Microsoft kicked off its TGS Keynote this morning in Japan with Phil Spencer and Takashi Sensui taking the stage in a keynote titled: “Xbox 360 Vision and Strategy 2010”.
First up was Takashi Sensui, general manager of Xbox Japan, who provided a bit of an introduction with a recap of past TGS shows and focused on Japanese game creators and their talents.
“Today we would like to talk about what future successes we can strive for,” he said, before promising to show 10 titles during TGS that are from Japanese creators. “These will define the future of Xbox 360 and Kinect,” he added.
His speech and presentation was followed by a shortened E3 trailer for Metal Gear Solid: Rising with producer Shigenobu Matsuyama taking the stage. He showed the watermelon slicing demo teased at E3 by first demoing the “free cutting” on bowling pins and how you can choose your cutting angles and visuals are created dynamically.
In the demo, a Kogekko reminiscent of the ones in MGS4, popped up on the table out of the watermelons and started interacting with the juicy green vine fruit. It spun one like a ball before slicing through it while spinning.
“In Rising, we have decided this character will be appearing,” said Matsuyama, explaining why the Kogekko was in the tech demo today. “The physics are going to get even better with the watermelon. There’s a real-time computation taking place. It’s quite difficult to cut them without missing.”
All this cutting of melons and such was done with a standard controller. Nothing about Kinect was mentioned or hinted at.
“You can see that Metal Gear Solid Rising is being developed according to schedule and the team is working hard to be able to announce the launch, so we request your continued support,” said Matsuyama before he left the stage without giving a release date.
Here’s a video of the demo, via GT.
Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, came back on stage to chat about sales, stating that Japanese games have brought in $2.1 billion dollars in revenue to date on Xbox 360 worldwide, which is double that of the original Xbox which was at $1 billion. He also said five of the top six selling XBLA games are from Japan.
Spencer then went on to state Halo: Reach has generated $200 million dollars in first day sales.
“That’s more than any game, movie or entertainment launch in 2010,” said Spencer, before stating Xbox 360 was the number one console in Europe and the the best-selling console in the US for the third month in a row.
After a bit of sales talk he then went on to introduce some games.
“We know that Japanese artists make games the world wants to play,” he said. “Today I’m pleased to announce five new creative partnerships with Japanese developers to create games exclusively for Xbox 360.”
- A game with Avatars fighting in a ring was shown as Avatar Fire Pro Wrestling. It’s a collaboration with Spike TV. No release date was given.
- A second deal, with Treasure, was announced and it’s Radiant Silver Gun HD. It will be an XBLA exclusive with two player support over Xbox Live as well as local, and you will be able to download and share game replays. Both the original Arcade and Saturn modes will be available. A trailer was shown for it as well. It’s coming in 2011.
- Masaya Matsuura was shown via video talking about his Kinect project. He said he was “shocked and impressed” when he first saw Kinect, and that he was “sorry he can’t be here today, but he’s going to make some announcements” anyway. It’s a horror game for Kinect called Haunt. “It’s very fun and innovative, but also all about horror”, he said. Per Eurogamer, the teaser trailer showed a “first-person perspective, wandering ’round a haunted house, all suits of armor, dodgy shadows and moving oil paintings. There’s a kerfuffle and the torch falls to the floor to reveal the word Haunt shadowed on the wall. The end.” It’s coming exclusively to 360 in 2011. There’s a trailer below courtesy of GameTrailers.
- The next partnership announced was with Grounding Inc., and it was Project Draco.Yukio Futatsugi, the director, took the stage to talk about it, and said the game would use Kinect. “After seeing Kinect, we wanted to create games for Kinect,” said Futatsugi. “What I want to do most in my games is to fly. Not with my joystick. But imagine if you could ride a gigantic creature, hold the reins, point at an enemy to attack – that’s how you could ride in the sky and fight.” A trailer was shown, featuring the camera flying through a valley, then a guy on a dragon looking things came into view, and per Eurogamer, “one of the dragons gets gold light in its mouth”. It’s coming in 2011.
- Suda 51 of Grasshopper Manufacture in his awesome gold shoes announced his Kinect game called Codename D, which he described as hardcore, punky, and casual. “I wanted to work with Microsoft for many years,” said Suda. “It took a long time though. It was a very long dating period. But we got along well with them, we both like David Bowie. Now we can make an announcement of marriage. We cannot talk about the details of our game, but we can give you some hints. We will not be using guns or swords, but this is a very core action game.” The trailer shown had black and white images of someone running, accompanied by a heavy guitar soundtrack. A guy was in a carnival, surrounded by crazy folks in animal masks. The trailer was mostly live action. It’s coming in 2011, exclusively for Kinect and Xbox 360. Images below are courtesy of Kotaku.
Spencer came back on stage after Suda, and said: “We at Microsoft Game Studios are fully committed to identifying the best talent here in Japan,” he said. “Five creators, five games, five visions . This is why we’ve embarked on the Japanese initiative.”
- Sensui followed Spencer with Professor Kawashima’s Body and Brain Exercises for Kinect, which was announced by Namco Bandai last week. It will be released in North America and Europe “early next year”.
- A new Child of Eden trailer was shown now featuring a level called “Beauty” is shown in the trailer. Tetsuya Mizuguchi in white conductor gloves said: “Child of Eden – this is what I have been pursuing, a convergence of games and music. Eden, which was infected by a virus, is to be purified. It is a shooting game but it is to purify the world, to make it happier and turn it into a world filled with hope, together with music, to experience the chemical reactions. For us, it is a very challenging title”. He also talked about how playing with Kinect was like being a conductor, and how he’ll “work very hard” until Child of Eden is ready to be played. “Child of Eden is clearly a game like no other,” he added. It’s coming in 2011 according to the trailer.
- Kinect is also getting a game from SEGA called Rise of Nightmares. Here’s what was shown in the video, per Eurogamer: “Wake up… to a new wave of horror.” Screaming. Flashes of zombies, people being hacked up, man strapped to a bed and lots of scary images flashing all over the screen.” IGN said” “It’s difficult to tell how this game would be played, but it is definitely a hardcore horror game.” It’s slated for 2011.
- The last title to be announced was Capcom’s Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. A trailer showed Manhattan in 2082 with torpedoes crashing around ships. The camera panned back and showed hundreds of ships headed for New York. Troops were shouting at each other as they ran around the ship decks. Giant armored vehicles on the shore werefiring at them. After the trailer finished, Keiji Inafune walked on stage wearing a US army jacket, stating the game was based on the idea of the world as it would be if computers disappeared. “Probably you remember this title – it’s coming back. A new interpretation of Steel Battalion is born. No more production of computer chips – that would change our life completely. Earlier, the game was using a very large controller which made this very famous. Now it will use Kinect. This is for core gamers. We are focusing on that. Even with Kinect, we are creating games for core gamers. That’s the only thing we can do at Capcom. And we should do it thoroughly.” He goes on to say Kinect has plenty of potential, not just for Capcom but “many game creators” to create games for the core. This will uplift the games industry, especially in Japan, mused Inafune. Video courtesy of Joystiq.
Sensui came back on stage and ended the show by chatting about innovative, experiences and new entertainment eras.
Thanks a million to IGN, and Eurogamer for keeping us up on the happenings with their liveblogging prowess.
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