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Kaz Hirai Hits the Interview Circuit

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: PlayStation 3, Sony

Kaz HiraiSony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai has been speaking out about the including the reported development troubles some studios have had and ‘s commitment to the Japanese market.

Regarding the difficulty in development Hirai said he’s seen this before when the drew similar criticisms early in its lifecycle and that it doesn’t concern him. He said to The Official PlayStation Magazine that, in fact, he welcomes the news:

If they came back and told me, ‘PS3? We can do this in a heartbeat,’ that would be worrying because what it is telling me is that we’re not pushing the envelope from a technology standpoint.

In another interview with a Japanese website he said that developers working on cross-platform games ought to take advantage of the PS3’s extra capability to give PlayStation owners extra value. For example, “[W]ith the PS3, you’ve got the controller, or you could utilize the extra capacity provided by Blu-ray to add more levels, put on interviews with the developers or have your videos able to play in .” He said he understood why developers were choosing to work cross-platform considering the cost of making modern games.

Later in the same interview he tried to reassure Japanese gamers that they weren’t being overlooked:

Just because the foreign market is bigger than the domestic one, we don’t intend to take strategy of just making what would have been considered previously as ‘Western games’ and saying ‘We’ve got no choice but to do this’ to our Japanese users. If we did that, there’d be no point in having the Japan Studio.

Read More | Develop via Game | Life


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Developing Elite Beat Agents

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo DS

Ouendan 2

One of the more interesting and quirky titles to hit the Nintendo DS last year was the rhythm game Elite Beat Agents, which was a follow-up to the successful Japanese title Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. At the GDC, iNiS Vice President of Development Keichi Yano spoke about the process in localizing and adapting a uniquely Japanese title for American audiences, and Gamasutra has a summary of his remarks. Yano talked about his first title, Guitaroo Man, which gathered a cult following in the US, but never sold particularly well, and his move to portable platforms with Ouendan. In localizing Ouendan, Yano apparently experimented with a number of different looks for the Agents in the game, including a set that looked somewhat like the Village People. Yano also dropped some hints about the upcoming Japanese sequel to Ouendan as well; it seems doubtful that the game will have a direct port in the US, but certainly a lot of the ideas for the Japanese sequel could be used for a future Elite Beat Agents 2, should one be developed. For those that enjoyed Elite Beat Agents, it is definitely worth importing the Japanese original, if only to see the origins of Yano’s music game.
Read More | Gamasutra

Read More | Famitsu (Session Images)

Tingle RPG Impressions

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo DS

Tingle RPG The guys at the Game|Life blog over at Wired Magazine were able to get their hands on the freshly released Tingle RPG for the Nintendo DS. The game, roughly translated as Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rose-Colored Rupee Land, features the Tingle character from the Legend of Zelda series. According to the preview, this could very well be the best RPG to feature as its main character a 35-year-old man in green fairy tights. The gameplay is unique, and there seems to be a decent amount of humor in the game, as one might expect. It is highly unlikely that the game will see a US release, which could be a shame. While the game itself might have too much Japanese use for an import gamer, a localized version might have been just quirky and unique enough to attract a cult following.

Read More | Game|Life

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