M2G Exclusive Inteview: Sports Champions

Sports Champions has been one of the biggest and most popular games since the recent release of the PlayStation Move, debuting at number two and therefore becoming an instant success with all the early adopters. We managed to catch up with both Zindagi Games and San Diego studios to talk more about the game and its future support. Read all about the future of your favourite PlayStation Move title below. . Sports Champions Interview with San Diego Studios and Zindagi Games Sports Champions, in our opinion, is the first must have title for PlayStation Move. Are you pleased with how it came out? Z: Yes, we are happy with the game, but looking back at any product we develop, we’re sure that we could have done better.  We specifically were pleased to work with such incredible technology that allowed us to offer a true 1:1 experience for the consumer. SD: Being the first game on new hardware is always a challenge.  We had the impressive abilities of the PS3 fixed of course, but not knowing what the Move system would really be capable of for the majority of development came with its own set of challenges.  Thankfully the player feedback continued to get more and more positive which really helped propel us through the finish line.  So yes, very happy.  J Some of the game choices seem quite unusual, but they do seem to work. How did you decide on the final choice of games to be included? Z:  We looked at the technology and tried to come up with games that could show a variety of mechanics and really give a good example of what the Move was capable of. Why the decision not to include online multiplayer? Is this something you may patch / release as DLC in the future? Z:  Because Sports Champions evolved with the Move technology, there were a lot of moving pieces.  We decided to focus our energy on making the best possible Move game rather than spread our resources to other areas. SD: For SC online multiplayer is something many of us really wanted to do and experimented with a great deal, but we weren’t comfortable with the compromises we would have to make to the rest of the game to make this happen.  We have nothing specific to announce for the future, but the number one request since launch has been for online multiplayer and as you might expect it is something we will continue to look at very closely. Are you planning to release any other DLC, such as new games / costumes etc? Z: We have continuing discussions about how to enhance the user experience.  Various levels of DLC is certainly part of this plan. SD: There are a couple of rounds of DLC that is for sure happening with more possible depending on demand. We are hooked on Table Tennis and it seems we aren’t the only ones. Would you every consider releasing Table Tennis as a separate game, with perhaps more expansive gameplay modes? It seemed to have worked for Rockstar and it didn’t have the Move. Z: Currently we believe that SC is a strong package as a whole.  As stated above, we’re always looking for ways to enhance the user experience, so if we find out our fans want something like this, we’ll certainly consider it. SD: An area that we spent a lot of time on was what the right amount of content per event.  We certainly could have gone with a much larger far more shallow experience per event, but that has already been done many times over and didn’t feel right to us.   We wanted to make sure you couldn’t master an event in a couple of hours.  I STILL find ways to improve in events after all this time.  I also think that there is a room for specializing an entire product to one event as well, and I believe we will see that in future Move games. You must have been please to see the game come straight in at number two in the UK charts. If the title becomes a huge success are you hoping to do a sequel? Z: Like any other successful product, everyone would love to see a sequel including Zindagi.  We have a million ideas about how we could take a sequel to an entirely new level of enjoyment. SD: The early success has been extremely satisfying to see especially after years of tremendous effort by so many people at Sony and Zindagi to make it possible.   Doing a sequel would be a great experience.  There is a ton of lessons learned to apply, customer feedback to integrate, and finalized hardware to work with.  Sign me up! Obviously the Move is a fairly new technology as far as games on PS3 are concerned. With this in mind, do you think there is anything you could have done differently to improve Sports Champions? Z:  Absolutely.  There are many things we could have done to make SC a more enjoyable experience.  One thing that comes to mind immediately is to make the game even more accessible to new users.  SC is a very deep game, which is great, but we’ve heard some reports of a few users struggling when they first pick it up.  Table Tennis is an example of that.  Once you get over the learning curve, users almost universally love the game, but for those that struggle in the beginning and don’t get over the learning curve, Table Tennis never gets a chance to show what a great experience it can be. SD:  I don’t want to give away too much in case we do get a chance to make a sequel, but the team shares all of the same popular feedback we are seeing from end users.  We are listening. What other titles do you have in the works for PlayStation Move? Z: I can’t speak specifically about what titles we have under development, but I will say that we strongly believe in and are working hard to support the PS Move in every way possible. SD:  Nothing I can announce here, but rest assured that both the Dualshock and Move will be heavily supported in the years to come. Do you have anything to add? Z:  I think PS Move will revolutionize motion control for all gaming.  Having a true 1:1 experience is something that gamers have been longing for since motion control was ever considered.  But it’s not only gamers that want 1:1, casual users also appreciate games that allow them the fidelity to have an experience that they only ever dreamed of.  Motion control is here to stay and I believe that PS Move and Sony will set the bar for what is expected on the current consoles and into the future. SD: Thanks for everyone’s interest and support. . Sports Champions is available now in the UK, Europe and the US. 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