Smilebit Interview

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Despite several months of negative press regarding disappointing earnings, Sega managed to deliver a healthy slate of software for nearly all next-generation consoles last year. Leading the way was Sega subsidiary Smilebit headed by Takayuki Kawagoe, responsible for three games on the Xbox including Jet Set Radio Future, Gun Valkyrie, and most recently Panzer Dragoon Orta. To discuss Smilebit's accomplishments last year and discuss the company's plans for the future, director Kawagoe-san recently sat down with Dorimag.

Question: How was 2002 for Smilebit?

Kawagoe-san: Jet Set Radio Future which was released simultaneously with the Xbox here in Japan, and Soccer Club 2002 were both commercially successful. More importantly, I think they're both great games. In the greater sense, I think 2002 was a year of reflection. There was a sense of the videogame market becoming smaller in Japan, and a serious threat from developers overseas in America.

Question: Smilebit supported the Xbox with three titles in 2002, can you discuss that?

Kawagoe-san: Xbox sales have been slightly below expectations thus far. [smiles..] But I'm very proud we managed to release Jet Set Radio Future, Gun Valkyrie, and Panzer Dragoon Orta all within the same year. When Smilebit was originally founded our goal was to develop at least one new game per year.

Question: Soccer Club 2002 for the PlayStation 2 sold more 500,000 copies last year, that's quite a breakthough isn't it?

Kawagoe-san: Although sales were good considering this was our first installment in the series for the PlayStation 2, I wasn't satisfied with the actual contents of the game. Therefore, the next installment in the series will include many new elements this year.

Question: GameCube is the only platform Smilebit doesn't support, why?

Kawagoe-san: We plan to support the GameCube. At the moment we're still researching the hardware and trying to decide the best software to develop for it.

Question: What are your thoughts on 2003, do you have any special message or plan?

Kawagoe-san: 2003 will be a critical year for us. [smiles..] We're planning to announce several new projects soon. In developing Jet Set Radio Future, we came up with many new ideas both for that series and for new games as well. So players can expect a mix of their favorite series and completely new games from Smilebit in 2003. But exactly which games will be released on specific platforms hasn't been decided yet. [smiles..]

-- Translation Asst. Tsuno Okashi
http://forums.xengamers.com/showthre...threadid=67981

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Viva la Smilebit!:D

I've never seen a developer get more fanfare with less great games. Even Treasure has them beat into the ground. Oh well, I'll still be all over any potential Jet Set sequel.

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Question: How was 2002 for Smilebit?

Kawagoe-san: Jet Set Radio Future which was released simultaneously with the Xbox here in Japan, and Soccer Club 2002 were both commercially successful

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:wtf:

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Originally posted by Yoshi
I've never seen a developer get more fanfare with less great games. Even Treasure has them beat into the ground. Oh well, I'll still be all over any potential Jet Set sequel.

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So it's a crime to like Smilebit over Treasure? Could it be that people might actually like the few games that a certain company makes? Smilebit doesn't have a ton of hits like Nintendo or Capcom, but I enjoyed JSR, JSRF, and am very impressed by the work they did on Panzer Dragoon Orta.

About JSRF being commercially successful, he may be talking about the royalties Sega earned from having JSRF and Sega GT 2002 in the Xbox bundle.

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Originally posted by Yoshi
I've never seen a developer get more fanfare with less great games. Even Treasure has them beat into the ground. Oh well, I'll still be all over any potential Jet Set sequel.

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It's called being consistent. JSR, JSRF, Gunvalkyrie, TotD and PDO are some of the best games from the last 3 years hence the excitement over anything new from Smilebit.

Kawagoe-san you smiley (no pun intended) bastard, give us the info now!

If Smilebit performs on a equal level in 2003 compared to 2002, I'm going to be very happy :) Keep the goodness coming, Smilebit.

If we get Panzer Dragoon Saga 2, and a new Jet Set game this year I'm going to poop my pants with happiness.

I thought they came out and said JSR was history? I really hope it's not. For some reason, I think the GC would be a good fit for this series.

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Originally posted by Yoshi
I've never seen a developer get more fanfare with less great games.

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That's an odd statement, although, granted, you and I don't agree on too much game-wise. It's hard to deny that Smilebit released at least 3 very polished games all within one year, even if you didn't happen to care for the all of the games themselves. That puts them ahead of just about everyone (developers, that is) on the consistency scale, especially when considering the short time span.

Keep 'em coming, I say. (And we do seem to agree that a new JSR game generally lands on the "good thing" side of the scale.)

If they do make a new JSR it better be designed like Jet Grind and not Future. Very rarely does a series make that kind of drop in quality with a sequel.