Katamari coup: PS3 port canned, Wii port now on
Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 10:19am by Jack
That quirky ball-rolling title Katamari has done an about face from the PS3 and is now quietly rolling towards the Wii, says IGN.
It’s not really a surprise. The title and console seem to just go together; an odd couple for the ages that sees the chaotic trash ball of Katamari paired up with the clean, inexpensive lines of today’s hottest selling console.
Fresh and piping hot from the rumor mill:
Namco Bandai revealed earlier this year that it was developing the next-generation Katamari Damacy sequel, Beautiful Katamari, for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Up until recently, the developer continued to work on both versions of the project. However, sources close to Namco Bandai tell IGN that the studio ran into some trouble with the port of the game to PlayStation 3 and these issues, coupled with the stalled sales of the system, have led to the project’s quiet cancellation. Looking to better-than-expected sales of Wii, the company has, say insiders, re-shifted resources to ready a Wii build of Beautiful Katamari instead. Given that the title cannot be ported from Xbox 360, the game is being re-concepted for Wii.
Better audience (read: larger), better money, brighter future. The fact that it’s still a go for the Xbox 360, and it this entire rumor is indeed true, does not bode well for the PS3. I mean really, how difficult can it be do port a game like Katamari??
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:47 am
On top of it all, Gamasutra has a posting telling us that the Wii has a 6:1 sales ratio over the PS3. For some reason, all I can hear is Freddy Mercury singing “[Wii] are the champions….” Okay, so sue me….that was a really bad pun. Now all we need is for Smash Bros. to come out and it’ll all be over….
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:51 am
Yeah, I don’t see people shelling out $600 to play a Katarami game.
Plus ball and Wiimote controls just seem to go together.
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I hope they don’t just port it, though: they need to re-think the controller setup for this one really well! From what I’ve heard, the control scheme for Katamari wasn’t it’s strongest feature… to say the least.
I’ve noticed that a lot of developers continue to create really beautiful original games for the PS2, and are skipping the PS3 altogether. This makes perfect sense when you have concept games like Odin Sphere or Okami that don’t require a graphics powerhouse and will sell a lot better if developed for a console with an established consumer base. I’m hoping that all the best video game artists will flock towards Wii to create new, original content!
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I for one am completely surprised, precisely because the game seemed to suit it. Namco have been very illogical recently considering such things as Katamari skipping DS in favour of PSP, Time Crisis skipping Wii in favour of PS3, Soul Calibur 3 skipping Gamecube in favour of PS2, Ace Combat coming to PS3 and Xbox360 but avoiding the system that can approximate a flight stick, and Soul Calibur 4 skipping Nintendo fans altogether.
Add to that Katamari’s creator talking about how much he doesn’t like what Nintendo did with the controller on Wii and I personally won’t believe this until I see a screenshot.
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Awesome! It is one of the best series of games ever, in my opinion. I cant wait for it. The controls ought to be very easy too. My guess would be using mainly motion control for the whole game. But, hopefully, when your arms get tired of “rolling”, you can switch the control scheme to using buttons.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:55 am
>>Given that the title cannot be ported from Xbox 360, the game is being re-concepted for Wii.
What tells me, will it be built with the Wii hardware in mind ?
So Namco will have two seperate teams to develope the game for two different system, huh? thats good then, each version (Wii/360) of the game will take advantage of thier own systems hardware.