Xisiqomelir
Member
Split interview, I guess. One part's at Nintendo Players, the other part is at Hudson.
Interesting parts:
-Wing Island defense
-Bonk sequel? (oh god please)
-New Bomberman? (oh god no)
-Hudson calls it for Nintendo
Interesting parts:
-Wing Island defense
-Bonk sequel? (oh god please)
-New Bomberman? (oh god no)
-Hudson calls it for Nintendo
Nintendo Players Part
Exclusive Interview with Hudson's John Lee
We discuss the DS, Wii, and Virtual Console with Hudson's Director of Marketing.
We recently had the opportunity to do a little Q&A with John Lee, Director of Marketing at Hudson Entertainment. Mr. Lee was nice enough to answer all of our many questions, and even dropped a few new bits of info in the process. While the bulk of the interview is posted here, please head over to Hudson's website to check out the rest!
NP: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. To start, can you tell us a bit about your role at Hudson?
Lee: I oversee our marketing efforts at Hudson Entertainment for all of our product lines from console games to mobile games to music. Every now and then, I also have fits of inspiration and come up with silly game ideas and try to bother all my fellow game designers to implement more dancing bears and such, but that's mostly a part-time gig.
NP: The current generation of game consoles and portable gaming devices seems much more complex than past generations, with more competing platforms and each platform having a different focus. How has the current market environment affected the way that third-parties like Hudson conduct business, at least from a marketing standpoint?
Lee: Wow. That's a deep question... So I'm going to try and address it, but it will likely wander off in a completely different direction. We've always been very strong proponents of 3rd party support for a console. Great games sell a system. So we tend to partner closely with console makers. It's important that both parties support this symbiotic relationship, because when it works, it's magic. We clearly see the value of such a connection, so we're doing more to work closely with Microsoft and Sony for this generation's consoles. Games in general are getting more expensive to make, so some brands will be launched across multiple platforms at once, but Hudson as a whole likes to try and create games that take advantage of a specific platform. I think you'll see us continue to do this ongoing. Right now you see Kororinpa: Marble Mania and Wing Island exclusively for the Wii. Which does bring up an interesting marketing challenge. When you custom make a game for one platform, your marketing cost is higher because you can't create one marketing campaign that works across multiple platforms. Costs in general are higher. It is a constant challenge we face, but ultimately, we'd like to create content and marketing programs that best fit each platform.
NP: Particularly since E3, many publishers and developers have shifted their resources to increase support for the DS and Wii. You've already released a couple of Wii titles, and also developed Mario Party 8, which will be published by Nintendo next month, so you've clearly been working with the console on multiple projects for quite some time. Does Hudson seem to have more of a focus on Wii than other platforms, or is support spread pretty evenly across the competitors?
Lee: Yes, we have been on board the Wii and DS bandwagon right from the start. We loved these systems because they shifted focus away from the typical gaming experience and introduced new ways of having fun. You'll see us continue to support both these platforms over the next many years, more than most other platforms. Some of the new games we have in development are pretty darn cool. Wish I could talk about them!
NP: Recently, Hudson partnered with Konami to publish a few titles, such as Wing Island and Kororinpa: Marble Mania. How did this partnership come about?
Lee: Few people actually know this, but Konami is the parent company of Hudson. Like many companies in Japan, you'll often times seem some sort of relationship in place that connects a company to another. We've been working closely with Konami in Japan for the last few years, where they help us with such things as distribution. It made sense to bring this partnership to the US market as well. One of the challenges Hudson has had in the past few years was that it partnered with other publishers to bring our games out, from Ubisoft to Atlus to Majesco. While these partners were great to work with, the constant change was definitely having an impact on branding and long-term strategy planning. So it made sense for us to work more closely with Konami and to better foster that relationship. For Wing Island, Kororinpa: Marble Mania, and Honeycomb Beat, Hudson for the first time in nearly a decade is a publisher again in the US market. Konami helped us with such functions as sales, distribution, and marketing, and their support has given us the opportunity reestablish Hudson as a brand that people recognize and love.
NP: Some critics have been pretty harsh on Wing Island, and the game did not perform very well in Japan, yet it seems to have garnered a lot of interest from gamers. What do you think of the title and how do you think it will perform in North America?
