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Shuntaro Furukawa

Japanese publication Nikkei posted a new interview this week with Shuntaro Furukawa, the global president of Nintendo. The two sides ended up discussing Switch’s life cycle as well as console development in general.

According to Furukawa, Nintendo is “always doing technical and market research” when it comes to creating new hardware. He also said “the thing that makes an idea a reality is whether we can offer a new experience or not.”

We’ve gone ahead and prepared a translation of Furukawa’s remarks. If you’re interested in reading what he had to say, continue on below.

Space Invaders Get Even

Space Invaders Get Even, a WiiWare game that first debuted in 2008, may have a chance at making a comeback. Taito director Yuichi Toyama sounded open to revisiting the title when asked about a potential return in an interview with Wccftech.

Toyama mentioned, “we’d love to be able to release it” if there’s enough fan demand. However, there would need to be some tinkering with the control scheme, which could be reworked with the Switch touch screen. It’s also possible to go in another direction with a bit of a different design.

Toyama’s full words:

Dragon Quest XI S

Plans for games often change during development, and Dragon Quest XI is no exception. In a recent interview published by Square Enix, 3D art director Yoshiko Hiyama revealed that for Heliodor, there was originally “an idea to include a well that connects to an underground area – an element that follows traditional gameplay found in Dragon Quest games.”

That plan was scrapped, though it did end up elsewhere. As for why it didn’t make sense in Heliodor, Hiyama said the city “was already quite voluminous” and there was already a secret passage.

Hiyama’s full words:

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

After plenty of speculation, Activision finally confirmed that it will soon be bringing Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time to Switch. Toys for Bob creative producer Lou Studdert has since offered additional insight into the new version of the game.

In terms of what to expect regarding frame rate and resolution, Studdert said:

Last year, PlatinumGames announced a brand new IP tentatively titled Project G.G. Not much is known at present, but it will be the third game in director Hideki Kamiya’s superhero trilogy, following Viewtiful Joe and The Wonderful 101.

In an interview with VGC, PlatinumGames boss Atsushi Inaba and Kamiya provided a status update on Project G.G. As part of that, Inaba said that the company hopes to “be more open” during development, which is possible since the title is being self-published.

Kamiya and Inaba said: 

Monster Hunter Rise

Past Monster Hunter games were known for splitting up their worlds into segmented areas with loading screens. With more recent entries though, Capcom finally started to move away from that. Loading screens have become a thing of the past with a more seamless world.

Monster Hunter Rise director Yasunori Ichinose revealed to IGN that this wasn’t always the plan for the upcoming Switch title. Originally, loading screens were going to be brought back without that sandbox environment.

Yasunori explained why this was and what change, stating:

Nintendo Switch

Virtuos, the studio behind several Switch ports and Switch versions of multiplatform titles, has hinted at more support to come later this year.

In an interview with Nintendo Life, managing director of games Christophe Gandon mentioned that the company is “excited about new projects on the horizon for this summer and beyond”. That came about while discussing how Switch has now outsold the 3DS and is Nintendo’s fifth best-selling console of all time.

He said:

Astral Chain

As part of a Famitsu interview featuring Astral Chain director Takahisa Taura, supervisor Hideki Kamiya, and Yoko Taro from Square Enix, there was discussion about all three developers being the type to include a lot of variety in their games.

Astral Chain was one of PlatinumGames’ latest titles, and contained some detective segments and different types of mini-games like ice cream and box juggling. Taura recognizes that some players weren’t fans of those extras, but feels their existence is justified since they’re not mandatory.

Taura said:

Immortals Fenyx Rising

Nintendo has shared a brief video interview with Scott Phillips, the director of Immortals Fenyx Rising. Below, Phillips explains how the game’s Greek mythology inspired story and customizable, open-world gameplay came to Switch.

Bayonetta 3

We recently reported that PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya said he hopes to give an update on Bayonetta 3 sometime in 2021. As part of an interview with VGC, Kamiya again commented on the game’s status and when we’ll hear more.

Here’s the full exchange between the two sides:


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