“When asked how he feels about there being less prolific “auetur” developers in the scene, like Hideo Kojima, Suda51, SWERY, and Kenji Eno, Niikawa suggests that this might be due to the “corporate” nature of the video game industry. “That’s a bit unfortunate, to be honest. To put it in my own words, I feel like the salaryman-ification of creators keeps progressing,” he says. For context, a “salaryman” in Japan refers to white-collar workers, employed at large corporations, who stereotypically prioritize work over anything else and are subservient to their organization.”
“On the other hand, when you’re a developer who works for a company, various other factors, like company policies and decision-making, as well as profitability, come into play, making it more difficult for “individuality” to come through…”
Isn’t this also happening in the West? In any case, AAA rarely appeals to me; almost underground-like indies/mods/Foss games are the places to find the really experimental works.
EVERY industry in Japan is a corpo cubicle slave farm. And 90% of people aren’t paid enough nor have enough free time to even think about pursuing the indie path to freedom. Also society doesn’t exactly encourage pioneering and risk taking.
Also most corpos in Japan will fire you if you have a side hustle. Even if it just a small YouTube channel. They see a side hustle as not being dedicated to the corporate mission. So many devs don’t even dare to make a game on the side
As much as I love Japan (lived there for 3+ years), their corporate culture and neoliberal political establishment are fucking awful.
I blame post-war US occupation for introducing capitalism.
Which in itself is huge because typically its impossible to get fired.