Written By: James Jursudakul

Advanced Media was able to get an interview opportunity with SNK Playmore USA President Ben Herman on the last day of E3 (5/12/06). Below is the full transcript for part I of the two-part interview with Mr. Herman. The second part, which will contain a few fan questions, will be posted on AMN in a few weeks. We'd like to thank Mr. Ben Herman for taking the time to answer all our questions.


Ben Herman: I've been involved in a lot of launches. A lot of different transition years in moving from different platforms of next-generation, all the way back to the Atari/Colecovision days....but from the stand-point of excitement, this actual time period has been disruptive but its also been the most exciting. This particular E3, for me, is the most exciting I've had due to a combination of reasons. We have products that are coming out for what I feel are for the right platforms. At the same time, the industry is going thru a very interesting change, where last fall when the Xbox 360 was announced and launched, the whole year was impacted by the fact that everyone was waiting for next-generation systems. Microsoft didn't bring that many units at launch. It was definitely a dry-market for the 360 hardware and every other system got impacted by the fact that people wanted to buy what's new. Everyone knew that PS3 was coming. Everyone knew that Nintendo had a Revolution system coming. . .but now in this year, we have all the details and people are going to be able to decide whether they want to spend basically $600 or $500 or $400 or Nintendo's unanswered question of "affordable," but we know it's not anywhere near $400, let alone $300. You know we all expect something in the $200-$250 range. The other thing is, when I look at the new Nintendo system and controller, it is unique, it is different, and everyone is just having fun using it. And for us, as a company, the fact that we have a project which is Metal Slug Anthology, which is going to take advantage of the controller whether you're throwing a grenade or firing a gun, at launch. . .it's a very exciting time.



AMN: Speaking of Metal Slug Anthology (Wii), can you talk about the game’s features? How does it control? Do you aim where you want to shoot with the pointer?

Ben Herman: You're going to be able to aim and fire with the pointer. You're also going to be able to lob grenades by holding one of the controllers. At this point, the development team is creating it and exact details of which control/configuration will actually be used is not given out, but it's basically going to be interactive with the controllers. Plus we'll have, of course, Wi-Fi capabilities.

AMN: And SNK has a new developer working on this game? An American developer? What is the name of the development team?

Ben Herman: Yes, in Texas. The name of which I'm...we're not into naming who brings the games to us, they don't get first-party announcements as I would call it. Though they are very happy. They are actually developing the PSP version too.

AMN: Will the extra contents in the PSP and Wii versions differ?

Ben Herman: The games will be the same. You'll earn some bonus to get some video galleries or extra content. They'll be some differences. If nothing-else, certainly the way you use the system. I mean the PSP you won't be aiming and shooting (like the Wii-version), you'll just be using the traditional buttons. But with the Wii, the controller (features) will be implemented into the gameplay.

AMN: And Metal Slug 6 is not in the Anthology?

Ben Herman: It is not on the Anthology. It is in the arcades right now, it came out in February.

AMN: So, what plans do you have for Metal Slug 6?

Ben Herman: Still undecided as to what we'll do with it. It's a 2-D game so we can't bring it to PS3 or Xbox 360 as is. Quite possibly it will come to a Nintendo system because Nintendo is certainly does not have a high-definition requirement but we're still analyzing our plans for that. In our agreements with Sega-Sammy, essentially we do not announce any console plans until a certain time period has passed and we're still within that time-frame.