The Japanese Make the Best Games

First published in GRIND I, pages 26–27.

Watching the news from the video game industry, it’s hard not to ask yourself questions like “Why can’t Xbox beat PlayStation, despite the massive acquisitions and investments it’s making?”, “How does Nintendo still sell consoles, even though it offers technical specifications inferior to the competition’s?” and “How is it that the main players in the arcade cabinet market are Taito (Space Invaders), Capcom (Street Fighter), Sega (Sega Racing, Virtua Cop), Konami (X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Namco (Pac-Man, Galaga)?”.

The answer is simple: the Japanese make the best games. It’s a conclusion I reached over several years of watching Japanese studios deliver quality titles with unmatched consistency. While Activision, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts settled into popularising microtransactions and fragmented content that forces us to make additional purchases, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco challenged us with the brutal Dark Souls, Nintendo redefined the open-world genre with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Gran Turismo kept raising the standard for racing simulators.

Did someone say VR technology? While Oculus and Valve were scrapping over technical specifications, Sony launched PlayStation VR – a much simpler and more accessible device, defined more by ergonomics than by incredible resolutions, but one that offers more entertaining games than any experience Oculus can provide, and far more consistent releases.

Want to talk about iconic characters who’ve left their mark on the industry? Namco has Pac-Man, Nintendo has Mario, Sega has Sonic, Sony has Kratos. Now do the same exercise for Microsoft, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Activision: who are the most representative characters for each studio, and when was the last time they were involved in AAA titles? Exclude the remaster and remake attempts (traces of the post-creative era) and you’re left with nostalgia for a time when Western studios actually tried to compete through memorable characters.

Sure, there are exceptions here. Rockstar Games does a wonderful job with the protagonists in Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Likewise, CD Projekt Red managed to turn Geralt into a symbol of Western RPGs. And the American studios working with Sony (Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica Studio) have given us masterpieces like “Uncharted 2”, “The Last of Us”, “Ghost of Tsushima” and “God of War”.

But for every positive example, we have to look at how Electronic Arts buries every last trace of creativity in the studios it assimilates. Or mourn the decline of Blizzard, which completely abandoned the quality standard it was known for. And then ask ourselves what Ubisoft has done with the Rayman and Prince of Persia series in recent years.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Japanese studios have two characteristics that help them stay at the top: they are consistent in releasing quality games, and they constantly reinvent their protagonists. It’s as if money and cultural shifts in the West have no effect on Japanese artists… it’s as if they are aware that the best stories have no age and needn’t be told to please a single generation or to reinforce the convictions of a single group that happens to be loud at a given moment. And while Western programmers compete to change according to the will of vocal minorities, the Japanese carry on producing immortal art, to the highest standards. Because Nintendo knows what an inter-generational game means — the kind of digital entertainment so good that parents want to hand it down to their children. And Sony knows what it means to follow its own course, being more interested in quality than in the pressures of groups that promote discrimination based on a person’s physical appearance.

That’s why, while Microsoft will make promotional videos making claims about social justice, Sony will offer better games and sell consoles. While Ubisoft will talk to us about diversity and inclusion, Nintendo will show us all how to make a game for all ages. And while the emphasis will be on cutting-edge technology, a Japanese studio will offer impressive graphics and animations on systems that are already technically outdated.

It’s about why Atari couldn’t compete with Nintendo and Sega, why John Romero has arcade cabinets with Pac-Man and Street Fighter 2 in his office, and why the PlayStation 5 is more sought after than the Xbox Series X: the Japanese make the best games.