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More fuel to the fire

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:23 pm
by Marc
Some interesting comments on the localization attempts with Policenauts here. You'll need to do a search for Policenauts, then follow Zach Meston's replies, to see the relevant info.

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19021

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:46 pm
by 8bitsonic
So that's another reason Policenauts never made it here? Kojima wanted to be involved in the translation. Makes sense; he was, after all, the director for each port of the game.

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:16 pm
by Marc
I think he'd made that clear for all his games after how upset he was with the 32-bit ports of Snatcher.

But this just makes me wonder how far KoA is/was involved with it. I talked to quite a few of them via e-mail all those years ago, and one in particular (I won't mention his name), gave me the usual excuses, but then said, "There's always the possibility we'll revisit them with a Kojima classics collection in the future." Then, get this, I talked to his brother, who is an industry journalist (that might be a clue for you), and he quoted his brother (without knowing I'd talked to him, too): "Like my brother always says, we can't just release a game to please a small contingent of hardcore fans," making it sound like they'd never do it. So I got two different stories (all other comments taken into account) from these two brothers, basically. Of course there was other stuff, too, like their VP of marketing getting fired in the summer of 2000 for his attempts to bring it out. I talked to him, too, and he sounded like a very genuine guy who wanted to explore different ways of releasing them - he even mentioned an direct order-only release through Konami's website.

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:08 pm
by 8bitsonic
Osiris wrote:I think he'd made that clear for all his games after how upset he was with the 32-bit ports of Snatcher.
Where was it said that he was upset? Not that he shouldn't have been upset...those ports really do bring Snatcher down to a level of mediocrity that no Kojima game has ever sunk to.

These brothers...would one of them have the first name of Jeremy?

And some poor guy got FIRED because he wanted to bring Policenauts to America? And only sell it online? What the hell? Is this game cursed or something?

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:42 am
by OtakupunkX
8bitsonic wrote:Is this game cursed or something?
I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:11 am
by Marc
8bitsonic wrote:Where was it said that he was upset? Not that he shouldn't have been upset...those ports really do bring Snatcher down to a level of mediocrity that no Kojima game has ever sunk to.
I don't remember where I read that, but I do remember that impression coming from him. Maybe Snatcher can help me out here.
8bitsonic wrote:These brothers...would one of them have the first name of Jeremy?
No, it wasn't them (him and Michael).
8bitsonic wrote:And some poor guy got FIRED because he wanted to bring Policenauts to America? And only sell it online?
That's what a good friend told me, and I have reason to believe him. Like I said, I talked to the guy myself through e-mail after the big "petition" on Konami's boards in 2000, and he said, "We're still looking into it right now, but hopefully we'll have some good news at the end of the summer." Then *poof* it's like he was Snatched, and there was a new VP of marketing (that was his position).
8bitsonic wrote:What the hell? Is this game cursed or something?
Yeah, it does seem that way, heh. Kojima mentioned in his retrospective on the game in 2003 about the game having a certain "magnetism", but maybe he should have thrown in "curse" as well.

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:01 pm
by Artemio
Osiris wrote:
8bitsonic wrote:Where was it said that he was upset? Not that he shouldn't have been upset...those ports really do bring Snatcher down to a level of mediocrity that no Kojima game has ever sunk to.
I don't remember where I read that, but I do remember that impression coming from him. Maybe Snatcher can help me out here.
I don't remember either, but I am almost sure of having read it as well. I'll try and figure it out.