Inafune: Gaming's largely a western market

Capcom's Kenji Inafune has said that gaming's becoming largely a western market, which is why Capcom is "fighting the good fight," in order to get its games to work.

Speaking to Videogamer at E3, Inafune emphasizes the point, saying that unless Japanese developers stand up and be counted, it could be too late.

"Every year that I come to E3, year in and year out, the one thing I've noticed is that it seems like the Japanese game developer share seems to be getting smaller and smaller," he said. "If you look at the major titles, they're now primarily western.

"If you look at all the different signs and all the billboards, most of those are western titles. A lot of the key announcements are also western titles. I think to myself sometimes, if we keep on this course, the Japanese gaming market will disappear totally."

As for how Capcom Japan is going to make itself stand out from the western crowd, Inafune said it will not only be relying on it's own skill, but those of its branches in the west.

"We can't just rely on our own skill, our own Japanese developer skill and know-how, to steer us through this dark time," he said. "It's going to have to come through collaborative efforts and co-operation. It's our US staff, our European staff, working closely with them.

"Of course we are working with a lot of different western developers as well. It's being able to share their knowledge and information, to collaborate with them on a very in-depth level, that's going to allow us to grow as a company and to be able to understand how the market is changing in the west, and allow us to be competitive in those markets. That's going to be essential for us."

Inafune's comments are in a similar vein to ones he made during TGS last year, when he lamented that the Japanese gaming market "was finished".

Capcom's next high profile title is Dead Rising 2, which will be released on August 31 in the US and September 3 in the UK on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.