Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka - TGS 2005 Interview

[jiwa]

Re: Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka - TGS 2005 Interview

Yeh thats why they choose to release Winning Eleven 7 International with the language change option if it was a japan only game.
they quickly realised it was too much hassle and money and they know we patch the game ourselves so why bother and use the space on the DVD for other things.

Only a fool would think there was a 2-3 month gap between WE and PES because of anything but import sales and then wait until march the following year to release the same game in America come on.

All the games are slightly different,with little tweaks here and there, with the WEx-Int versions being the most balanced overall.

WEx-Int IS NOT A JAPAN release but a American release. It started from WE7I, the very first time the game is released as an Int/US version.

Cheers,

 

[forza]

What a crock of anti-EA shit. I'm no fan of EA games but to say that because they bought up licenses that it cripples all competition is risible. So SEGA's programmers suddenly lose all of their programming skills and become completely incapable of programming a decent American Football game just because they don't have licenses?

What you might not know is that EA bought EXCLUSIVE rights to the NFL. No other company can make an NFL game now. I highly doubt people will buy an American football game by Sega no matter how good it was, if it had fake teams/player names. It did the same with ESPN, which made the Sega games stand out visually and give their games a better 'feel'.

Why would EA do such a thing? To simply kill the competition. Or at least try to.

 

[Golden Go@l]

What a crock of anti-EA shit. I'm no fan of EA games but to say that because they bought up licenses that it cripples all competition is risible. So SEGA's programmers suddenly lose all of their programming skills and become completely incapable of programming a decent American Football game just because they don't have licenses?

So when EA bought so many football licenses, it killed Konami's footy games?

People still have a choice. They can buy licenesd EA games but if they prefer a competitors game, they have the option to buy that, irrespective of licenses. All the competitor need do is provide an editor. It's up to each company to sell itself.

If SEGA don't make people aware of it's games, that's their problem. If people act like zombies and just buy the licensed game, ignorant of any alternatives, so what? It's their choice. Perhaps the license is all important to some people. It's not for you to tell them what they should look for in a game.

You will prove me wrong once Sega comes out with another football game based on the NFL. Until then there efforts to create a football game have been crippled. Even if it ends up being only for a year, they are losing a lot of money. And I did not say that EA's licensing acquisition cripples all competition. I only made a reference to Sega. I never intended to imply that EA's aquisition of FIFA licensing crippled Konami. Although similar, the situation with Konami is different than Sega. At least Konami has some sort of licensing agreement with FIFA. They can use all the players, I believe, as well as some of the leagues. Sega cannot use any players, teams, stadiums, etc. Konami has been producing a game without licensing since day one. So consumers have grown accustomed to that. Only recently have they acquired FIFA licensing. Sega had a game with full licensing and now no licensing. Imagine how upset consumers of WE would be if EA garnered exclusive rights to FIFA. Also, I never told people what they should look for in a game. I simply stated my opinion. Furthermore, I did not say that I hate EA, that they are incapable of putting out a good product, or would never buy their games. I said many, not all, of their games are now mediocre. In fact, over the years I have purchased Madden 2003-2005, Medal of Honor, Lord of the Rings, Burnout 3, etc. Tiger Woods Golf is also very good. Interestingly, many of the companies that put out quality games, such as the aforementioned, were bought out by EA. Burnout is a recent addition to the EA franchise. We will see if EA is able to maintain the credibility and quality of those acquisitions.

I am not here to get into a heated diatribe, but I do not like words being put into my mouth. It is clear that our opinions differ, but we should not let decisions that are out of our hands lead to petty bantering. I like Winning Eleven. You like Winning Eleven. Lets leave it at that.

 

[winston]

You will prove me wrong once Sega comes out with another football game based on the NFL. Until then there efforts to create a football game have been crippled. Even if it ends up being only for a year, they are losing a lot of money. And I did not say that EA's licensing acquisition cripples all competition. I only made a reference to Sega. I never intended to imply that EA's aquisition of FIFA licensing crippled Konami. Although similar, the situation with Konami is different than Sega. At least Konami has some sort of licensing agreement with FIFA. They can use all the players, I believe, as well as some of the leagues. Sega cannot use any players, teams, stadiums, etc. Konami has been producing a game without licensing since day one. So consumers have grown accustomed to that. Only recently have they acquired FIFA licensing. Sega had a game with full licensing and now no licensing. Imagine how upset consumers of WE would be if EA garnered exclusive rights to FIFA. Also, I never told people what they should look for in a game. I simply stated my opinion. Furthermore, I did not say that I hate EA, that they are incapable of putting out a good product, or would never buy their games. I said many, not all, of their games are now mediocre. In fact, over the years I have purchased Madden 2003-2005, Medal of Honor, Lord of the Rings, Burnout 3, etc. Tiger Woods Golf is also very good. Interestingly, many of the companies that put out quality games, such as the aforementioned, were bought out by EA. Burnout is a recent addition to the EA franchise. We will see if EA is able to maintain the credibility and quality of those acquisitions.

