Cellius Projects – News Channel With Evangelion Newscaster and Gundam VoD

[Shin-Ra]

PS3 Offers News Channel With Evangelion Newscaster

Misato Katsuragi Houdou Keikaku (Misato Katsuragi Report Program) is a PlayStation 3 news brodacast with Nerv’s operations director as the newscaster. The PlayStation Network show pulls news from the Mainichi Shimbun, a major newspaper in Japan, and has Katsuragi read the headlines.

She actually reads the news with a synthetic voice provided by Hitachi’s Speech Synthesizer program Ruby Talk. The program covers headline news, sports, and “subculture.” Users can also change Misato’s outfit to something other than her Nerv uniform.

Misato Katsuragi Report Program is created by Cellius, a company co-owned by Namco Bandai and Sony. The service starts on June 6 and of this is only for Japan.

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1224419_1124.html
http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/160/160609/

Bandai shows Gundam Video on Demand service for PS3

While getting a chance to play The Behemoth's latest game at the Tokyo International Anime Fair today was certainly pleasant, it really wasn't a surprise. For the big surprise of the day, I had to go over to the Bandai Namco group booth, where Bandai Channel and Cellius (presumably the same Cellius that was formed in 2007 as a joint venture by Sony and Bandai Namco Games) were showing off an experimental PlayStation 3 video on demand service that could be the ultimate time killer for anime fans.

...

[androvsky]

That sounds like it could be fun for the really die-hard fans, especially if they end up including all of the UC Gundam with a detailed timeline. Unfortunately, this probably has less of a chance of coming to the U.S. than Idolmaster.

It's also nice to hear that Cellius is working on something that probably isn't an April Fool's Day joke.

[browinie]

Read this earlier. Thing that interests me the most here is knowing Cellius is actually working on something. Let's hope they announce projects they've been working on this year!

Unfortunately, this probably has less of a chance of coming to the U.S. than Idolmaster

Why would it have less of a chance of coming over? It's based on something that sells moderately here, opposed to Idolmaster which hasn't even a market outside Japan.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by androvsky

That sounds like it could be fun for the really die-hard fans, especially if they end up including all of the UC Gundam with a detailed timeline. Unfortunately, this probably has less of a chance of coming to the U.S. than Idolmaster.

It's also nice to hear that Cellius is working on something that probably isn't an April Fool's Day joke.

Can you imagine the outrage if it ever came over though...

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by browinie

Read this earlier. Thing that interests me the most here is knowing Cellius is actually working on something. Let's hope they announce projects they've been working on this year!



Why would it have less of a chance of coming over? It's based on something that sells moderately here, opposed to Idolmaster which hasn't even a market outside Japan.

Bandai's weird about exporting Gundam, especially the original series. Last I checked (and admittedly, it's been a while), we still only had the English dub for the show in the U.S., and one episode was deleted entirely because Tomino didn't like it.

[Shin-Ra]

Story in first post.

[Simplayer]

So I guess they aren't going to be making any games.

Ah well, sounds kinda neat, I guess....

[Shin-Ra]

http://b.bngi-channel.jp/ps3_misato/

[androvsky]

Aww, man, if that news service isn't IP locked I'm going to be really tempted to pick it up (I'm supposed to be learning Japanese anyway). I'm interested in how good the voice synthesis is; it's something RPGs could really use once it hits a certain quality level. As I recall, Cellius was formed to do software tech research for the PS3, and this is an interesting direction.

And I'm an Evangelion fan. They did a really good job on modeling Misato.

[Shin-Ra]

Official website

Demo Movie 1 | Demo Movie 2

Famitsu Interview

Has some info on the startup of Cellius but doesn't machine-translate well.





Remote Play? The WiFi LED is lit green and I've seen nothing about a separate online PSP app.

[Shin-Ra]

Translation!

The Face of Cellius
Famitsu.com gets inside the Sony/Namco Bandai joint venture and interviews its CEO about their peculiar first project.



The picture was taken inside the Cellius studio. And the man in the pic is Isao Nakamura, CEO of Cellius. Yes, Cellius is a real company with a real management structure.

The guy to the right of Nakamura in the original version of the pic at Famitsu.com is Namco Bandai's Kei Hirono, producer of Misato Katsuragi's News Plan.

Which is the actual subject of the article. Following the recent debut of this first ever officially set-for-release Cellius product the other day, Famitsu.com was able to interview the two about the project. Here's a bit of what they said.

Nakamura described the the goal of Cellius as making use of the abundant computing resources of the Cell to explore non-game entertainment and to also offer contents that can only be enjoyed when a game machine is connected to a server. He also suggested that the company hopes to be free from the binds of media-based offerings. The new Evangelion product was born when creating a solid idea from these two principles.

As previously detailed, one of the main technologies going into the project is Hitachi ULSI's Ruby Talk voice synthesis technology. Not all the game's voice is synthesized, though. A few set phrases and some phrases that are often used in the movie are pre generated.

Cell isn't the only PS3 feature that's being put to use in the title. The menu interface also uses motion controls in some respect. Hirono wasn't too clear about this, saying only that the unconscious movements you make when holding the controller are reflected in the game in certain ways.

Hirono also touched upon some of the product's customization options. As previously announced, you can change the setting for the news cast and also make Misato sport different clothing. Initially, you have just one clothing option. However, Namco Bandai plans on continually adding to this. The clothing will be stuff that you saw in the movie, he said. He also remarked that the clothing offerings will get rougher as the downloads progress, and in the end you'll be surprised with the kind of clothing Misato wears as she reads the news.

