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oreodaredattoomotteyagaru
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I think the main issue preventing 'innovations' in Japan stem from the fact that the Japanese in general are kind of averse to change--especially from sources outside of Japan. It's been like that throughout their history, so it's nothing new.
For game developers, I'm sure they want to (and do) make things different, but the problem is that consumers are rarely going to welcome these new things with open wallets as W.Kanno alluded to. Even just looking at Square Enix this week, they released a new and unique DS RPG called Sigma Harmonics. It didn't do so hot, considering its direct competition was a DS football/soccer RPG (which in itself is a unique game and deserves success). The traditional gamers of Japan are/were not only decreasing in number, but they only come out in droves to support familiar franchises. Making new things is risky for the Japanese market, especially if there is little intent to release the game outside of Asia.
I can't say definitively that the US is 'better' than Japan when it comes to development, but there are two key differences between the US and Japan. For one, the US is just plain bigger. This means more potential consumers for a game, with more potential sales. There's more money floating around in the US to go to both the cost of development and the buying of the actual product. Both important for the success of a game.
The second one is that I don't think western folks are as closed-minded as Japanese folks are, both the game companies and the consumers. Companies, particularly the big ones, have little fear of creating and releasing decent new franchises since they know it won't be entirely shunned by the public. As such, we see things like Assassin's Creed become incredibly successful over here, where things like Valkyria Chronicles perform modestly at best over in Japan (though this particular example can be attributed to a low install base).
I think Capcom was the first Japanese company to really capitalize on the ripe western market, releasing Dead Rising and Lost Planet early in the 360's life (while the 360 was/is still both Dead and Lost in Japan). It certainly paid off for them, both games did respectably well. Square-Enix's first attempt at specifically targeting westerners comes next week with Infinite Undiscovery, so it will be interesting to see how that works out considering it's head-to-head with its recently released step-sibling Tales of Vesperia. I don't, however, think the answer lies in 'targeting western audiences', but rather bringing us more in sync with their development plans. People who like Japanese games like Japanese games. People who like Japanese games don't like waiting up to a year or more (if ever) to play Japanese games. I think if more Japanese developers, regardless of size, would be more willing to swiftly release their games out in the west and have them be fairly successful, they won't have to be limited by the claustrophobic gamer mentality of their home market and be more willing to innovate.
Also for what it's worth, Metroid Prime was made in Texas.
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