I am not here to get into a heated diatribe, but I do not like words being put into my mouth. It is clear that our opinions differ, but we should not let decisions that are out of our hands lead to petty bantering. I like Winning Eleven. You like Winning Eleven. Lets leave it at that.

Fair do's, mate.

 

[jiwa]

Re: Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka - TGS 2005 Interview

You will prove me wrong once Sega comes out with another football game based on the NFL. Until then there efforts to create a football game have been crippled. Even if it ends up being only for a year, they are losing a lot of money. And I did not say that EA's licensing acquisition cripples all competition. I only made a reference to Sega. I never intended to imply that EA's aquisition of FIFA licensing crippled Konami. Although similar, the situation with Konami is different than Sega. At least Konami has some sort of licensing agreement with FIFA. They can use all the players, I believe, as well as some of the leagues. Sega cannot use any players, teams, stadiums, etc. Konami has been producing a game without licensing since day one. So consumers have grown accustomed to that. Only recently have they acquired FIFA licensing. Sega had a game with full licensing and now no licensing. Imagine how upset consumers of WE would be if EA garnered exclusive rights to FIFA. Also, I never told people what they should look for in a game. I simply stated my opinion. Furthermore, I did not say that I hate EA, that they are incapable of putting out a good product, or would never buy their games. I said many, not all, of their games are now mediocre. In fact, over the years I have purchased Madden 2003-2005, Medal of Honor, Lord of the Rings, Burnout 3, etc. Tiger Woods Golf is also very good. Interestingly, many of the companies that put out quality games, such as the aforementioned, were bought out by EA. Burnout is a recent addition to the EA franchise. We will see if EA is able to maintain the credibility and quality of those acquisitions.

I am not here to get into a heated diatribe, but I do not like words being put into my mouth. It is clear that our opinions differ, but we should not let decisions that are out of our hands lead to petty bantering. I like Winning Eleven. You like Winning Eleven. Lets leave it at that.

I think Konami's licensing is with FifPro (Pro Players Assoc.) not FIFA. If they had FIFA licence all national teams would be in already. (excepttion fo those 'dorky' orangesxx :lmao: )

EA will be the next candidate for 'anti-trust' action I think, after Microsoft. He.he. Just too bloody greedy, and have a 'don't wanna lose mentality'. If they can't put out a superior game, the gobble up exclusive licences and hope to capture a segment of the market that goes for appearances/gloss only. (Believe me. there is one.)

See what happened to SEGA and NFL2K. KOnami have been slow on this front and if they don't act fast may end up being shut out. But then we can only hope, that the other 'green eyed' monsters may put paid to this. FIFA and Indiv Leagues. Realising than they may net more by licensing to multiple parties, prolly may not decide to sign up exclusive licenses anymore. (hope so).

Cheers.

 

[jiwa]

Re: Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka - TGS 2005 Interview

Oh yeah, EA do makes some very good games, but now they seem rather content to gobble up good developers than to create from within.

Remember Ubisoft. Splinter cell, Prince of Persia, and others Criteriosn Burnout. EA's mouth couldn't stop saliviating.

And EA only hold 'exclusive' rights to EPL and FIFA nations. That is why were are yet to see a fully licencsed national team in WE/PES.

I think Bundesliga and Ligue1 are possiblities in the next version of WE10/PES6.

Cheers.

 

[lumlum]

BTW, SEGA Sports is no more. They sold Visual Concepts (now 2K Sports) to Rockstar.
SEGA said that they just couldn't compete with EA and that they were losing money. What a shame, quality games not making money.

 

[embraceuk1]

All the games are slightly different,with little tweaks here and there, with the WEx-Int versions being the most balanced overall.

WEx-Int IS NOT A JAPAN release but a American release. It started from WE7I, the very first time the game is released as an Int/US version.

Cheers,

No it wasnt Winning Eleven 7 International NTSC Japan was japan only.

America got Winning Eleven 7 International NTSC America which was basically just PES 3 it didnt have the advanced options or changes.

And Winning Eleven 6 International was the first game released in america since ESPN MLS gamenight On PS2 and Xbox

 

[ClassicD]

Yeh thats why they choose to release Winning Eleven 7 International with the language change option if it was a japan only game.
they quickly realised it was too much hassle and money and they know we patch the game ourselves so why bother and use the space on the DVD for other things.

Only a fool would think there was a 2-3 month gap between WE and PES because of anything but import sales and then wait until march the following year to release the same game in America come on.

I don't know why they put the other languages on, but why would they do it for import sales and then not put it on subsequent releases (bearing in mind disc space is no issue)?

