GI: What’s your general take on downloadable content? With the 360, it’s almost an expectation that games are going to have downloadable content. With DOA 4 there was talk about downloading lobbies, characters and costumes. Is that something that’s still in the works, or are you not really worried about it at this point?
Itagaki: I don’t think people would be that interested in downloading new avatars or lobbies for that particular game, just thinking about our audience. If we were going to do something, we’d want to do a new stage or a new balanced set of moves, things like that. It’s something we’d love to do, but unfortunately, as we’ve been talking about, we have finite manpower and so many projects that we’re doing. I always like to pursue that kind of thing when we can. This goes back to what I was talking about earlier with the soldiers and the commanders. I’m the only one in Team Ninja who can do the balance testing for Dead or Alive games, so if I were to try to incorporate a new move list or something like that it would probably take at least a month of just straight-out playtesting in order to get it where I wanted it. Which means every project that I’m working on would have to be put on hold for an entire month. It’s always a balancing act. I do feel bad, and I apologize to the Dead or Alive fans in that they haven’t seen anything new come out that way, but I have to take on things one at a time. To be honest, I don’t think that Dead or Alive 4 is such a bad game that it’s going to require a new move list right away, so right now my message to Dead or Alive fans would be to sit tight and something new will be coming along at some point.
GI: Your games are notoriously difficult. How do you balance making a game that appeases the hardcore user base while still remains accessible to people who may not have time to train in order to play a game?
Itagaki: I think as a result of what we do, a lot of times our games tend to be more on the difficult side. It probably just comes from a natural desire for challenge. When I play a game, I want to be challenged by it. That might not always be intentional, but I think it just kind of feeds into that desire to be challenged. I talk about this a lot, but I wouldn’t want to go into a cabbage field with a big knife or a scythe or something and just start cutting down thousands and thousands of heads of cabbage. That’s not something I would find fun. I do think there are probably some people out there who want that kind of experience when playing a game. That’s why, when it comes down to the number of enemies on-screen, I’d rather have good enemies than just a lot of enemies. That’s why I don’t buy into the philosophy of, “Look! We have a thousand heads of cabbage on screen at once, isn’t this great?!”
GI: This might be like pushing on a sore tooth, but have you seen the Dead or Alive movie? Did you have any thoughts about that?
Itagaki: I haven’t seen it. I’ve just been looking at the reactions my fans have had to the movie. I haven’t been involved whatsoever in the movie. Ever since the movie was announced, all I’ve said was that I just wanted them to make something that wouldn’t be disappointing to the fans. Looking at the reactions, some have liked it and others didn’t—I think that’s just the way it is.
GI: Was it hard to let go and allow someone else to use your characters?
Itagaki: I respect the people who are in the movie business, and they have experience doing what they do. Once again, I just wanted to make sure that it was something that wouldn’t disappoint the fans, and that was the only place that I had input. If western audiences haven’t had a chance to see it yet, I would be interested to see what they thought when it comes out. [The film will be released in the United States this June] Our art director did see the movie, and he said, “It’s not bad for what it is.” He likes movies.
