Alex Hutchinson: games journos show "subtle racism"

The Assassin's Creed III creative director believes Japanese games are critically favoured by the press.

Alex Hutchinson, who has taken over the creative reigns from Patrice Desilets, has launched a peculiar attack towards games journalists. In an interview with CVG, the Ubisoft man indicated he feels critical reception towards Japanese games is always unfairly favourable.

When asked how Nintendo continue to resurrect the same franchises, Hutchinson provided a blunt response.

"You want my real answer? I think there's a subtle racism in the business, especially on the journalists' side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do. I think it's condescending to do this."

"Just think about how many Japanese games are released where their stories are literally gibberish. Literally gibberish. There's no way you could write it with a straight face, and the journalists say 'oh it is brilliant'."

"Then Gears of War comes out and apparently it's the worst written narrative in a game ever. I'll take Gears of War over Bayonetta any time."

"It's patronising to say, 'oh those Japanese stories, they don't really mean what they're doing.'"

Hutchinson quickly moved on by saying he's glad people are talking about the narrative in Assassin's Creed III.

"The best thing about it was that people had a view. That was perfect. People were debating it. We had no interest in writing about the patriots or the defenders of king and country. I mean, these are very boring stories. It's funny to see these debates online, and we just gave up trying to communicate on it because the game will speak for itself."