The fact remains that game was a Japan/Korea-only release, and wasn't aimed at the NA market. That was the usual FE/LE game. Unfortunately, the American market is nowhere near as profitable for WE/PES as Asia/Europe are, so it's not a priority and is why it gets a port of the older version. Europe also had to put up with this until sales rose, they'd get the port of 'WEx' under the PES name and then within a very short time Asia would have 'WExFE', boasting better gameplay.

 

[embraceuk1]

It has nothing to do with the North American market it has all to do with the European market.

And dont foreget the slightly tweaked Pro Evolution Soccer gets imported to back to asia etc also.

One of the cool things about living in America is we get releases of games and movies first, This is true in Japan also games like Metal gear solid etc get released there a few weeks early thats not a problem.

If they want to release an improved Int/FE in japan only thats fine but the fact that the other releases which are almost identicle get scattered over a period from Aug-Mar is a joke especially the american release which i dont buy because i will get the Int/FE but every year you get americans going on about the improvements and you have to say sorry guys your getting a 5 month old version because it takes them 5 months to convert Pal into NTSC and if youve ever bought or seen the american release the manual is the Pes manual it even says Pes on the pics etc when showing the menus thats how much effort they go to..

 

[TheWolf]

Let's clear something up, FIFAPro actually consists of names and image rights so even the likeness of players is covered. If a judge could rule that player "Bockham" in the game is obviously meant to be Beckham irrespective of the fact that the player looks exactly like him too, then that is a breach of FIFAPro licensing rights. It's quite clear that EA do not have the sole rights to these licensing rights otherwise Konami wouldn't be able to give real names to some players and have some players look exactly like their real life counterparts.

The licensing for uniforms and real names is made independently either on a club by club basis or on a league/domestic association basis. It is IMPOSSIBLE to buy the sole rights for the leagues in football/soccer as it is governed by FIFA who refuse to allocate monoplising contracts to anybody. The NFL is different and is basically a business as well as a governing body. Konami doesn't have the whole of the English Premiership licensed because they don't want to spend the money to do it, it's as plain and simple as that.

I have a friend who works for Burton Copeland, the legal representation firm for Man Utd (where Maurice Watkins comes from) who told me about the whole image rights thing in relation to Man Utd and said there's zero reason why Konami can't have the official uniforms for Man Utd in the game if they pay the same fee as EA. Nobody is given an exclusive license as each individual club owns it's own image rights not like in the NFL or NHL where the whole organization owns the image rights.

 

[ClassicD]

It has nothing to do with the North American market it has all to do with the European market.

And dont foreget the slightly tweaked Pro Evolution Soccer gets imported to back to asia etc also.

One of the cool things about living in America is we get releases of games and movies first, This is true in Japan also games like Metal gear solid etc get released there a few weeks early thats not a problem.

If they want to release an improved Int/FE in japan only thats fine but the fact that the other releases which are almost identicle get scattered over a period from Aug-Mar is a joke especially the american release which i dont buy because i will get the Int/FE but every year you get americans going on about the improvements and you have to say sorry guys your getting a 5 month old version because it takes them 5 months to convert Pal into NTSC and if youve ever bought or seen the american release the manual is the Pes manual it even says Pes on the pics etc when showing the menus thats how much effort they go to..

I've lost track of what your original point was.

 

[TheWolf]

I think his point is that Konami hurt themselves with the staggered release schedules especially here in North America where we get a game that effectively was first released in Japan 7 months previously!

I'm sure that they can organize a worldwide release of the WE/PES/WE:I titles - it would be a lot easier of they didn't try and make 5 different versions of the same game within a 12 month period (taking into account the special Korea version and FE equivalent).

 

[jiwa]

Re: Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka - TGS 2005 Interview

Let's clear something up, FIFAPro actually consists of names and image rights so even the likeness of players is covered. If a judge could rule that player "Bockham" in the game is obviously meant to be Beckham irrespective of the fact that the player looks exactly like him too, then that is a breach of FIFAPro licensing rights. It's quite clear that EA do not have the sole rights to these licensing rights otherwise Konami wouldn't be able to give real names to some players and have some players look exactly like their real life counterparts.

The licensing for uniforms and real names is made independently either on a club by club basis or on a league/domestic association basis. It is IMPOSSIBLE to buy the sole rights for the leagues in football/soccer as it is governed by FIFA who refuse to allocate monoplising contracts to anybody. The NFL is different and is basically a business as well as a governing body. Konami doesn't have the whole of the English Premiership licensed because they don't want to spend the money to do it, it's as plain and simple as that.

I have a friend who works for Burton Copeland, the legal representation firm for Man Utd (where Maurice Watkins comes from) who told me about the whole image rights thing in relation to Man Utd and said there's zero reason why Konami can't have the official uniforms for Man Utd in the game if they pay the same fee as EA. Nobody is given an exclusive license as each individual club owns it's own image rights not like in the NFL or NHL where the whole organization owns the image rights.

