Super Smash Bros and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai says Japanese developers should focus on making games for the Japanese market, instead of trying to appeal to Western players.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Sakurai had been listed as one of the recipients of the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists, given by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Rather than achieving the award for any of his video game works, Sakurai’s honour is instead for his YouTube series, Masahiro Sakurai [127 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/masahiro-sakurai/”>Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.
Last week Sakurai collected his award and gave an interview to Japanese entertainment news website Entax (as spotted by Automaton), in which he said he felt that Japanese studios should focus on what domestic audiences like, rather than trying to make a game that may appeal to the West.
According to Sakurai, Western players buy Japanese games with the expectation that they will provide something different from Western-developed games, so there’s no need for Japanese studios to adapt.
“It’s not necessarily my own idea, but the trend in the games industry is that Japanese people should go for what Japanese people like,” Sakurai explained (via machine translation).
“A while ago, there was certainly a culture of making Americanised products, because various works were popular in the US. However, I feel that ‘Japanese game lovers’ overseas are not looking for such things, but for something unique and interesting from Japan.
“In other words, I think the ideal is to make the games the way you like them, and the people who can accept them will enjoy them.”
In an interview earlier this year, Sakurai noted that while it’s important for developers to make the games they want to make, they should also sometimes consider that it may be in the best interests of the industry to make something that’s needed, even if it doesn’t directly appeal to them.
Sakurai explained that the people who make toys for children are adults who obviously aren’t the toys’ demographic, but are still specialists in that field. He then cited his first game, Kirby’s Dreamland, as an example of this, explaining that while it wasn’t the type of game that appealed to him directly as an experienced player, he felt it was important to make a game for younger players.
In a statement explaining why Sakurai was given the award, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs said: “Masahiro Sakurai has made a significant contribution to the development of the game industry by sharing his knowledge of game production widely through YouTube in an easy-to understand, accessible format with a coherent storyline.
“An English version has also been released, and its influence has spread not only domestically but also internationally, and we believe that this is enough to earn him the Art Encouragement Prize.”