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Keita Takahashi still working on games post-Namco
During last week's GameCity conference, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi explained his departure from Namco Bandai in an interview with Eurogamer. "The games I was making were not necessarily the best-selling ones," he said. "I realized Namco was, as a business, going down a bit. Also, my colleagues were leaving to do another project. I started to feel like I didn't belong there any more." On the subject of why his own games didn't sell better: "Maybe because they're not so interesting," Takahashi said. "The reason why is one of the things I'm trying to find out. If I knew, I wouldn't struggle. I don't know." Personally, we hope he never learns the secrets to game industry success (like Unreal Engine and Nolan North). He opined that the constant development of sequels by major publishers is "boring," while also admitting that he understood the business perspective. "I haven't seen anyone trying to make something really new out of the profit they made from those sequels," he said. Since leaving, Takahashi and his wife have formed a new company, Uvula. He's also working on a playground in Nottingham, the town that hosts GameCity. "I'm going to work on more videogames," Takahashi said, including ideas to present to other publishers. "In general, I want to work on lots of different things that I couldn't work on when I was at Namco."
Katamari Damacy director and wife reveal new company
Katamari Damacy director Keita Takahashi and wife Asuka Sakai officially unveiled their new company, named "Uvula," with a low-key website. Rather than focusing solely on game development, the company's "About Us" page details a focus on "music and video games," adding that "we want to widen the our [sic] limit." Oddly, Uvula's first project falls outside of the realm of music and video games, with Takahashi designing a playground in the UK. In typical Takahashi fashion, the company's website contains an "Others" page filled with, well ... other, often bizarre stuff that he created over the years (our fave was the hippo tissue holder seen above). Sure, the announcement of the new business is exciting and all, but, um, have you seen this goat flower box? Remarkable.
