What series is it that Nintendo is releasing every year like clockwork? Sure, some of the stuff Nintendo does is a bit much on the "did we really need this?" scale, but I don't think anything they've done has been quite as shameless as four Assassin's Creed games in four years.
With the exception of 2008 there's been a Mario platformer every year since 2006, with no signs of slowing down. It is getting pretty boring. They used to feel special when they came out, now they feel like the Mario minigame collections, just something they shit out every year.
@GrantHeaslip: I have a feeling it's because they don't have any other franchises that would actually sell for them on an annual basis. Zelda games are probably too big and ambitious for that kind of treatment, and I'm kinda forgetting anything else they have, considering they kinda don't make good use of their roster. No real Star Fox, Metroid or F-Zero games in a long, long time.
A representitive from an American game developer says his products are better than people say they are? Shocking.
French?
You mean, am I French?
Ubisoft is French and their largest dev studio is Canadian.
Sorry, that's right. I shouldn't have specified "American". I was referring to that North American developer way of thinking that "My shit is the best shit."
What makes you think this is a common thought among American developers?
Well, any North American talking head in front of a studio. I never hear about Japanese developers talking shit about anyone else's work in order to promote their own. I know it has happened out of their own opinion type thing, but never had an underlying tone of "We make better stuff than them."
Accusing them of racism is a bit over the top. There's some flag-waving from journos for sure (Bombcast commenting on the integrity of euro press for instance, which is hilarious considering how GB came about, and how they ended up back there), but it's usually pro-wherever the journalist is from, not the other way around as is being implied here. That shouldn't really be surprising though, because the press and developers in a given territory are mostly catering to the same audience. Maybe games from other territories are cut some slack in certain regards, because the journo appreciates that the game isn't primarily intended for their own audience. It would be silly and churlish to criticise a Japanese game for being 'too Japanese' in tone for instance.
He's been accusing many people of racism lately. He accused Game Informer of racism for giving Nier a 7.
A representitive from an American game developer says his products are better than people say they are? Shocking.
French?
You mean, am I French?
Ubisoft is French and their largest dev studio is Canadian.
Sorry, that's right. I shouldn't have specified "American". I was referring to that North American developer way of thinking that "My shit is the best shit."
What makes you think this is a common thought among American developers?
Well, any North American talking head in front of a studio. I never hear about Japanese developers talking shit about anyone else's work in order to promote their own. I know it has happened out of their own opinion type thing, but never had an underlying tone of "We make better stuff than them."
I disagree, Tomonobu Itagaki (formerly of Team Ninja) has been well known for his trash talk of his contemporaries' games. Here is one article of him criticizing Kamiya for making Bayonetta. Maybe he wasn't necessarily promoting his own game, although it sort of went there anyway, but it certainly isn't a North American thing.
Huh, I didn't realize that we grouped the entire company together on an individual(s) thoughts. While the article was stupid, it got people to read it and get some site visits.
You realize many of the AAA titles from first person shooters to open world games to action RPGs do come out in Japan and do rather well right? And even with the existent stigma of the xbox in Japan, the "creepy Japanese game we never hear of" like idolm@ster was for a long time exclusive to said platform? You and Jay are definitely birds of a feather in the "really stupid hyperbole" department.
You can sugar coat it all you want, it doesn't change the fact that Japan has its own games and tops its own charts. That's it.
A culture's own games are more popular than the ones that come from a completely different culture all the way across a huge ocean?
Huge fucking surprise, huh? I couldn't help but find your post a bit nonsensical.
Getting as upset as you are over this gives this guy too much credit. Back to the guy, he had absolutely no reason to even mention these things. What did he think would happen? He's an idiot for even speaking about other developers no matter if he thinks he is right. Dumbass.
Because they have the worst possible PC Ports/Netcodes for every single one of their PC games to date... followed along with Uplay.... which is completely annoying and worthless. Their games are fine, but jesus christ... they really do everything to make sure I don't have fun in them.
Because they have the worst possible PC Ports/Netcodes for every single one of their PC games to date... followed along with Uplay.... which is completely annoying and worthless. Their games are fine, but jesus christ... they really do everything to make sure I don't have fun in them.
I think you missed the point of my post. The statement that one man made (who just so happens to be a Ubisoft employee) is another reason for you to hate the company. He doesn't speak for the entire company and I'm sure there are quite a few Ubisoft employees who disagree with his views. I never asked you what your other reasons were, so I have no idea why you listed them.
That's some pretty shitty stuff to say. He definitely should have thought about it a bit more before speaking. Well, I'm sure he already regrets saying that, as I'm quite positive he's been lambasted thoroughly on Twitter and the like.
@kgb0515 said:
To be honest, Binary Domain is the only Japanese game I have enjoyed in a long time.
