Microsoft's Peter Moore Slams Japanese Games Scene!

[Engineer_J]

http://spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=6409'


Speaking at the Games Developers Conference on America’s West Coast last week, Microsoft's outspoken corporate vice president Peter Moore made some incredible comments about the Japanese gaming scene in perhaps the most shocking outburst ever to come from a Microsoft Xbox official.

When asked about possible future developmental resistance to the company's recently unveiled XNA tool suite, Moore said, "They have no choice [to support us] because they can't survive on Mahjong games shipping to 100,000 people anymore. They have the same issues that we're resolving with XNA now. They need to develop large-scale global games to stay in business."

Incredibly, Moore decided he had some further thoughts to share about the Japanese gaming scene, without question the most fertile and varied anywhere on the planet. Speaking of his last visit to the Tokyo Game Show, Moore said, "I thought I saw the same game 15 times over: a guy with a sword running around. There's a lack of creative juices which they admit themselves. It's the western developers and publishers who are really driving innovation."

This incredible outburst is perhaps one of the most startling made by any platform holder's representative to date, and will not be considered too wise by Microsoft’s beleaguered Japanese third-party development support team. Perhaps the wider implications of making such remarks will never be publicly known.

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Comments?

[Enzian]

Insulting people doesn't get you far. More flies with honey than vinegar, type of thing. If you're into catching flies, that it.

I'm not "up" on the Japanese Gaming Scene, but regardless of the truth-content of Moore's remarks, it's pretty dumb.

[incubus0]

Maybe it's just me, but the quotes there seem pretty tame. Take out the writer's opinion and they are just a couple of fairly accurate comments. There are about 100 different Mahjong games and even more porn games that are all basically the same. There are some innovative Japanese game developers, but there are far more hacks hired by folks that are just trying to cash in quickly on trends, but the same is true over here, just to a lesser extent.

[Ruined]

I think he's right on the money on two counts:

A - People are expecting more and more from games. Back in the NES days, even if a game stunk there was a good chance it would sell. Now, your game has to be really good to sell. If you want to survive, you can't make crap. Some games are starting to cost as much as movies to make, and make as much money as movies. In other words, the stakes are higher

B - The japanese gaming scene is most definitely filled with lots of crap, much more so than the US gaming scene. This is the same country you can go into an arcade and play a game where you shove a finger controller up a butt that is mounted on the front of the machine. Whether this will change anytime soon is yet to be seen, but it does seem lately that either you make a good run or your game flops horribly.

Whether his comments were offensive? I think maybe more blunt than offensive, but who knows what the Japanese audience will perceive. Most likely they will never read this author's editorial, and if they did they'd probably laugh at the truth in Moore's comments.

IMO, looking back at 2003, I'd say the most innovative games were (even if you thought they sucked) probably Beyond Good & Evil (Ubisoft), Deus Ex: Invisible War (EIDOS), Grabbed by the Ghoulies (Microsoft), and Kung Fu Chaos (Microsoft) all of which have western publishers. Closest thing I saw to an innovative game from a Japanese developer were Tecmo's Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and Sony's Eyetoy. But neither of those titles were fleshed out enough to be truly great games. Even SEGA who usually is the most innovative Japanese dev these days seemed to lack innovation in 2003 - with their closest stab at it being publishing From Software's Otogi.

Plus looking at the 2004 slate, seeing previews of western games like Fable, B.C., Psychonauts, Malice, Kameo, etc... One has to wonder, what are the japanese devs offering up for innovation? RE4? MGS3? meh.

[Reaver]

Originally Posted by incubus0

Maybe it's just me, but the quotes there seem pretty tame. Take out the writer's opinion and they are just a couple of fairly accurate comments.

Yep, agreed. I didn't see anything too inflamitory there. It's not he said, "Dem Japs can't code no games no more," or anything. What he said was basically true. I know that there are loads of highly creative developers in Japan, but more and more the games coming from there are looking the same. It's one androgenous character after another with oversized guns and swords running around whacking other androgenous characters. This is an oversimplification, I know, but that doesn't make it any less true these days. Games like Killer 7 and JSRF are becoming more and more the exception instead of the norm.

[IKEA_boy]

What is innovation? Innovation is something that hasn't been done before right?

I love it, but Beyond Good & Evil is just an adventure game with action elements.
Kung Fu Chaos is just a Power Stone clone. (I haven't played either games so I'm going on the toughts of my peers.)
Grabbed by the Ghoulies looks to be your standard beat-em-up, which has certainly been done before. (I own that but haven't even opened it because the art direction looks aweful.)
Dues Ex looks interesting though.

(I don't mean to pick on your suggestions, Ruined. They're just accessable.)

Steel Battalion, for example, is innovative.
Super Monkey Ball is innovative.
Frequency is innovative, (and Western.)
Gitaroo-Man was something that I haven't seen before with it's analog stick use.
Animal Crossing and Cubivore are new and different, (thought both started as N64 games. Animal Crossing was even released on the N64 in Japan.)

