Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007(or PES 6 in Europe)is one of the biggest games shown here at the 2006 Games Convention forEuropeans in attendance. During the show I had the opportunity to interviewSenior Producer Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka and Aki Saito Konami Europe’s SeniorManager with a close personal friend of mine Thomas Puha from Finland’spremier video game magazine, Pelaaja. This extensive North American/Europeandouble team interview covers everything from the newly debuted Xbox 360 version,and current PS2, PSP titles. Plus we get details about the upcoming PlayStation3 version, and the potential for a Wii release (we’re betting on it).
To fully understand this interview, I needto make a few things clear. Winning Eleven is released at different timesacross the globe with different names for the game. Each year Winning Eleven isreleased first in Japan – usually in the spring.Then in Europe Pro EvolutionSoccer or PES is released in the Fall (which is funny they call it soccer in Europeand not football, but then again PEF looks kind of stupid). In North America the Winning Eleven games come out inSpring, nearly a year after the Japanese version.
In Japan Winning Eleven 10 was alreadyreleased, Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is the next title in Europe releasing thisFall, and in North America the newly named Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer2007 is set to be released in Q1 of 2007. After the Japanese version isreleased Konami improves on game elements before the European version, and thesame is done before Winning Eleven is released in the states. So basically, inthis interview, a number of different versions are being mentioned. We hopethis clears things up before you begin reading. Or there could be the distinctpossibility we’ve had too much Wienerschnitzel, and we apologize. Phew! Now onwith the interview…
为了全面地了解这篇访问,我有一些东西要说明:Winning Eleven 在全球的不同的时间以不同的游戏名称发布。通常每一年的春天Winning Eleven首先在日本发布。然后在秋天Europe Pro Evolution Soccer或者PES就会在欧洲发布(在欧洲称足球为soccer很有趣,但再出现pef看上去就有点愚蠢了)日本版本发布后差不多一年,Winning Eleven就会在北美发布。
Winning Eleven 10已经在日本发布了,Pro EvolutionSoccer 6是将会这个秋天发布的欧洲版本的名称,而在2007年第一季度发布的北美版游戏就会被赋予新的名字--WinningEleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007。在日本版发布之后Konami在欧洲版本发布前改进了游戏元素,同样的改进在北美版本发布之前也会进行。我希望以上在你阅读之前把线索整理好。否则那就会有很大可能我们有太多Wienerschnitzel,我们抱歉。好,现在开始访问。。。
Q: When we spoke at E3 and at the TokyoGame Show last year you said you were going to the World Cup. I wanted to knowhow you liked the experience of the World Cup this year.
Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka: I stayed inFrankfurt and traveled all across Germany. We saw five matches andall of the matches were exciting. The atmosphere was terrific. The best match Isaw was Argentina vs. Serbia. Goingto the match you could see the supporters and how big the Serbia people are and I thought Japan wouldhave a very tough time facing them.
Q:Was there anything that you’d witnessed at the World Cup that you’d like tobring to your games?
记者:你有把你在世界杯中一些你看到喜欢的东西加到你的游戏里面吗?
Seabass: Well yes it influenced a lot, andactually we implemented it already in our PES 6 for Europe.I’ll give you three examples. One is the ball keep. When you have your defenderand you’re keeping him blocking, that up until PES 5 and Winning Eleven 10 nomatter which player, you were invincible, and we thought that wasn’t true whilewatching the world cup.So now in PES 6 according to the body strength of thedefender and yourself you might lose even though you might be blocking theball.
Also the pass speed we thought that thegame was too fast for all teams. We decided to slow down for the weak passingteams. Like for instance Japancould never score by passing, passing, and passing and taking a shot. This isnot realistic, but this happened in our past Pro Evo and Winning Eleven series.We decided not to do that and this was influenced by the World Cup.
Lastly we changed the positioning of thedefenders. We thought that the defenders positioning was much different afterwe saw the World Cup so that’s already implemented.
Q: Isaw a lot of screenshots of the online mode for the PS2 version and it lookslike there are a lot of improvements and new options for the online gameplay.Can you give us the details of the various upgrades to the online mode?
Seabass: I can’t give you all, but I cangive you the main topics of the new online mode. We expanded the multiplay muchmore so if you have four consoles and two players on each console there’s amaximum of eight players for online. Also we decided to have the PC players andthe PS2 players play for the first time together online. Those are the twobiggest things that we implemented in PES 6.
Q:Are there things like more statistics for players? How many matches you won,lost, and the percentage? Do you have goals scored, passes made, things likethat?
记者:那么玩家会有更多的统计资料吗?就像胜了多少场,胜率,入球数,传球数。
Seabass: Well, sorry to say but we didn’tmake any drastic changes to that part. Of course we did balance parts, andmaybe there are some new things in there. But we didn’t so much increase thatdata screen. What we tried to emphasize this time was having more fun with themultiplayer and allowing users to play multiplayer online for this version.
