January 10th, 2013 
ramdewarkiron
Love him or hate him Hideki Kamiya is quite the character. The man behind titles such as Viewtiful Joe has never been the quiet type to sit in the back of the room, while some figurehead discusses his games with the press. Kamiya regularly talks about his games on and even responds to gamer’s inquiries. Usually these replies are a bit harsh, but they are all meant in humour and are .
Yesterday turned a little sour after he commented on an article Kotaku had posted up saying, “The Guy Who Made Bayonetta Is Clueless about Valve and PC Gaming“. Now understandably Kamiya was annoyed by this as the foundations of the article were based on his Tweet, “I don’t know well about Valve. PC gaming, no interest.” Here Kamiya was being brutally honest about part of the games industry that he is currently not involved in. The Japanese market has a smaller interest in PC gaming and digital systems such as steam, so why should he care?
It should also be noted that Platinum Games has an interest in PC gaming and that Kamiya is not the only person that works for the company. The headline that Kotaku had on the article was bold and clearly made for click-through rates. I don’t really have a problem with this, as this is the way that journalism works. The headline Kotaku provided is a lot more exciting that say, “Kamiya not interested in PC gaming”. The problem that I do have is the Kotaku’s stance on the issue after Kamiya was vocal about the article.
After sending some rather mild insults about the article things got a bit more heated, from the public and Kamiya. Eventually leading to one Kotaku writer to message him and ask if he has read the article, to which he replied, “Do you eat shit?”. To me, I read this as a sarcastic (and rather juvenile) response to Plunkett’s stupid question. Of course Kamiya has read it and even if he had not, the title is attacking his professionalism and suggests that he is ignorant of part of the market he should be in touch with.
As normal the internet exploded with supporters for both sides who vented their frustrations through topical discussion and idiotic banter that makes Paris Hilton look like Einstein. The problem here is not the public’s response, or Kamiya going crazy, but the fact that Kotaku are clearly not happy to deal with their problem. The article itself made good points about the differences between the Japanese and western games industries but the title was more like something from The Sun. Instead of raising their hands and apologising for their sensationalist title Kotaku updated their piece with the following comment:
The original headline for this story—”The Guy Who Made Bayonetta Is Clueless about Valve and PC Gaming”—has been changed. “Clueless” was a poor choice of words and we apologize for the negative connotation. That said, we appreciate Kamiya’s to the story and hope that, now that we’ve changed the headline, those who couldn’t get past that will be able to read the piece. – Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief
Clearly Kotaku’s editor has had to bite the bullet here and make this change, but is not happy about it. The wording suggests that people were getting annoyed by the title, but they should do. It’s sexed up for extra clicks. Kamiya has every right to vent his anger and maybe he didn’t choose the best way to do it, but journalists need to stop hiding behind their editors and speak for themselves. There’s a noticeable absence of responses on Twitter from Richard Eisenbeis, the author of the article. Social media has exploded and made it easier for players, designers and journalists to interact. I’m not saying I want heated forums for everything pushed out there, but if you are going to blatantly insult one of Japan’s most praised figures in the games industry, then you should be prepared to fight your own corner and accept if you have done anything wrong.
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behind titles such as RE4?
you mean Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry.
Shinji Mikami is the RE4 director.
So it is alright for a trash site like Kotaku to make that stupid headline?
how would anyone like it if a newspaper headlines talks about you saying “Your mom is retarded about games”.
Anyone who get pissed off.
Frankly I’m glad Kamiya lashed off at Kotaku.
i’ve never liked that site and the site’s content pisses me off as they are written by immature unprofessional writers.
lowest scums of the gaming journalism!
“The headline that Kotaku had on the article was bold and clearly made for click-through rates. I don’t really have a problem with this, as this is the way that journalism works.”
While I agree with a lot of what you wrote, I couldn’t disagree more with the above statement.
Actually, that’s not how it works at all. That’s more like a bait and switch. How it “should” work is the headline should be an accurate portrayal of what is written in the article, not something bold and attention grabbing that turns out to be nonfactual and exaggerated. If it happens to be true as well as eye catching, then good for the writer. But you don’t make a headline to grab clicks and piss on the actual article.
Japan game industry is doing business like they are stuck in 80s.PERIOD.
“Do you eat shit” is not a proper way to respond even if you are trolling. It basicly shows you got no points ot make neither give a fuck aside from trolling.
It was immature, but it was said with sarcasm (I think). Kamiya has every right to be angry. I mean the Kotaku writer didn’t even get why he was annoyed and was playing innocent.
Kotaku can write whatever headline they want, they just need to be able to stick up for their actions. The article in question wasn’t attacking Japanese games development or Kamiya, but was clearly geared towards getting clicks.
I’m happy that Kamiya kicked off too as the headline was pretty annoying.
, I’ve edited the article accordingly, was getting mixed up in my haste!