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by IKEA_boy

What is innovation? Innovation is something that hasn't been done before right?

Everything has been done before. I consider innovation something that makes a game mostly different from the rest of the pack while at the same time providing a good game which has a purpose aside from being innovative.

I love it, but Beyond Good & Evil is just an adventure game with action elements.

Of course, but the content, gameplay mechanics, etc are innovative.

Kung Fu Chaos is just a Power Stone clone. (I haven't played either games so I'm going on the toughts of my peers.)

It doesn't really play like Power Stone, but it is similar. What makes it innovative is not the gameplay, but the content and concept - making Kung Fu movies and getting to watch them like a 70s kung fu flick when you are finished.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies looks to be your standard beat-em-up, which has certainly been done before. (I own that but haven't even opened it because the art direction looks aweful.)

Grabbed by the Ghoulies is innovative because of its integrated comic book presentation, as if you are playing a comic book. Plus it has numerous methods of gameplay including third person, on-the-the rail, and first person.

All of your suggestions have "been done," as well, in a different form as I will demonstrate below. Point is, everything has been done, the question is how it stacks up against the rest of the pack.

Steel Battalion, for example, is innovative.

Done years earlier, Mechwarrior + Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS/TQS/RCS setup

Super Monkey Ball is innovative.

Marble Madness in 3D. Or, a more polished version of the 1999 PC game "I've got some balls!"

Frequency is innovative, (and Western.)

Dance Dance Revolution with vector graphics

Gitaroo-Man was something that I haven't seen before with it's analog stick use.[/b]

Rez was a rhythm game that utilized the analog stick a year earlier.

Animal Crossing

Cartoon version of The Sims.

Cubivore are new and different

Primitive version of Black & White


Now none of the above generalizations may be fair, but the point is you can say everything has been done or is not innovative, and all is stale, discounting everything. I'm not going to go that far. The games I listed were the ones I felt that came out in 2003 that were both innovative and good games that could appeal to the average gamer as well. I.e. a game called popotato-da where you control a virtual talking potato's life may be innovative too, but that doesn't mean it most could find it appealing or a good game. Innovation isn't all that impressive when its innovation is just for the sake of innovation.

[IKEA_boy]

I see your point Ruined. One could say there is no innovation left then. What can be done that hasn't been done before?

(And because I'm cool like that, Rez isn't a rhythm game. It's a rail shooter with masturbatory elements.)

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by IKEA_boy

I see your point Ruined. One could say there is no innovation left then. What can be done that hasn't been done before?

I see innovation now as fusing together ideas to make a game that is different from the pack, fun to play with some substance behind it, and appealing to gamers if given some time to play with it (therefore likely having more to it than just being weird/different).

(And because I'm cool like that, Rez isn't a rhythm game. It's a rail shooter with masturbatory elements.)

Heh, it has rhythm elements, even if masturbatory . Even if you don't use the trance vibrator though, a good portion of the fun of Rez is making your shots sound in rhythm with the background music.

[whedon]

Peter Moore is just having cry about the fact Japanese developers won't bend over, pants down and support the Xbox with games. His comments are a typical western ignorance of Japanese culture.

Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden entered the charts the first week at number 4 with 46000 units sold and completely dropped off the next week. Microsoft is having a hell of a time penetrating the Japanese market.

[1138]

The Japanese market is also nororiously fickle about what industries it'll accept foreign products in. I think video games tends to be one of them. Combined with their often very specific interestes and it's hard to break into the market from outside of Japan.

[IKEA_boy]

Originally Posted by 1138

...it's hard to break into the market from outside of Japan.

Just create a series of hentai mahjong games.

[whedon]

Originally Posted by IKEA_boy

Just create a series of hentai mahjong games.

I'd buy one.

[Reaver]

Originally Posted by whedon

I'd buy one.

It wouldn't get released here.

[Engineer_J]

Personally I thought he insulted the Japanese developers and consumer in a typical western way. His words were thoughtless and insentive. It is not like the western developers are a becon of light he makes them out to be, especially his own company MS. I mean how many crappy first party games have been released on the X-Box, not to say anything about the ones that did not make it here in the States. For every KOTOR there is a Arzuk, for every GTA there is a Roadkill and how many crappy movie licenses has Universal put out?

[whedon]

Originally Posted by Reaver

It wouldn't get released here.

That's just my lame attempt at humour dude.

[Sword of Whedon]

When Microsoft first announced they were entering the Japanese market, I made a list of everything they needed to do to have a prayer
Stuff like creating quirky games, and getting dating sims and music games out.

They didn't do ANY of them

[Sword of Whedon]

Well, I never actually sent it to them But given the minimum 7 years researching the game market that I know that they did, they should have known this