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February 25, 2007

PES 2007 Release Review Meeting Summary

See below for a leaked transcript from the Konami corporation's game development division; I did the translation from the Japanese myself!

The following is the transcript of the final release review meeting for Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (the artist formerly known as "Winning Eleven Soccer") on Xbox 360. The speakers are the product manager ("ProdMgr") and the development lead ("DevLead") for Pro Evolution Soccer. The Konami Corporation has not authorized the release of this document, but I thought it was important to share it:

ProdMgr: Good to see everyone this morning. Do we have the call set up? Yes? Hello? Oh. Hi. Yes, we're here. About to get started. So. Right. Let's begin. The release date is coming soon, and our last progress update made a lot of people anxious. Where are we with the latest build?

DevLead: Yeah, we're almost there.

ProdMgr: Okay. So what does almost there mean?

DevLead: It means we should hit our date.

ProdMgr: Should?

DevLead: Yeah, barring any unforseen illnesses or power outtages and whatnot. Nothing is ever really certain.

ProdMgr: Right, right. Well, that's some great news. The last time we spoke, it sounded a little bit grim. I guess you guys really got it done!

DevLead: Well, yeah...

ProdMgr: ...I'm super excited to hear it!

DevLead: Well, again, about that.

ProdMgr: Yeah?

DevLead: Yeah. So in order to hit the date, we've had to cut a few features.

ProdMgr: Wait. What?

DevLead: I said, in order to hit the date and to complete all the work to get the thing ported to the Xbox 360 -- which was a gigantic pain in the ass, I might add -- we needed to cut some of the non-essential features.

ProdMgr: Whoa, what do you mean "non-essential"?

DevLead: Oh, you know, some of the really obscure features that not many users were really interested in anyway.

ProdMgr: Please tell me you didn't touch the gameplay.

DevLead: No, we didn't. As discussed, all the gameplay improvements were implemented.

ProdMgr: Whew. Well that's a relief. You know, the beta tests we did on the gameplay went really well. Especially the improved physics with the bodies.

DevLead: Yes.

ProdMgr: Okay, so we didn't cut any of that. That's good. What did we cut then?

DevLead: You know, some minor stuff.

ProdMgr: Okay, minor stuff like what?

DevLead: Well, we had to scale back the XBox Live parts.

ProdMgr: Really?

DevLead: Yeah.

ProdMgr: Well that's not good. How back does scaled back mean?

DevLead: We had to cut the online co-op play.

ProdMgr: ...

DevLead: It just would have been too much to get in given the dates.

ProdMgr: So now people can't play with their friends online?

DevLead: I mean, they can play against their friends...

ProdMgr: But I thought we would get the online co-op. You told me we would. People are expecting that.

DevLead: What can I tell you.

ProdMgr: More people log in to Xbox Live every night than watch all of network TV combined, and you cut back the Xbox Live features?

DevLead: Look, we only had so many resources. I told you we needed more devs.

ProdMgr: Fine. What else.

DevLead: We had to pull back a little on the customization.

ProdMgr: Okay...how much?

DevLead: A lot.

ProdMgr: Enough with the vagueness -- what's missing?

DevLead: You can't edit the teams.

ProdMgr: At all?

DevLead: At all. You can still edit the players, though.

ProdMgr: But not the teams?

DevLead: Nope.

ProdMgr: Ummm, but we've supported that in every previous version.

DevLead: Well, it was a lot of work to port it over.

ProdMgr: So you just cut it?

DevLead: Oh please. If anything, it should take some of the heat off the legal team -- we're making it harder for the users to fake the teams that we haven't paid the licensing on.

ProdMgr: But the personalization features are a core part of the whole franchise! People love to change the names of the teams, and the badges, and the uniforms. Seriously -- there are web sites devoted to it!

DevLead: Oh right. I saw the focus group results -- no one even knows that those features are in there! So a couple dweebs really get off on making custom uniforms for their imaginary soccer teams and then putting them on their geektastic web sites, big whup.

ProdMgr: Those dweebs are our core customers! Those geekstastic web sites are the backbone of our user community! Remember, we're a big fat number two in the US!

DevLead: Meh, whatever. We're still the biggest franchise globally -- with the people who actually know something about football.

ProdMgr: I appreciate that, I do. And I know you guys have been working hard, but personalizing the teams is an important feature.

DevLead: What can I tell you, it was either that or skimp on the gameplay.

ProdMgr: Really?

DevLead: Really.

ProdMgr: Will you bring the edit features back next year?

DevLead: We'll consider it. Depending on how many devs you get me.

ProdMgr: We'll talk about it during budgeting.

DevLead: Sounds good.

ProdMgr: Well, we're almost out of time -- just one more question for you.

DevLead: Shoot.

ProdMgr: Does it still do the thing where the computer opponent scores cheapo goals off set pieces in stoppage time to keep your team from getting promoted?

DevLead: Oh yeah.

ProdMgr: That's all I wanted to hear. Nice work, boys.

Posted by thatkid at February 25, 2007 8:26 PM under Biznass

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