BioWare has expressed their negativity on Japanese role-playing games in the past. Today’s no different. The studio’s Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have said in a recent interview that the Japanese RPG market has gotten “weaker and weaker” and that “the traditional, very structured, old-school structure RPG” just aren’t “as strong a market” anymore.
“I think what happened is they got very complacent for a very long time,” Zeschuk told IndustryGamers. “They kept making the same thing, and the same thing, and, in a sense, almost provided an opening for all of us to jump in with our style of games. I know first hand that they’re looking at our games now; they’re kind of looking at our stuff, the Fable stuff, and Fallout, and all that, and going, ‘what are these things?’ I think they had gotten used to making the same thing over and over, and it was working.”
“I think the other thing, too, is that the Japanese market has gotten quite a bit weaker and weaker. It’s just not as strong a market. It used to be a tremendously strong game market, so I think they’re kind of looking at it going, ‘man, we’ve got to figure out where else we can sell these,’ and I think the traditional, very structured, old-school structure RPG wasn’t selling anymore; so now, I think we’re going to see some changes.”
Muzyka added onto Zeschuk’s statements, saying that RPG developers in general need to begin innovating rather than sticking to the same formula. He says, “…everybody’s got to be always innovating and always trying to look for new opportunities to build on what they’ve done before. Any group, not referring to any particular one, [but] any studio or group, or any country that has certain development aesthetics, you know, from past times, that doesn’t continue to innovate will get left behind.”
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE RPG’S….
Fuck BioWare, they toot their own horn too much. There is a huge market for JRPG’s. Fans of the genres don’t want the formula to change.
I don’t get it – why BioWare pick this topic so much ? If they dont think much of “them”, so why do they bother ?
And just for the record, i love traditional j-rpg’s, what i cant say about what they did with Mass Effect 2.
Western RPG’s sucks i will never stop loving my JRPG’s
They don’t need to change the old ip’s they have. Like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc. They can keep improving on that same formula and the fans will love it. If they want to do something different, make a new ip, look how successful the world ends with you was for Square-Enix.
I’m all up for new innovative titles, but I think Bioware should just focus on what they do best, and let the JRPG developers do what they do best.
After all they tend to market to the jp gaming community first, and the west second. We have started to see some games come from Japan marketed towards western gamers, like Nier, which is fine by me, I’m always down for new stuff.
It’s not like we don’t have games just like the ones they describe above here in america and europe.
To quote what I’m talking about here-
“They kept making the same thing, and the same thing, and, in a sense, almost provided an opening for all of us to jump in with our style of games.”
Several of our shooters are very much the same, Call of Duty, Halo, Gears, etc. They add to the formula and bring new tweaks and changes, but one could technically say… Gosh these games are the same thing each year.
There isn’t really anything wrong with that, and fans usually want more of the same with improvements and new features.
JRPG’s have been using that formula for years now, why should they change it?
My point is, they could say the same thing about Call of Duty, or a handful of things.
Everyone has an opinion, if they don’t like JRPG’s, that’s fine, but they shouldn’t come out in the open and say they need to change the formula.
Ray and Greg needs to change their face. They cannot continue to reuse their face formula and expect people to take them seriously.
Bioware seems to bring up this topic at least once a month nowadays. Don’t get wrong, I love Bioware’s games, they have yet to disapoint with anything they have put out. However…I also love the traditional RPGs they talk about in the article.
I don’t see why this sort of rivalry has to happen with proffesional developers. both WRPG, JRPG and new/experimental RPGs all have a market, and all sell in huge amounts.
IMO, trying to claim one is ulimately “better” than the other is simply the fare of internet fanboys and is in a way quite childish. Of course, I welcome opinion with open arms…but Bioware seem to take it a little too far sometimes.
I loved traditional RPGs but to me they are lacking everything. FFXIII to me was terrible for a FF game and I love the Final Fantasy series. Lost Odyssey so far was my favorite JRPG and Tales of Vesperia would be the second.
I still have hope for The Last Story to be something very special. A lot of JRPG are not that traditional anymore or that great, especially compared to the 16 bit era. They changed a lot over time but now they are becoming much more linear and the story is becoming more terrible.
Bioware has excelled because the consoles are powerful enough to display the quality gameplay they have released on pc. I never been a Bioware fan games notably like Mass Effect 2 was awesome.
Great JRPGs are dying. You can’t argue that. Look at sales charts compared to Biowares own games! I have hope though for The Last Story to be epic. I want my huge open world epic story charming JRPGs back.
@keegs79: I don’t know what alternate dimension you just beboped out of but Jrpgs are not in some desperate state of becoming extint, nor is Bioware becoming some rpg titan to usurp Jrpgs. Case in point, look a the laughable sales of Mass Effect2 in comparison to FF13. FF13 stomps it. I’m not going to even get into how Pokemon, Monster Hunter, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, ect pummel anything that Bioware produced or how Demon’s Souls kicks the snot out of Dragon Age. Fact is this is just mudslinging by Bioware to garner attention because they feel threatened by SE. They’re loud-mouthed, scared kids and if SE wanted they could buy them and sell them at their own leisure.
Final Fantasy XIII should be excluded from this argument especially since Square Enix is attempting to draw the distinction between JRPGs with its release. While many RPGs certainly follow the same formula of a traditional turn-based system and Dragon Quest seems to sell very well in Japan.
When this company makes a statement, it seems to be lost in ignorance. Lately, they’ve been targeting JRPGs and seem to be pointed more specifically towards Square Enix in that regard. I -could- jump the gun and argue that Mass Effect and all its installments are the same old shooters with superficial RPG Elements. We know that isn’t true and I wouldn’t dare say make such a comment without having deeply studied the game.
It’s important to understand the opposition or competition before marching in with guns blazing about such trivial matters or statements that make the premise look faulty. Sales have definitely dropped dramatically with JRPGs which is certainly true. Not all JRPGs are stagnant though, particularly Final Fantasy. The past several main titles were much more fast-paced and brought something new.
Everyone and their mother in Japan buys DQ (every time) and it causes millions to skip out on work and school.
I agree that a lot of JRPG’s are the same but that is what I love about them. Shooters bore me all you need is half decent reflexes :P FPS are all the same, bad and predictable stories. I enjoyed Dirge of Cerberus more than MW2!
They might be right with Japan’s market for these games declining but their worldwide market is constantly growing. Shooters aren’t very popular in Japan but popular in the west. To me they see SE as a threat and are becoming jealous.
Bioware doesn’t see SquareEnix a threat. They are doing better than them.
Bioware has been making the same game for over 10 years.