Eight. The End.
Next question is what I asking to all Japanese people: What happened to your industry? In a past, most of the coolest games was created by it. And now it's not the same.
Yu Suzuki specifies: Yes, 10 years ago Japanese games occupied 80% of the market, but now only 20%. The fact is, that Japanese games were the pioneers in the market. All technologies, ideas, and principles was invented and and distributed all over the world. Japanese like to do everything with their hands and heads, but Americans are build the system, conveyor. So that you could press buttons, push a bar code into reader, and get your product at the output. Americans, absorbed ideas, realized what works and what not. They established a processes, and created the powerful system of the game development. A Factory. Created engines, like "Unity". As result, their system work very effective. Europe are too, thanks to it, very strong in game development.
I Specify: People says, that especially in Japan it's difficult to work on a big projects in a big companies.
Yu Suzuki explains: It's easier to make a decisions in a small companies, but they don't have a money. Big companies have a funding, but their management are afraid to take risks. Optimally, is to work in middle size companies. My dream is – a small company with business-angel, then there is a money and will to make hard decisions.
Moving to personal questions, and suddenly we find out that Yu Suzuki not just doesn't have his own Virtua Fighter Arcade machine, but actually he is not even a gamer.
It's not like I'm playing a lot. For example, I like to play in real billiard. And real car for me more interesting than car in a game.
Also he often plays in Wii with kids. He endlessly loves games, but otherwise than we.
My conception is: To transfer what interesting for me in a real life into a game format. For example, I like to drive a car – and I want to convey this feeling through racing simulator.
I specify: And this probably related to martial arts too?
Yu Suzuki agrees and continues: You know, actually, I personally piloted a real jet aircraft and participated in air battles.
We was surprised... very surprised!
Yu Suzuki remembers again: Once I was in USA, in Florida. At first, a couple of hours they lectured us, explained everything. After, I got into jet aircraft, and flew together with instructor. Aircraft was equipped with a laser gun and smoke bombs. And there was two of us. If you hit the opponent, smoke bomb activates, that means he was shot. And we was flying around about 2 hours shooting each other. For safety we agreed that ground is – 800 feet. If you forced your opponent to descent to that level, that means he died. Or the same if he's speed dropped to virtual zero. And all that they explained us on lectures, plus they taught us different methods of air combat. And terms, like “check six”...
We looking at Yu Suzuki with admiration. Frankly speaking, I didn't know that such kind of entertainment even exists.
Game designer continued: After that I realized, that all games about aircrafts are not interesting. Those that was in arcades. Because in them it is much more difficult to control the aircraft than in real life, really! And I understood that all those air simulators was created by people who doesn't even flew on real aircrafts!
So, we can be sure that if Yu Suzuki decides to make a game about astronauts, he will surely buy a tourist ticket on first suborbital spaceship and will try himself in weightlessness. Too bad we wasn't able to ask how many more favorite artists, a fan of Mucha and Dean have. SI (Strana Igr)
Credits: interview by Konstantin Govorun, Jenya Zakirov, Natalia Odintsova and Jenya Davidyuk as a translator