CC2 Summer Event 2014

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Kuukai
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CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Kuukai »

Last Sunday I went to the CC2 event in Akihabara. The specials guests were Daisuke Uchiyama, the producer for the first two generations of .hack and the first Ultimate Ninja game, and Katsuhiro Harada, the producer for a later Ultimate Ninja game (and Tekken and Soul Calibur), both from Bandai Namco. Harada represented Bandai Namco by wearing an Idolmaster shirt - he's a huge Iori fan. (It's not totally unrelated - Matsuyama wrote a column once about how much he liked Idolmaster and there is an Idolmaster CD with a cover of "Gentle Hands." There are also Idolmaster cards in Guilty Dragon)

Image
(From left to right: Matsuyama, Uchiyama, and Harada. I'm the blond guy.)

Uchiyama made a joke that he's made several times before that CC2's games were boring before he came along. But it was pointed out that while working for then-Bandai he himself made some terrible games, and .hack was the first one that was an original and not an anime adaptation. .hack is currently on its fourth producer - Uchiyama was the first. Before .hack was released, CC2 was just CyberConnect and released Tail Concerto and Silent Bomber before changing presidents and names. Later, Uchiyama joked to Matsuyama about it being time for CC3. (Siliconera inaccurately called some of their major game releases like Tail Concerto and Solatorobo "passion projects"--Tail Concerto was actually the game that made them a game company).

Uchiyama pointed out that lots of series have fans, but CC2 is one of the few companies that does, and that has such a strong following overseas as well. Uchiyama also made a remark about the "demon interviews" applicants to work at CC2 have to go through. For instance, story planners, people who can't draw or program but want to work on the script of games, are given a blank sheet of paper and asked to storyboard page 8 of the last chapter of Naruto, to test their imagination. If they don't know Naruto, they're allowed to look it up.

They polled the room to see how old their fans are. Everyone besides Matsuyama was in their 30s or below, which just goes to show what a young company they are.

To counterarguments from the Namco Bandai personnel, Matsuyama said that the fans hate the smartphone games, and more and more CC2 is going to do some real games. They have something original along these lines in the works that they can announce soon that will both surprise fans and make them happy. Uchiyama asked, "it'll surprise them and make them happy, even though it's original?" The answer was, "yes." (strong hint that it might be like G.U.)

So there's hope!

Matsuyama recounted an incident where, for seemingly no reason, a swimsuit was ordered on his Amazon account. By default, his orders are shipped to the office, and usually someone will check the contents for him to let him know what arrived. The secretary came up to him in the the middle of the office and let him know he got a package, but said she'd err on the safe side and not say what it was. He told her it was fine, so she whispered, "it's a swimsuit." He had no memory of ordering a swimsuit, and even worse it was a school swimsuit. Anyway, long story short, he decided to wear it for laughs, and the picture unfortunately ended up on the internet, and now he's one of the top Japanese Google searches for "swimsuit":

Image

In case you need to wash the swimsuit image out of your mind, Matsuyama did this last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vgd804NB5op
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by SSJScygoku »

^(^-^)^ Thanks for briefing us on the Event, hope amazon gets some of the merch in stock.

d(^_^) Hope this project they plan will some awesome, heck they really should make more console games instead of mobile ones...like say for .hack! xD

Did you really need to post that picture T-T wish I could unsee it lol
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Kuukai
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Kuukai »

The picture is an essential part of that story. Also, it's kind of like The Ring, I had to spread it to break the curse.

They definitely understand we hate the mobile games, and they want to make real games too. The thinking from Bandai Namco is that it's "uncommon in this day and age" to do something like that, and original, full-length games had their golden age long ago and now it's hard just to stay in business, but CC2 definitely isn't giving up.
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Kaori
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Kaori »

I don't know, he looks pretty good in that swimsuit, kinda like those old timey bathing suits, wanna know some REALLY disgusting?  Rosie O donnel posing in this: http://i.imgur.com/jx4adFV.jpg
So anyway Kuukai, can we expect this new IP to come to either 3DS or Vita? Or is this one of those big console things?
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Kuukai
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Kuukai »

Hopefully it's a console game, but only time will tell! I think TGS is a reasonable timeframe to expect it. Maybe we'll get a good, old-fashioned countdown.
Lindz
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Lindz »

Wait their fans including japanese ones hate mobile? They must be the vocal minority since japan gaming been heading away from consoles for years an even from handhelds as of late.
Kuukai wrote:The thinking from Bandai Namco is that it's "uncommon in this day and age" to do something like that, and original, full-length games had their golden age long ago and now it's hard just to stay in business, but CC2 definitely isn't giving up.
Thats super unfortunate but its hard ta blame Bamco. Is CC2 owned by them or are they independent? They oughta be sitting on huge piles of money from selling Naruto games lol. Then again self-funding the kinda games they wanna make'd prolly bankrupt 'em fast huh? There's gotta be some give an take otherwise why continue functioning as a dev if all you're making is games some other company wants an not what you wanna make?
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Bullet Biter »

Glad to hear they're more than willing to go against the current state of the industry even if it poses a risk.

