N'Gai Croal
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Jun 14, 2007 12:09 AM
Namco Bandai's Beautiful Katamari
In hindsight, we should have seen it coming. First, Namco Bandai announced that Ridge Racer 6
as an Xbox 360-exclusive launch title for 2005. We didn't think too
much of it, because even though Ridge Racer games had been closely
associated with the debuts of various Sony machines (PS1, PS2 and PSP,
for example) the Playstation 3 wasn't due in stores for another year.
For that reason, it made perfect business sense that Namco would seek
to hoover up some of Microsoft's co-marketing dollars in exchange for
the bragging rights Microsoft would derive from having a Ridge Racer
game debut on the 360. So when Ridge Racer 7
was announced exclusively for the Playstation 3's launch, it served to confirm our belief that Namco had only engaged in a mercenary
flirtation with Microsoft, only to return to the warm embrace of its
first love, Sony. After all, how could Xbox 360's anemic performance in
Japan sway local developers to turn their attention away from the
hometown console?
In the months that followed, however, there were signs that Namco's brief fling with Microsoft was becoming a simmering flame. Eternal Sonata,
a Japanese role-playing game of the sort that the first Xbox had
desperately lacked, was announced only for the Xbox 360. Then the sixth
installment of another franchise that had long been
Playstation-only--Ace Combat--was introduced as a 360 exclusive. Ditto
for Pac-Man Championship Edition for Xbox Live Arcade. Still, we ignored the signs.
But when a little birdie with good reason to know--and to gloat--informed us that the We Love Katamari sequel, Beautiful Katamari, would join the ranks of Xbox 360 exclusive titles, the pattern was impossible to deny.
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