205
rate

Kojima loves Left 4 Dead, Doesn't love Japanese game industry

January 14, 2009 in Interview comments 3

In a recent interview with Famitsu, Hideo Kojima discussed working with the hi-def era of gaming, how much he loves Left 4 Dead, and joked that he should quit being Japanese. Go to the source for full article.

Kojima agrees, adding an even more pessimistic note to matters. "The US and European marketplace are far better balanced. There are games everyone can play -- maybe calling them 'kids' games' would be inappropriate -- but there's also a deep base of core titles made with movie-industry people that explore the depths of hi-def. I'm addicted to Left 4 Dead right now, but people say to me that that game would never work in Japan.

"Maybe I should quit being Japanese," Kojima continued with a laugh. "And speaking of which, there were hardly any Japanese games nominated in Spike TV's Video Game Awards this year. It's sad to see that Japan's games failed to even register in America last year."

Kojima also points out that the hi-definition era has changed the rules of game design itself. "Game design up to now has been about making rules," he notes. "It was like a card game; there were lots of things that weren't possible and had to be cut. With hi-def, the more real it gets, the less instruction you need to give, so preoccupying yourself with making rules seems silly. Western developers have realized this, but Japanese ones are still preoccupied with making these rules."
Miss Razz via 1up.com »
Favourite this article Add source
| More
Report!
News story attached to:
Additional sources:

Comments

Register as a member to subscribe comments.
  • 0
    Urban Jan 14, 09
    I would want to quit being japanese too. With a gaming market like that.
  • 0
    RabidChinaGirl Jan 15, 09
    My friend (not what I could call a "gamer") and I like to discuss the trends of gaming in Western and Japanese/Eastern markets. It's pretty fun being able to talk intelligently about those things without fanboys lunging at your throat. I think he mentioned reading somewhere that the Japanese gaming market relies a lot on pre-established franchises, and it does have some clout if you look at how many sequels there are for Japanese games. It kind of ties in with what Kojima says, I think, with the Japanese market unable (or unwilling) to keep up with the rest of the world, because the Japanese like it and that's all they need or care about. Meanwhile, you hear about COUNTLESS independent game studios popping up in the West, trying to develop the next big thing. There's a lot of new stuff popping up, and reviewers always have a field day tearing it apart (I'm not innocent of this). Regardless, we're lucky we get to see such a variety.

    I agree that L4D probably couldn't make it in Japan. It just seems to deviate too far from the Japanese video game formula and criteria for a "good" game.
  • 1
    Raijin1999 Jan 16, 09
    He's a lying sack of shit for one reason or another.

    Kojima's stated in the past that he has motion sickness, and can't play many games. It's one of the reasons the Metal Gear series was stuck with a 'top-down' camera perspective for so many years. This info was brought out around the time they announced the new camera angle addition of MGS3: Subsistence.

    Now he's saying he plays hardcore FPS games? Please. If anything, he's in love with the design. That's it. *bleep*er hasn't played shit.

    Months ago he also stated a (poor) concept for a game revolving around the zombie theme, half-baked ideas, one of them something along the lines of having the user pay for respawns if they died. The mini-game dream sequence in MGS3 also depicts a game of similar style of guts n' gore (horror) design.

    As L4D has become the King of zombie games, and Kojima wanted to head in that direction (and was subsequently beat out by L4D, and in ways he likely never would have thought up), it makes sense for him to rant about everybody elses failures but his.


    Way to be a team player, Kojima. It's your name on the production studio. If you're so concerned about raising the quality of Konami's products, why don't you kick that poser cowboy Igarashi in the balls and force him to make something good out of the Castlevania series.

This news story is archived and is closed to comments now.