[quote name='sparklecopy']Seriously, what happened to Capcom, Konami, Square, Namco, Sega, and all the Japanese Publishers for PS3? I remember they were out of the gate with titles on Playstation 2. It's almost a year now and Capcom and Konami have nothing on PS3. What the hell? It's all whiteboy Gaijin games by Electronic Arts and weirdass Eurocentric "feels like french people made this" games from Ubisoft. All these first Person Shooters. Is it me or have tastes changed on Video game systems? I remember when Street Fighter 2 was the reason why people bought Super Nintendo Systems now it's Halo or a Halo clone or a clone of halo 2. I need me some japanese games goddamnit. I don't see Gran Turismo, FF, Devil may cry, resident evil, or Metal gear for another year. Sega, where is your AM2 creative department? where is my groundbreaking games like chu chu rocket or Rez? Have the Japanese fallen? are they only going to develop for wii and Nintendo DS?[/QUOTE]I can somewhat say where have been the Japanese devs in general:
If you compare the amount of games Capcom is releasing this year to various platforms compared to other years, it really isn't that much. They lost some staff over the years.
If you look at Konami, they aren't as big as they use to be (as it seems). I'd see several games every year come out from Konami, but I'm barely seeing a few come out (The original Silent Hill team isn't even developing the new Silent Hill, which could mean they are no longer there). Many of the Konami published games I've seen as of late were developed by Hudson Soft. I know Konami has downsized a bit, cutting off a few studios.
Namco Bandai seems to have downsized just a little, but they most have several anime licenses in development (like usual) for DS/Wii/PS2. They just haven't put out much support on next gen consoles yet other than tons of old XBLA games. From what I definitely gather, most of their support will be DS/Wii. Losing Monolith Soft hurts.
Square Enix is just not what they use to be. They use to be my favorite developer before the merger with Enix (Don't get me wrong, I like many of Enix games myself, but I really don't like Wada). Wada's business model for Square Enix is to make as many Final Fantasy games as possible on platforms which are cheap to develop on (look at all the FF games coming to DS and PSP especially). In the past, Square would continue taking risks even if it hurt them a little. Wada is a little old school only wanting to do what's safe, or what makes them the most money (such as many several cell phone games and have one team devoted to FFXI online, since they bring lots of $$$). Wada even went on record to say PS3/360 are too powerful for today's market. He doesn't believe in digital distribution either (He's rather remake the same old games over and over again, selling them at full price). There's talk FFXIII's development is being held back until Japanese sales improve.
Sega, who knows, who cares at times. They have announced a few Japanese games for PS3, but Sega as a whole has changed as a company. In the past, most all their games were developed in Japan. Now, they've seen to have switched to a business plan where they mostly publish western games by various developers (some licensed). Also, making more casual type games.
I expect PS3 Japanese support to increase, but it will never be a massive as it was with PS2. The reasons are:
-Many big Japanese developers said they are shifting their PS3/360/PSP support to DS/Wii, because that's what's selling (main Tales and DQ games go to DS now).
-Japanese developers are still supporting PS2.
-Since next generation development costs are high and the next generation adoption is very low in Japan, many developers may not bother with next gen.
-Many Japanese games just don't go for graphics.