I wanted to make a thread about it because it blows my mind that EA was so full of scorn that they pushed both talented japanese designers to bankrupt themselves creatively. Shinji Mikami & Suda51 had teamed up again to make another game after Killer7. They apparently were in really good terms and one could say Suda became Mikami's protégé. He had given him full creative control for Killer7, and Mikami accepted being the executive producer for Shadows of the Damned, which was being published by EA. Except it turned out bad for both of them, and they had lost several years of their lives on a project EA was quick to put their hands on.
Some points are taken straight from wikipedia and other websites, other are my findings:
A few choice quotes:
From Suda51:
From Shinji Mikami:
Incredible to me that EA had wasted the time and creative talent of two legendary Japanese designers, talk back to them about how a video game should be made according to Hollywood's ways and force them to make the game they didn't want to make. Apparently Grasshopper had made big changes to make this game, they had hired 70 more people and they even had to change location. It's a miracle that Grasshopper Manufacture has had managed to stay afloat after this. I never expected the history of the development of Shadow of the Damned to be so eye-popping.
Some points are taken straight from wikipedia and other websites, other are my findings:
- The game went through five drafts before being accepted by the suits at EA, each making significant changes to the story
- Some of the story drafts were shot down by EA before Suda had even managed to tell the suits the introduction of his stories.
- Grasshopper was pressured by EA to have Garcia start with a gun because, "westerners are about guns."
- EA informed Grasshopper that, "there's this thing called an elevator pitch in America, and if you can't tell your story in the length of an elevator ride, Hollywood won't use it."
- This forced Suda to completely scrap all of his initial ideas and had Johnson the talking Skull replaced Paula, and make the game a fairy tale like Lupin III's The Castle of Cagliostro or Princess Peach and Mario.
- Without Mikami there to shield him, EA would have probably pushed for more things to be cut
A few choice quotes:
From Suda51:
From Shinji Mikami:
Incredible to me that EA had wasted the time and creative talent of two legendary Japanese designers, talk back to them about how a video game should be made according to Hollywood's ways and force them to make the game they didn't want to make. Apparently Grasshopper had made big changes to make this game, they had hired 70 more people and they even had to change location. It's a miracle that Grasshopper Manufacture has had managed to stay afloat after this. I never expected the history of the development of Shadow of the Damned to be so eye-popping.
