During a recent roundtable, Necrosoft Games’ Brandon Sheffield had the chance to quiz some of the Japanese games industry’s leading figures about the current state of the country’s video game market.
D4 and Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka Suehiro, AKA Swery, was the first to share his thoughts, and the famous writer-director had some words of warning for anyone looking for fame and fortune in the land of the rising sun.
“People in Europe don’t really know what’s going on in the Japanese market, but basically here’s how things are going. There’s no guarantee that any game will sell, even in the domestic market, or you’ll only be able to sell a predetermined amount,” explained Swery.
“People make budgets based off that, and then make the game based on that budget. That’s the age we’re in now. So there are some creators who merely aim to hit those numbers, while there are other creators who try to use things like Steam and aim for something worldwide.”
Swery says he’s unsure whether that will change from here on out, but when it comes to his own business philosophy, he just hopes there are people out there who’ll continue to be intrigued – and buy – the games he makes.
You can here more from Swery, who was also joined by Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi and journalist Masatoshi Tokuoka, but checking out the full roundtable right here on Gamasutra.