Posted by Stephen Totilo on 5/15/08 at 12:56 pm.
Throughout this year I’ve been hearing from Japanese game developers who are concerned that their country’s gaming reputation, once the leading force in game development, has been surpassed by the work of game creators in America and Europe.
Last night in San Francisco, a handful of top-shelf Japanese developers working under the label Platinum Games announced that they have teamed up with Sega to put Japanese game development back on top.
They hope to do it with:
- A bloody black-and-white early 2009 Wii game called “Madworld,” that comes from a lead creator on “Resident Evil 4“
- A 2009 DS sci-fi spaceship-managing role-playing game called “Infinite Line” from a philosophical designer who helped make “Steel Battalion“
- A guns-on-her-hands-and-feet, witches-vs.-angels Xbox 360/PS3 2009 game called “Bayonetta” from the creator of “Devil May Cry“
- And a mystery game from Capcom pioneer Shinji Mikami.
They’re calling it a comeback for Japanese gaming, and they’re not afraid to tell me what they think has gone very wrong with the development scene in their company.