With his casual demeanor, long hair, and tendency to wear sunglasses at times when it can't possibly be necessary, EA's Kudo Tsunoda creates a slightly different first impression than most game developers. Last week, the EA Chicago general manager and executive producer saw his studio officially inaugurated after already having released the well received Fight Night Round 3 and gotten well into development on the upcoming Def Jam: Icon. I took some time to sit down with Tsunoda in Chicago to chat about EA Chicago's design philosophies, his views on the industry, and what it's like working for the world's largest video game publisher.

Shack: Despite today being your inauguration, EA Chicago has obviously already released Fight Night Round 3, so you guys have been around for a little while at least. How long have you been together?

Kudo Tsunoda: We've been in existence for about two and a half years now, about two years since last February so two years and eight months. But for a little while, we merged with a smaller developer, NuFX, to start up EA Chicago. For the first part of our history, we worked out of the former NuFX offices while we were trying to get our downtown building all ready and fitted out for what we wanted to do. It's our grand opening here because we moved into our new downtown offices. I think it's always been the plan for our studio to move downtown. It's just Chicago, and this is such a stimulus-rich environment where it's so much more creative than where the old offices were. We spent a good amount of time making sure we found a home that really fit what we do, was a good creative space, and was in this rich part of Chicago. It's just nice finally having our own building and watching EA Chicago as opposed to EA Hoffman Estates, where our previous office was.

Shack: Was the studio founded with a particular goal in mind? You speak a lot about design goals of your studio. Is that something you have brought, or was it founded specifically to take advantage of certain opportunities?

Kudo Tsunoda: I think we already have a good amount of expertise from working on the Fight Night series, in terms of fighting games. One of the goals of our studios when we started was that we wanted to be recognized industry-wide as a premiere fighting game studio, where we make the best fighting games in the industry. I think with Fight Night and what we see in Def Jam: Icon, that's something we've been able to prove out. Our second big goal was really wanting to be a premiere next-gen developer. I think that with the next-gen consoles coming out, the level of creativity and the spirit of innovation that's here at EA Chicago will really focus on developing a new way of playing games. I think, again, we've been able to really establish ourselves on the Xbox 360 and the PS3 as a premiere developer. In the long term, plans of the studio as we move forward are to start developing more intellectual property for EA. I think that's going to be a big focus EA-wide, just getting creative intellectual property projects developed. This has been such a center of coming up with new cooler ways to play games or experience game, and focusing for this studio on starting to deliver some new IP products.

Shack: How would you respond to criticism that EA has not invested enough in new intellectual property?

Kudo Tsunoda: I think that it's kind of a [misconception]. EA does more new IP products than any developer or publisher in the industry, it's just that because our portfolio is so large that obviously there are those sequel products. You take a game like Madden football. It's not like we're going to stop making Madden. Football comes out every year, and so we make a football game every year, and that totally makes sense. We're able to deliver cool new features, and you're getting all the new player rosters and updates, and that's something you're going to do every year. EA is the biggest publisher and developer in the industry, and we make really great games, with the spirit of innovation and creativity here. In the industry, there are a lot of people that like to hate on EA, and they'll try and find whatever they can to try and bring down the company that's doing the best. I hear that stuff, and--well, number one, we do more new IP than any other publisher in the world, but also we have a wide selection of different products in our portfolio.

I mean, if you look at Def Jam: Icon, it's a totally new and fresh game. You can see that spirit of innovation in Def Jam: Icon, even though it's the third version of a game in the Def Jam series. Just as a game developer, whether you're working on new IP or whether you're working on a licensed product or whether you're working on a sequel, as a developer it's your job to make that product innovative no matter what type of game it is. You can look at Def Jam: Icon and say, "Look at all the innovation," but it is the third game in a series. You just forget that because you're delivering so much new stuff in the product. As a game developer, I will state that every game we make, whether it's a sports game like Fight Night [or] Def: Jam Icon...the goal with developers is, no matter what kind of game it is, it's up to us to put the creative play on the game no matter what type of game it is.

Shack: This year at GDC, Neil Young of EA LA spoke on a process they use at his studio called "Feature Innovation," whereby every year in a yearly franchise they have a quota of these discrete innovations that they consider pushing the series forward. Is that a theory to which you subscribe, or is it an EA-wide directive?

