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Businesses

Mega Man Designer Explains Japan's Waning Video Game Influence 315

Posted by Soulskill from the too-much-effort-spent-on-fembots dept.
eldavojohn writes "As one of the creators of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune remembers the days when Japan redefined video games. He believes those days are long gone as he reveals much in his criticisms of Japan's ailing game economy. Inafune says Japan is five years behind — still making games for older consoles with 'no diversity, no originality.' When asked why, he responds, 'A lot of designers, if they find a genre that works for them, they stick with it. A lot of designers just stick to a set formula. That doesn't work any more. You can't just tweak the graphics, work just on image quality. You can't compete on that. The business side is not keeping up with investment. You need to be prepared to invest 4 billion yen or more on a game, and then spend 2 billion yen more to promote it. But Japanese companies can't do that. So we're losing out to the West in terms of investment in games. It's a vicious cycle, a deflationary spiral. Because you don't invest, you can't sell games, and because you don't sell games, you can't invest.' He compares making games for Japan and the US to Sushi and basketball — two popular things but each done in distinctly different ways by the two nations."
Games

Submission + - The Art of Video Games exhibit in Washington D.C. (kingofgng.com)

Submitted by KingofGnG
KingofGnG writes: If the world won't end before with a huge and yet wee galactic fart, in 2012 there is a date to pin down on the agenda for who will be lucky enough to be around Washington D.C. In the United States capital city, and more exactly at the prestigious Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibit The Art of Video Games will be held between March 16 and September 9, 2012, a systematic, interactive and visually rich journey centered on the history of the first 40 years of the videogaming medium.
Games

Submission + - Most revolutionary videogames of all time (financialpost.com)

Submitted by JamJam
JamJam writes: The trailblazing games on this list are not necessarily the "best" games ever made or even best sellers. Some, like "Dune II" (1992), were out-and-out commercial flops. But they all have one feature in common--they changed the way people play. Some introduced innovative controls or enhanced graphics. Others defined a genre or expanded gaming to entirely new audiences. All altered the industry.
Privacy

Facebook Founder's Pictures Go Public 219

Posted by kdawson from the red-face-book dept.
jamie passes along a Newsfactor piece that begins "In a not-uncommon development for the social-networking leader, Facebook's recently released privacy controls are leaving the company a bit red-faced. As a result of a new policy that by default makes users' profiles, photos, and friends lists available on the Web, almost 300 personal photos of founder Mark Zuckerberg became publicly available, a development that had gossip sites like Gawker yukking it up."
Nintendo

Mega Man 10 Confirmed For WiiWare 104

Posted by Soulskill from the with-new-bosses-chair-man-and-bread-man dept.
The upcoming issue of Nintendo Power revealed that Capcom is working on Mega Man 10 for a release via WiiWare sometime in the future. "Like Mega Man 9 (released for WiiWare in 2008), Mega Man 10 remains true to the series's roots with 8-bit-style graphics and sound, and tried-and-true Mega Man gameplay." According to the early look at Nintendo Power's article, the game may include an easier difficulty mode, likely inspired by complaints that the previous game was too hard. It also previews one of the new bosses, who is apparently called "Sheep Man." Make of that what you wool.

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