Directors and Producers [Team Management]

Just to be clear: I'm a director, not a producer!
Many people aren't sure how these roles differ, so I'd like to discuss exactly that in today's Team Management video.

[yuler_]

"Those outside the game industry seem to have trouble telling directors and producers apart."
Man, some people still don't know the difference between developer and publisher

[shawnnorman]

00:45
The term "kantoku" is often used in the world of movies and anime compared to "director."
For example, Hayao Miyazaki, Quentin Tarantino, Hiroyuki Imaishi, and Christopher Nolan are frequently referred to with the honorific "kantoku." On the other hand, Goichi Suda of "No More Heroes" and Hidemaro Fujibayashi of "Tears of the Kingdom" are mostly called "directors." An exception is Hideo Kojima, who is often called "kantoku, " likely because he and his team are heavily influenced by the film industry.

[waaaaa]

Reminds me of how Katsuhiro Harada and Michael Murray are oftentimes mistaken as the director of Tekken 8 due to how often they appear in promoting the game whereas both of them only served as a producers this time. The director of T8 is Kohei Ikeda.

Meanwhile whenever there's something broken in the game Harada and Murray are the first to get blamed lmao

[YoshiAngemon]

"I'm the most important person in this whole joint, half-pint! I'm the Producer!"
"A Producer? What does a Producer do?"
"A producer doesn't do anything!"
"He's got ya there, Majesty!" - King Dedede, Spikehead, Iro, Escargoon, Kirby: Right Back At Ya episode "Cartoon Buffoon."

[BluishGreenPro]

I find it very helpful how Sakurai outlines the roles and responsibilities of Directors and Producers. I’ve heard horror stories from companies where the Director ends up having their decisions undermined by Producers or other “upper management” within the company, and then those higher-ups are “surprised Pikachu face” when the game does poorly as a result of players complaining about all the decisions they insisted upon.

[Garomasta]

"They (Nintendo) place a great deal of trust in me, so there's almost never tension over differences of opinion."

I feel like this is one of the most important reasons why it's difficult to see anyone else take the reins of Smash. Building this kind of trust takes years, and I bet it's not just Nintendo but every 3rd party involved that feels the same.

[tiarabite]

How they handled the "kantoku" line was pretty straightforward and honestly the only way I could have seen it translated in a normal, non-confusing way. Nicely done. I've also been conflating director and producer all this time, but I never really thought about it or noticed. This was a good selection of a topic because I'm sure there are a lot of other people like me who was wondering about it but it's never actually entered their mind often to think to ask or look it up!

[NorthNote]

So based on this video and my understanding of the roles in general, the directors is essentially a ship captain who guides the crews on their roles and make final decision when an unexpected situations are to be resolved to ensure that the ship reaches it's destination, while the producer decides the captain, the ship and and help recruits it's crews for the voyages, and manages whatever logistic or budgets the voyage should needs to reach the destination. And both the captains and the producers can make request/demand to each others for what they believes will fulfills their goals.

[jacobbrowning]

Years ago I met a music producer, who explained that their role was to handle the business and logistics of recording sessions, booking venues, promoting events, etc, so the artists could focus on writing and practicing their songs.

[Ratchie_ZSYY]

監督がどのように翻訳されるのか気になって見てみたら、
"Kantoku"
とそのままのストレートな表現で面白かった

[bluethan]

Directors and Producers having a difference of opinion is far from a bad thing, but consistently butting heads certainly can be. It's good to know that at Nintendo, directors like Sakurai can personally speak on behalf of the two typically getting along. Other large companies suffer tremendously when this is not the case.

[paperluigi]

And with this, I FINALLY know the difference after all these years.

[connordarvall]

No way! I was just having this conversation with my dad when he was trying to figure out what jobs in the game industry are compared to his experience in theatre. Personally, I think director suits the role I want to get into perfectly. Producer requires way more business sense than I'd fully be comfortable with.

[Skippygamer]

All this time I never knew the difference between directors and producers, so it was hard to grasp your lessons when you emphasized ether directors or producers, but now I can! For those videos, and all things director and producer related now, thank you Mr.Sakurai-San. God Bless.

[Dr_Mel]

If I'm not mistaken, director used to be translated as Planner, which caused some confusion in the west. You'll see that title in older games credits.

[Bladebrent]

I want to make a joking comment of "oh so we can blame this problem on the director and this problem on the producer" but this is a good video for introducing the differences between the two roles

[Koops]

The most direct answer I've ever encountered regarding this important question, thank you so much for this one.

[BK]

Ones again Mr Sakurai answers a question that was always in my head.

[Amonimus]

You can also think of them as an author and a publisher's editor. One makes stuff, the other keeps asking about the deadlines.

[dariuscox]

Ya know, I already knew what the Game Director role (or directors as a whole) do, but it never dawned on me to learn what a Game Producer (or producers as a whole) do, but now I know, thanks to this video.

Thanks, Mr. Sakurai!