Un par de cosas interesantes:
Kikizo: How well do you think this series would do if it was visually just average-looking?
Itagaki: For us such a question doesn't make sense, because our job is to create an interactive experience with the visuals and sound and everything combined. So for our game not to be the best looking game in the world is inexcusable, and we're not doing our job if that's the case.
I don't believe that the playability or the game concept of DOA is better than a board game of some sort - like backgammon - but the reason we sell more is because of the visuals and sound that you get when you play on the TV.
So to say it in a different way, if you take the visuals that TV can provide away from the game concept of DOA, compared to traditional games like chess or whatever, there is no way that we can beat such things as chess. So, for you to even ask how would the game would play with average graphics, it's almost like saying, take away the visual and sound from the TV in the videogame and then how will it sell, it's similar to that.
Kikizo: Sure, but I mean, there have been many average-looking and some average-playing fighting games, and I suppose this was a way of asking the question, do you believe in DOA's gameplay as much as its visual prowess?
Itagaki: If you're talking about the playability, of course I think DOA is one of the fairest games you can play. It's so fair that I don't mind putting in my own money to play. But to go back to the point that I made earlier, as a videogame designer, having the graphics through the TV set and sound, you can't separate that from so-called game concept, or playability or whatever, because the graphics beauty is the reason why you turn on your game and play.
Some developers focus too much on improving the system, expanding the features as far as the system goes. Well if they're going to do that, why not make the game look and sound better, because that's what people will look at and, you know, feel. Of course, I have played all types of games, not just videogames - every type of game out there. And for some sorts of games, their industries or the businesses were destroyed because all of the money was rerouted to videogames. People started spending money on videogames, and consequently lost interest in other types of non-videogame games.
Well the reason why all the money went to videogames was because of the cool graphics and the sound. So for people who are partially 'responsible' to have destroyed the other game industries, for anyone to say that visual is not as important as game concept, is ridiculous. If you focus just on game concept there's no way you could compete with other non-video games. Make sense?
Kikizo: Yeah... we always hear "it's all about gameplay", sometimes undermining the importance of graphics, but I agree that with visually beautiful games sometimes graphics is part of the gameplay - maybe that's like a shallow thing...? But it's not really, is it?
Itagaki: No, sure.
Kikizo: Are you satisfied with the power of the Xbox 360?
Itagaki: I think even Microsoft itself, as soon as this hardware is completed, they will not be satisfied with it, and will start working on the next machine. I have never been satisfied with any machine in my life. It's like a never ending quest for more; human beings reached the moon, now they want to go to Mars - they want to keep challenging themselves more and more.
Y como curiosidad:
Kikizo: So is there anything else you would like to comment on about Xbox 360 development, maybe something you encountered that you didn't expect, that's interesting to talk about?
Itagaki: For one, I received a Mac development machine from Microsoft - and so I realised for the first time that they [Microsoft and Apple] were actually good friends! That's what surprised me the most. In testing the game, we overheated the machine - and broke a bunch of them!
Kikizo: Are the kits expensive?
Itagaki: Very expensive! But the problem is, that I broke many!
Resumiendo:
Que los gráficos son muy importantes, no soy el único que lo dice
Y que el tio se ha cargado ya un monton de kits alfa
DD