Talking points include a look back at the N64's controller and how that affected development of the original Sin & Punishment, how Treasure refines their gameplay ideas in a jazz session-esque meeting of the minds, and the goal of getting the game to achieve 60 frames per second. On the latter point, the following took place:
Maegawa: Just about the time development of Sin & Punishment began, Super Mario Galaxy came out. When I heard it was being made at 60 frames per second, I thought we should do the same thing.
Iwata: (laughs)
And there's your Iwata-laugh for the day. Read the whole interview here.
It takes 3 people a long time to make a game like S&P2
It's not like people get more powerful hardware so they can just max out frame rates of last gen games. They gotta push the machine has hard as possible, and the new architectures* take time to master.
It's kind of sad how getting a game to run at 60fps is still considered an accomplishment. That should be a standard at this point.
According to the developer, there is no marketing premium, or review score value, in supporting the highest-possible refresh rate common to all HDTVs. ... To back up his arguments, Acton has produced interesting data based on a large number of game reviews, which indicates that while there is a clear link between graphics and final score, there is little to no evidence that frame-rate has as much influence. He also polled readers of the Insomniac website, and found that while 16 per cent of respondents were firmly in favour of 60FPS, most are not, with the majority favouring a solid frame-rate that doesn't interfere with the gameplay.
Naughty Dog recently announced that they're no longer going to focus on making their games run at 60 FPS. (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/insomniac-60fps-no-more) It seems like a step backwards, but in all fairness I have a hard time arguing against their case.
Uh, that's Insomniac. Makers of the Ratchet and Clank series.
