The man behind Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, Tomonobu Itagaki has slammed management at Japanese games companies while also stating his ongoing love for the company that kicked him into touch.
"In Japan, management people, they sort of pretend they know what they're doing. Those management people, they say, 'I love games', but they don't know how to make them.
So, the kind of instructions that they would give to the employees would be, 'Okay, you've got to make it by when, and it has to be within this budget, and you have to sell whatever many copies.' It's the opposite of the practical. It's not practical."
But, as ever with politics and games, he doesn't go all the way:
"But I'm not badmouthing the companies that they left. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that might be what they experienced.
This is an important point I want to add. Mikami-san left Capcom, but he's still on very good terms with the owner of that company. They're friends still."
And I'm also still on good terms with the Tecmo owner, as well, so it's not that we just left. It's just that they tried to stop me as well, but they understood that it had to happen -- well, I wanted to do something. There's always something you want to do, and then you go. That's what happened."
But he doesn't leave it like that, also stating:
"In Japan, in this industry, they are lacking not just in technology, but the important thing is the creativity and ingenuity. They're lacking in that. So they complain a lot, they say a lot, but then they don't take action. So before they say anything bad or complain -- "Do something!" is what I want to say."
Source: Gamasutra
"In Japan, management people, they sort of pretend they know what they're doing. Those management people, they say, 'I love games', but they don't know how to make them.
So, the kind of instructions that they would give to the employees would be, 'Okay, you've got to make it by when, and it has to be within this budget, and you have to sell whatever many copies.' It's the opposite of the practical. It's not practical."
But, as ever with politics and games, he doesn't go all the way:
"But I'm not badmouthing the companies that they left. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that might be what they experienced.
This is an important point I want to add. Mikami-san left Capcom, but he's still on very good terms with the owner of that company. They're friends still."
And I'm also still on good terms with the Tecmo owner, as well, so it's not that we just left. It's just that they tried to stop me as well, but they understood that it had to happen -- well, I wanted to do something. There's always something you want to do, and then you go. That's what happened."
But he doesn't leave it like that, also stating:
"In Japan, in this industry, they are lacking not just in technology, but the important thing is the creativity and ingenuity. They're lacking in that. So they complain a lot, they say a lot, but then they don't take action. So before they say anything bad or complain -- "Do something!" is what I want to say."
Source: Gamasutra
People:
Tomonobu Itagaki
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