Tetsuya Mizuguchi
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'Tetris Effect: Connected' adds VR support on PC
'Tetris Effect: Connected' combines multiplayer action and virtual reality immersion for PC players.
'Space Channel 5' returns in VR form on February 25th
If you're still pining for Space Channel 5, Tetsuya Mizuguchi's first big music-focused games, you're in for a treat... if you have the right hardware, anyway. Grounding and Sega are releasing a VR take on the franchise, Space Channel 5 VR Kinda Funky News Flash, on February 25th for PlayStation VR owners. You're not taking Ulala's place as she dances her way to saving the galaxy. Rather, you play an intern reporter who dances along to the action while dodging blasts from enemies. The super-colorful '60s style and music remain intact.
'Tetris Effect' brings its VR head trip to PCs on July 23rd
You won't have to snag a PS4 if you want to experience the synesthesia of Tetris Effect. Enhance has confirmed that its music-driven, effects-laden take on the classic puzzler is coming to PCs on July 23rd. It should take advantage of the extra power, too, with support for 4K and higher resolutions (including ultra-wide monitors) as well as an unlocked frame rate. And yes, there's support for VR headsets -- HTC Vive and Oculus Rift owners can fully immerse themselves in the psychedelic experience.
Lumines changes hands, returning on iOS and Android
Mobcast acquired the Lumines and Meteos properties from Q Entertainment, the Japanese smartphone game developer announced this week, as translated by Gematsu. Additionally, a new Lumines game is on the way for iOS and Android, and will be a collaboration with the colorful puzzle series' creator, Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Mizuguchi will work on the latest Lumines at his new California-based studio, Enhance Games. The Rez and Space Channel 5 creator co-founded Q Entertainment in 2003 following his departure from Sega. Mizuguchi left the developer in March. The last Lumines game to launch was 2012's Lumines: Electronic Symphony (seen above). [Image: Q Entertainment]
Report: Rez developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi departs Q Entertainment
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, most famous for developing trippy shooters Child of Eden and Rez, has departed Q Entertainment, according to an unnamed employee who reportedly contacted CVG to relay the news. Though Mizuguchi founded Q Entertainment in 2003 after leaving Sega, CVG's anonymous source claims the developer departed the company at an unspecified point in 2013. The move remained a secret until now, though its not entirely clear why neither Q Entertainment nor Mizuguchi made this news available to the public. As for Mizuguchi's motivations, the source cites the acquisition of Q Entertainment by Japanese company Sanyo Chemical Industries. That may be the case, but Mizuguchi had long ago stepped away from having an active hand in the development of Q Entertainment's products. As we reported in 2012, Mizuguchi made a public decision to move into a spokesman role at the company, and had focused his development efforts on more academic pursuits. [Image: Ubisoft]
Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi joins Keio University
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, former head of Q? Entertainment and creator of games like Rez, Lumines, Space Channel 5 and Child of Eden, has taken a position at Keio University as a "project professor." He remains at Q as a "spokesperson."Keio's announcement notes that his position in the Graduate School of Media Design will allow him to "continue to produce games and further expand his expertise in the field of media design and innovative content production." So he's still working on games, but no longer in a commercial environment.Considering he's best known for games about shooting corrupted files out of the computerized memory of a virtual teenager, and using your dancing-slash-journalism skills to defeat TV-faced aliens, we're intensely curious about what Mizuguchi does when freed from commercial concerns.
Rez and Child of Eden creator Mizuguchi steps away from game development
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man behind Rez, Lumines, and Child of Eden, isn't currently developing games at Q Entertainment. Company director Nobuhiko Shimizu told Eurogamer that Mizuguchi is taking on a "spokesperson" role, having become more involved with "academic work."Mizuguchi's game development career began at Sega in 1990. There he created Sega Rally, Space Channel 5, and Rez, before moving to Q Entertainment in 2003. At Q he designed Lumines, Ninety-Nine Nights, and most recently Child of Eden. While Mizuguchi didn't oversee Q Entertainment's latest game, Lumines Electric Symphony, he was heavily involved with its development.
