Wikinews interviews Tatsuhisa Yabushita of NBGI

February 2, 2008 Many rhythm gamers are anticipating the release of "Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version", the Namco Bandai Games Inc. (NBGI) beta version of which was recently showcased at the 2008 Taipei Game Show.

In fact, several managers from amusement stores in Taiwan frequently imported large quantities of arcade games, including rhythm games. Eventually, some slot machine developers modified codes from several game consoles like the Wii, PlayStation 2 (PS2), and Sega Saturn to fulfill needs for amusement arcades, but they risked hardware failure and copyright infringement.

But before those modifications happened in Taiwan, many rhythm games just used songs from other arcade machines due to copyright issues from enrolled songs.

The upcoming game will benefit Mandarin-language gamers after its release, but it may hide some secrets behind the development of "Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version". Wikinews reporter Rico Shen recently interviewed the producer of "Taiko no Tatsujin" Tatsuhisa Yabushita to talk about some of the background of this upcoming game and its series.

Interview
It became a hot topic after the NBGI decided to showcase the "Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version" at the 2008 Taipei Game Show, and it's different from past series' because the NBGI acquired several Mandarin-language songs from the Cross-Strait area (Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong) especially. When you choose them, what factors go into the decision?

Tatsuhisa Yabushita: We [the NBGI] enrolled those various songs based on their own performances and rankings from Cross-Strait countries. But we'll still keep several songs from Namco original, Japanese-pop, and classical music in this upcoming game.

I believe that a developer should be aware of international copyright coordination before choosing a song for a game, not only in rhythm games, but also games of other types. For instance, I know that some controversy erupted in Taiwan after some covers of Japanese songs were recorded in other languages without agreements from the original singers and composers. Before the release of this upcoming game, have you coordinated with record companies about the copyright issues?

Yabushita: Everyone should respect copyrights, as you said. I guarantee that every song from the "Taiko no Tatsujin" series in console and arcade versions is licensed through coordination with those companies.

Some gamers may be confused because the console version of the "Taiko no Tatsujin" series is only available for PS2. After the release of the "Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version", will the NBGI release different versions in different countries similar to the way "Taiko Drum Master" was released with special designs for American and European gamers?

Yabushita: Currently, we'll focus our developments on the arcade version and temporarily not to consider different releases for different countries. This is because we will evaluate opinions from amusement stores and gamers after its release.

Summary
The "Taiko no Tatsujin" series became a hot topic after amusement stores imported several arcade machines in Taiwan. The release of the "Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version" aims to please countries speaking the Mandarin language.