont believe we are so far ahead that japan is in trouble...