New ‘insider’ Sega site with Ogawa and Tanahashi interviews Sega City is a new online magazine available at the recently revamped Sega Europe site, which pledges to deliver 'insider' access to the world of Sega. The launch issue seems quite promising containing interviews with Sonic Team members Yojiro Ogawa and Shinkichi Tanahashi as well as footage from the Kimishine launch party.
Yojiro Ogawa was the chief designer and director for Sonic Mega Collection Plus, while Shinkichi Tanahashi was responsible for the art in Astro Boy. Neither interview contains any truly interesting information. However, Ogawa-san does briefly suggest that Yuji Naka developed both Comix Zone and The Ooze when working on the Sonic series at STI, even though this contradicts with Sega's previous literature for the two titles.
The Kimishine launch party footage is just under 8 minutes long and focuses on the performance given by Super Rabbit. Only Sega City members can access file, but the registration process is quick and free.
Knackered Naka
Naka complains about creative constraintsThe latest issue of UK magazine Edge contains a brief interview with Yuji Naka, where he voices his frustrations over several factors that are inhibiting his creativity.
Firstly, it seems that Sega's recent restructuring has alleviated his CEO responsibilities, as he is not only still responsible for Sonic Team's finances, but has the additional task of calculating exactly what proportion of Sega's cash flow is available to Sonic Team. Secondly, Naka has become "sick of online" gaming due to the effort required in maintaining servers and out-smarting hackers, which diverts resources from the development process. Finally, Naka feels that number of platforms on the market also stretches resources. The recent gaming domination of Puyo Puyo Fever was actually part of an experiment to see exactly how many platforms Sonic Team could cope with. The process made Naka realise that it would only be possible to release simple games on such a scale.
Despite these problems, Naka is still planning on releasing Phantasy Star Universe later in the year, which signals Sonic Team's commitment to the online realm. Being re-integrated into Sega should also aid the development process of future titles as Sonic Team is now able to share the development tools of their sister departments.
Naka also brightens the interview with an anecdote relating to the development stages of Kimishine. The male members of the team were apparently reluctant to rub the silhouette girl. Their female counterparts, however, who amount to roughly half the team, had no such inhibitions and went straight for her boobies (Yes, Naka really did say ‘boobies’). As a result, Naka doesn’t feel that players will find the concept of touching a bikini wearing girl to be too risqué.
The GHZ Newsboard hopes to bring a scan of the article shortly, but if you happen to have one you could kindly share, hit the comment/reply link (no registration required).