Q:There were screenshots that we saw for the PS2 version that said things like“group” so can you organize things like tournaments for your friends onlinenow?
Seabass: Sorry we can’t really say itofficially but if you saw it in a screenshot you can kind of guess what’s goingto be in there. We can’t confirm yet, and honestly we don’t know if its goingto work out. We might pull it out, but we are trying to get a lot of stuff inthere. As I said, the emphasis is on the PC and PS2 working together, and the8-player multiplayer, and we don’t want to sacrifice any of that so if theretoo much more lag or server trouble we might pull some out. That’s why we can’treally confirm at this time
Q:Is the Xbox 360’sonline component exactly the same as far as the options?
记者:Xbox 360 的网络部分是连选项都完全一样吗?
Seabass: 360 is on the next gen, meaning wewent back to the drawing board because the next-gen and the old-gen can’treally match when you play online, therefore 360 we regret to say one vs. one.But we had a different goal to maximize the one vs. one. on the next-gen 360version this year for intense one-on-one play.
For the PS2 and PC version you might havefound from time to time that there were some awkward moves and some jumpingmovement. We won’t do this on the 360 because we concentrated on this tightnessfor intensive gameplay. For the 360 our main goal was to let the users playonline as if there was a stand alone and you were playing with your friendsright next to you.
Q:What are your plans for Xbox 360 modes and do you have plans for anydownloadable content?
记者:你对Xbox 360的模式计划是什么?你有计划推出一些能供下载的内容吗?
Seabass: Of course we want to pursue thisone-on-one, the more precise gameplay because the game control is everything inPES. We don’t want to lose that if you play online. Offline or online we’regoing to deepen and enrich the soccer feeling when you play the game withupgraded AIs.
If we talk about modes, I want to make themaster league completely different and make it completely fun for the audience.That’s in the future line-up. We’re even thinking about online master league inthe near future. Multiplayer we’re going to expand, even though the 360 isone-on-one this year, we’re not satisfied with one-on-one. We want to firstcreate the base and then expand to multiplay. We already have a good main coresystem for this year set up. Meaning, like your FPS online game. You will haveno lag and you will feel comfortable playing online. We’re almost up to thatpoint that we can deliver that next year.
You aked about Live downloads - this is alittle bit difficult issue. Once we have the license and political stuff sortedout we are trying to get the downloadable upgrades on your stats, teams,rosters, whatever. But this is all in our future plans.
如果我们说关于模式,我想令master league (与现在)完全的不同,使他对于观众来说十分有趣。这已经在我们将来的计划里面了。我们甚至想过online的master league。网络队战将会被扩展,即使今年的360版本是单机的。我们不会满足于单机模式,我们想说先建立基础然后扩展到网络对战。我们今年已经装配了一个很好的核心系统,这意味着,就像你的联网fps游戏,当你网上对战时你将没有延迟和感觉十分舒适。我们差不多准备好明年开始营运。
Q:So you won’t have roster updates in this version?
记者:所以这个版本没有转会升级?
Seabass: No, we’re not cleared for thelicense issues just yet for this year.
高冢新吾 :没有,我们没有升级因为许可证只能今年使用
Q:So that’s the reason PES 5 didn’t have any updates because of legal reasons?
记者:所以那就是PES5没有任何更新的原因?因为法律问题?
Seabass: Yes, that was the main reason.Technically speaking from a programmer’s side this is all possible. We can doit and we want to do it, but we don’t want to get sued by doing it so we haveto clear a lot of things first.
Seabass: Well, EA is still a little aheadin terms of licenses. As you said they have the crown and are the mostprestigious and the biggest. As you know from our series we’re trying our bestand always expanding.
Aki Saito: Sorry, but I have to say onething about the Microsoft presentation. The presentation was misleading. We neversaid exclusive for one year for the next generation. We said this year. We wereagreed that it was this year.
Aki Saito:对不起,但我一定要说一些关于Microsoft的陈述。那个陈述是会使人误解。我们从来没有说作为次世代主机(Xbox 360)的独占游戏一年,我们说的是今年。我们的协议是那是今年。
Q:So up until January 1?
记者:所以截至到一月一日?
Saito: Yes. In a sense. If we’re going torelease PES 7 next year during this time, yes it may be one year. But we neveragreed that we were going to say that officially. It was kind of misleading anda misunderstanding. What we meant or agreed with Microsoft was this winter orthis season for PES 6 – this is exclusive.
Aki Saito:是的,某种意义上说。如果我们在下一年的这个时候发布PES 7,是的,那应该是一年。但我们从来没有承认我们已经正式地那样说了。这里有些误解和误会。我们的意思或者与Microsoft的协议是这一个冬天或者这个季度的PES6--这是(Xbox360)独占的。
Q: Iwanted to ask about that. Was that agreement you came to the conclusion thatyou couldn’t get a PS3 version out anyway or was there some sort of marketinginvolved or incentive from Microsoft to make that announcement?
