Breaking the Language Barrier

Well there's definitely consideration there. Tecmo, and Team Ninja specifically, their games are more popular in the West than in Japan. We probably have much more name value and recognition in the West. So the fact that we have much more recognition in the West, means that the producer is going to be much more attuned to that.

But they got popular, not because they were thinking of the West, but because they made a cool game. We don't want to lose that. They need to make the game that they want to make. Games being creative, if your heart and soul isn't in your creation, it'll tell. So we want the creators to use their creativity and be passionate about the games they're going to make.

That passion in the past has paid off. Ninja Gaiden one and two have been really well received. So it's not so much that they're focused on the West, they're focused on making the games that they like. Hey, if Westerners like it too, cool!

I think you do see a bit more of a split now between Japanese games and Western games, because in the past Japanese games were Games. At least for console. Now that you've had more Western games and Western developers making extremely good games on consoles, there is a little more conscious attitude paid towards what gamers in the West are playing and what kind of games are being made.

So the director and the producer, they've played Dead Space. They've played Portal, Portal 2. They have discussions about how it's really cool when GlaDos is talking about this or that in Portal 2. They're aware of Western games. We've definitely tried to use what works in terms of game designs - trying to make a more immersive experience. With Ninja Gaiden 3 that's definitely one of the goals.

So it's not just taking Western games and saying, okay, we're going to make this game for the West. We're looking at Western games and saying, okay, they're making more immersive games, they're making a more mature game. How do we do that as Japanese developers, how do we bring that to the games that we're passionate about.

I definitely see a split between standard Japanese game developers and Western developers. It's going to be hard for them to completely merge. Seeing and hearing both sides sometimes I wonder about how this gap is going to get closed. Games in Japan exist in a different space for entertainment than in the West. Games in the West are very much going for that cinematic experience. Games in Japan are pretty much equated with toys. They're playthings.

If two different users are looking at games, they're looking for different things from those games. Even outside games, entertainment in Japan and the West is very different. If you look at the writing for TV, movies - the diet of entertainment in Japan is different from the West. Even the hardest core Otaku in the West can read all the manga and watch all the anime they want, they're not going to get the full Japanese experience.

In the same vein, even the Japanese gamers who are playing Battlefield and Call of Duty, the environments are different, so they're going to have a different take on the games. So when you get creators who have that different diet, who've grown up with different entertainment, they're going to create very different games. I think what I would like to see more of is what the top people at Team Ninja have done, which is to look at Western games and try to work out why things are moving in that direction. What is cool about that immersive experience.

What I worry about is whether that would be accepted in the West, because for users in the West there seems to be a perception of Japanese games: Japanese games are X. You shouldn't be trying to do this immersive stuff, we want numbers and gauges and combo hits and all fun stuff that we've grown up with. That's what you make because you're Japanese.

If a Japanese creator doesn't want to make that, because their passion is somewhere else, then hopefully Western gamers would be open to seeing that kind of approach and being more open minded.