Kudo Tsunoda: I think every studio has their own ways of doing things and ways of explaining things, but I think that the system across all EA studios is the understanding that no matter what game you're working on, if you're not delivering a fresh gameplay experience, then consumers are not going to buy it. At EA Chicago, it's not a certain number of features or anything like that, but I think everyone here understands that every product that comes out of EA Chicago is a new and innovative game, and it's got to have the same level of innovation as the first game in a series. I think everyone has different ways of explaining it, but that's the filter that all EA development teams look at making games under. No matter if it's Madden football, where we've done this game fourteen years in a row, or Def Jam where it's the third game in a series, or a totally new IP, it's up to us to deliver the same amount of creativity and innovation in all of those products. That's what makes consumers have a good time, and really, that's what we're in the business of doing. People have fun.

Shack: Do you guys in fact have any new intellectual properties in the works at your studio?

Kudo Tsunoda: We're working on another licensed product that is unannounced, and then a new IP product here as well. EA Chicago is a good example where we've got a sequel product that we're working on, but we do it fresh. We've got another licensed game that's actually a new game series that we're starting. Then we've got new IP as well, so it's a wide spectrum in our portfolio. But for me, it's all the same problem of how do we deliver something that's new and fun to play.

Turn the page for more from Kudo.

Shack: How did you get involved in game development? What's your background?

Kudo Tsunoda: It's always a funny story when you come from a producer background. I'm the [general manager] here but at least when I was growing up there wasn't university schooling that would explain to you how to be a gameplay producer. Engineers, you can go get a computer science degree, and people understand that. Artists, you can make a demo reel, and everybody understands that. With producers, it's like, how the heck did you get in the industry? Everybody's got a funny story. Mine was that I used to work in this pool hall as a day bartender, and there was a guy who came in three times a week to play pool. I was just goofing off in the bar one time, and I had my game system hooked up to the TV. I wasn't that busy, so I was cranking out on the game, and the guy comes up to me and say, "Looks like you're pretty good at video games." I say, "Well, I play them all the time," blah blah blah.

He was the CFO at Philips Media, which way back in the day--and I don't mean to date myself here--was working on the CD-I, which was one of the first real disc-based console systems, and the first industry job I had was becoming a gameplay hint line operator. People would call up for $2.99 a minute, saying, "Hey I'm stuck in level seven, where's the golden key?" and I would tell them how to get past that part. From there, I went from gameplay hint line operator to gameplay tester--and I thought I made the big time, that I had hit QA and that's as big as it gets. Then, I worked as a production coordinator, moved up to big time job of getting lunches and organizing supply cabinets, and then finally assistant producer, associate producer, producer, senior producer, executive producer, VP, GM. So it was gameplay hint line operator up to GM of EA Chicago.

Shack: Not bad.

Kudo Tsunoda: Yeah! And I really think there's a good amount of learning by me actually just working up through all different positions and all different types of job skills within the game development framework. That's been something I'm kind of proud of, that that's my history--not that I just got in because I knew somebody, but because I really worked my way up and experienced a lot of different things and have a lot of perspective on the different job roles within our company.

Shack: How long have you been at EA specifically?

Kudo Tsunoda: Almost four years now.

Shack: When you were testing on the CD-I, did you ever play any of those horrible wacky Zelda games?

Kudo Tsunoda: Oh yeah. There was a whole range. The wacky Zelda games, then I don't know if you ever played Burn Cycle. That was one of the first games I was trying to incorporate live video into the gameplay experience. Whole bunch of different games, but that was one of those consoles that was trying to be, like, half encyclopedia, half game console. That kind of scheme really didn't work out too well.

Shack: I have seen you called in several instances the [Team NINJA head] Tomonobu Itagaki of the Western games industry. (This is likely due to similarities in the two producers' demeanor, long hairstyle, and frequent use of sunglasses. -Chris) Do you have any thoughts on that?

Kudo Tsunoda: I think it's always funny, any of those comparisons. It's people's way of applying something they already understand to something else. I do think that the cool thing about that is that--and I don't want to just keep saying the same thing over and over--the work we do at this studio is very focused on delivering new and different types of gameplay experiences. That's a big plus in that some of that comparison comes where you have two wacky minds coming up with new things. I always take that kind of stuff as a compliment. It's a good sign of what we're doing, always pushing for a new gameplay experience. The only thing that I ever find weird about that is that there are 150 people who work here, and everyone is focused on delivering that fun gameplay. So much work by so many people goes into it, and on some level I'm just the frontman. It's like the lead singer of a band. There are all these talented musicians and just because you're the one who goes out and represents the product, you're the one who gets these types of comparisons, but I don't see it as much a comparison to me as much as to our entire studio here.

Shack: How do you feel about the role of name recognition or studio recognition in the games industry? It's kind of ebbed and flowed a bit. There have been times in the games industry where people really talked about specific designers and studios, and there have been times that are less concerned with that and more about publishers. How important is that to you?

