Platinum games, known for its work on Vanquish, Bayonetta and Vanquish, believes that Japanese developers need to up their game if they want to compete with their western counterparts.
The Japanese market is known for being cut off from the Western world, with very few titles making their way to the United States and Europe and proving to be a success. Yes, there is the Resident Evil series among others, but a majority of titles fail to have as profound an effect on consumers in the west.
Titles such as Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bayonetta and Vanquish were deemed successes, however, they only managed a cult following and never reached the mainstream market.
Jean Pierre Kellams, who has worked on both of Platinum games’ successes, Bayonetta and Vanquish, added his voice to why there was such a great divide between the East and the West.
For him it seems that the level of investment, both financially and in-terms of man-power as well, was lacking. He said, “Most Japanese publishers/developers can’t invest money/manpower enough to compete with exceptional Western productions. Risk is too high. It costs money and sweat to make things stand out, but it also raises the risk. Then marketing is crazy expensive after that.”
Both Vanquish and Bayonetta broke onto the gaming scene with little advertising preceding it and awareness about the game spread only through word of mouth. In fact, Vanquish was in the top three positions of a list of the best games that no one has ever played, which was a testament to the game’s solid value but lack of awareness among gamers about its existence.
EA also allocated $50-million for their marketing campaign of Battlefield 3 and Kellams believes that is a major barrier for Japanese games as well, due to the fact that they cannot compete with those figures at the moment.
Kellams also believes that Japanese developers focus too much on catering for the slowest of the gaming ‘herd’ and therefore their pacing is different from what the western audience would expect.
He said, “Culturally, Japanese design is about being inclusive. They don’t want anyone left behind, so they will add friction to an experience. Except then you move at the pace of the slowest one in a group. It bogs the experience down for people who already get it.”
However, Kellams will be pleased by the way an increasing number of Japanese titles are being accepted by the west and that there may one day be a bridge between the East and the West, that is, if Japanese developers emulate what their western counterparts and invest more in their future projects.
Platinum Games is currently working on their latest title Anarchy Reigns, which is expected to be released later this year.
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