Judd and Plenty: An Interview With Capcom's Ben Judd
A Tokyo sit-down with Mr. Bionic Commando himself, Producer Ben Judd.
11/5/2008 6:59 PM | 5 Comments | Page 2 of 4
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
"I always feel like I'm the meat in a Japanese-company and Western-buyer sandwich.
You mean like now?
Judd: Like now, yes. Every time I do an interview I go, "Man, I could get into deep crap for what I'm saying." But in the end, it's for the good of the product, and as long as I keep believing that, I'm going to keep doing it.
Crispy Gamer: We seem to be entering a new age where game developers are becoming minor celebrities. People are listening to what you have to say.
Judd: You think so?
Crispy Gamer: Yes. The public is starting to really recognize developers for their achievements. Seriously, man, you should have your own table at Spago.
Judd: [Laughs] I should.
Crispy Gamer: You're pleased with
Bionic Commando Rearmed and how it has been received by the public?
Judd: Yes. Absolutely.
Crispy Gamer: Which of the three platforms is it selling best on?
Judd: The 360, by far. It came out a day earlier [on the 360], so fans who have multiple platforms and needed to get it immediately got it there first.
You want to get jaded about something you love? Try working on it for three years straight; working from 8 am to 2 am every night.
Looking back over the game's development, is there one particular thing that you're really proud of?
Judd: One thing you might not be aware of is that ... submissions, especially [for] digital titles, are delayed a lot. That's because the submission process is not easy. There are only so many spots that can be filled by submissions at one time, and the reality is that there are many more games being produced than they have slots for.
Crispy Gamer: It's like virtual shelf space.
Judd: Except you have many stores worldwide. In this case, [it's] as if you only have one store in the entire world [for] your title. We took a huge gamble about when we were going to release the game, because we didn't know if the slot we wanted would actually be available. We aimed for mid-August because that's when Microsoft does their summer campaign and offers a huge amount of support. But a lot of other people were saying that we should play it safe and aim for mid-September. Ultimately, I stuck with August, and even though we weren't 100 percent [certain that we would get the game into the August lineup], we took a gamble, we got in there, and it paid off. And I think that's why we saw the great sales numbers we've been seeing. On the podcast, we all guessed how many units it would sell in the first week. I picked 80,000 and we blew that number away.
Crispy Gamer: What did you get?
Judd: Over 100,000. So that's the one part of the process that I'm most proud of.
Crispy Gamer: Now give me the one thing that you're least proud of. What's one thing that you would have liked to change?
