The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu features an interview with Spike Chunsoft president and CEO Mitsutoshi Sakurai.
During the interview, Sakurai reveals that he requested CD Projekt RED make a PlayStation 3 version of The Witcher 2, that Kenka Bancho 6 didn’t perform as expected, and that being the first Danganronpa game on a stationary console, they’re thinking about ‘various interesting mechanics’ for New Danganronpa V3. Spike Chunsoft also has a completely new title in the works that it can’t talk about quite yet.
Get the information below.
Looking back at 2015, which games were most impressive to you?
Sakurai: “The Witcher 3 was a success. (Editor’s Note: Spike Chunsoft publishes The Witcher series in Japan.) When The Witcher 2 came out, I wanted a PlayStation 3 version to be made and asked CD Projekt RED about it directly, but it wasn’t possible. The Xbox 360 version eventually went into the red (editor’s Note: It sold approximately 4,000 copies in Japan), but our persistence from that time led to The Witcher 3.”
What have your review scores looked like so far this year?
“70s to 80s. The Witcher 3, Shiren the Wanderer 5 Plus, and so on were successful. Kenka Bancho 6 didn’t perform as well as we wanted it to, but we’ve been thinking about various counter-measures since then, and we’re showing the results by releasing Kenka Bancho Otome.”
What are your thoughts on VR?
“We’ve considered various things, but since the state of the market still isn’t in sight, we’re not at a concrete level where we can say we’ll have something at launch. Cyber Danganronpa VR can be good, so it’ll be interesting if we can put something proper together.”
Let’s talk about Danganronpa and Mystery Dungeon…
“This [New Danganronpa V3] will be the first time we release Danganronpa on a stationary console, so we’re considering a number of interesting mechanics. I want you to look forward to it. For Mystery Dungeon, if an interesting project comes up, we’ll take it on. But right now we’re not at a state where we have something concrete and are moving forward.”
Talk about future hardware decisions…
“For stationary consoles, we’ll focus on PlayStation 4. After, Nintendo‘s new hardware, the NX. I would also like to start fully working on Steam.”
What’s happening from 2016 and after?
“We’re not at the level where we can announce anything, but we’ve started work on the development of a completely new title. Additionally, we have the latest entry in the Zero Escape series, which Kotaro Uchikoshi is making. We’re making various other advancements, too.”
Thanks, Hachima Kikou.