I don't know where this guy is getting his information from but from my experience, typically a vast majority of games that come from Eastern Asia (i.e. not only Japan) are commonly criticized and critiqued more than native western titles and that's mainly due to cultural differences.
He has a right to his opinion, but it's just that an opinion. If he thinks their games are better fine, but no need to go shooting off on someone else much less an entire country.
@Jay444111: Considering your own bias for a particular culture I'd think you'd know that xenophobia (basically racism) is a big part of Japanese culture. It's how they are, have been for a long time. Racism is probably the wrong word for it, but it's close enough.
It's not Ubisoft, it's Creative Director Alex Hutchinson. That is extremely different.
Hutchinson said some really, really stupid things, and putting them in context does not make them better. Nobody acts like the stories in Japanese games like Bayonetta are any good, they talk about Persona team and games like Fragile Dreams or Ghost Trick.
Yes, I'd watch Breaking Bad twice a week, or listen to new Radiohead every six months. But that's assuming that it'd still remain an equitable experience; the problem with Brotherhood and Revelations was that they weren't as good as ACII, although Brotherhood was much, much closer than the not-worth-finishing Revelations. Some people chose to blame that on annualization; people have done the same with Nintendo and Kingdom Hearts, too.
The only thing I can honestly say I agree with Hutchinson on is that I would take Gears of War over Bayonetta any day of the week. Bayonetta is three or four hours of pure candy and then six or eight more hours of gutter trash, in terms of both story and gameplay. At least Gears of War's story remained serviceable for the first two games.
As many other people have noted "Ubisoft" haven't said anything, a single employee of Ubisoft said something which entirely represented his own views and not those of the company as a whole.
While I think there are some legitimate bones to pick with Nintendo over the originality of their more recent releases, Hutchinson doesn't seem to have picked up that there's not a series they're working on which actually releases annually.
While Hutchinson's comment that this is an example of racism seems rather ridiculous, the idea that he is being racist just doesn't add up for me. Favouritism for Nintendo doesn't mean journalists have a problem with westerners, but Hutchinson saying critics have a bias towards Japanese games industry doesn't mean he hates Japanese people.
I don't believe games journalists are against Japanese games. Nintendo's titles are still well-praised and games like Dark Souls and Catherine are reviewing well. Even FF-XIII which was your example of a Japanese game that bombed with critics got great reviews from outlets like Game Informer, Games Radar, OXM, IGN, 1UP, and Gamespot. It scored at least 8/10 with all of those.
It is rather sad/worrying that even if Hutchinson doesn't agree with other people over the story of a game like Gears vs. the story of a game like Bayonetta, that he can't see the distinction that is drawn between them by people.
Which is to say that he's taking something that could be an interesting discussion and immediately ruining it by claiming that the sky is metaphorically falling and everyone is a racist. Honestly, I kinda wish Spock were still here. I need someone saying incoherent nonsense about Total War and how console games are for retards. At least that was entertainment.
I doubt it. I genuinely dislike Denis Leary; I think Jay's just kind of an idiot. (If you're reading this, Jay, consider it a sort of back-handed compliment.)
Let's just cut right to the heart of the matter and agree that 99.999% of all games' narration is garbage, ok? Yeah, yeah, I know... Silent Hill 2 and, um, that other game. Save it. Crawl out of the basement and read a novel if you want a great story. Gears of War is big, dumb, and loud. I mean, I love it for those reasons, but I'm not fooling myself by saying it has a great story.
I think what the dude was getting at is Nintendo games get a pass by the enthusiast gaming press. New Super Mario Bros. 2. New Super Mario WiiU. Pikmin: Part More (Now in HD!). But no one can stop stroking their Miyamoto boner long enough to write an honest article about how these aren't any more new or innovative than all the third party franchise sequels. I know, that sentence just cost Jay two more brain cells, which he can ill afford. And for that, I apologize.
Let's just cut right to the heart of the matter and agree that 99.999% of all games' narration is garbage, ok? Yeah, yeah, I know... Silent Hill 2 and, um, that other game. Save it. Crawl out of the basement and read a novel if you want a great story. Gears of War is big, dumb, and loud. I mean, I love it for those reasons, but I'm not fooling myself by saying it has a great story.
I think what the dude was getting at is Nintendo games get a pass by the enthusiast gaming press. New Super Mario Bros. 2. New Super Mario WiiU. Pikmin: Part More (Now in HD!). But no one can stop stroking their Miyamoto boner long enough to write an honest article about how these aren't any more new or innovative than all the third party franchise sequels. I know, that sentence just cost Jay two more brain cells, which he can ill afford. And for that, I apologize.
The thing is, Jay honestly believes that video games have better stories than either movies or comic books and those two mediums have inherently bad stories despite the fact that The Godfather and Watchmen exist. And he has said before that some day video games will trump books in story as well.
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