E3 came and went – it seems like ages ago! That said, news is still coming out regarding opinions of E3, this time from the Japanese developers in attendance. Seems like a bit of East vs West rivalry is on the cards.
Famitsu magazine has published a sample of impressions about E3 from the Japanese game development industry, thankfully translated by Polygon. As a general rule, there seems to be positive feedback regarding the PS4, and some disappointment about the upcoming games to be released.
Akihiro Hino of Level-5 said:
The number-one surprise for me was the PS4’s price. I think anyone can look at that and think ‘This is cheap!’ Putting cutting-edge PC specs into a game machine that costs just a few hundred dollars really brings across how serious SCE is about this generation. I think the Xbox One is pretty cheap considering what you get with it as well, but with this PS4 price point, they’ll have to do something to oppose that.
In general, this echoes what we’ve all been saying. Both consoles actually look pretty good. Sure, I’m wary of the Kinect, but there is no doubt that the Xbox One will have some awesome power. However, the PS4 seems to still be tipping the scales for the majority of people, even if only for the difference in price.
Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the Yakuza series said
The show floor seemed flooded with all of these franchise titles, and as a result nothing left that much of an impression on me. The Western market has continued to mature in a way, but personally I felt like it’s definitely about to face a transition period.
This mirrors the sentiments of Motohide Eshiro, producer at Capcom
Overseas developers showed off a lot of FPSes and third-person shooters that pursued photorealism and endless detail, but as for the gameplay, I felt there wasn’t much [that was] innovative.
I’m not sure how much I can agree with these views. Maybe these developers didn’t get to see much of the show, or perhaps they were left with such strong impressions of games like Titanfall and The Division that they forgot about all the other incredible games on display. What about The Witcher 3, inFamous: Second Son, Murdered:Soul Suspect and Watch Dogs? All are very impressive games that made our best of E3 awards; they’re innovative and left quite an impression on us – oh, and they aren’t shooters; first or third person. I just hope that if these developers left E3 wanting more, it inspires them to give us more! I have no problem with a bit of rivalry as long as it leads to more awesome games.
Last Updated: July 18, 2013
Argentil
July 18, 2013 at 13:09
Hey Zoey,
I get what you’re saying at the end there, but if you were to look at those 3 titles, they’re pretty similar at a glance. They do kind of have a point. The exception being the witcher, which still has the gritty male lead anyway. Watch Dogs is a shooter, and infamous is a sandbox/action title, which is kind of similar. There are so many genres, and shooterz are saturating the Western market.
CrasH
July 18, 2013 at 13:20
Agreed, want a game more like MDK or BGE personally…
Argentil
July 18, 2013 at 13:38
I was just talking about MDK the other day. What an interesting game. It’s still a third-person shooter type game though. Western Devs need to start embracing other popular genres. XCOM: Enemy Unknown was a huge success for this reason. If it had been yet another T/FPS, it wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.
iPrimal
July 19, 2013 at 00:27
ugh. I hated XCOM, but that is just my opinion.
RinceWind
July 18, 2013 at 13:22
Does it take this long for the information to make its way on the leg of a pigeon to Japan? Or are their translators very very slow?
Troll Slayer
July 18, 2013 at 13:22
Kinect will not be used to spy on you and your antiquated Mac.
Microsoft will “aggressively challenge” any government attempt to spy through Kinect.
Read here: http://www.oxm.co.uk/58530/microsoft-will-aggressively-challenge-any-government-attempt-to-spy-through-kinect/
The same can’t be said for iOS and Mac OS.
Oh the IRONY!!!
THE IRONY!!!!!!!!
the irony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jakster
July 18, 2013 at 13:23
Hahaha….Legend!
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
July 18, 2013 at 13:27
Let’s see, NSA tapped Skype and personal information was leaked…who owns skype…..oh yes that right … MS…Oh wait but there is more …. MS helped NSA bypass encryption for user’s personal details … oh the irony indeed
http://rt.com/usa/microsoft-nsa-snowden-leak-971/
Troll Slayer
July 18, 2013 at 13:31
A wonderful age of mythology you live in. MS did no such thing and the NSA will be releasing statements supporting that.
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
July 18, 2013 at 13:33
So the NSA has been collecting personal information from people without them knowing……and we are to trust a statement made by them? ……. right, I prefer to live in my age of ‘mythology’ than your age of delusion
Sageville
July 18, 2013 at 14:20
You just thumb sucked that right now didn’t you.
Ultimo_Cleric N7
July 18, 2013 at 13:43
Thanks for the link. I can finally take off my tinfoil hat ^^
MS are finally getting their act together. good to see.
FoxOneZA - X-Therminator
July 18, 2013 at 13:56
MS maybe taking a stance against eavesdropping but Google, Apple and Blackberry are not so transparent.
Argentil
July 18, 2013 at 14:01
Judging from the article, the US government are being jerks. They’re holding a gun to these corporations to ensure they don’t leak details they disapprove of. MS had to carefully word that statement to fit what the NSA settled on allowing them to publicize.
Sageville
July 18, 2013 at 14:18
Didn’t MS also say they Aggressively Challenged the US Government w.r.t their PRISM program…. it still happened.
Mabenito
July 18, 2013 at 13:28
Too early to demand “TLOU” like reaction from developers. But UBISOFT The Division looks much better that most. Stunning. Might be the game that will make me upgrade (PS3 —–> PS4) my console.
Tbone187
July 18, 2013 at 14:28
Sad part is , it’s a MMO…
OVG
July 18, 2013 at 13:43
Even Kojima is intimidated by the POWER of the west.
GTAV BABY!!!
Tbone187
July 18, 2013 at 14:27
Capcom’s producer is well on the mark…All these fancy graphical advances with almost no attention to added gameplay features…
iPrimal
July 19, 2013 at 00:26
Yeah it seems like westerners (me lol) only care about graphics, and don’t care to innovate that much on controls, or overall gameplay. Which I’m actually okay with. Give me graphics, and a good story, and I’ll be full.