Kudo Tsunoda: It's really interesting, in that if you think about the record industry, everybody knows the artists who are making the music, but it's not like everybody is familiar with the publisher who puts out the album. It's all about the artist who is creating it. I think that in game making, it's not really individuals, but you should know the team that's making it. If EA Chicago has done Fight Night, Def Jam: Icon, you know their next game is going to be kickass. I always know who makes the game. You start to find out who are the people who are bringing something new to the table, and who are the teams who are just taking Grand Theft Auto, putting guys with bling in it, and calling it Saint's Row. There are those kinds of game makers out there putting out the same kind of product, and on the consumer end of my life I try and identify the teams doing new cool stuff and then I go play their games. Even a better analogy is a movie industry, where so many people know Tom Cruise is in a movie, but really the person who has the most creative impact is the director. I much more gravitate to, say, if I see it's a Kevin Smith film or a Wes Anderson production I'm likely to check it out. It's the same thing in games. If you know who's making the game and you know they're doing good work, you want to check it out.

Shack: Do you feel that EA as a global company does a good job allowing studios to foster an identity in game development and corporate lifestyle?

Kudo Tsunoda: Yeah. I think that's a good part about working with EA, that each studio has a totally different look and feel. LA's different than our studio in San Francisco, which is different than Chicago, which is different than Tiburon. Each of them definitely has its own personality and its own flair. I think the thing that EA does really well is that--well, there are advantages to being the biggest publisher. Out of every company I've ever worked at in the video game industry, EA is the best at allowing somebody like myself to have an idea that is cool and creative, and to actually get that idea into the product. The resources and the technology that we have here really allow for ideas to get into the game in high quality. That's the great thing about working for EA and the size of EA, that they're really allowing each of the teams, even within studios, to have their own personality and their own way of doing things, because that is the best of way for good games to get made.

Shack: So speaking of people doing cool new stuff, who's doing that now? What have you been playing lately?

Kudo Tsunoda: I play all types of games, certainly, because I've always played games and that's what I enjoy. But, you know, once you're in the industry, you're always checking out other games. One thing I'm just really proud of is a lot of the groundbreaking stuff coming out of EA. Like Spore, which isn't really available to general consumers yet, I'm just cracking out on that thing. That game is just so fun. Just totally blowing people away with a new way of playing games. I'm also a big fan of pretty much anything that's multiplayer and allows trash-talking. Madden football, I've been a fan of that for a long time so it's kind of fun because before I worked here I'd think "Man, this game is so fun, I'd love to play somebody on the development team because I bet I could kick their ass." Now I'm able to go down and actually put my skills to the test like that.

Shack: This could be a case of coincidental parallel development, or perhaps creative inspiration, but one thing that struck me as I was watching Def Jam was that it almost seems--at least in terms of the backgrounds--like a fighting game version of Lumines. Was there any inspiration there from [Lumines, Rez, and Meteos producer Tetsuya] Mizuguchi, or from Lumines in particuar?

Kudo Tsunoda: Well, we look at all games, and I think on some level all of the games you see affect your thoughts in some way, even if it's not direct. But on the next-gen consoles, one of the things that's been disappointing to me so far is that everybody's still shooting for photorealism. There's nothing wrong with that, that's what we did on Fight Night Round 3, but--and maybe this is a little bit of the pissy artists in me--if all as game developers we're able to achieve is photorealism, then I think we fail. That's not really to me the art of video games, making everything real. What you can do is use the photorealism as a base, and then trick it out to pay off the style or content of your game. Really, our big focus was on making it look and play like a hip hop video, so that mold was the primary design focus, and then getting to the "next generation of art," that photo realism base that's stylized or tricked out. I think a good example of that is, have you seen the movie Sin City?

Shack: Yeah.

Kudo Tsunoda: Well, obviously they started with actors, with real life people, but they had such a stylized look to create the look and feel with that film. I'm hoping that other developers will start going towards that kind of stylized and artistic intepretation, instead of just "Let's make it photoreal, photoreal, photoreal, and that's all we can do."

Shack: This is becoming sort of a de facto question these days in about 95% of industry interviews, but would your studio ever consider approaching the Wii?

Kudo Tsunoda: For sure. The Wii is a great system, and if you think about everything we like doing here with gestural control, well that system's all about the gestural control. We're going to work on anything that can give us the opportunity to be creative. The PS3 has stuff that we can do with it, the 360 has stuff that we can do with it, the Wii has stuff that we can do with it. All different hardware all has their own cool thing that we can use as a launching point. I mean, yeah, it's a cool frigging machine.