Pro Evo Creator Admits Foul-Ups
Plus Konami weighs in on the repurcussions for 2008.
Last year Microsoft scored an exclusive with only the Xbox 360 getting a next-gen console version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6. This year saw both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 getting invites to the party, but by series creator Shingo Takatsuka's own admission, things didn't turn out so well for Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 on Sony's console.
Takatsuka told PSM3, via sister cite CVG, that the game was "so far from what we wanted".
Reviewers of the PS3 version of the game bemoaned the lack of improvement over last year's version and, worse still, pointed to technical blunders that kept the game from hitting its goals, especially in the online components.
Part of the problem appears to be the difference in the hardware abilities of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, a notion seemingly confirmed by Takatsuka's comment that the studio is "simply not set up for multi-platform development".
With the game's annual late-October release timeframe nearing, the team thought about delaying the game, but Takatsuka says that "different factors" meant that the game had to be released as it was.
For future iterations of the series, the team is "taking it back to the drawing board".
What, exactly, does that mean for the next Pro Evolution Soccer? Will there be a Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 on PS3 next year? A company representative would only say that it's "too early to discuss our plans for PES 2009".
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo
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