Comments on: “The trend became to churn out cheap sequels.” Sakura Wars creator on why Japan’s game industry stalled in the 21st century  https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/ AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo. Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:12:29 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Antonio https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7408 Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:12:29 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7408 Making sequels because they’re cheap as a reason for Jp’s market decline is a wild accusation for Hiroi to be making. I might have given him some credibility if he was still active in the industry but he hasn’t been involved in anything big in decades. Perhaps he’s making that claim based on his own experience since Sakura Wars 4, the last game in the series, seemed like a total cash grab given its structure and length and he’s still salty about it to this day.

]]> By: Repent https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7406 Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:24:15 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7406 In reply to OkashiraStyle.

Fighting games where you only need to render 2 characters running on arcade hardware are inherently going to look better than a dynamic fps with multiple interactive entities, actors and scenery. That’s not a good comparison.

]]> By: ICE https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7405 Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:22:10 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7405 What is this boomer talking about
You had the Jak trilogy, Ratchet and Clank, GTA ps2 trilogy, Prince of Persia, Sly Cooper, Devil May Cry 1 and 3, Silent Hill 2-4, Fatal Frame 1-3, MGS 2 & 3 and others all released within the same gen that were all great games.
Nowadays games take an entire generation or more to release, have dev teams with hubdreds of people, outsource huge portions to India and other countries, run like absolute garbage despite abhorrent hardware requirements and look visually worse than games like the Arkham series from 2015.
How out of touch is he?

]]> By: Miku https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7403 Mon, 26 Jan 2026 09:11:34 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7403 Couldn’t agree more

]]> By: OkashiraStyle https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7392 Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:01:32 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7392 Those games weren’t in the same stratosphere as what Japan was doing. PCs then were very expensive yet weren’t competitive at all with what i.e. Sega was doing in the Arcade. For example, Unreal came out in 1998 and was 800 polygons per model. Yet 1993 Virtua Fighter was 2,700 polygons per model. The problem with the Japanese games industry was that they strayed away from following big brother anime. Every game out of Japan should’ve bare minimum had dual language voiceover localization. They was just trying to hide who they were, unlike anime.

When the actual Western=White arrived via Middleware software, Unreal Engine 3 (because they weren’t talented in programming, creating their own engines), the price of the PlayStation 3, and the firing of The Father of the PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, was the start of the decline.

Oji Hiroi is an absolute legend. He’ll never be known for that outside Japan very unfortunately because Sega of America and Bernie Stolar in particular, messed up by refusing localization of Sakura Taisen despite the anime being popular here around the same time in the late 1990s. Sega overall dropped the ball on him. TWICE. The other was not buying Red Entertainment which was extremely stupid.

]]> By: JustADad https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7380 Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:49:26 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7380 Couldn’t agree more. Which is why the world I am creating for my books is something we never have seen before.

]]> By: Anonymous https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7375 Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:50:10 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7375 This feels very egotistical and incredibly bias. I mean the 90’s had Doom, Duke nukem, twisted metal that come up off the top of the head. Then again I wouldn’t expect the Japanese to be open minded.

]]> By: Anon https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7373 Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:59:29 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7373 “…there wasn’t much incentive to think about how to compete overseas or how to expand globally”

Honestly, I think what made japanese games appealing is that, well, they *didn’t* attempt to appeal to the rest of the world. The more they’re trying, the less appealing they’re becoming.

]]> By: Michael https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-trend-became-to-churn-out-cheap-sequels-sakura-wars-creator-on-why-japans-game-industry-stalled-in-the-21st-century/#comment-7363 Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:04:47 +0000 https://automaton-media.com/en/?p=55944#comment-7363 Well it worked they have focused more on good stories it seems the west is more concerned with the graphics but the stories suck. That why I play exclusively Japan games (JRPGs) as they have good stories. And western games are boring and stupid stories. Don’t change Japanese devs you have great stories.

]]>