Harvest Moon creator and Marvelous Entertainment chief creative officer Yasuhiro Wada is worried that a lack of originality in Japanese game development is turning once passionate fans away from the industry.
“Simply put, I think the population of gamers in Japan is shrinking fast,” he told us in a recently published interview. “Every year, we see the number of active core gamers decreasing. I think this is due to the industry. Publishers, developers and creators alike are not trying hard enough to bring original creations on the market.
“Strong IP, series or popular characters are the main focus today. They are seen as secured elements in a very risky environment. Publishers and developers have used this for years, leaving little place for originality and new contents. I think this is why gamers are leaving videogames.”
In a wide-ranging interview that covers topics such as the Xbox 360’s chances of increasing market share in Japan and the challenges associated with PS3 development, Wada does acknowledge that creating original titles is commercially risky. Marvelous published titles including Little King's Story and No More Heroes may have been critically acclaimed, but they have yet to reach blockbuster status. Nevertheless, Wada says it continues to be his ambition to promote new and original games that grow the market in Japan in the long-term.
“I remember of the huge creative explosion that occurred when the first PlayStation and the Saturn were launched. There were tons of new ideas and concepts thrown on the market. It was an exciting time and many came to videogaming. That time and today are very different. I’m sure that gamers who have left videogaming today were among the ones that were very excited and very active on their PS or Saturn… I believe that variety is the only way to bring more people into gaming.”