The misconception of Japanese games

If you're a gamer then we assume you're aware of an event that’s recently passed called the Game Developer's Conference. If so then we also presume that you heard of the controversial comments made by Polytron director Phil Fish towards his fellow Japanese developers in the industry.

"Your games just suck", were the four words Mister Fish used to begin his critique of today's Japanese developers. Fish's rhetoric didn't conclude after his Q&A session ended either. The outspoken developer later took to Twitter and attempted to apologize for his harsh criticism but refused to back down. "I'm sorry Japanese guy! I was a bit rough, but your country's games are f*** terrible nowadays."

Now it's no secret that the state of the Japanese industry has taken a hit over the past several years as a number of leading figures in the business, such as Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and ex-Capcom producer Keiji Inafune, have all recently admitted. Yet it was Japan – Nintendo to be exact - who turned the market around after the American video game crash in 1983.

Today it's clear that Western developers have the technical edge over their Japanese counterparts, although the growing popularity of the shooter genre in the West has prompted certain Japanese studios to make an attempt to copy that success. The results, however, have been unflattering.

All major territories of the video game industry, be it Japan, North America or Europe, have produced games that never should have been sold to the public, but for Mister Fish to go as far as to call out the entire Japanese industry is very naive and unprofessional.

What makes Japanese video games so inferior when at the time of this article over 76 million people around the world have purchased the likes of Wii Sports for the Nintendo Wii? When nearly six million PS3, 360 and PC owners combined have purchased Capcom's Resident Evil 6?

When Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5 sold over 6 million copies in just over a month? When Shadow of the Colossus, one of the most critically acclaimed games ever created by the world reknown Japanese studio Team Ico, recently received the honor of being crowned "Game of the Decade"? When the fighting game genre is dominated by Japan, with the exception of NetherRealm Studios Mortal Kombat?

Contrary to what Fish may believe not all Japanese games "suck". Many offer a diverse and unique take on gaming that we won't find anywhere else. Few other games pit the player against an army of thousands, make us fall in love with a cast of characters on an epic quest to save the world, or punish us unimaginably for our mistakes the same way countless Japanese titles have.

Japanese developers, like most video game studios around the world that house scores of men and women working long hours, all have a goal. And that is to create an entertaining experience that gamers can enjoy. It doesn't have to have pretty graphics. It doesn't have to be the next Call of Duty. It has to be fun. It should be worth its price tag. That's the criteria all video games should be judged by. No matter where they are made.

In closing, we'd be remise in our duties as journalists if we didn't point out how Mister Fish later tweeted that most modern Japanese games are terrible and not the entire industry as he bluntly suggested at the GDC. Still, his words are out there and can't be taken back.

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