Shinji Mikami Speaks

According to The Magic Box, Shinji Mikami, producer of Capcom’s Biohazard video game franchise, recently appeared on a Japanese radio talk show with some scathing criticism of Sony and Squaresoft. Mikami claimed that Sony, in particular, intentionally designs the Playstation to wear out or break down, forcing consumers to buy a replacement second unit. It is this repeat buying that has fueled Sony’s market dominance and overwhelming number of Playstation units sold.

Mikami also attacked Squaresoft’s Kingdom Hearts RPG by arguing that the game is not worth its 6800 yen retail price and does not deserve to have sold more than 780,000+ units. Consumers, Mikami claimed, buy Kingdom Hearts because their friends buy it; not because they themselves like it. Mikami did soften his criticism, though, by asking for forgiveness from Squaresoft, saying that his Biohazard for the GameCube was a better quality game than Kingdom Hearts, but that Kingdom Hearts was not a bad game either.