Perhaps we'll see them going through a crowdfunding site to get any funds they might need to make their desires a reality.

Here's to hoping whatever they do turns out profitable and successful.
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by SSJScygoku »

Crowding funding is what I'd like to see if CC2 aren't able to cover costs completely for a console game, heck I thought they were doing well with Guilty Dragon (microtransaction wise) as there were 500K users last I heard.
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Kuukai
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Kuukai »

Lindz wrote:Wait their fans including japanese ones hate mobile? They must be the vocal minority since japan gaming been heading away from consoles for years an even from handhelds as of late.
Much like the short-lived Wii craze, "casual gaming" taps into an audience of regular people that is broader than "traditional gamers." This means that successful mobile games can make more money than traditional games, but that doesn't mean the market for real games has gone anywhere, or that traditional gamers have to like this crap. And that's not particularly different in Japan than in America. Bandai Namco or Activision or whoever wave their hands and say offline gaming is dead, and games are too expensive to make and you need to go with a sure thing that ends in a 14 or 15, but that's just their way of saying, "we would like to make as much money as possible." Kickstarter, while not particularly applicable to a franchise like .hack where the rights are owned by a production committee composed of several companies, is one example of how these publishers (as well as a large chunk of the gaming media) are full of **** when they say traditional games or Japanese RPGs or original titles or whatever are in any way dead or dying or unpopular. There's just a new, large smartphone game market along side the old one, that's easily confused by idiots with "gaming" but really has nothing to do with it. Like Nigerian email scams, these apps are all exact copies of each other, where you click over and over and then pay if you want to click earlier than you're allowed. I'm sure it's hard for some executives who are concerned only with money to see the difference between the two markets, but I wouldn't freak out yet that regular gaming is dead. Radio's still around, and radio should be dead. We'll have orignal JRPGs 100 years from now. Gamers everywhere are gamers, and they want actual games. CC2 seems to understand that.

EDIT: That said, if CC2 wanted to make a game that is to .hack what Solatorobo is to Tail Concerto, that might be something they could do with Kickstarter. And Hiroshi Matsuyama just posted a support message for the Kickstarter anime Under the Dog being written by a friend of his and animated by Cinema Citrus (who he worked with on .hack//Quantum), so maybe it's not that far off their radar.

They have as many as 6 console games currently in the works now, though, so we'll have to see what they're already doing.
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Vallen »

I'd pour a bucket on him for every year we went without a new proper .hack game >:(

I am eager to see the new project, for some reason I keep hearing people say that it will be an Attack on Titan game (which I hope it wont be). I am not too worried about them for now, seeing as Naruto is keeping them afloat. Hoping they start doing more stuff with their development team aside the Naruto games and mobile mini-games.
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Lindz »

Kuukai wrote:They have as many as 6 console games currently in the works now, though, so we'll have to see what they're already doing.
Individual games? Cause 6 sounds like alot but it could also mean Naruto: Whatever PS3/360/PC/PS4/Xbone taking up 5 of those slots right there x.x; It prolly is some kinda variation of platform counting or cross-gen counting cause what realistically do they got?

Naruto - always
JoJo 2 - maybe?
original thingy - confirmed
???
???
???
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Kuukai
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Re: CC2 Summer Event 2014

Post by Kuukai »

Lindz wrote:
Kuukai wrote:They have as many as 6 console games currently in the works now, though, so we'll have to see what they're already doing.
Individual games? Cause 6 sounds like alot but it could also mean Naruto: Whatever PS3/360/PC/PS4/Xbone taking up 5 of those slots right there x.x; It prolly is some kinda variation of platform counting or cross-gen counting cause what realistically do they got?

Naruto - always
JoJo 2 - maybe?
original thingy - confirmed
???
???
???
Oops, it was 5, not 6. According to an interview from less than a month ago (http://jp.automaton.am/articles/intervi ... ew-cc2-03/), CyberConnect2 has 5 home titles and 5 mobile titles currently in development. There are 10 projects in total going full force in CC2 right now, with 5 additional games they plan to start actively developing 3 years down the line. "In development" could mean we won't see it until years from now. They were working on G.U. while they made Quarantine and .hack//The Movie while they made Link, so you have to adjust the scope of your thinking to be more long-term. Matsuyama says some of them are projects they just started, and some of them have been going on for a long time. Strelka Stories is almost certainly in that list, and still being developed, as indicated last year. It might contain the next-next Naruto title that comes after the next Naruto title as well.

In other news, Little Tail Story is getting the axe. All CC2's dead social games are depressing, but at least they prove that Guilty Dragon is doing relatively decently. .hack still has wheels.
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