Dead or Alive Online Update

At the ongoing E3, we had an opportunity to chat with Tomonobu Itagaki, the head of Tecmo's Team Ninja development team, who is currently working on both Dead or Alive Online and Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox. Itagaki mentioned that the impetus for releasing an online Dead or Alive game stemmed from people's disappointment in not being able to play Dead or Alive 3 on Xbox Live. "I'm glad everyone enjoyed Dead or Alive 3," he said. "But one of the main complaints was that people couldn't play it online. Unfortunately, Xbox Live just wasn't around then."

While the reasons for bringing a Dead or Alive game online may seem obvious, the choice to include the Sega Saturn port of the original Dead or Alive (which also includes online support) may not be so unsurprising. "Well, we wanted to include the Sega Saturn version of Dead or Alive because it was the first one we launched," Itagaki explained. "It's historic, so all the people who still have Sega Saturns out in their living room can finally put them away." Itagaki also added that when the development team went back to play Dead or Alive, they were amazed how well the fighting engine has held up over the years, and that made the decision to include the original game in the compilation all the easier.

As far as Xbox Live features for Dead or Alive are concerned, they have yet to be really decided upon, but Itagaki and his team are working closely with the Xbox Live staff to implement some new features. Unfortunately, one feature that will probably not make it into the final version of the game is international play. "Time lag is a serious issue [for international play]," Itagaki said. "My dream is to connect everyone around the world, but there are just too many problems with lag and the different TV frequencies right now."

The other part of Dead or Alive Online is Dead or Alive 2, but Itagaki was quick to point out that he doesn't consider Dead or Alive 2 to be a port. "Dead or Alive 2 has been built completely from scratch for the Xbox," Itagaki added. "I hate that there are so many multiplatform games that use the lowest common denominator hardware and then don't take advantage of the extra power that other systems have to offer."

"Depending on the policy of the creator, [developers] all have different methods for using extra power, adding full-scene antialiasing or HDTV support, but that's not our policy," Itagaki said. "Our policy is to design a game from scratch and make sure that it uses all the power from the beginning instead of discussing what to do with the leftover power."

Dead or Alive 2 will run on a modified version of the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball engine, and it will include all the features found in the multiple versions of Dead or Alive. And as for Dead or Alive Code: Cronus, Itagaki said that Dead or Alive Code: Cronus and Dead or Alive Online are entirely separate projects.