I remeber reading somewhere that 'EA' did in fact have 'exclusive' rights to the EPL or was that a load of bull then. I think the quote came from someone who sent and e-mail to a Konami marketing rep. The reply also stated that Other competitors are only able to get a max 2 licences for EPL teams.

If its not true then, I stand corrected.

Cheers

 

[jiwa]

Re: Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka - TGS 2005 Interview

It has nothing to do with the North American market it has all to do with the European market.

And dont foreget the slightly tweaked Pro Evolution Soccer gets imported to back to asia etc also.

One of the cool things about living in America is we get releases of games and movies first, This is true in Japan also games like Metal gear solid etc get released there a few weeks early thats not a problem.

If they want to release an improved Int/FE in japan only thats fine but the fact that the other releases which are almost identicle get scattered over a period from Aug-Mar is a joke especially the american release which i dont buy because i will get the Int/FE but every year you get americans going on about the improvements and you have to say sorry guys your getting a 5 month old version because it takes them 5 months to convert Pal into NTSC and if youve ever bought or seen the american release the manual is the Pes manual it even says Pes on the pics etc when showing the menus thats how much effort they go to..

OK now i'm the one confused about this. IS THERE actually a N.American release other than WEx-Int. UP to now, I had thought that WExI WAS the International/N.American release.

Just as WE8I was. There are slight differences in gameplay from each release.

Looking at the latest releases.

WE8 first release (Japan)
PES4 Europe
WE8-Int (introduced the training/growth elements)
WE8:LE This is the odd man out. Introduced network play, first touch with R1,L1,R2. Flip-flap
(I have all the above, and they play differently, best being WE8LE)


As for WE7 versions I'm not too sure, since I went only got WE6FE to WE7I.

WE7 I was another very balanced solid version.

Guys, I may be wrong here but IMO there is always tweaking from version to version. The language option in WEx-Int is to cater for CAnada,S.America,Brazil i think.

Cheers

 

[TheWolf]

I remeber reading somewhere that 'EA' did in fact have 'exclusive' rights to the EPL or was that a load of bull then. I think the quote came from someone who sent and e-mail to a Konami marketing rep. The reply also stated that Other competitors are only able to get a max 2 licences for EPL teams.

If its not true then, I stand corrected.

Cheers

The English F.A. does not own the players image rights or the copyright to the clubs/players names. The F.A. simply is the governing body for the leagues in England. Each club owns their own individual rights to their identity and within the club, each player can choose to copyright their own image (much in the way Oliver Kahn did a few years ago which meant that even in FIFA, they had to call him something else and put in a player who had blond hair but didn't look too much like him - i.e. a bulldog licking piss off of a stinging nettle!).

The email the guy claimed to have written to Konami and the reply he claimed to have got back were false. Anybody, if they spend the money, can buy the licensing rights to the clubs in the EPL and to my knowledge, any of the other European teams. It is impossible for EA to secure "exclusive" rights to the English Premier League teams as the best they can do is offer each club a contract. Even then, EA aren't going to not put them in the game if they don't get an exclusive contract so there is room for a club to sell it's image rights to any number of games.

It's about money, not about a monopoly by EA. In America, the NFL, NHL, NBA and even the MLS, are totally different as the leagues own all of the player and club image rights. The clubs are simply franchises.

If Konami want to put in the English Championship and League One and League Two, they can do so. They don't because they have no interest in doing so.

 

[EatonTJ]

Everyone, TheWolf is corrent on this point. To be clear, the information given a while back about "exclusive" image rights agreements was incorrect. Just read TheWolf's last few posts and that is the current image situation.

EA Sports' business model is to be as accurate as possible in their "simulation" sports games. They feel spending whatever money necessary to secure teams' image rights is money well spent. (They could still use a bit of investment in gameplay however, as most of their sports games are only second best in terms of how they actually play at the moment)

Konami doesn't feel it needs to go to such extremes for its soccer/footy licensing. That's why WE/PES does not have the same quantity of rights FIFA 2006/etc. does. That's their business model.

 

[jiwa]

Re: Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka - TGS 2005 Interview

Everyone, TheWolf is corrent on this point. To be clear, the information given a while back about "exclusive" image rights agreements was incorrect. Just read TheWolf's last few posts and that is the current image situation.

EA Sports' business model is to be as accurate as possible in their "simulation" sports games. They feel spending whatever money necessary to secure teams' image rights is money well spent. (They could still use a bit of investment in gameplay however, as most of their sports games are only second best in terms of how they actually play at the moment)

Konami doesn't feel it needs to go to such extremes for its soccer/footy licensing. That's why WE/PES does not have the same quantity of rights FIFA 2006/etc. does. That's their business model.

Thanks for the insight guys. I stand corrected on many of these issues.

Cheers.