In the recent HideoBlog web radio show hosted by Konami (via: Game Jouhou), Hideo Kojima talked about Zone of the Enders HD Collection and the reason why we might have to wait a little longer to see a Zone of the Enders sequel.
Kojima started the show by assuming the persona of the humorous Moby Dick Studio CEO, Joakim N. Mogren, with the bandaged mask. However, his humorous tone quickly changed to a more stern voice once he began to talk about Zone of the Enders HD Collection. After reading plenty of feedback, especially from fans of the PlayStation 2 versions of the game, it has come to his attention that his recent HD Remaster didn’t live up to the expectation of the franchise’s loyal fans, to whom he offers his deepest apologies.
Zone of the Enders HD Collection’s transition from 30 FPS to 60 was not as smooth as Kojima had hoped for. While it wasn’t as noticeable to first-time players, those who enjoyed the original seamless fast-paced games were able to feel the choppiness. (For a comparison, check out Spencer’s playtest.) Kojima believes that such action-heavy games deserve nothing but the smoothest gameplay to fully enjoy. Due to this problem, Kojima and his team have re-programmed the entire game, and will release a free PlayStation 3 patch that should fix the problem and greatly enhance its performance. There won’t be a patch for the Xbox 360 version for the time being.
Not only has this incident prompted Kojima to work on a patch to fix the problem, but it has also put a halt to the Enders’s Project which was announced last year as a Zone of the Enders sequel. The entire team behind the project has been dismantled, as Kojima would like to re-evaluate the franchise before moving forward, he says. Furthermore, he also wants to re-evaluate fans by asking once more, whether they would still like to see a Zone of the Enders sequel.
The release date of the upcoming patch for the PlayStation 3 version of Zone of the Enders HD Collections has not been announced yet.
Published: May 2, 2013 05:05 pm