[floatl][/floatl]The Escapist: Kojima - "Maybe I Should Quit Being Japanese"
Metal Gear Solid mastermind Hideo Kojima is addicted to everyone's favorite co-op zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead, which makes him all the more bitter about the state of game development in his home country. Speaking to Famitsu, Kojima expressed his envy of the Western side of the games industry. "The US and European marketplace are far better balanced," he said. "There are games everyone can play...but there's also a deep base of core titles made with movie-industry people that explore the depths of hi-def. I'm addicted to Left 4 Dead right now, but people say to me that that game would never work in Japan." You'd think that a guy could just enjoy the game, but the idea that something like Left 4 Dead could never come out of Japan just seems to make Kojima more than a little peeved about the state of Japanese game development. "Maybe I should quit being Japanese," he said. "And speaking of which, there were hardly any Japanese games nominated in Spike TV's Video Game Awards this year. It's sad to see that Japan's games failed to even register in America last year"...more...
More Kojima on FG here.. Also, Japanmanship has a good series of seven posts which look at the problems of the Japanese video game developers from an insider's perspective. First entry here, last one here.