by
William D’Angelo
, posted 1 hour ago / 242 Views
Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai in an interview with Entax (and translated by Automaton) stated Japanese developers should focus on making games for the Japanese market.
“It’s not really my own idea, but as an industry trend, I think Japanese people should keep pursuing the things that Japanese people like,” said Sakurai when asked what he thinks about the domestic video game industry should do in order to keep growing.
He added that Japanese games that found success in the US started a trend of “making Americanized works” and “there was a culture of following de facto standards.”
He feels people oversees who love Japanese game aren’t looking for them to be Americanized, “but rather, I think that they seek the uniqueness and fun of Japanese games.”
He concluded, “In other words, I think that the ideal would be to make games the way you like, as those who agree with you will enjoy them.” He feels it is important for the industry to “do things freely” and without letting others’ ideas be forced on them.
Sakurai was recently awarded the Art Encouragement Prize from the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
