Rumours doing the rounds in Japan at the moment suggest that Shinji Mikami - the creator of Biohazard (Resident Evil to us Englishy folks) is shortly to leave Capcom and set up his own development studio. This same man recently stepped down as head of Capcom's Development Studio #4 due to sluggish sales of his recent titles (including the reportedly style-over-substance dancing delights of Product Number 03).
This follows hot on the heals of one of PALGN's favourite rumours over recent months - that of Yu Suzuki leaving Sega to set up HIS own development studio if the development of Shenmue III was permanently stopped (as looked much more likely at the time than it does now)
I can't see this as anything but a good thing, personally - especially with Sega's recent promise that they would merge their development studios in order to cut back on costs. Much as I love the blue hedgehog themed corporation, I'd MUCH rather see UGA leave Sega than merge with, say, Hitmaker and forced to make games OTHER than the classics we love them for. On a ludicrously more short-term note, it'd be lovely to see Shenmue III, and if Sega cans it then I'd practically push Suzuki out of the door if it meant that I'd be closer to playing a new instalment of the series.
After all, (and this next paragraph is going to sound unbearably cliché, but please bear with me), we've been seeing a definite reduction in the numbers of brilliant, off-the-wall, original and creative games recently - those that come to mind are certainly from the smaller developers: UGA with Rez and the Space Channel 5 games, NanaOnSha with Vib Ribbon and the tantalisingly unplayable sequel; Mojibribon and, not least, Jeff Minter's latest solo assault on the gaming world - the forthcoming Unity for Gamecube. I almost forgot - Ikaruga? Radiant Silvergun? The former was made by a team of only five people - Treasure proves my point admirably, I feel.
Additionally, the amount of creative license we see in our everyday gaming rations appears to be inversely proportional to the size of the big gaming companies. As EA buys out yet another development studio and forces them to make games for only their most popular series ad infinitum, or as smaller companies go bankrupt thanks to the money they lost from that one failed movie licensed game, or as intellectual properties change hands daily with no artistic gentleness or pseudo-parental love that makes certain games so special, HOW can the lingering romantic image of people making games that are good, because they want to bring happiness, still be foremost in our minds? I'm sure it'll be a cold day in hell when Bungie is allowed to make anything that isn't a Halo game on Xbox.
It seems, as the money pumped into this business multiplies exponentially seemingly daily, we're losing something. Something which can only be put back by the dissolution of these large companies, and a return to basics. Obviously, any hopes of this happening on a massive scale are nothing but a pipe dream - in the rocky landscape of today's gaming society, movie licenses and sub-standard franchises rule supreme, and advertising overtakes gameplay as the most important thing to spend good money on. This, unfortunately, doesn't look set to change in the slightest.
There are bad points, of course. It's doubtful that your favourite developer's magnum opus would be quite so good coming from a smaller, indie company than from one of the larger ones. There would be less advertising, less budget to start with. However, there would also be fewer deadlines and more artistic freedom. It's really a toss-up between the two, but it's my sacredly-held belief that a developer that's good enough just doesn't need as much budget as one who feels more money and a licensed name are prerequisites for developing, and I think that many of the developers whose splits are rumoured are good enough to make it work.
So, this is when we get to assure ourselves that it's not all bad - I'm made relatively happy by the rumours of splits in Japan, because it makes me certain that things aren't completely destroyed. I know that, in the midst of all these buyouts and name changes; in the ultra-capitalist guise that gaming has become in the west... there is hope.
As long as Shinji Mikami and Yu Suzuki can keep up hope that an indie game studio would work, I have no business doing otherwise. Even if it means I have to learn Japanese in order to play their new titles, at least they'll be there. And, I think, that means more than anything. Like the self-published book, or the band that refuses to sign for a big-name record label, there's that glimmer, and a sliver of hope for all of us to cling to.
Even Rockstar may be bucking the trend - it seems they may be jeopardising a big-money deal with Sony to put a strikingly familiar game called Vice City (note the lack of three-letter acronym at the beginning) onto their current sugar daddy's nemesis - the Xbox. There's nothing to suggest that their reasons for this are ANYTHING but the pursuit of more profit, and there's less to suggest that they either really intend to or can even come close to getting away with it, but I take a perverse pleasure in this proverbial spitting in the face of one of the biggest moneybags in the business.
After all, Konami may not be making anything but Metal Gear Solid because nothing else is profitable, and Gamecube support may be dropping left right and centre because it just doesn't make money. But, on the other side of Asia, someone wants to make Shenmue III and will not stop until he's done it, even if he has to do so, on a substantially smaller budget. And that makes me happy.
Delirious.
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