Earlier this month, I thought I was going to the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Instead, I winded up at the first annual Electronic Entertainment ExBRO. An ocean of shooters, as far as the eye could see. Battlefield 3. Call of Duty. Gears of War 3. Hitman: Absolution. Dust 514. Starhawk. Halo. There was more “Dawg Time” on that E3 show floor than in any animal shelter in existence. Personally, I’m shocked I didn’t see more popped collars…
If you couldn’t tell already, I’m just joking. I do enjoy a good shooter now and then, but I feel that the presence of the massive amount of shooters at this year’s E3 was so overwhelming that everything else was crowded out. The sheer volume of similar titles outside of a few notable exceptions (everything Nintendo, Atlus’s Catherine, Capcom’s Street Fighter x Tekken, and Sonic Generations from Sega) were painfully obvious. If it wasn’t a shooter or a wacky Kinect game, chances are it wasn’t on the floor this year. Publishers seem to be more risk averse than ever before, and that’s saying a lot.
No publisher/developer personifies this problem more blatantly than former RPG powerhouse Square Enix. After taking a massive loss of 12 billion yen during the last fiscal year, Square Enix decided to forgo sharing any relevant news about its eternally-in-development projects, Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, at E3 this year. Instead, they decided to focus completely on Eidos’ upcoming library. Memorabilia for Hitman: Absolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Tomb Raider peppered the booth, with only Final Fantasy XIII-2 holding down the fort for the Japanese side of the company. With Square Enix facing so many challenges in recent years, it’s no wonder that they played it safe. Unfortunately, they seem to be drowning so deep in their lengthy development cycles that they are incapable of taking advantage of upcoming initiatives by the console makers. Square Enix is one of the few Japanese developers to release a large variety of titles on the PSP in the West, though admittedly to only tepid sales. It could be reasonably assumed that the company would already be on board for Sony’s new PS3 Remaster program, allowing some of the best looking Square Enix titles on the platform to be able to shine in full HD. However, when Yoshinori Kitase was interviewed about this very topic, he appeared to be caught off-guard. Since E3, however, he has commented to Dengeki PlayStation that he is indeed interested in remastering some of the Final Fantasy titles released for the portable platform, namedropping both the Dissidia series and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Personally, I’d settle for a version of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep that I could play in high definition, but that’s just me.
By far the most successful Japanese company at the 
show was Nintendo – with a new playable console and an all-star lineup of franchise favorites, they easily stole the show. But their outlook isn’t all “sugah n’ rainbowz,” that’s for sure. Even Nintendo is trampling on the hopes and dreams of Japanese game fans everywhere, providing a non-committal “nothing to announce” regarding American releases of Xenoblade Chronicles, which has an English translation for the European market, and The Last Story, which is heavily rumored to be in localization for Europe as well. Kotaku‘s Stephen Totilo and Gamepro‘s Kat Bailey apparently tried to pry more information out of Reggie, but he kicked their asses, took their names, and replied with his typical question-dodging finesse – leaving RPG fans in North America angry and unsatisfied. In the place of the two heavily-anticipated RPGs, we get a localization of Dragon Quest/Mario Monopoly crossover Itadaki Street, a Mystery Files game, Rhythm Heaven Wii, and a yet-untitled Kirby game while we await the holiday arrival of the Wii’s swan song, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It’s a shame because even the Nintendo employees I talked to were hoping for a North American release for Xenoblade, but it looks like those who want the game bad enough are just going to have to import it from the Old World.
As for Sony, I was shocked to see that not a single Japanese game took the stage during their E3 press conference until Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono took the stage to present a console-perfect port of Street Fighter x Tekken for the PlayStation Vita (and exclusive character Cole MacGrath from Infamous for both Sony platforms). That was it. As far as the PSP Remaster program, the only title currently announced for North America is a collection of both God of War PSP games. While they look absolutely amazing in high definition, and it was certainly a good move on Sony’s part to develop the compilation, it would have been nice to see more Japanese support.
Many in the industry say that Japan needs to evolve, and I agree. Sometimes, though, it just seems like they’ve given up entirely. With the PSVita nearly as powerful as a next-gen platform, it’s not surprising how few titles are making their way to the console. As far as current/next gen (read: not DS/PSP) development, it looks like Japan is still clearly, “phoning it in.” The real question is when Japan’s archaic development practices and outdated marketing trends are going to catch up with them. Will it be Western console games? Western portable games? i/OS and Android? We’ll find out soon enough…
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