Japanese Developers Discuss Next-Gen Xbox

The current issue of Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu features interviews with Yoshiki Okamoto and Tetsuya Mizuguchi, two well-known Japanese game developers who have both recently started their own independent development studios after leaving Capcom and Sega, respectively. Both men are currently developing projects for Microsoft's next-generation successor to the Xbox, a platform which has long struggled in the Japanese market. Okamoto (Street Fighter II, Resident Evil) said that the two next-gen Xbox games from his new Game Republic studio included one that would require a lot of resources, and one on a smaller scale that would take advantage of the Xbox Live online service. The smaller game will be a party game of some sort, and Okamoto expressed hopes that it would be a system-seller in Japan the way that Super Smash Brothers Melee was for Nintendo's GameCube. He also mentioned that after his departure from Capcom, several companies had approached him with offers to develop fighting or action games, but he turned them down by the reasoning that such a project would have negated his reasons for leaving Capcom. Mizuguchi (Space Channel 5, Rez, Lumines) said that his next-gen Xbox project from Q? Entertainment would also be a departure for him, and would be an action game rather than the racing and music games he's known for. Whatever sort of game it is, Mizuguchi said that he was enticed to the next-generation Xbox as a platform due to its high-resolution graphics and powerful sound capabilities.