Lee: Wing Island was designed as a game for the more casual player. Pulling in people that typically haven't played games before. We held true to our goal of reaching this new audience, something that Nintendo was very keen on highlighting for the Wii. There is no violence in the game, no fighting. It featured a colorful cast of characters that appeals to young and old, men and women. We tried to create a game that makes you instantly feel like you are soaring like a bird through the skies, and I think we did a great job on that. Typically, I would be more concerned with reviews when the game is designed for that targeted market - the hardcore gamer. But game reviewers tend to review kid games and mass market games much lower than games they prefer to play. I was rather amused that a game like Wii Sports got average reviews, yet it's the game that got people really into gaming, because they can get their girlfriend/boyfriend to play, their parents and grandparents to participate. Wing Island falls in this scenario as well. What is promising to me is that we get great feedback from the casual gamer for this game. They love the game. They can figure it out easily, and they enjoy the less frantic nature of the game.
NP: Has there been any collaboration between Hudson and Konami during the development process? Is such a collaboration possible in the future?
Lee: For the most part, Hudson and Konami have very different development tracks. The kind of games we make are generally very different than the kind Konami makes, so there hasn't been much collaboration. This will likely continue to be the case, though one thing we have started to do is get more marketplace feedback for other territories outside of Japan, specifically the US market. We are now receiving greater feedback from the US side and Konami can help us make games that appeal to a western audience.
NP: Moving onto the Virtual Console, the library of TurboGrafx titles is quite large, as new titles are being continuously added. How long does it typically take to port a TurboGrafx title to the Virtual Console? Is Nintendo at all involved in the process or is it entirely up to Hudson to port the games and get them online?
Lee: [It takes] longer than most people think. There's this natural assumption that emulated games can just be thrown together and launched. We get that question a lot: Why not launch all your Turbo games at once? The truth is, it takes times to test, optimize, and launch these games. No emulation is perfect, so there are tweaks, and even though the tweak is small, it's still labor intensive. Nintendo has been great to work with in this process, though. They are known for their rigorous testing and certification process, the best in the biz. All the more impressive is that there are already 70+ games out on the VC now across all supported platforms. If you can imagine, every game gets tested multiple times - Hudson Japan tests it, Nintendo of Japan tests it, and then oftentimes, it gets retested in other territories as well.
NP: Have you been happy with the sales of the TurboGrafx titles on the Virtual Console thus far?
Lee: Happy like a clam! Although I've never been really sure what that means... Are clams naturally happy?
NP: If certain games, like Bonk's Adventure, are being downloaded like crazy, does that make you contemplate developing a sequel after all these years?
Lee: It does make it very tempting to think that, no?
NP: If I get 25 friends to download Bonk's Adventure, then will you make a sequel?
Lee: Ooohhh... that's even more tempting. Hearing stuff like that has a real impact. More than you realize. Hudson is now very proactive in listening to our fans and hearing what they want. We're probably one of the few companies that are so closely in tune with their fans. This new approach will definitely affect the way we make games ongoing. Definitely stop by our website www.HudsonEntertainment.com and share your thoughts in our forums. We're actively in there combing through people's comments and suggestions.
NP: What is the release schedule looking like for the Virtual Console over the next few months? How many titles do you expect will be available by the end of the year?
Lee: You'll definitely see some fan faves in there. The sequel to Bonk just became available, and you can be sure we'll find a way to bring the impossible to find 3rd version to the US too. Neutopia, which is an amazing game in the vein of Zelda is coming as well sometime in the summer. And one of the most requested shooters, Blazing Lazers is about to hit you upside the face. You can expect to see at least 2-4 new games each month. That's a very hefty schedule, but we're doing our best to commit to it. We indicated before that we were shooting for at least 40 games out on the Turbo this year. I think we are pretty darn close.
NP: Some of the TurboGrafx games on the Virtual Console were developed by third-parties. Have other publishers and developers been cooperative in making their games available?
Lee: If they still exist! You'd be surprised to see how many publishers from nearly 15 years ago aren't around any more. For the most part, other publishers have been open to bringing their games back on the VC. So far we've seen such games as R-Type and Splatterhouse make it, so I'm hopeful that more will come. If you are a fan of Irem's games, then you should be happy to know that we're close to bringing out one of their fan favorite Ninja games from yesteryear.
NP: Just as third-party content from the TurboGrafx library is being added to the Virtual Console, Nintendo is adding third-party titles from their platforms to the service. It just so happens that Hudson has also been a third-party developer for Nintendo. Are we going to see games like Bomberman 64 make it to the Virtual Console? If so, is it up to Nintendo (the game's original publisher) or Hudson (the developer and owner of the Bomberman franchise)?
