I really dont have much respect for Japanese game companies these days. Things for them really went down hill after the 360 hit and pc type gaming became possible and affordable for casual people who only want gamepads. I think back in simpler times the Japanese were able to do more with a "less is more" approach, and they really strived where as we did not. Other then Atari and Midway, I mean seriously, you couldn't take many American companies seriously outside of pc gaming. The Japanese really dominated the 8 to 32-bit console scene and had their shit together. Now its a reversal, the only Japanese company to do really well game wise is Nintendo, due to their core properties not being f*cked with as much, Zelda, Metroid, and Mario.
If Sega had been as conservative as Nintendo with its franchises it wouldn't be in the shape its in today. And Namco/Bandi, don't get me started there. It was a pure money decision, and now they are a pure money machine, all they care about is tossing garbage out and grabbing whatever profits they can . They dont really produce many quality titles anymore like they used to back in the day when they focused on arcade gaming. Back in the 80-90s and early PS2 days Namco was a quality company, as was Hudson, Konami, Capcom, Sammy, SNK, etc. Now most of them are dead or suck and mainly outsource to upstarts. Many once strong franchises are now being ruined due to this.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I love new stuff that's coming out like Black Ops 2, Bioshock, etc, but I've always liked this type of stuff to be pc specific, which is why I don't own or game on a 360 or PS3, and have no plans to buy a Wii-U. Seriously, that desire of the masses to have game machines play the same games as pc gamers were enjoying, it really killed the Japanese gaming companies ability to compete. Japans never had a strong ability to cope with large hollywood style productions, where as American companies have due to pc gaming fitting that mold for so long now. Large budgets, huge in depth stories, acting that isn't totally cheesy in cutscenes, high quality 3d graphics, etc.
If this stuff had stayed on pc, and console games being released were still relegated to mainly Japanese game company development, this situation wouldn't be what it is currently. Now many Japanese companies outsource to game developers in other countries. Alas, the rest of the world spoke, and what they wanted was systems putting out the same games pc users were enjoying, as that's what everyone wants to play now. The Wii really was the last system to enjoy a large original non-pc related library. Now you have many of us older gamers falling back on what we enjoyed playing in our youth because we are unsatisfied with the current situation, and a few younger gamers here or there looking for something other then whats being done currently also.
