Former PlayStation President Says ‘NieR: Automata’ Saved Japanese Video Game Industry Because It Convinced Devs To Stop “Imitating Overseas Trends”
In the opinion of former PlayStation President Shuhei Yoshida, were it not for Yoko Taro’s NieR: Automata proving to his fellow Japanese game devs that their own cultural identity was their biggest creative strength, the entire local industry would have long since ceased to exist.
Yoshida, who first joined Sony as one of the original PlayStation console devs before being promoted to SIE VP in 2000, President in 2008, and eventually retiring this past January, offered this glowing praise to 2B’s fight against the Machines during a recent career retrospective-interview given to Munechika Nishida for the Japanese news outlet AV Watch.
Asked for his thoughts on the stark difference between the niche nature of Japanese media, in particular video games, “from the late 2000s to the mid-2010s” and the massive popularity such productions enjoy today, the former Sony began by recalling how the source of this discrepancy was the fact that “As games became more realistic and Hollywood-like titles started emerging, there was a period during the PS3 era when Japanese creators thought, “We need to make something that will appeal overseas. Let’s try creating something with a more Western feel.”‘
“But in the end,” he explained, as machine translated by ChatGPT, “because there was no original context, (from the overseas market’s perspective) it ended up being something like, “What is this?” and didn’t succeed.”
To this end, Yoshida then noted how “the game that drastically changed the situation, in my opinion, was NieR: Automata (2017), released during the PS4 era.”
“I believe that Yoko Taro created NieR without thinking about selling it overseas at all,” said the PlayStation vet. “However, it ended up being hugely popular abroad. From that point on, Japanese creators started to create “Japanese things,” and it became clear that these could be successful overseas as well.”
“With NieR, everyone realized this,” he continued. “It wasn’t just about thinking “this is fine,” but rather, ‘this is the only way we must do it, we have to do it this way.’ As a result, Japanese creators began to move away from trying to imitate the West, and they started creating content based on their own culture and things they understood, believing that the world would appreciate it.”
“I believe we can clearly divide the Japanese gaming industry into two periods: ‘before’ and ‘after’ NieR. NieR was the title that made everyone realize the importance of creating something “Japanese.” It was a turning point that revived the industry.”
“The development of digital distribution also played a significant role in this shift,” Yoshida concluded of his praise. “With digital distribution, even niche themes can succeed. Japanese culture has gradually spread overseas, and with that, gathering people from all around the world who are interested in it can create quite a large market.”
Notably, following its official publication on AV Watch, Yoshida’s interview would subsequently catch the attention of none of than Taro himself, who would respond by both offering his gratitude for the praise and a slight clarification that he was not solely responsible for NieR: Automata‘s ‘Japanese’ authenticity.
“I’m honored that Automata has been highly evaluated, but it was Producer Saito who instructed me, ‘Don’t worry about overseas evaluations, just make the game for Japan,'” wrote the game director via his personal Twitter account. “To be more precise, I remember something along the lines of him saying, ‘”Yoko-san, it’s impossible for you to make a game for overseas audiences, so (at least) try your best to make it for Japan.'”
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