>>717849489Thatโs simple: the development structure and mechanisms that were disadvantaged in the late 00โs to the mid 10โs are now a significant advantage today. Japanese game dev budgets never really bloomed way out of control the way western budgets did (well, except for SE but theyโve had budget planning issues for decades).
During the 7th generation this made a lot of JP games feel a lot jankier than western games as they struggled to adjust, but now it means they can make normal video games without it having to sell ten gorillion copies to break even.
For what itโs worth I do think that US game dev will eventually come out of this long night itโs been stuck in. The US was always best when it was making games for Japanese systems or making PC games and thatโs what I hope it returns to.