Yamaha Vocaloid on Miselu Neiro synth: exclusive hands-on at Google I/O 2012 (video)
Did you enjoy our first look at the latest apps being showcased on Miselu's Neiro Android-powered synth here at Google I/O 2012? Want more? You've come to the right place. As promised here's an exclusive hands-on with Yamaha's Vocaloid app demoed by the man behind the technology himself -- video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi. We got the chance to play with an early build of the software running on the same 3-octave prototype version of the synth that we last saw at SXSW. The verdict? It works pretty well considering the pre-alpha status of the code. The app features two modes of operation -- edit and play -- the former letting you type or speak text and map it to an existing melody and the latter allowing you to chose preset sentences and "sing" them with the keyboard. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so take a look at our gallery below and watch our hands-on video after the break.
Miselu Neiro synth at Google I/O: exclusive first look at apps from Korg and Yamaha (video)
Remember Miselu's Neiro -- that prototype app-based Android-powered synth we last played with at SXSW? Not only is it being showcased at Google I/O 2012 here in San Francisco, but we got an exclusive first look at some of the apps being developed for the new platform ahead of the event. The company's been on a roll since our meeting in Austin, gaining (ex-OQO CEO) Jory Bell as CTO and building relationships with partners like Korg and Yamaha. Now on its second iteration, the laptop-like synth has evolved from the hand-built prototype we saw at SXSW to a more polished reference design -- complete with breakout board for SD card and Ethernet support. As before, the device runs Gingerbread on a dual-core TI OMAP processor and features a two octave velocity and pressure-sensitive keyboard, a capacitive multitouch widescreen, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, audio and MIDI I/O, plus USB and HDMI ports. This version even adds XLR and quarter-inch audio jacks -- just keep in mind that those specs have not been finalized. What's really exciting about the synth is the apps. The company's ongoing partnership with Retronyms to create a suite of touch-controlled, cloud-enabled musical apps has evolved beyond the drum-machine demo we covered at SXSW. Called nStudio, the suite now also includes a pad-based sampler / sequencer and a mixer. Plasma Sound is a touch-based musical instrument that's part theremin, part keyboard / sequencer. It's already available for other devices on Google Play, but was easily tweaked to run on the Neiro -- sight unseen -- thanks to Miselu's musicSDK and OS X-based emulator. Miselu will be showcasing two more apps on its synth here at Google I/O: Korg's Polysix and Yamaha's Vocaloid. The Polysix app faithfully recreates Korg's legendary 1981 synth -- known for its rich, thick analog sound. A real, mint-condition Polysix was even available for comparison during our brief time with the app (see our gallery). Vocaloid takes full advantage of the NSX-1 DSP chip that's built-into the Neiro. It's a singing synth app produced by Yamaha that "uses concatenative synthesis to splice and process vocal fragments extracted from human voice samples." We'll be spending some time with the Vocaloid app and its creator -- video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Sega and Lumines fame) -- later today. In the meantime, check out the gallery below and watch our hands-on video with the other apps after the break.%Gallery-159214%
Child of Eden has a 'corset peripheral' (which you'll probably never see)
The gaming industry is, with astonishing regularity, a total circus sideshow of inexplicable oddities -- but we're confident that nothing has approached the levels of bizarritude contained within this here post. According to IGN, Child of Eden creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi announced at the Kapow! Comic Con that developer Q Entertainment has whipped up a unique peripheral for the Kinect shooter: A corset which holds four 360 controllers at one time, all of which individually vibrate to the beat of Eden's music. It sounds like a prototype that's unlikely to make it beyond the borders of Q Entertainment's home office -- but that doesn't make it any less magical. We mean, mathematically, it's four times crazier than Rez's Trance Vibrator. Exponentially more so, actually, since the vibrations in question happen inside of a corset.
