At a press event today at its Redwood Shores office, Electronic Arts announced a collaboration with well known Japanese game creators Goichi Suda and Shinji Mikami, who previously worked together on the action game Killer 7 for Capcom. Shortly after the announcement, we had a chance to interview both of them about their surprising new partnership.

1UP: OK, to start: Who talked with whom first? What was the process in making this happy Suda/Mikami/Grasshopper/EA family?

Goichi Suda: First of all, I had ideas about this game and presented them to Mikami and asked him how he felt. And Mikami showed a big interest, and really wanted to help make this game happen, and that's why this collaboration started.

Shinji Mikami: Actually, when I looked at this proposal four years ago, and when I saw it for the first time, I thought "wow, this is amazing" and fell in love with the ideas. "I need to find somebody to help create this game, because it will be a great game" -- that's how I felt when I saw his proposal.

GS: Actually, I came here last June with Mikami and other members of the team and presented ideas to EA; in fact I was in the room next door to where we're at now. So then EA's people showed a big interest to my ideas, and they understood what I really wanted to do, and that's how it happened to come to EA.

Akira_EX via 1up.com »