Asked if they plan on continuing to offer non game content in the future, Nakamura said that this will probably be the case. The Evangelion project is something they believed they could realize in the not-so-distant future, which is why we're seeing it now. However, they have a number of other projects in the works which currently cannot be shown.

While not mentioned in the Famitsu.com article, one of the projects Nakamura may be referring to is an unannounced Gundam video-on-demand service that was demoed at a recent anime expo. That certainly fits the bill of non gaming content that revolves around interaction between console and server.

Go to the Famitsu.com article for a look inside the studio. At the bottom of the article, the magazine describes the studio as looking like it was designed with playfulness in mind, with retro arcade machines and uniquely shaped chairs. A video projection of Misato Katsuragi's News Plan plays on a wall near the entrance.

[Shin-Ra]

There's a free "trial" version available now on the Japanese store but it installs trophies so if you're not planning to subscribe to the service, be careful with that..

The 3D graphics and UI are very snazzy and polished. Nice cel shading with very little aliasing visible. Just need a translation so I know exactly what I'm doing.

[pmac]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

There's a free "trial" version available now on the Japanese store but it installs trophies so if you're not planning to subscribe to the service, be careful with that..

The 3D graphics and UI are very snazzy and polished. Nice cel shading with very little aliasing visible. Just need a translation so I know exactly what I'm doing.

In ENGLISH please

[browinie]

Considering the amount of funding this company is getting. Considering the type of projects this company is focused on. Considering the size of Sony's userbase outside Japan.

THEY BETTER LOCALIZE THERE PROJECTS DANGIT!

[vercity]

I downloaded this but didnt pay for the subscription of 800 yen for 30 days as the trophies are as follows ;

Bronze - Read 5 days of News
Bronze - Read 10 days of News
Bronze - Read 20 days of News
Silver - Read 40 days of News
Silver - Read 70 days of News
Silver - On your birthday read news
Silver - On your christmas read news
Silver - On your New years day read news
Gold - Read 99 days of News

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by vercity

I downloaded this but didnt pay for the subscription of 800 yen for 30 days as the trophies are as follows ;

Bronze - Read 5 days of News
Bronze - Read 10 days of News
Bronze - Read 20 days of News
Silver - Read 40 days of News
Silver - Read 70 days of News
Silver - On your birthday read news
Silver - On your christmas read news
Silver - On your New years day read news
Gold - Read 99 days of News

yeah but can't access the news unless you pay for it so therefore the trophies are useless. As for why the trophies even come up for installing the trial is beyond me.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by browinie

Considering the amount of funding this company is getting. Considering the type of projects this company is focused on. Considering the size of Sony's userbase outside Japan.

THEY BETTER LOCALIZE THERE PROJECTS DANGIT!

Considering we never even received any Evangelion videogame in America and also we never received Mainichi Issho with English text the chances we will get this are well, does it even exist? Sure I would love an American version because I love Evangelion even if this isn't an Evagelion game I would still buy it with American dollars each month or a whole year subscription for this.

[vercity]

Just brought the subscription but the license only covers my japanese account so im stuck now as i never use my japanese account

[browinie]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Considering we never even received any Evangelion videogame in America and also we never received Mainichi Issho with English text the chances we will get this are well, does it even exist? Sure I would love an American version because I love Evangelion even if this isn't an Evagelion game I would still buy it with American dollars each month or a whole year subscription for this.

Aside from Naruto and Dragon Ball, there are very few, if any anime licenced games released outside Japan. This isn't a video game, it's a service, which would cost almost nothing to distribute, but a small fee to localize. Evangelion has been pretty well recieved domestically, it couldn't hurt to test the success of this feature in other locations too right? If Cellius continue to focus on non-media-based offerings similar to this, with the Japanese audience in mind, it's going to hurt potential Sony sales in the long term.

[Soulblazer]

Remember the three games they showed on March 26 in '07.

Brave Arms
Chain Limit
Second Season 01

They looked like they have potential as Namco games but unfortunately they were just fake pictures.

When you formed a new company between two companies (Sony + Namco) in the same year as you show these three projects after 3 months that is insane. There is no way Team Ace (the team behind Ace Combat series) can work on three big projects on same time.

It's PS3's third year now and we still haven't seen any sign of any exclusives from Sony-Namco's Cellius. But don't worry they're working on it now.

Katamari Forever is exclusive and if it wasn't for the Cellius deal I don't know what Namco had decided then. But we can finally experience Katamari in Full HD 1080p.
One of the devs posted in SCEA's official blog to hear what PS3 users like about Katamari Forever.
Three new exclusive titles for PS3 are up on Namco Bandai's official site - new RPG - new shooter (many think it's Point Blank or a new Ace Combat) - new sport.
But we're not stopping there. When I check Cellius on wikipedia I found these two titles that was involved with Cellius project.
That Gundam game have we seen in Famitsu this year and the other one they're planning to make is a Katsuragi Misato (from Neon Genesis Evangelion) based game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellius

Cellius official site
http://www.cellius.jp/

And we're also getting an expanded version of Tales Of Vesperia which I hope it will be released in the states and Europe as well.

Namco seems to finally realise that they haven't made any profit on the 360 after all these flops. Beautiful Katamari bombed big time. Ace Combat 6 bombed. Tales Of Vesperia bombed.

And is there one company that haven't falling into this Western shit that should be Namco.