n Wednesday, Capcom unveiled the first sequel to Bionic Commando in 20 years, and we had the opportunity to talk at length with Capcom Japan’s producer Ben Judd about this unique project, his history at Capcom, and what led to him becoming the producer on the title. How exactly does one go from localization to a full blown producer? Why bring back Bionic Commando to begin with? While most would think that it’s not a big deal for a non-Japanese person to become a producer on a title for a Japanese developer, find out what kind of opposition Judd faced from the outset. Spanning a time period of four years, hear the trials and tribulations that faced this project that actually was supposed be a 2D PSP title instead of a full-blown console game.

Game Informer: For the readers who don’t know the real Ben Judd, can you explain how you got started at Capcom and what you used to do before you started work with this game?

Ben Judd: It was actually an interesting story. I was living and working in Japan as an English teacher, and they hired me into Capcom USA from Japan, which is kind of strange because they had maybe 25 or 30 different candidates and they chose me—and I was certainly not the cheapest person, because they had to hire me all the way from Japan to the U.S. I worked there for a year as a marketing specialist, which meant that I would interpret and translate for most of the business meetings, at the PR events and whenever people like yourself would come over and there were ROMs that were all in Japanese, I would sort of walk people through that. It was a really nice job at first, but after about a year—

GI: Were you a gamer?

Judd: Yes. I was a gamer. I was actually more of a gamer then than I am now, unfortunately. After about a year, the president said, “We need someone to represent us to the Japanese producers, and sort of explain to them the U.S. market and how it’s different.” It’s very different, especially the PR field, because in Japan we have Famitsu, and that pretty much decides how many units you’re going to be able to sell. But, on the other hand, they totally respect the deadlines, the restrictions—everything you give to them. But in the U.S., it’s a little bit more of a cowboy mentality. If somebody gets a scoop, a lot of the times people will just upload it right then and there.

So after I was in the U.S. for about a year, they moved me over to Japan, and I worked very closely with the different producers. It was about a year of me being what is lovingly dubbed an “asset wrangler.” So I would talk to the producer, get different assets—

GI: Like screenshots…

Judd: Screenshots, etc. It kind of worked out, and what was nice about it was that I got to work very closely with the producers and see how they did their jobs. So while Bionic Commando is sort of my first title, I do have a lot of experience working with producers very closely and seeing how that process occurs. After a year later, I was working, still doing that job, when Tanaka-san—I don’t know if you remember him, the crazy, wild guy—but he said, “We need help translating Biohazard [Resident Evil] Outbreak.” For me, I’d always joined a gaming company because I wanted to do something creative, of course, and this was my first shot to really get into the game. So I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.” It was like doing two jobs in the span of a single year. I would literally work until midnight, I would miss my last train, I would stay at the headquarters, and it went on for about a year. Eventually, I was like, “I need help,” and I got it into my thick skull that we needed a localization team, because Capcom’s translation team was not so hot. We had things like, “The master of locks,” from Resident Evil, so to shake that image I thought we needed to have a full-blown localization team. They allowed me to create that, and I was head of localization over at Capcom for about two years. After that, the goal was continuing to push Bionic Commando, and they said, “We’re going to make you a full-blown producer,” and, believe it or not—and this is not something that anyone else has heard—it was originally going to be a PSP game. It was going to be a 2D, internally produced PSP game. I know that’s going to make some people say, “Oh, you should have done that!”

GI: You just started a new thread on Gaming Age.

Judd: Ultimately, Inafune-san said, “You know what? This is kind of a waste for us just to make it 2D. We need to do this the right way, and we need to do this all the way.” So, for me, who’s just starting to be a fledgling producer and learning the ropes, I was like, “You mean I’m going to do a full, next-gen triple A title?” And he said, “Yeah.” It was crazy to even imagine that I would be doing that. So that’s kind of how I got started.