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N-Philes: Moving on to the Nintendo Wii, Harvest Moon was recently announced for it and we were wondering how it would take advantage of the controller.Markay: Harvest Moon will come out for the Wii. It's coming out in 2007. Other than that, it's still early on in the development, so there's no specifics in terms of details of how Harvest Moon will work with the unique controller, but all I can tell you is if you're familiar with the Harvest Moon series at all in terms of what you have to do: watering your crops, hoeing, using an axe, using your sickle, interacting with your animals, all I can tell you is that it's going to definitely utilize uniquely the controller, and it almost seems like a perfect fit in my opinion. You know, where some other kind of games you think, "Okay, well what can we do that's innovative, try to make it fit?" - but it just seems like it's peanut butter and jelly. It seems like Harvest Moon was meant to be on the Wii.
I'm sure in the upcoming months we'll have more juicy details on how it will be in terms of experience as well as the other features of it.
N-Philes: Are there any plans to bring over titles such as Legend of the River King or Reel Fishing? Because those also seem like they'd be a perfect fit on the Wii.
Markay: Natsume is a huge fan obviously of the fishing genre. Reel Fishing being a great franchise for us, it's the #1 selling fishing franchise of all time. We also have another fishing line, Mark Davis, and then we have the pseudo RPG Legend of the River King. So, I don't think it'll be too long before we announce something. I don't know which franchise will make it over to the Wii, but it obviously is going to have to be something that aims kind of like Nintendo's whole marketing strategy: aiming at the non-gamer. You know, something fun, something easy to do.
N-Philes: Since Nintendo recently started their online service, we were wondering if it'd be worth it for Natsume to release an online game?
Markay: Well, you know, obviously Harvest Moon is kind of the first title we've worked on in terms of the DS market. It doesn't really hold itself well to multiplayer, per se... but it's something that we're looking at. You know, obviously, Freedom Wings, you do it locally. Our development team was looking into that, and I'm sure over time we're probably going to look at something that utilizes something a little more advanced than just the local feature.
N-Philes: So, for the Wii, are you thinking of using the download feature [Virtual Console]?
Markay: Well, to be honest, I don't know all the technical specs in regards to it. Needless to say, Nintendo has to pass out a lot of details which we don't know right now in regards to past titles on Nintendo platforms, as well as the whole kind of concept of, you know, upgrading the particular software that you have at that time. But I'm sure in the upcoming months, as things start getting closer, and development teams start really utilizing the unique features that the Wii has to offer, I'm sure you'll find out more.
N-Philes: How much input does Natsume have into their titles? Do you develop them, or is it just that you pick them up and distribute them?
Markay: It all depends on the particular title you're speaking of.
N-Philes: So, like, Harvest Moon.
Markay: Well, Harvest Moon obviously is developed in Japan, but Natsume has been involved with the series since it hit the shores. Yasuhiro Maekawa, who is my President, when he first joined Natsume he actually saw the very first Harvest Moon on the Super Nintendo. If it wasn't for the fact that he tried so hard to bring it over here, there might not be a Harvest Moon game here in the United States whatsoever.
I mean, it's hard to draw that conclusion but, you know, he liked it, it was his kind of game. He actually took it to a variety of salesmen and retailers saying, "Hey, should we bring this over?" and everyone said, "No."
N-Philes: Really?
Markay: Well, back then, when Harvest Moon was first released on the Super Nintendo, everyone's all, "Well, what do you do? Farm? Who wants to farm? Absolutely no one wants to farm." So even though everyone said no, we still went ahead and released it. We released it at the end of the lifespan of the Super Nintendo. It didn't do the numbers compared to all the other great Super Nintendo games, but it did enough to where [Mr. Maekawa] was happy with it, and he said, "Okay, well, it worked well here."
And then you gotta think about all the "what ifs." What if it never came here? Would the sales in Japan be enough to continue on with the series? You know, maybe, maybe not. You never know. So in terms of the Harvest Moon series, we've been involved ever since it hit the shores. And since then, I've been with Natsume coming up on nine years towards the end of this year, and I wasn't there for the launch of the Super NES, but I've been there since every other Harvest Moon game, and I personally take an active interest in what people say online and in message boards. And every so often we sit around with the producers and the programmers and I pass on things to ‘em left and right.
So, do I actually say, "Hey, you know you should put a pig in Harvest Moon"? No, but I do mention to them that, "Hey, people mentioned they want a pig," or, you know, people mentioned they wanted this and this. And obviously after dealing with so many Harvest Moon games, we realize, kind of, the image and the formula as well as what's expected. So, you know, I won't ever mention, "You should put in such and such," which I know doesn't really fit in with the Harvest Moon series, but I pass along whatever we possibly can.
So that's kind of the input we have with that. And then other games like Freedom Wings, that's a Natsume-developed title. The Puzzle de Harvest Moon, uh, Natsume didn't program it in Japan, but we went to a developer that we've been working with, that we have long roots with, told them the idea and worked closely with them on how we want the game to be. So, it just depends. Ruff Trigger [for the PS2] is a licensed title that a European developer from Italy went ahead and made. We looked at it and said, "Great, let's do it." It just depends.
