One of the Japanese game design pioneers and Mega Man creator, Keiji Inafune, has criticized the modern Japanese game development environment which - he believes - discourages innovation.
After leaving his job at Capcom, Keiji spoke to Japanese website 4Gamer and explained that "the reason why I'm quitting is basically because I think that the game industry itself must change the way it goes about making games."
"You might think I'm being hypocritical, but the really big wall that the Japanese game industry is hitting is the changing of its creators into salarymen," he added before decrying the fact that Japanese gaming companies commit to keep their employees for life has spoiled them and turned them to "salarymen".
"When I was about 20, I was really passionate and entered the game industry, but now I'm in my mid-40s. It's a matter of my age. My generation is, for better or worse, holding the game industry back," Keiji admitted.
He then explained that this salarymen mentality is making Japanese game development less efficient than their western counterparts and their games sell fewer units, ultimately entrapping the Japanese industry in a cycle of lower quality and declining profit.
