Q&A w/ Itagaki: oh, an update patch, too

Any talk with Tomonobu Itagaki results in more than a mouthful to write about. His latest tete-a-tete with 1UP is no different, where he divulges his opinions on Dead or Alive Xtreme Volleyball 2‘s review scores, the “cultural context” of bikini Tug-o-Wars and Butt Battle, and even his impressions on the PS3 and Wii.

Now, the Via link is available for those who are interested in hearing all his thoughts (and they are quite a mouthful), but we’re going to dedicate this article to probably the most important bit we extracted from the interview: there’s an auto-update patch in town.

The big new thing in this patch is that they’re going to make sure You Can’t Cheat Anymore (TM). Team Ninja discovered an exploit wherein players who are about to lose in gambling mode pull up the Xbox Live menu to avoid losing money on a bad bet. Besides applauding the cheater’s entrepreneurial skills for finding such a loophole, Itagaki will also pull the plug on that exploit. When you log on to Xbox Live with the game in the console, you’ll be asked to download the patch.

Here’s the thing: Team Ninja also realized that some people were doing this because the cash payouts from some of the minigames were too low. With the patch, “you’ll be earning more money for every activity than you were before, as a way to address the initial reason people began cheating in the first place.” That’s magnanimity for you: stick and carrot.

Itagaki also disclosed that with the new patch, he’ll be opening a new bikini boutique very, very soon, called the Crystal Boutique. Its address is 101 Mysteria Lane, Xbox Live Marketplace… yes, microtransactions for bikinis. He says it’s “really for people like myself or you, people who like to play games, but don’t have as much time on their hands.” We can concede the point there, but we’re wondering if paying for Kasumi’s bikini collection will net the same Gamerpoints as playing for them…

Any talk with Tomonobu Itagaki results in more than a mouthful to write about. His latest tete-a-tete with 1UP is no different, where he divulges his opinions on Dead or Alive Xtreme Volleyball 2‘s review scores, the “cultural context” of bikini Tug-o-Wars and Butt Battle, and even his impressions on the PS3 and Wii.

Now, the Via link is available for those who are interested in hearing all his thoughts (and they are quite a mouthful), but we’re going to dedicate this article to probably the most important bit we extracted from the interview: there’s an auto-update patch in town.

The big new thing in this patch is that they’re going to make sure You Can’t Cheat Anymore (TM). Team Ninja discovered an exploit wherein players who are about to lose in gambling mode pull up the Xbox Live menu to avoid losing money on a bad bet. Besides applauding the cheater’s entrepreneurial skills for finding such a loophole, Itagaki will also pull the plug on that exploit. When you log on to Xbox Live with the game in the console, you’ll be asked to download the patch.

Here’s the thing: Team Ninja also realized that some people were doing this because the cash payouts from some of the minigames were too low. With the patch, “you’ll be earning more money for every activity than you were before, as a way to address the initial reason people began cheating in the first place.” That’s magnanimity for you: stick and carrot.

Itagaki also disclosed that with the new patch, he’ll be opening a new bikini boutique very, very soon, called the Crystal Boutique. Its address is 101 Mysteria Lane, Xbox Live Marketplace… yes, microtransactions for bikinis. He says it’s “really for people like myself or you, people who like to play games, but don’t have as much time on their hands.” We can concede the point there, but we’re wondering if paying for Kasumi’s bikini collection will net the same Gamerpoints as playing for them…