Child of Eden preview: Son of Rez
After dazzling a room of Tokyo Game Show attendees with an extravagant Child of Eden demonstration, designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi offers a far-too-modest appraisal of his "multisensory shooter." This level's still early, he apologizes, and the game currently shares no statistics upon completion. And sorry, but there's no Game Over screen. It's like sitting down in an opulent French restaurant and being told by the waiter that -- sorry! -- the kitchen isn't dishing out cheeseburgers and mini donuts tonight. Later, I ask Mizuguchi if Child of Eden, which he describes as a "feeling good game," even needs to introduce something so contrary like a Game Over screen. Does this mesmerizing mix of thumping music and abstract visuals really need an element of failure? %Gallery-103243%
Tetsuya Mizuguchi wants your memories in Child of Eden
During a Tokyo Game Show event, Q? Entertainment head Tetsuya Mizuguchi unveiled a new component of his abstract Xbox 360/PS3 rail shooter, Child of Eden -- a component for which he needs your input. For "The Journey Project" (not to be confused with The Journeyman Project), Mizuguchi seeks to build a collection of player-submitted pictures, for inclusion in the game's last level. "In this game, the player's mission is to purify everything, every data," Mizuguchi told us in an interview. "And this is the final stage of this game, you know, I need the beauty of memories." With the collective memories of family, friends and "beautiful landscapes" added, "finally, you can get that kind of memory with music. It must be real." The developer added, "I want to put everybody's credit at the end of the game." An announcement by Ubisoft clarifies that images can be submitted to the official Child of Eden website until November 20, and all "approved photos" will be used in the game. We're already cringing about the possibility of thousands of jokers submitting pictures of Journey to the Journey Project. %Gallery-103528%
Preview: Child of Eden
I admit to being a bit let down not to have the opportunity to play Child of Eden, Tetsuya Mizuguchi's spiritual successor to Rez, at Ubisoft's E3 booth. However, watching Tetsuya Mizuguchi play the game for a small group was still a rare and wonderful experience. And for a Kinect game, it doesn't seem that I missed out on as much for having a "hands-off" demo, because even the person playing it was hands-off. Mizuguchi walked us through two of the rail shooter's levels, called "Archives." The concept for the game (which it doesn't need at all -- "you shoot pretty stuff" is more than enough) is that you're eliminating viruses from visual representations of emotional memories within the AI "Project Lumi" -- Lumi just happens to be the same name of the virtual idol at the front of Mizuguchi's Genki Rockets band. Your shots "purify" everything they hit, while also, of course, emitting drumbeat noises and other musical sounds, provided, of course, by Genki Rockets. %Gallery-95489%
Mizuguchi: Child of Eden to support standard controllers
Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest music-driven "synesthesia" shooter, Child of Eden, made for an exciting kickoff to Ubisoft's pre-E3 2010 press conference. We caught up with the Rez creator following the event to chat about the his Kinect title, and found out that Microsoft's new motion-tracking tech actually won't be required to play. Mizuguchi answered in the affirmative when we asked if Child of Eden can be played using a standard controller, also confirming that players will experience Rez-like controller vibration synced to the game's music. Given that the Q Entertainment founder went as far as to create the "Trance Vibrator" peripheral for additional, buzz-y feedback for Rez, we asked how he felt (or didn't, as the case may be) about a lack of tactile feedback when playing Kinect titles. "When I play the Kinect, I need some feedback," he replied, adding that vibrating bracelets -- like the Trance Vibrator -- could be used to improve the experience. And what about a PlayStation Move release of the game? "We haven't decided yet," Mizuguchi responded when the topic was broached. He may not have, but we've decided we want it. How about you?
Child of Eden coming to Kinect, Tetsuya Mizuguchi leading development
Were you wondering what would make you purchase Microsoft's Kinect? Well, if Ubisoft's Your Shape wasn't enough, Tetsuya Mizuguchi revealed his next game live at today's Ubi presser: Child of Eden. From what we can see, it looks a lot like Rez, albeit with gesture-based controls and much prettier visuals. No release date was given, but we'll be sure to bug Ubisoft for more details as soon as we can. For now, we've got the official trailer embedded after the break. The trailer also indicates that Child of Eden is coming to PlayStation 3 (as a PlayStation Move game, we suspect). Update: According to Mizuguchi, it's still being decided whether or not Child of Eden will be a downloadable or retail title.
