NEWS - Tuesday, April 5, 2005
Japanese Support For Xbox 2
Big Japanese Support For Xbox 2 April 4, 2005 - Support from Mistwalker, Game Republic and Q Entertainment suggested good things for the next generation Xbox in Japan, but there’s apparently much more. In an interview posted at the official Japanese Xbox site, Game Republic chief Yoshiki Okamoto suggests that Microsoft is working with companies besides these three on next generation development. In closing comments for the interview, Okamoto states: "Sakaguchi (Hironobu Sakaguchi, Mistwalker), Mizuguchi (Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Q Entertainment) and of course myself are being put in the light like this, but I’m hearing that other developers will be joining [in development of next generation Xbox games]." Suggesting that there are a number of surprises in store as far as development companies, developers and games are concerned, he goes on to state, "If the next generation Xbox lineup that’s currently in development were seen, game users, and the entire game industry would be surprised. There won’t be anyone who’d brush off buying the next generation Xbox once they’ve seen [the lineup]." Game Republic is currently working closely with Microsoft Game Studio on game development for the next generation Xbox. Commenting on the relationship, Okamoto seems relieved to be working on the inside as a "second party" developer, as information about the system is available much quicker than when working strictly as a third party. Okamoto reveals that Game Republic is working on a number of titles for the next generation Xbox. He refuses to be too specific, but does state that all are of genres with which he’s never worked before and genres with which he’s really wanted to work. Some of the games have already reached playable state. Perhaps we’ll see a few next generation Game Republic games at E3.Source: http://www.ign.com
