Veteran author and game developer Oji Hiroi, known for creating the Sakura Wars and Far East of Eden franchises, recently talked to Business Hit about his views on Japan’s anime and game industries. Aside from producing several hit IPs, Hiroi has also worked with Lucasfilm (the studio behind Star Wars) and Pixar, giving him experience in both the domestic and US entertainment scenes.
Reminiscing on the mid-90s, Hiroi says he felt Japan had a clear upper hand over its global competition. “Back then, both Japan as a whole and I myself were riding a wave of momentum. I genuinely believed Japan was number one in the world for both games and anime, and to be honest, I think part of me that looked down on America to some extent.”
He goes on to comment that, “When I actually went to America, I thought, Wait, what do you guys even plan to make in this kind of environment? After all, Hudson was the first to make CD-ROM technology a reality, and even Michael Jackson was involved with Sega in the 90s. Japan back then was undoubtedly at the forefront of global creativity.”
Now, decades later, Japan has managed to ride that momentum and become a global powerhouse when it comes to anime. Hiroi says he’d always known that hand-drawn 2D animation would be the path to success, even when his peers in the 90s and 00s were convinced 3D CG animation would become the next huge thing.
On the other hand, when it comes to the games industry, Hiroi thinks Japan is holding itself back. When asked about the relatively stagnant state of domestic games (compared to anime) in the 21st century, he comments, “The typical trend became to immediately churn out sequels like “2” and ‘3’ whenever a hit title emerged. Do you know why that happened? The underlying mindset was, Since it’s a sequel, we should be able to make it cheaper.”
Hiroi considers this practice to be the complete opposite of how IP business is supposed to work. “When a title sells well, your next step should be to invest even more in it and enhance its value. Instead, the industry rushed toward the mindset of It already sold, so next time let’s cut costs and make efficient profits.”
Interestingly, Hiroi suggests that Japan’s dominance of the game market in the 90s was part of what subsequently led it to plateau. “Because Japan’s game market itself was the world leader, there wasn’t much incentive to think about how to compete overseas or how to expand globally. As long as things kept circulating within Japan, the business model worked.” This, according to Sakura Wars’s creator, became a “major challenge” that the Japanese industry now faces.
Related: Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune criticizes game industry’s growing reliance on IP fame and trendy genres. “We need developers with a clear message”
