Ryan Payton: Japanese devs feeling heat from the West
Ryan Payton, formerly of Kojima Productions, now unemployed in Seattle, thinks the sun is setting on high-end game development in The Land Of The Rising Sun.
“The Japanese public seems to be disinterested in next-gen and high definition gaming," he told Kotaku. "There is a stigma still attached to western technology there."
"There have been a lot of good mainstream games built for the Japanese Xbox 360," he continued. "But they only sold a small number of copies. I think that kind of drained a lot of expectations."
Most telling, however, are the panicked reactions of those who hedged their bets on “next-gen” gaming.
"It's apparent, everyone knows it in Japan," he said. "The developers here feel the pressure. They're starting to develop more with the West in mind and the tech is in the West now. I'm surprised at how many titles have been produced on the Unreal 3 Engine."
More poignant commentary, along something about hobos, through the link.