Seabass: It’s a very difficult question toanswer and there are a lot of company politics involved.
高冢新吾:这是一个十分难答的问题,那里涉及了很多公司政策。
Saito: Seabass is not responsible for thataspect so I should probably answer. As Konami, we always try to be better –this is true. We don’t want to go exclusive on anything basically because webelieve there are PlayStation users, Microsoft users, Nintendo users, PSPusers, and everything. No matter how much a good marketing deal there is westill believe that we should be equal. And this is a company policy as well.
So this announcement was made, but itwasn’t anything to trigger any issues with the other parties. But actually thisone year thing that we didn’t kind of allow, it triggered a little issue rightnow and we’re trying to sort this out. Microsoft understands that yes, we’reequal, but we’re trying to be fair. So this year, yes, it’s 360 only on thenext gen.
Q:Can I just expand on that. At E3 when we talked a PS3 version wasn’t evenstarted. Has it started production, and as you said just now does it mean thattheoretically we could have Winning Eleven 10 or PES 6 next spring on PS3?
记者:可以让我在那里展开来说。在E3当我们说PS3的版本仍然没有开始(制作)。那么现在它已经开始成形了?你刚才所说的是不是意味着理论上我们可以有在下一个春天有Winning Eleven 10 或者 PES 6的PS3版本?
Seabass: That’s no doubt. We already started,and I said in that interview I think that how we work as fair is that we don’twork on one console anymore. We work on the core and then we spread it out – wehave this mentality.
So for next year, if the market is there.If the PS3 doesn’t ship this year, and there’s no users, there’s no meaning forus to present PS3. As long as we hear the users voice, and everyone wants it wewill consider it. I already am considering that, and probably PS3 will bereleased, they’ll be good followers and fans. If it’s up to us, we’re going todeliver it.
Seabass: Yes, we will. If you look back atthe days when we jumped from PS1 to PS2 we kept on releasing for about twoyears on the PS1. This time on the PS2 it’ll probably be much longer because weknow that the fans are there. But we’re not going to make the simpleconversions and upgrades each year.
From our new development on the next gen,which will be our main on the years to come, we will try to take the bestessence of that and filter that to the PS2 or the last-gen machines. We don’twant to do easy data changing upgrades even for the PS2 versions of the future.
Q:The visual upgrades for the Xbox 360 that we noticed – the facial features arefantastic, but the rest of it – the stadiums and the fans in the seats seemlike more of a high-res Xbox version. Is this a new graphical engine, or isthis a high-res Xbox version for the 360?
Seabass: Since it was next-gen we can’treally make use of the old-gen materials, meaning we did create new things fromscratch. In years to come with PS3, maybe Windows Vista, next-gen machines tocome, we still think that there’s more space to expand the graphical aspects.Because of my graphics staff working hard, what you see in the 360 version is akind of real renewed models and everything.
高冢新吾:由于那是次世代(主机)我们不能完全使用旧代(主机)的材料,意味着我们要从头开始开发,在通向PS3,或者还有 Windows Vista,下一代机器的数年中,我们仍然觉得有更多空间扩展图像方面。因为我们图形工作人员的辛勤工作,你所见的Xbox360版本是一种真正全新的 -- 从模型到其他东西。
Q:So with the PlayStation 3 version we can expect to see the visuals take alarger step?
记者:所以我们可以看到PlayStation 3版本的游戏图像有一个更大的飞跃?
Seabass: Don’t get us a wrong, we’re notgoing to create another engine for the PS3, we’re probably going to use thenext-gen engine. But the advances we did for PES 3 to PES 4 to PES 5 – WinningEleven 7, to 8, to 9 – that kind of upgrade we’ll do for the PS3.
Seabass: That’s not a next-gen engine(laughs) but I shouldn’t say that for good reasons. The graphics are not reallythe same as the 360 or PS3. But the controller is simply unique. We are alreadydiscussing with Nintendo – we have always been discussing with all parties. Inour discussions with Nintendo it’s how we utilize this new controller. As acreator I am looking forward to how to make use of the controller. At the sametime I fear that it’s going to be tons of work and innovations that I have tocome up with to create PES on Wii.
Q:At E3 we talked about PES 6 for the PS2 and you said small changes could be bigchanges. Now that the game is almost done, what are the key changes fromWinning Eleven 10 (the Japanese version that was released in Spring) to PES 6.Has the goalkeeper AI been changed?
记者:在E3我们谈到PS2版本的PES6时候你说新的改变会变成大的改变。现在游戏差不多完成。从 Winning Eleven 10 (春天发布的日本版本) 到 PES 6 的最关键改变是什么?守门员的AI改变了吗?
