Gamasutra also pressed for the specific corporate whereabouts of Panzer Dragoon series director Yukio Futatsugi, who also released Phantom Dust to critical acclaim on the original Xbox.
To this, Shane Kim replied, "Mr. Futatsugi is working closely with Mr. Sakaguchi on his projects. As an MGS Japan employee, he's working closely on those projects, since those are the big things we're working on in Japan."
Further explaining Microsoft's current situation in Japan, Kim continued, "I think we're very realistic about our prospects in Japan. When we launched the 360 there, we didn't say we were going to win Japan. We need to do better in Japan for a couple of reasons, one, it's a big market. Two, we know that in order to do more there, we have to develop more great Japanese content with great Japanese developers, which is why the partnership with Mr. Sakaguchi is so important."
