Masaya Matsuura made a name for himself when he introduced the Parappa the Rapper series and set off a growing trend in the rhythm-based video game genre. The founder of NanaOn-Sha talks about the potential of the now flourishing game genre and how developers should explore its vast potential. You can read about his interview in the full article after the jump.

More speakers have been added to the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit's speaker roster. Joining the roster for next year's event are PaRappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura, who is currently working on a new music title for the Nintendo Wii, and newly-appointed Entertainment Software Association president Michael D. Gallagher. More new speakers at the full article.

Everyone who's into music games knows PaRappa: The Rapper, one of the pioneers in the music game genre. It's one of the quirkiest and funniest games to have come out for the PlayStation 1.

With the popularity of the music game genre on the rise, who better to ask about it than Masaya Matsuura, the creator of PaRappa: The Rapper. GamesIndustry.biz was recently lucky enough to talk with Matsuura who shared his thoughts on the industry.

Of course when we talk about music and games, you cannot help but mention popular games such as Singstar, Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Matsuura spoke about these "newer" games that have captured western gamers rather smugly, "I've been waiting for things to happen in the West that we have had in Japan for the last 10 years."

He was also asked about the controllers that both Guitar Hero and Rock Band have and he called it old news noting that he's past that phase and he "had that interest in 1997 or so!" However he did say that "they are much more advanced and sophisticated than the ideas the Japanese developers had, so I appreciate that and respect their activities."

This leads us to a question that we should consider, why are western developers so behind in development and what can they do to catch up? Matsuura gave a clear answer on this pointing out the differences in music culture.

I started my career as a musician in the early 90s. I was an exclusive signed artist for Sony. I worked to release my album in the UK, but unfortunately the Japanese music market is very specialised and I didn't generate any foreign interest. I was frustrated to have to stick to the local market, so I started to think about worldwide activities. I wanted to move a little further afield, away from the conservative music business.

I think that a lot of musicians in Japan wanted to appeal to the wider market by using new ideas - games, for example. Music sales are shrinking, it's a worldwide tendency, so maybe soon they will have to appeal to a wider market. This helps music games succeed.

So where are we headed in terms of music and gaming? Matsuura foresees that "Maybe in 20 years, 15 per cent of the music industry will earn their money from games." Will we really be seeing the integration of music into gaming as software sales have been dying down? A very interesting notion that industry experts need to explore. If you want to read the full interview, check out the read link.

Masaya Matsuura developing for the Wii? That's the attention-catching matter the Parappa the Rapper creator has stated over an interview during the ongoing Nordic Games conference. Don't hold your breath, though - Matsuura-san stated that his studio (NanaOn-Sha) has only begun the planning stages for the game, and that they hope to officially begin work soon.

Aside from this sliver of a game announcement, the developer also offered his two cents regarding the three current next-generation consoles: The PlayStation 3, the Wii, and the Xbox 360.

On the matter of PS3, Matsuura-san said he thought the reason why the Wii was outselling Sony's console wasn't a matter of its large price tag, but that it was just plain large, size-wise. "It's too big for the Japanese," he stated. Mastuura further commented that the same could be said of the Xbox 360 and its notoriously large (and heavy) AC adapter.

As for the Wii console - the smallest of the trio - Matsuura commented that while he liked the console concept and its games, he also foresaw problems that may arise regarding the motion-sensitive Wiimote. "Players can't spend a long time on gameplay, so this can be tough. So I respect Nintendo's activities, but for software designers like us, it's very hard."

On a last note, the developer hinted on "a very casual, one-button game" that his studio was working on. "Maybe the publisher will announce the release soon. It's a very simple game, but I hope it will be successful." That's all the details we've got for now, as members of the gaming industry speak their mind at this event.

Masaya Matsuura, creator of the PaRappa the Rapper series of video games, was one of the keynote speakers at the recently-concluded GO3 conference in Australia. During his speech, his message was rather simple and direct: the gaming industry should come up with less violent titles and produce games that are more accessible to non-traditional players instead.

PaRappa the Rapper was first released on PlayStation 1 (PSOne) back in 1996 by video game development studio NanaOn-Sha. It is a rhythm-based title and was probably the inspiration behind today's hit Guitar Hero and upcoming game Rock Band (for the Xbox 360 and PS3). However, despite the success of Parappa Matsuura still has some concerns about this genre, especially for his homeland of Japan, since according to him,

It's very difficult to make brand-new systems for music-based games that involve more than just pressing buttons according to rhythm. Of course, we've tried several already, but unfortunately some of them are not successful. Another reason, everyone is buying flat displays. Flat displays have a delay, but sound doesn't delay.

The creator then commented that one solution for this is to come up with various alternatives to audio. However, he also cautioned that the musical game industry collaboration will not be initiated by the artists as most of them are highly conservative and want to do things by themselves, therefore developers may have to take the initiative.

Lastly, Masaya Matsuura couldn't help but applaud Nintendo for its stance during this cycle of the console war. He implied that the industry will not grow if focus will be given on traditional players as they are already a "captured audience." He explained,

Making good games that everybody can play is a very high priority for the game industry, because if we make games like X-rated videos, the industry won't grow. Nintendo is very smart to appeal to a much wider group of people because it is what's required now.