Lost Planet producer fears rise of Western video games

According to a blog post by Capcom’s official Lost Planet blogger Brian Dunn, Takeuchi has expressed his disappointment over the Japanese video game industry giving up on creating video games with worldwide appeal – something he himself has managed with Lost Planet.

“So this trend, this ‘game development isolationism,’ I think is very troubling. I’m concerned about what will happen to the industry in Japan,” Takeuchi explained to Dunn. “I think western developers borrowed and learned from Japanese developers all those years when Japan was ahead. They built on that and just blazed ahead on their own.“

Takeuchi points towards Halo and Gears of War as prime examples of how the Western video game developer has built on the past and taken gaming to another level. He believes that just as Western developers learned from Japan, it’s time for the Japanese developers to look to the Western developers for inspiration.

If the Japanese video game developers don’t take Takeuchi’s advice on board he fears that they will end up falling back on their few big franchises rather than looking to create new titles. He concludes that “If western developers started making games aimed at the Japanese market, competing for the market share, a lot of Japanese developers might have a hard time competing.“