Former Team Ninja and current Vahalla head Tomonobu Itagaki is not one for keeping his opinions under wraps. Like fellow outspoken developer Keiji Inafune, Itagaki is not afraid to talk about why the Japanese game industry has lost some of its luster. He told Kotaku that younger Japanese developers need to be bolder and take more risks.
"It's terible that there is no younger generation of prominent Japanese developers coming through. The young people of today should be confident. Even if that confidence comes from nowhere, you should act like it comes from somewhere,” he stated.
"They shouldn't be afraid of a slap in the face,” he added. "No...I have never slapped a developer in the face. But many, many times I tell them, 'you shouldn't be afraid of getting a slap in the face'.”
Itagaki also expressed his feelings on playing it safe, explaining that it’s impossible to please everyone.
"Even the masters, like Picasso, can never please everybody. When you create something, there will always be people who don't like it. There are people who don't like what I make, and say bad things about them, and to me that's like a slap in the face,” he said.
"So young people need to be more confident, they have to be willing to crash into something ahead of them whether other people like it or not".
