{"id":31323,"date":"2024-05-23T15:27:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T06:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=31323"},"modified":"2024-05-23T15:27:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T06:27:33","slug":"suda51-tried-to-make-sonys-iconic-character-fat-and-it-almost-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51-tried-to-make-sonys-iconic-character-fat-and-it-almost-worked\/","title":{"rendered":"Suda51 tried to make Sony\u2019s iconic character fat, and it almost worked\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hiromichi Takahashi, CEO of Amata Games and former game director at Sony, recently took to his personal X (formerly Twitter) account to share a bizarre yet hilarious episode from his days at Sony. The story involves Suda51 (Suda Goichi), the founder of Grasshopper Manufacture and developer behind iconic titles such as Lollipop Chainsaw, Killer7 and the Silver Case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his time at SIE (Sony Computer Entertainment, at the time) Hiromichi Takahashi was the director of the 1999 virtual pet game Doko Demo Issyo<\/strong> which, despite being Japan-exclusive, became a massive commercial hit and birthed a still ongoing series.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toro Inoue, one of the characters appearing in Doko Demo Issyo, grew particularly popular among Japanese audiences. The low poly white cat soon became the face of Sony, although he was never officially elevated to the status of mascot. But it seems this iconic Sony character almost went through a \u201cmassive\u201d change of image following the release of Doko Demo Issyo, as Takahashi lightheartedly reveals in a series of posts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Toro<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following Doko Demo Issyo\u2019s success, Sony apparently hoped to expand upon the IP by soliciting ideas from external developers, as Takahashi explains: \u201cI\u2019m not sure what the circumstances behind it were, but after Doko Demo Issyo became a hit, my superiors asked external companies to submit proposals for a game that would feature Doko Demo Issyo\u2019s characters. I ended up receiving several project proposals while still not really being sure what was going on.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it seems Sony\u2019s attempt was not successful, as Takahashi recalls not being impressed by the majority of proposals. \u201cMost of the projects simply used the characters without a proper understanding of what Doko Demo Issyo was about. As I wasn\u2019t briefed on the proposals, none of them really spoke to me and I just kind of sat through the presentations giving vague responses.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But surprisingly, there was one oddball proposal that Takahashi liked, and it came from no other than Suda51. \u201cBut there was one project that I haven\u2019t been able to forget to this day. If I recall correctly, the catchphrase was \u2018Toro\u2019s gotten fat!!\u2019 and it featured an extremely fat Toro. The game was about going on a diet with him, and it was presented to me by Mr. Goichi Suda. It was over the top and entertaining.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Toro<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Fat Toro did not become a thing due to the gravity of his public image. \u201cAs you would expect, I couldn\u2019t bring myself to fatten up Toro (who was basically the face of the company at the time),\u201d Takahashi recalls. In the end, Sony did not end up going through with any of the external proposals, but Takahashi says that if things had taken a different course, there might have been a fat Toro game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creator of Lollipop Chainsaw Suda51 once pitched an idea to Sony that almost changed the image of their unofficial mascot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":31330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-31323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nSuda51 tried to make Sony\u2019s iconic character fat, and it almost worked\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Creator of Lollipop Chainsaw Suda51 once pitched an idea to Sony that almost changed the image of their unofficial mascot.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51-tried-to-make-sonys-iconic-character-fat-and-it-almost-worked\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suda51 tried to make Sony\u2019s iconic character fat, and it almost worked\u00a0 - 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