Lee: It's mainly up to Hudson, though Nintendo can help guide us as well. Right now our focus is on bringing Turbo games out first, but we are considering other platforms. We published a number of games on the NES system as well, and there are some classic games we are evaluating launching from that system as well.
NP: Finally, what do Nintendo fans have to look forward to from Hudson for the rest of this year and into the future? Are there any new titles on the way or any new projects under development that haven't been announced yet?
Lee: First off, I think Nintendo fans are just happy to hear that Hudson is even back! It's a company that many people still love, and to see the Hudson Bee back in the spotlight is really something special for me, and many fans. Our goal is to continue to reestablish Hudson in the US market for the next few years. To achieve that we have a great mix of new games in development. We're bringing some classic brands back, not just to Nintendo's platform but other ones as well, including mobile phones. We are creating some all new IPs that really introduce something new and different to the DS and Wii. I can't mention them at this stage, but I have seen early concepts of these games, and I was quite impressed. It's a great time to be a gamer, I tell you.
HUDSON PART
NintendoPlayers: Hudson has been developing software for Nintendos platforms for decades, even as some other companies dropped support for systems like the GameCube. Why has Hudson remained so faithful to Nintendo and its fans over the years?
John Lee: Hudson tends to be that kind of company! Loyal to its partners, its fans, and its people. Our relationship with Nintendo goes back a long way. We were the first 3rd party publisher to work with Nintendo back in the day of the NES. They were initially very hesitant to allow 3rd party support for their platform, but we made a very strong case on how it would make a system stand out. Even when we were competing against Nintendo in the 16-bit console wars TurboGrafx vs. SNES we still published games for their platform. Thats something youll never see today. Can you imagine a game like Halo showing up on the Wii? Well continue to work closely with Nintendo and create games for their platforms that specifically take advantage of the hardware. We have very similar game design philosophies and it has become more apparent in this generation of consoles for Nintendo.
NP: It seems that Hudson's strategy is congruent with that of Nintendo's as both are constantly making efforts to create unique and fun gaming experiences. What is driving Hudson to create such innovative and intuitive games?
JL: It really goes back to the founding principles of the company, and the culture that drives us all. For us, each new generation of hardware lets us experiment with new things that couldnt have been done before. And Im not talking graphics here, which typically is associated with pushing a new generation of consoles. We stay focused on trying to create something that is fundamentally fun. From there, well build out our vision for each product. Thats what led us to the creation of the party genre, with games like Bomberman and Mario Party. Thats what led us to create the TurboGrafx system, and the first credit card-sized game cartridge, the Hucard. Other innovations include Teku Teku Angel, a mini portable game combined with a pedometer that encourages people to exercise. And even Kororinpa: Marble Mania is a game that thinks outside the box, since you roll a marble around on any surface, turning the world upside down even. On an interesting side note, one thing I always wanted to do here in our office is create a mini museum of all our innovations over the years, because there have been so many. Itll be pet project of mine, so well see how it goes.
NP: Many companies were cautious in supporting the Wii at first, but have recently shifted more and more resources to the platform. What was Hudson's reaction or approach when they first learned of the Wii's concept? Has it changed at all since the system's successful launch?
JL: Our initial reaction to the Wiis concept was probably similar to most people in the industry. Initially with a bit of What the heck?, then there was an "ah ha" moment, and then our imagination went wild with what we could do with the system! I think Hudson got it much earlier than other developers because we have a culture of thinking of gaming beyond what is conventional. We are one of the few game makers that crosses over regularly into making hardware innovations. So having this combination base knowledge made us more open to appreciating what Nintendo had pioneered with the Wii.
NP: The longevity of the Bomberman franchise is incredible. Have the recent Bomberman titles continued to sell well? Whats planned for the future of the franchise?
JL: Bomberman is a classic. Continually praised as one of the best games of all time. Its that perfect mix of easy to pick up and play, yet filled with deep strategy. Anyone that touches it falls in love with it. Alas, because Hudson hasnt been focused on the US market for a number of years, treating it as a secondary market, many of our games have not been strategically released. This is definitely the case with Bomberman. You have so many publishers working on it. Theres no sense of continuity or brand development. So what you have today is an older generation of gamers that love Bomberman and grew up with him, but a brand that the younger gaming generation never experienced. Going forward, I think youll see Hudson do a much better job of elevating Bomberman, giving him the props he deserves. Theres going to be better rhyme and reason to our launch schedule.
