Several developers from Bandai Namco discussed their plans for 2021 in a large group interview on Famitsu.
First of all, we hear from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown brand director Kazutoki Kono and producer Manabu Shimomoto.
Both developers mention that they’re planning to kick off the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the series that were planned for 2020, but couldn’t be carried out this year.
Jun Tamaoki, who worked on the VR mode of Ace Combat 7 and Summer Lessons mentions that he’s involved in various titles (which is describes as the broadest he’s been involved with in the past ten years) and believes he can gradually announce them going forward. He believes 2021 is the year in which the team can provide new ways to have fun emblematic of the time of “next” through the format of the games, introducing various initiatives following that trend.
Kensuke Tsukanaka, who recently worked on SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays is looking forward to the time in which he can announce the game he is working on.
Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada hopes to relive the way of developing from the good old days with the latest technology.
Personally, I’m definitely looking forward to the Ace Combat anniversary celebrations. When I last interviewed Kono-san and Shimomoto-san, they talked in some detail about their plans for the future. This was before the COVID-19 pandemic likely hindered those plans, but hopefully, 2021 is the year in which those plans will start moving again.
