Smash Bros. Creator Sakurai Says Japanese Devs Should Focus on Making Games for the Local Market - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 March 2025 / 3,982 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.
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I buy more Japanese games than I do Western games. Make good games, and we'll buy them.
He's not wrong, I don't want to see Japanese games homogenized. However, Japanese companies are also chasing a level of global success that simply can't be maintained just in Japan alone. Plus. I don't want to go back to the days when every Japanese game's overseas release was in question unless a boutique publisher like Working Designs was willing to step up, and even then, a lot of those boutique publishers got shot down. Plus, Atlus is no longer in the boutique localization business; Sega has them laser-focused only on home-grown stuff.
Japanese dev: Anime breasts and gachas, gotcha!
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Says the person with the Animal Crossing avatar. Classic.
Lack of hardware innovations mean less variety for developers to think outside the box. There is a reason why the 7th gen is the best gen. All platforms offered their own innovations which led to amazing new IPs.
These days, the platforms are all very similar, just closed off PCs in your living room and devs are limited so they follow trends rather then explore new ideas. Nintendo are the exceptions here.
He has a point as western gamers like eastern games because they are their own thing, he's not saying they can't be inspired by anything new and incorporate it but having an identity is just as key, anyone remember the PS3/360 era when eastern developers tried to make their games to be like western games and it went horribly wrong if we want western like games we already have a ton of studios in the west filling that void.
SanAndreasX put it best.
I half agree and half disagree because I don’t generally agree with the targeted audience development philosophy. I think Devs should make what they want to make and play rather than what the metrics or target demographic say other people want.
If a Japanese dev doesn’t want to make a game about anime teenagers and gacha mechanics, then don’t make it.
When devs use metrics to focus their development without any true artistic inspiration, it’s more a hollow and outdated-feeling “made for market” experience. They’re not trying much or anything new or interesting, just what already worked in the past for the target demographic.
Yeah, I remember a time when it felt like Japanese titles added a focus on guns because that was super popular in the west. But if we look at the Jp titles that tend to blow up world wide, they're just doing what they like to do.
A good game is a good game. And most people that play them will probably like them.
This is the japanese way. Focus on your craft, make it always better and more refined. People from the world over will come to appreciate its unique quality. Can be said about many japanese crafts and its artwork.
More hentai games! Oppai!
