MS Nabs Street Fighter and Rez Creators

Okamoto and Mizuguchi making Xenon games.

The signing of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to create exclusive RPGs for the Xbox successor, or Xenon as it's being called in the press, was a coup for Microsoft, which has not seen much support for Xbox in Japan. The company has backed up this move by signing two more esteemed Japanese game designers to create exclusive games for Xenon.

Mizuguchi endeared himself to art-seeking gamers with
his synaesthetic shooter Rez

Yoshiki Okamoto, president and CEO of Game Republic, is best known for his work on the long-running Street Fighter series and the Resident Evil series during his time at Capcom. And while no specifics for the games are known yet, Okamoto is obviously excited about making games for the next-generation Xenon.

"My goal in creating these games is to make completely fresh and riveting experiences that gamers have never had before," said Okamoto. "With the next-generation Xbox platform, I can turn this vision into a reality."

Joining Sakaguchi and Okamoto is ex-Sega game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi (now at Q Entertainment), whose CV boasts several highly regarded classics, including Rez, Space Channel 5 and Sega Rally. Mizuguchi has been an ardent supporter of hardware advancement and was one of the first game designers to create games for both the Nintendo DS and the PSP.

"By combining various factors, including exciting storylines, action, graphics and music, I've created video games that have brought gamers the ultimate fun in gaming," said Mizuguchi.

"Now, I hope to create games that will give gamers the most emotional and thrilling gaming experience possible - joy, thrills, sympathy and speed."

After suffering in Japan with Xbox, Microsoft is determined to avoid making the same mistakes. While Xbox has had no shortage of Western developers who created innovative and popular games, the lack of Japanese developer support hurt sales in Japan. The console recently celebrated its third anniversary in Japan, but in that time less than 500,000 Xboxes were sold.

Microsoft is expected to release Xenon in North America and Europe before the end of 2005. The company has been relatively skimpy with details, considering how near that release date is, but we can expect full details of the Xenon launch at Microsoft's pre-E3 press conference in May.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games