Japanese creators on 2015: Compile Heart coming to Steam, new Danganronpa developments, more
A plethora of tidbits from Japanese developers.
2015 is nearly upon us, and Famitsu this week features a series interviews with Japanese creators discussing their ambitions for the new year.
Unless in quotes, remarks from each developer are paraphrased according to our sources.
Get all their comments below.
- Toshimichi Mori (Arc System Works) – “2015 is going to be the year we really take off. I can’t say a whole lot right now, but there’s a lot I want to push forward in the coming year.”
- Norihisa Kochiwa (Idea Factory) – “2015 will see us bringing out some dark titles, both literally and figuratively, but we’ve also got a Compile Heart game in the works that’s along the lines of what you’d expect of them.”
- Yoshiaki Sato (Idea Factory) – “Next year, we’ll be porting the English versions of the Hyperdimension Neptunia series to PC for release on Steam.
- Damien Urvois (Idea Factory) – “There’s a great need for moe games in overseas markets today. Feels pressure to put out something soon to alleviate that. There are also plans to release Fairy Fencer F on Steam next year.”
- Naoya Shimokawa (Aquaplus) – “It’ll be our company’s 20th anniversary in 2015, which is a really momentous occasion. It’ll be a challenging year since we intend to put our hearts more than ever into our next game and put on some really big events, but it should be a good time.”
- Katsura Hashino (Atlus) – “Once the new year is underway, we should be able to talk more about Persona 5 in due time.”
- Takuma Endo (Acquire) – “Zettai Geigeki Wars is due out around summer.”
- Tomonobu Itagaki (Valhalla Game Studios) – Itagaki alludes to 2015 being the year he sets off a big, brand new bomb, which is surely alluding to Devil’s Third.
- Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Capcom) – In 2015, he has a number of titles both to be announced and to be released.
- Tsuji Bonbon (Capcom) – The 11th year of the Monster Hunter series will be a new start.
- Goichi Suda (Grasshopper Manufacture) – The year of Let It Die.
- Kazuma Kojo (Granzella) – A new Disaster Report is planned for the fall. Two PS Vita titles and one completely new PS4 action adventure title is in development.
- Akira Tsuchiya (Gust) – The company doesn’t have the financial means to buy VR hardware, but would love to make a game with it where you can flirt with girls down the line. It’s also working on a game that will make people turn their heads, as it’s not thematically in their normal wheelhouse.
- Yoshito Okamura (Gust) – Won’t change in 2015, and wants to deliver a new Atelier. After the launch of Atelier Escha & Logy Plus, the company be working a lot harder than usual.
- Yoshimi Yasuda (Kadokawa Games) – “Right now, we have three titles in development. In 2015, two titles among these will be released.”
- Kazutoshi Sekiguchi (Koei Tecmo) – In 2015, Toukiden still has more to evolve.
- Akitoshi Kawazu (Square Enix) – SaGa 2015‘s gameplay scenario system still has some polishing to undergo.
- Hajime Tabata (Square Enix) – Wants to focus on high-end content and a rich user experience.
- Ichiro Hazama (Square Enix) – Working really hard on another game that’s proving arduous to make.
- Kotaro Uchikoshi (Spike Chunsoft) – Has lots of things brewing that will be exploding onto the scene. Will be continuing along on some things and will have stuff to announce down the line.
- Kazutaka Kodaka (Spike Chunsoft) – “As you might expect, I’m hard at work on that series. Other than that, I’ve got my hands a little in a bunch of other projects.”
- Yuichiro Saito (Spike Chunsoft) – Has a few unannounced titles.
- Yoshinori Terasawa (Spike Chunsoft) – “I think we’ll be able to announce future developments of the Danganronpa series somewhere in 2015. Also, we’re working in cooperation with a variety of companies and people to create new IPs.”
- Makoto Osaki (Sega) – “We have unannounced titles in development.”
- Toshihiro Nagoshi (Sega) – Intending to innovate.
- Keiichiro Toyama (SCE) – Has high hopes for his own titles and the new experiments he’s been dabbling in. Knows people are waiting a long while for Gravity Rush info, but they’ll understand why the delay once they have something new to say.
- Sohei Niikawa (NIS) – On consoles, they’re shifting to PlayStation 4, and on portable devices, they’re focusing on PS Vita.
- Toshihiro Kondo (Falcom) – Tokyo Xanadu and Ys have progressed about the same.
- Katsuhiro Harada (Bandai Namco) – Working on things other than Summer Lesson, too.
- Masaaki Hoshino (Bandai Namco) – More information on Pokken is coming soon.
- Hideki Kamiya (PlatinumGames) – The Takarazuka opera should be hot in 2015.
- Yusuke Hashimoto (PlatinumGames) – New projects are underway.
- Kenichiro Takaki (Marvelous) – Might have several non-Kagura original new game announcements.
- Chiyomaru Shikura (5pb.) – Given the choice between running business and creative work, he would rather focus on the latter and prefers new games over sequels.
- Akihiro Hino (Level-5) – There are plans to start a new big project.
- Jiro Ishii – I’ll be able to announce a number of titles in 2015.
- Taro Yoko – He’s spacing out as he makes his next game.
Thanks, Sokuho@Hokanko, Hachimaki, Games Talk, and Re: Zaregoto.