Q? Entertainment: Music licensing, other issues keeping portable Lumines off PSN for now
Lumines was one of the most popular launch titles for the PSP -- but Q? Entertainment's puzzler is notably absent from the PSP Go's initial lineup. Q explained the reason for the non-downloadability succinctly in a Tweet."We would love to bring Lumines/Lumines II to the PSN store," Q's rep said, "but there are complications, music licensing, was published by Namco, etc." However, "That said, we're obviously looking into it. :)" Q went on to single out the songs "Shinin'" and "Lights" as requiring new licenses for digital distribution, and clarified that it would be Bandai Namco's decision to publish the first Lumines on PSN, since it published the game on UMD (in Japan).While the licensed music in Lumines makes it even harder to republish, this is starting to sound really familiar. As Sony's Eric Lempel told us, it's especially difficult for publishers of older PSP games to go to PSN, because licenses will have elapsed, and won't have covered digital distribution in the first place. And Sony isn't requiring third parties to pursue digital distribution, so unless they see significant revenue potential from, say, PSP Go sales, many publishers just won't. That said, it's hard to imagine a PSP without Lumines, and we're confident it'll happen eventually.[Via PSN Stores; thanks, Kassatsu]
Mizuguchi, Suda 51 weigh in on E3's new motion controllers
In this week's Famitsu, three major Japanese developers discussed this year's E3 and how they feel about the various motion technology displayed. Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Level-5's Akihiro Hino all somewhat agree on what they see as the future of gaming. "Hardware-wise, it was all about Project Natal," Mr. Suda said, as translated by 1UP, noting his excitement on the possibility of creating a game specifically based around its technology."It's not a shift from 2D to 3D or in the number of polygons, but it's games trying to open up an entirely new door," Mizuguchi agreed, continuing, "I thought it would take longer, but it's happening faster than I expected." Ironically, when the trio chose the most exciting games at E3, the list quickly filled with Western-developed games, from Splinter Cell: Conviction and Assassin's Creed 2 to The Beatles: Rock Band. Could they resist the ubiquitous Final Fantasy name drop? No, no they could not. "The visual quality was so impressive that I doubted it was even a game," Hino said of AC2, adding, "Final Fantasy XIII is the same way." Impressed/interested by the motion technology but still loving AAA-franchise sequels? Sounds like the whole game industry right now.
Ubisoft's collaboration with Q Entertainment likely to be a music game
So far, all we've known about "Codename Eden," the project Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment is working on with Ubisoft, is that Mizuguchi is involved, and that Ubisoft didn't think it was worth cutting into its E3 press conference's Cameron Time to bring Mizuguchi up to talk about it. As a result, all we got was a brief mention of the project and an awkward wave from Mizuguchi's seat in the audience.In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft executive director Alain Corre offered substantial hints that the new project may be a music game. First, he described Q as "very advanced and specialised in how to exploit the music genre." GI followed up by asking about Ubisoft's interest in entering the market and competing with Guitar Hero and the like. "We have been researching the music genre a lot," Corre said. "We know some iterations of music games are working very well in the music category. There are a lot of new things to invent in the future with voice or dance, so we're very much looking at what we can do in that respect."This is no absolute guarantee that "Codename Eden" is some kind of music game, but the proximity of the two statements is interesting. And the prospect of a new music game from the creator of Space Channel 5 and Rez is wonderful.
Ubisoft kind of announces something with Tetsuya Mizuguchi
In one of the weirdest moments of a very ... strange Ubisoft conference, the company announced that it was working on a project with Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi. No word on what that project is or when it's coming out, just that there is one, called "Codename Eden" for now.And instead of bringing Mizuguchi up on stage and having him talk about his project, they just pointed him out in the audience. It was weird. Of course, this came right after the company's massive No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle presentation, which consisted entirely of the game logo and a few words about Suda 51.
Lumines Supernova hitting Euro PSN on Feb. 5
Block-dropping synaesthesia news now, with Q Entertainment confirming the European PSN debut of Lumines Supernova. Launching this Thursday, February 5th, Supernova enhances the puzzle game's blend of beats 'n' bricks with new modes (including "Dig Down"), 40 psychedelic skins, a make-your-own-medley Sequencer and, of course, Trophies. Unfortunately, the 14.99 Euro asking price does not net you the US PlayStation Store's free, 20-skin "Holiday Pack." We've queried Q about the add-on's European fate -- and why it's always 4AM when we stop stacking squares.
