Mizuguchi On Life After Sega, Rez Pseudo-Sequels

Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Space Channel 5 and Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, held on the final day of last week's GDC show. As for his future projects, he seems in no hurry to reveal anything, mentioning: "Well, it's been about six months since I left Sega... I think we'll be able to make an announcement [about new projects] at E3 or maybe next year." But he does indicate: "I think my next game will be for the PSP or Nintendo DS", and when asked if it would be a sequel to Rez, suggests: "In my mind, yes. But I won't use the Rez name because that belongs to Sega."

Comments

Seems dangerous

[hambonewilkins]

"In my mind, yes. But I won't use the Rez name because that belongs to Sega."

Does anyone else hear Sega's lawyers ears perking up? He's basically saying he's going to circumvent copyright/trademark law (no, I'm not a lawyer) because they own the name but he wants to do a sequel. Good for him, but I certainly wouldn't speak about it in public.

It would be like the producers of a movie saying "we wanted to make a James Bond movie but couldn't get the rights from MGM so we just made a slightly different one." Remember the Goldmember controversy?

Re:Seems dangerous

[bugbread]

He's basically saying he's going to circumvent copyright/trademark law (no, I'm not a lawyer) because they own the name but he wants to do a sequel.

IAalsoNAL (making us brethren!), but it really depends on what part of Rez Sega owns. If it's the name and likeness, he can produce a game with a different name and different graphics, but with the same gameplay style, and be legally safe. That's where Goldmember, etc. have problems.

Really, if you think of it, if game style were part of copyright/trademark law, there would be no game genres. Only one company could make first person shooters, only one company could make power up shooters, only one company could make RPGs, etc. The same with movies. It's not so much the core mechanics as the name and visuals that seem to be protected.

Re:Seems dangerous

[josh glaser]

I think the grandparent is a little off here. I don't think Monolith called Xenosaga "Xenosaga" because Square wouldn't let them call it Xenogears. They called it that because it was a different game in the same series. The "Xeno" in the title makes them easily recognizable as that, and I don't think they wanted to call it "Xenogears II." Especially because Xenogears is actually Part V in the Xeno story, and Xenosaga is Part I. (What would they call Xenosaga then? Xenogears -4?) Other popular RPGs do this too...Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross, SaGa Whatever, etc. They probably just didn't want to create confusion by naming a prequel like a sequel. Also, if Square owned the name Xenogears and wouldn't let them use it, and they used the name Xenosaga, well, the names are similair enough so Square could sue them anyway. I mean, making a prequel to somebody else's game probably isn't that smart either - which is why I'm pretty sure they had the rights to all the Xenogears stuff.

"In my mind, yes"

[philiptan]

Between Space Channel 5 and Rez, when Mizuguchi says that his next game would be a sequel to Rez "in his mind," I don't see that as an indication that the next game would necessarily look or play like Rez at all, and that should be a good thing.

I doubt Mizuguchi is interested in making a straight sequel of Rez... he seems rather too imaginative for that. I personally hopes that he takes the synaesthetic ideas in Rez in a direction no one expects. The Kandinsky/Tron hybrid is done, and it's excellent... hopefully his 'Independent' status gives him more breathing room for even stranger, unique ideas.

Re:"In my mind, yes"

[shadowcabbit]

Even though he's already made two sequels (Sega Rally 2 and Space Channel 5 Part 2)?

We can't fault Mizuguchi if those were made as a result of Sega's decisions and not his own (ie he didn't propose the sequels, but Sega put him in charge of them).

I actually would welcome a new Rez-like game. The original was mind-blowing, but it was too short because it was limited by the Dreamcast's disc space. Give Mizuguchi the chance to do close to the same thing with a dual-layer DVD (and, by extension, better audio compression tools)-- and that'd be the one game I'd put a pre-order on the import for.

Another poster weighed in on if Sega had the copyright on the name and style... I think that there're plenty of ways you could do the same thing as Rez, but still get away with it. On the other hand, I doubt that Sega would begrudge Mizuguchi the opportunity to keep working on one of his most beloved games. (witness what happened with Xenogears/Xenosaga and Square Enix/Monolith Soft-- same basic dilemma)