Fez creator on modern Japan: ‘Your games suck’

Polytron boss and Fez creator Phil Fish sparked controversy with a statement towards Japanese games at the Game Developers Conference in San Francico today. 

Following a screening of Indie Game: The Movie, in which Fez and two other indie titles are featured, the developer took part in a Q&A with the audience. When asked by a Japanese developer his thoughts on modern Japanese games – as older titles from the country, such as Zelda and Mario, have had great influence on the western world of game development – Fish immediately replied, “your games just suck.”

While part of the crowd cheered at Fish’s remark, others “looked on awkwardly,” according to Develop, as the Japanese developer was then “subjected to a string criticisms about game design flaws in his native country.”

Looking over to Fish’s Twitter account, he stands by his statement.

“It’s not about right or wrong. It’s just a personal opinion,” he said in one tweet.

“I’m sorry Japanese guy! I was a bit rough, but your country’s games are fucking terrible nowadays,” he said in another.

On the opposition, Twitter user Hayden Scott-Baron tweeted, “Appalling to hear developers at GDC cheering at ‘Japanese games suck’ comments. Ignorant developers are bad for the industry.”

Phil responded that he shouldn’t take things out of context, to which Twitter user Jake said it’s “pretty hard to see how “your games just suck” can look good in any context.”

To another user, Phil responded, “I stand by what I said. Most modern Japanese games are terrible. You can quote me on that.”

“Japanese games are just two western games duct-taped together,” read another tweet.

“Appalling” or not, what is your take on the matter? Was Fish’s statement out of line?