Beautiful Katamari Exclusive Interview (Page 3 of 3)

GP: What about an Xbox 360 demo level?

KT: At this stage there are no specific plans to release a demo.

GP: Will Katamari, like its predecessors, be a budget title?

KT: This is still in discussion and is yet to be decided.

GP: Will Katamari on Xbox 360/PS3 hit Japan before North America like both PS2 games, or will this be a simultaneous release?

KT: Beautiful Katamari will be a simultaneous release.

GP: Do you think this game could help to boost sluggish Xbox 360 console sales in Japan?

KT: We'd like to believe so, but strangely Katamari games have done better in the United States than in Japan, which is really interesting. It's really weird because the game is, for the most part, designed for the Japanese audience--the setting is Japan and the music is Japanese--and it's a very Japanese game. We are incredibly surprised by its success in other regions and we can't really explain why it happened. I think Western gamers do appreciate interesting gameplay, so it's not entirely shocking that Katamari caught on overseas.

GP: Do you think the budget price point was a part of the reason for its success?

KT: This is a discussion we've had many times internally, and we believe that the Katamari series would have sold well even if it had released at full price. That said, we certainly think it helped and the combination of price and original gameplay was just right. But many of us did feel the PS2 games should have been sold for full price.

GP: Overall, is there a goal that you're trying to accomplish with Beautiful Katamari?

KT: We're able to draw more objects on-screen, the resolution has been substantially increased, the draw distance has been improved, and surround sound has been added. So, we're not making any huge revolutionary leaps, but we're refining what we think is still a great original experience.

Beautiful Katamari team members on hand:

  • Lindsay Gray, localization producer
  • Junichiro Hosokawa, lead game designer
  • Hiroshi Igarashi, producer
  • Shigenori Kanai, art director
  • Jun Moriwaki, game director

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment