THQ's budget for Devil's Third outstrips Itagaki's previous work
Costs for new IP nearly outstrips budget for his previous 30 games combined
THQ is going through a rough patch, but it still has some big titles on the far horizon, including Guillermo del Toro's InSane and Valhalla Game Studio's Devil's Third.
Valhalla is the current studio of outspoken Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki. Itagaki recently mentioned to Game Informer how different it is to work with an American publisher versus a Japanese one.
"We've been working with THQ for two and a half years, and when I was working in Japan I was at the publisher myself so I can't really compare because it's different. The circumstances are very different. I really understand what the publisher thinks because I used to be the publisher myself," Itagaki began.
"The one thing that's completely different between the Eastern publisher and Western publisher is the budget. I've made more than 30 games, and if you put a little bit more [money] into the one I'm making now, Devil's Third, I could make all of the 30 games I made before. The budget you use for the promotion is completely different too. Those are the biggest differences."
Itagaki also believes that now is not the time for a next-generation console release.
"If I didn't have any knowledge of the economy, or if I were young, I'd want to release my game on the new platform. The decision I'm making now is that, if I released my next game on a next-gen console or if someone releases a next gen console, then all the publishers developers and players will be so confused and everything will be messed up because of the economical situation," he said.
"The U.S. economy is bad. The EU economy is bad. The Japanese economy is bad. This is not good timing for the release of a next-generation console. This is just not for the game industry. I can say the same for customers."
Devil's Third is still set for a 2013 release from THQ.