Wii

Kobayashi-san, what would you say about this game if you were the one promoting it? What I mean is, there's so much going on in this game that I feel like it would be difficult to give a brief explanation. What would you say if you had to make a 15 second commercial for it?

Let' see… To tell you the truth, the question of how to get the game across within that 15-second timeframe is a question that we've been discussing for a long time since we began development.

Also, the person hearing about it needs to be able to go and describe it to other people. Otherwise word doesn't really get around.

Let's see... Hmmm... The tagline of Go Vacation is "Explore a fun-filled island paradise!" I think the best way to explain it is to say that it's a game where you can enjoy the experience of being at a resort. It has ski slopes and beaches and mountains, and you can enjoy activities through all four seasons. But it's certainly difficult to explain. How was it like with Wii Sports Resort?

The idea behind Wii Sports Resort was to show the possibilities of the Wii MotionPlus⁸ accessory through a summer resort, so the real point of that game was to showcase the Wii MotionPlus accessory. You could say that we wanted it to be the ideal cataloging software for it. 8. Wii MotionPlus: An accessory with a gyro sensor for connection to the Wii Remote controller.

Oh, right. Hmm, I'm not… Can this be homework?

Why?! (laughs) Homework? You mean you're not even going to try and follow that up?!

Well, nope. (laughs)

It's definitely something that Kobayashi-kun and the members in the project team have been mulling over. There's so much that we want to get across but when we try to put it succinctly the only thing we can come up with is "a resort experience."

But the phrase "resort tour experience" doesn't really explain exactly what you can do in the game.

Exactly, it's not very straight-forward.

(thinking silently)

What about something like "a smorgasbord of fun at an all-season resort"?

Like... an all-season smorgasbord, regardless of whether you're a guy or a girl.

How about "unlimited fun at a resort".

Unlimited fun...

(thinking for a while)

Maybe the three of us can make this our homework. (laughs)

Oh well, I guess it ended up becoming homework! (laughs)

(laughs)

So how did you decide on the title Go Vacation?

When we were thinking of the title, we thought that we could get across the idea of somewhere that you could stay for a long time with the word "vacation." But people outside of Japan said that the word "vacation" doesn't really connote something very active, so we decided on "Go Vacation" because the meaning behind it is "Let's GO on an active vacation!"

We actually decided on the title during the first step of development.

Oh, is that so? For us there are times where we can't seem to decide on a title until the very end. With Wii Sports Resort, we had "resort" as a keyword very early on. Of course when you're making something very new like this, it is important to decide on a title early on. Deciding on a keyword early on helps everyone come to a consensus on what the game will be like.

That's true.

Finally, I'd like you to give a message recommending the game to players. It doesn't have to be 15 seconds though. (laughs) We'll start with you, Sakagami-san.

Okay. In Go Vacation you can feel as if you are in a real resort, so you can try out anything you want, even sports that you might not actually be any good at in real life. We hope you'll be able to throw your cares away and just enjoy the experience of being at a resort.

This game took two and a half years and a large group of people—both the in house staff and people from outside development companies—to complete. We've tried to put in more games than you could ever finish playing. You can play at the winter resort in winter and the summer resort in summer, so we hope that it will be a game you'll enjoy all year round.

The way that you seamlessly incorporated all this variety into an all-season resort make it seem like you didn't just make lots of games, but more like you made an incredible place to play.

Yes, that's exactly it.

You've put so much energy into this game that I really hope a lot of people play it, especially to those who feel like they've played Wii Sports Resort to the very last drop.

Oh, you took the words out of our mouth. (laughs)

Thank you. Can we go ahead and keep that in? (laughs)

Thank you both so much for coming today.

Thank you!