WWE 2K-studion Yuke's arbetar på konkurrerande wrestling-spel

Sedan någon gång kort efter Hedenhös har Yuke's varit studion bakom WWE 2K-spelen (och innan dess utvecklade de samma serie för THQ:s räkning), men i en intervju med Video Games Chronicle säger nu senior vice president och producenten Hiromi Furuta att de nu även är igång med ett konkurrerande wrestling-spel:

"I think having no competitor isn't healthy at all. When we had competitors in the wrestling space, we were determined not to lose and that was a great motivator for creating something great.

But right now, looking at the market demands, players are expecting something new every time we release a game and we feel like we haven't achieved what we've really wanted to do. For example, in many cases we're still using old assets and we're not able to do some things in the way that we want to."

Furuta lade även till att studion behöver "find a way to do things in the way that we want, in terms of our existing relationship with our publisher" och att de just nu alltså försöker lansera ett eget wrestling-spel. Hon fortsätter:

"Of course, we will retain the WWE team, but we are also aware that our creators are beginning to lose sight of their passion and confidence and becoming focused only on completing assigned tasks. That's not the direction Yuke's wants to go in. So, in order to compensate, we're going to start a new wrestling project.

We're not chasing money or trends. We'll go in whatever direction we feel is most interesting, combined with the passion of whoever leads the project. As long as whoever leads the project has enough passion, then I'm sure we will achieve our goals.

The new project we have in mind will be the internal competition for WWE."

Teknologin som ska användas till det nya spelet heter ALiS Zero, vilket inte används i WWE 2K-spelen och medger bättre motion capture tack vare specialkameror. Yuke's har redan provat på detta i andra sammanhang:

"We've spent years analysing how the human body moves and how to animate it, so it's no wonder that our research has evolved into the AR space. We could can save tons of money required for renting a motion capture studio, hiring actors and such. From a production standpoint, this system can certainly save a lot of man-months.

For WWE, for example, motion capture is created by the wrestlers and/or actors, and then that data is cleaned up by a mocap studio before being sent to artists for further processing and fine-tuning. With ALiS Zero, the data is created on the spot, along with the motion capture, and submitted immediately.

This new system does not require anyone to edit or process the data. It immediately creates data that can be implemented directly into the game. So yes, it can save a lot of man-hours, and a lot of time overall. We are confident that this is a huge breakthrough."

Teknologin används dock som sagt inte i WWE-spelen och det verkar som att utgivaren är bromsklossen. Furuta avslutar:

"Unfortunately, this specific technology hasn't been adapted yet for WWE. Yuke's ultimately defers to 2K, as they are the publisher and they have the final call. However, I believe it will drastically change the efficiency of development. We would like to use it."

Ser du fram emot mer wrestling från Yuke's och tror du de kan skaka av sig det lite stela upplägget dessa spel ofta har?