Seabass: I remembered you thought that you(Thomas) pointed out that defending was a little weak in Winning Eleven andthat the goalkeeper is dumb.
Seabass: We thought so as well. We wentback and upgraded those small tweaks but it made the gameplay much different.The version you see here the goalkeeper has much better positioning, however,even today as we speak the team is still brushing this up. PES 6 will be muchdifferent than the samples you see at the Games Convention today. Thegoalkeeper could be super strong and stop super shots but at the same time wecreated new weak points for the goalkeepers. So if you play like you’re playingPES 5 and you think it’s a goal, it won’t be a goal, and vise versa. If you aimat the weak point you’re more likely to score.
Also about the positioning of defenders, inPES 5 and Winning Eleven 10, we saw that there was some easy goals. You knowwhat I’m talking about – when you go down the side but you don’t cross but makea pass, we changed the positioning so you can’t do that anymore. You’ll have atotally different gameplay feeling and you’ll need a little work to crack atit.
QS2 was the lead platform for Winning Eleven/PES. It was basically your breadand butter and where you sold millions of copies of games. What do you thinkyour lead platform is going to be in the future?
Seabass: It was a natural flow from ourdevelopment from PS1 to PS2 and it’s a natural flow to understand that it’sgoing to be PS3. But with the 360 version in development and its going to beout this fall (in Europe) this natural flowmight not be the natural flow in the future.
We still think that the PC, 360, PS3, andWii considered as next gen, we will not differentiate or create specificallyfor those. Our goal is to create something in the center and then spread outwhere the audience is. However, frankly speaking, with controller matching thebest controller that matches our game is the PlayStation controller. In thatsense PS3 is definitely going to be a good match in terms of play feeling andcontrol, but even so I am trying to adjust control feel so you will have noawkward feeling in all platforms if we bring them out.
Q:Does the lack of 360 sales in Japanaffect your decision at all?
记者:360在日本的滞销根本地影响你们的决定?
Seabass: Yes, to some extent maybe youcould say that because in Japanthe hardware itself is not really selling as everyone expected. But that’s justa fraction of what we think - it doesn’t affect our work. It’s more of a salesand marketing side, but on the developer side we don’t try to differentiatewith that decision.
Q:Expanding on that, the franchise sells over a million copies in Japan, and two to three million copies in Europe, and the Japanese version is always a bitdifferent than the European version. Are you going to do anything for ourfriends in North America, because that game isstill huge in that market.
Seabass: Yes, definitely. We’re not notthinking about North America. We know thatthere are many fans in Mexicoas well. We would like to not stop trying to expand minor things like doinglanguages, voice overs, and text. We have not forgotten about the Americanmarket.
Q:We were playing the PSP version and it’s greatly improved and we were wonderingif you could talk about the link with the PS2 version and how has that beenimproved.
Seabass: We can’t really discuss that rightnow. There are still issues on the R&D end, and we can’t say anything atthis moment about the link up with the PS2 and PSP – what is new and what isrefined.
Q:One of the things that you promised last year that didn’t make it into the gamewas being able to bounce back and forth between the PS2 and PSP with yourMaster League season. Are you shooting for that at least?
Seabass: That’s a very difficult questionto answer. It might not be. We were understaffed and we had 360 coming up – ohI’m starting to make excuses now. (laughs)
Q:Going back to rosters, the game is going to ship in Europein October, and a lot of the fans want to know what is the roster cut off date?
记者:回到游戏的球员名单,游戏将会在10月在欧洲发售,很多玩家想知道名单的最后确定的时间是?
Seabass: We have always tried to make themost to date game as possible. Currently Rigatoni - the Italian - is up forgrabs right now. We don’t know how that’s going to be. Even the team iswondering what we should do with Rigatoni. We can’t tell you the cut off date,but we are trying to please the users as much as possible and make the mostup-to-date version.
Q:Your fan base in North America, Europe, and Mexico – a lot of us have JapanesePS2s because we have zero patience. Europe gets the game before North Americadoes, and Japanis before that so we import the game, and then get the game again when it comesout in our own country. Next year would mark the year that you will bereleasing Winning Eleven 11 in Japan, and I’veasked you this question before, but I’m curious if you’re planning on releasingsome special edition of Winning Eleven 11 for PS2? And what are you planning oncalling it because Winning Eleven 11 sounds kind of silly.
A: (laughs) Speaking of title names,Winning Eleven 11 is actually one of my favorite title names and I’m trying topush within the team, and within the company to call it as is – Winning Eleven11. It could be fun. It’s not decided.
For the U.S. version we have a gorgeoustitle Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007. I like that as well because itsounds very gorgeous. This is an on going battle, but my preference is WinningEleven 11. It’s my favorite.