“I think many developers and publishers are just focusing on DS but everybody understands [DS' significance in the market] will not go for a long time from now, so everybody trying to find another solution,” Matsuura told Edge Online. “But it’s very hard to be successful on another platform.”

Matsuura went on to say the platform he’d like to explore the most is the PS3, but worries that Sony might not be aggressive enough in the marketplace.

Later this year, Matsuura will be speaking at GameCity and DICE Asia. Maybe he’ll be talking about this, maybe he won’t. Who knows. Matsuura does, that’s who.

Interview: Masaya Matsuura [Edge Online]

“Developers in the East and West should not be too separate,” said Matsuura at Develop Conference 2009 in Brighton, Uk. “It should be international, and we need to work with more international artists.”

Matsuura stated that he hoped things changed “very soon”. The East-West division could actually hurt gaming, he continued. “I’m very concerned about this point, and perhaps it could be bad for the industry.”

Developers around the world, join hands!

Matsuura: ‘East and West must not be divided’ [Develop]

The duo also worked on the groundbreaking PlayStation title UmJammer Lammy.

Their latest offering, marching title Major Minor’s Majestic March, was released April 24. The game did not make the Media Create weekly top fifty for the 4/20 – 4/26 sales week. According to Japanese site Do Blog, the game didn’t get anywhere near the top fifty.

It apparently sold only 600 copies in its first two days on sale. Matsuura has had low sales before — PaRappa sold only 35,000 in its first month. Word of mouth caused that game to ultimately become a smash hit. Three hundred copies of the game were given out to V-Jump readers; however, those numbers should not factor into weekly sales.

We’ve compared the Do Blog sales tallies with the Media Create ones, and there is a discrepancy between the numbers: Some are lower, some are higher.

ゲームソフトランキング2009年04月20日～04月26日 [ドぶろぐ via チラシの裏でゲーム鈍報]

Video games are a very simple way to enjoy virtual experience. All you need is a TV, a console, a controller, and the software. This is an easy system for everyone compared with other forms of entertainment.

But like Hollywood, in order to keep the customers paying, the industry is using increasingly exaggerated content. Pressing buttons, moving sticks-these are small actions with grand effects. However, I think it is a slight error of judgment in our industry to believe that actions that in reality would carry great responsibility can be carried out in video games without thought for responsibility.

The Wii has come and put a cat amongst the pigeons of this unbalance. The harder you swing the remote, the faster the baseball bat moves. This more organic relation between imagination and reality is easily absorbed.

At the same time we understand that game designs that, for example, require the player to shake the Wii controller strongly to rotate a Tetris block, are unsuitable for input methods like this. The Wii requires a tighter connection between actual and virtual actions. But think! How can we improve on these kinds of obvious connections? That is the hint to make more advanced games.

It’s a bit all over the place, but it’s hard to fault Matsuura for that — it’s a really interesting piece and wonderfully engaging, and certainly worth reading. Sure, it’s only one take on the state of games today and he says many things that I’m sure many gamers would vehemently disagree with, but it’s one (very passionate) side of the debate on where we are and where we’re going.

A Sense of Fun: Anybody Could Be Your Player 1 [Gamasutra]

You’ll probably need a refresher on this one. Major Minor’s Majestic March is a Wii game currently in development at Majesco. It’s being designed by Masaya Matsuura, with art duties being handled by his old Parappa buddy, artist Rodney Alan Greenblat. It plays a little like Space Channel, except you’re conducting an animal marching band. Read those last two sentences over again, let them sink in for a second, and you’ll see why this might be one of the quietest, yet most pleasant unveilings of the show.

It is not a simple bubble. The DS successfully launched in many territories simultaneously, but maybe at the end of 2006 to 2007 many titles — sequels — lost [money]. Very few titles are getting much better.

This means, especially for the Brain Training titles or non-gaming content, it is getting difficult right now.

But the Wii’s doing okay, right? Not necessarily says Matsuura! That, after the jump.

Wii’s case is much more difficult. It currently looks as if no third-party title is successful in Japan. So, this means to make a good Wii game requires longer time to make the interaction better.

In a nutshell: Casual doesn’t have legs, and people only want Nintendo games. A lesson to be learned, but not by us!

Matsuura Interview [Games Industry via Go Nintendo]

Mizuguchi: …What is music? Music has many elements, so how can we cut and separate and remake the parts in the process of game design? So then, game designers have to know what is fun, what is the essence of music?

Matsuura: Essence of music, I don’t know. I really don’t understand the essence of music. I’ve been composing music for thirty years, and I still don’t understand what music is. But I’m still looking for the certain shape of my music. Anybody who can define the existence of music, I really respect.

Mizuguchi: Yeah, I agree with you. Music is like a universe — many, many elements. Lyrics, chords, rhythm, beats, playing, listening. Emotionally, you feel something. When I was 11 years old, I listened to my first Beatles music. I couldn’t understand English, but I felt emotion or something, sort of… I want to love somebody! It’s the power of music, of chords… very physical things, very emotional things. Not logic — I don’t know, maybe logic. If I understand the lyrics, and it’s a new chemistry. Music, we have a long history with music, but new music is coming still. I don’t know why. It’s a universe. Amazing.

Great stuff. The rest of the dialogue over at Game|Life is worth checking out as well. Do it, you won’t be sorry.
Interview with Miz and Matsuura [Game|Life]

I play drums, not guitar, but I had to PICK (get it?) them up.

Yes, yes. We get it. He even found an UmJammer Lammy guitar for about a hundred bucks. That, after the jump.

We have to keep increasing the chance to make more unique titles, but for us it’s getting much more difficult because the game market — especially in Japan — is still very conservative.

Many people know that the DS has very unique titles, like Brain Training, or something like that, but it’s not for younger-aged market. It’s kind of older people, like me.

Hmm. Might be onto something. Ace Attorney, Phantom Hourglass, Mario, Advance Wars…most of the DS’s best games for “regular” gamers have been additions and upgrades to existing franchises, not out and out new experiences. Flip side: having shown we’ll buy the same Nintendo games over and over for 10-15 years, why would developers bother?
Matsuura Got Rhythm: The State Of NanaOn-Sha’s Founder [Gamasutra] [Image]