RAINMAN
11-26-2004, 12:30 PM
Quote:
Almost alone among Japanese game developers, Tecmo has been an out-front supporter of Microsoft's console gaming efforts. Judging from Tecmo president Junji Nakamura's remarks at the company's recent half-yearly investor conference, that support should continue in the years to come -- Bloomberg News reports that Nakamura made some quite complimentary comments about Microsoft's next-generation hardware efforts to date, and matched them with some salvos in Sony's direction.
When asked about the progress of Tecmo's next-generation software development, Nakamura said that "There's not much information from Sony. The situation with Microsoft is very different." He also criticized the design concepts put forward in Sony's early discussions of its next-generation console, which is scheduled to debut before the end of the company's current fiscal year next March.
"The CPU was developed for a next-generation game machine, but the hardware is conceived by an appliance manufacturer," he said. Nakamura conjectured that Sony's quest to conquer the entire home entertainment (http://www.the-magicbox.com/forums/home%20entertainment) environment might be interfering with the goal of designing a game machine -- "I feel that they're probably trying to use games as a way to increase their power in the home appliance (http://www.the-magicbox.com/forums/home%20appliance) industry."
By comparison, Nakamura was optimistic about Microsoft's fortunes in the next generation of consoles. "I expect that they'll be able to use their experience of the current machine's failure to succeed," he said, "even in this country."
Sony's announced timetable for the release its next-generation console states that development kits will reach key developers early next year. However, the first round of development hardware for Microsoft's next console was first sent out earlier this year.
To date, most of the pro-Xbox rhetoric from Tecmo has come from Tomonobu Itagaki, the famously outspoken head of Dead or Alive Team Ninja. It's unusual to see one of its top corporate officers expressing similar views.
However, Tecmo has enjoyed considerable support from Microsoft over this generation, and overseas sales of its Xbox games have made them successful despite poor sales in Japan. Though its sales and profits dropped somewhat in the first half of the current fiscal year, Tecmo expects to bounce back in the second half on the strength of Dead or Alive Ultimate and new PlayStation 2 pachinko titles.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3136762 (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3136762)
Whoa!:eek:
Almost alone among Japanese game developers, Tecmo has been an out-front supporter of Microsoft's console gaming efforts. Judging from Tecmo president Junji Nakamura's remarks at the company's recent half-yearly investor conference, that support should continue in the years to come -- Bloomberg News reports that Nakamura made some quite complimentary comments about Microsoft's next-generation hardware efforts to date, and matched them with some salvos in Sony's direction.
When asked about the progress of Tecmo's next-generation software development, Nakamura said that "There's not much information from Sony. The situation with Microsoft is very different." He also criticized the design concepts put forward in Sony's early discussions of its next-generation console, which is scheduled to debut before the end of the company's current fiscal year next March.
"The CPU was developed for a next-generation game machine, but the hardware is conceived by an appliance manufacturer," he said. Nakamura conjectured that Sony's quest to conquer the entire home entertainment (http://www.the-magicbox.com/forums/home%20entertainment) environment might be interfering with the goal of designing a game machine -- "I feel that they're probably trying to use games as a way to increase their power in the home appliance (http://www.the-magicbox.com/forums/home%20appliance) industry."
By comparison, Nakamura was optimistic about Microsoft's fortunes in the next generation of consoles. "I expect that they'll be able to use their experience of the current machine's failure to succeed," he said, "even in this country."
Sony's announced timetable for the release its next-generation console states that development kits will reach key developers early next year. However, the first round of development hardware for Microsoft's next console was first sent out earlier this year.
To date, most of the pro-Xbox rhetoric from Tecmo has come from Tomonobu Itagaki, the famously outspoken head of Dead or Alive Team Ninja. It's unusual to see one of its top corporate officers expressing similar views.
However, Tecmo has enjoyed considerable support from Microsoft over this generation, and overseas sales of its Xbox games have made them successful despite poor sales in Japan. Though its sales and profits dropped somewhat in the first half of the current fiscal year, Tecmo expects to bounce back in the second half on the strength of Dead or Alive Ultimate and new PlayStation 2 pachinko titles.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3136762 (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3136762)
Whoa!:eek: