PES6 : Interview with Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka
- Producer and creator on Pro Evolution Soccer 6 -
October 2006



English version
Pour la version française, cliquez ici.

With other press members of XCN (Xbox Community Network), we have been able to ask some questions to Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka, producer at Konami, about Pro Evolution 6 on Xbox 360.


Xbox Gazette : Some important graphic differences seem to appear between the first screens of PES6 diffused on the Internet and the current screenshots. How will the final version look?
Shingo Takatsuka : This is touched and revised till the very end of development. Therefore, I think that the product version will look much different to the previous samples of the game.

Xbox Gazette : Which new possibilities do the “next gen” consoles give you for your game? What makes PES6 on Xbox 360 a "next gen" game?
Shingo Takatsuka : I think for now, the graphical aspect is the most apparent. The facial motion capture was taken from scratch for the "Next-Gen" machine. Also, the AI of attacking and defending has been added, and the "Next-Gen" allows us to improve on this point too.

XCN : Your great rival FIFA has just announced a new animation and graphics system. Do you think that any difference in graphics between FIFA and PES6 will affect the popularity of PES6 amongst gamers?
Shingo Takatsuka : I cannot deny the fact the FIFA has brilliant graphics. But our strongest point in our PES is the gameplay. I am proud of this point.

XCN : Europe is a big market for football/soccer games. Have you localised the version of the game for this continent where everything is more relevant to the European audience (players, stadiums, voices, climate, types of game...)?
Shingo Takatsuka : We have tweaked and changed the default of the difficulty level. But that's about all. The reason is that I believe how football fans love and feel about real football is same everywhere in the world. Of course, for the we have made minor changes, according to the voices of European users.

XCN : How about the much talked about possibility of a 8 vs 8 mode? If it is not in PES6, will there ever be such a mode?
Shingo Takatsuka : Well, currently, this is impossible. But, soon, I think our team is capable to make this happen.

XCN : What is the best new feature in PES6 that, in your opinion, will surprise us all?
Shingo Takatsuka : When you play….you will discover new kind of moves. New kicks, new dribbling motions, and these will make the play feel much different and surprise the players.

XCN : Is it possible to play a whole league online?
Shingo Takatsuka : No, regret to say. But we want to make this happen as soon as possible.

XCN : PES 5 had a slower pace than the previous games and made it possible for a player to make several small fouls. This way, one could disrupt the gameplan or a fluent attack of his opponent, which frustrated some people, but others thought it was more realistic. Why did you change this again in PES 6, which seems to be faster paced and more fluent again, and thus perhaps less realistic?
Shingo Takatsuka : I think that PES5 was not bad, but for PES6, we made it this way, because we thought that this was closer to the real thing. Also, we need to consider about a good pace of speed as a game too.

XCN : In the previous games, the lack of convincing crowd reactions made it for a lot of fans more difficult to get really drawn into a game and its atmosphere. Is this something you worked on in the next-gen version?
Shingo Takatsuka : E.g. will we be hearing something resembling the audio features of EA's FIFA titles with booming cheers when a goal is scored? Well, this time, we really made use of the 5.1 channel stereo. You can feel the atmosphere much better now. This was really important factor in the development this time, so I would like to experiment further.

XCN : Are you a fan of a certain soccer team and/or is there a specific player you admire in real life?
Shingo Takatsuka : If I wasn't a fan, I would not have been to do this job for a long time now…..Currently, I am a big fan of Robby Fowler.

XCN : Why are Pro Evolution soccer and Wining Eleven two different games and will we be able to play Winning Eleven players on Xbox Live with Pro Evo 6?
Shingo Takatsuka : There is a 6 month span from the Japanese version and the European version. We have not stopped to improve the game, so that is the main reason why PES6 is different. Currently, you cannot play against a user in Japan, but this is one of the goals that we have that we want to accomplish.

XCN : How many different leagues from around the world can we hope to see in the game and what are they?
Shingo Takatsuka : We have acquired 4 of the 6 major European leagues, and have made that 4 in the game completely. Also, we have obtained the French League 1 for the first time.

XCN : In previous Pro Evo titles we have only seen some players, teams, kits, stadiums etc in the game under their ‘real’ name. Is this because of financial barriers or licensing problems and can we ever hope to see this overcome with future titles bringing an all round ‘real’ feel?
Shingo Takatsuka : This is purely a license issue. We would like to make as much real teams and much real players as possible, and will not stop improving.

XCN : What kind of things can we expect to the new game coming out in general from Single Player and to Multiplayer and will there be any new system to prevent from many disconnects happening in online play as its very frustrating playing against people who quit just before the end of the game so they don't lose any points?
Shingo Takatsuka : We are always looking for ways to prevent cheating. This time, we have a better system, so I think that there will be fewer people. But at the end, it is really up to the players to play fair.

Xbox Gazette : Thanks a lot for your time and your answers !



- Other Xbox 360 interviews

Max73, Xbox Gazette, October 4th 2006

Thanks to : Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka, XCN