Gamers World

In an interview with CVG, Hutchinson was discussing how the "Assassin's Creed" series was becoming an annual franchise when he was asked about Nintendo and its franchises. The interviewer, Rob Crossley, suggested that the company is given a pass when it comes to releasing their games annually.
"I think there's a subtle racism in the business, especially on the journalists' side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do," Hutchinson said. "I think it's condescending to do this."
Hutchinson elaborated, saying game journalists often give Japanese developers a pass on what he feels are bad stories.
"Just think about how many Japanese games are released where their stories are literally gibberish. Literally gibberish. There's no way you could write it with a straight face, and the journalists say 'oh it is brilliant.'
"Then 'Gears of War' comes out and apparently it's the worst written narrative in a game ever. I'll take 'Gears of War' over 'Bayonetta' any time," Hutchinson said.
Now, I'm all for critcizing what I've always felt is a press corps that coddles and soothes the industry it covers. And it's hard to call Hutchinson ignorant of game journalism when he worked as a journalist himself before moving into development (which sort of reinforces my first point, but that's another article. Greg Kasavin, I'm looking at you, too).
But Hutchinson is way off, especially when it comes to his views on game stories. Japanese games haven't exactly been polling well in the West lately; that's been a running storyline in the past couple of years, in case you haven't noticed. I suppose I feel I have to point it out because Hutchinson apparently hasn't himself.
Japanese and Western tastes have become increasingly polarized since Microsoft first challenged the Japanese-dominated industry with the Xbox. The West has favored an endless parade of first-person shooters and violent, crass action titles. Meanwhile, Japan's tastes have skewed into the realm of games featuring cute anime girls and endless collection quests.
Japanese developers have also struggled to compete against the Western big-budget action titles, and their efforts to appeal to Western tastes have come across as transparently laughable. Square Enix's failure "The Last Remnant" comes to mind, but even successful games like Capcom's "Dragon's Dogma" also come to mind.
Critics have noticed these changes, and the reviews reflect it: Japan is struggling. Mega Man is dead. Final Fantasy is in ruins. Even Nintendo, one of the few who still enjoy top billing in America, wasn't spared when the latest "Zelda" title received less than golden reviews.
Hutchinson's comments are also odd, because he had just finished praising Nintendo earlier in the interview: "[I]f you can keep a series interesting and fresh then I don't see why it shouldn't go on. Nintendo has been great at reinvigorating their franchises, as have other Japanese companies, so we feel we can too."
Instead, Hutchinson seems more interested in taking the opportunity to express his displeasure with Japanese storytelling than anything. Unfortunately, his idea of a good story in a game is "Gears of War," whose developers were so worried that players thought its protagonists were gay that they felt the need to constantly remind them that one of the heroes had a "[bleep]ing wife" in its sequel. I haven't played "Bayonetta," but it's hard to take anyone like that seriously.
It's ironic, because Crossley doesn't challenge Hutchinson on Western development practices or stories. Crossley's assumption that Nintendo gets a pass seems to be meant to please his interviewee, since he doesn't elaborate on what he means. I can only assume he's criticizing Nintendo for releasing a ton of "Mario Party" games, because Nintendo is certainly not EA, and Zelda isn't Madden, nor are the Mario Brothers The Sims.
In fact, Crossley doesn't really ask any questions at all. When Hutchinson calls Japanese stories "literally gibberish" (again ironic, because "literally gibberish" means literally nothing), Crossley doesn't ask about how companies are increasingly placing backstory and character development in books and comics rather than the games themselves - let alone ask for some specific examples.
That's not "subtle racism." It's just bad journalism.