In 2021, an anonymous Xbox developer informed Kotaku of an undiscovered developer credit on the Xbox. To find it, insert a music CD, and from the Audio CD screen choose Copy, Copy, and then New Soundtrack. Delete the default soundtrack title and replace it with the following name (without quotation marks): "Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
Wait for the CD to finish ripping and then return to the main menu. Now going to System Info within the Settings will reveal an updated screen crediting the four programmers that made up the Xbox Dashboard Team.
A lengthy hidden developer credit for all those who worked on the Xbox console can be found by inserting a music CD, going to the Audio CD menu, selecting and pressing Copy, Select All and then Copy again. You are then taken to a menu to name the Soundtrack you have just selected, where you should enter the following name without the quotation marks: "[two less-than symbols]Eggsßox[two greater-than symbols]"
When you hit Done, the Xbox loading screen appears and will take you to a credits sequence, thanking the developers who made games for the Xbox and their playerbase before giving thanks to The DirectX Team, Microsoft Hardware, Worldwide Operations, The MSN Gaming Zone, Windows Core, and the entire Xbox Team and their families for tolerating the long work hours it took to create the console. The credits end with "XBOX 2001".
A model and a self-heal ability parameter for Ratchet were extensively worked on, suggesting the Autobot Medic was going to play a bigger role in the game than just appearing in cutscenes, possibly as a playable character in the Autobot Campaign or as a boss in the Decepticon Campaign.
On the disc, there is an unused character called "Evil Bumblebee" with black blood-splatter-like spots on his vehicle mode, which is Bee's old '77 Camaro alt mode. It is unknown if this was supposed to be a separate character from Bumblebee or the same character sporting a different look.
Michael Jackson's cameo appearance in Space Channel 5 under the name "Space Michael" originated from when he was shown a near-finished version of the game by Sega staff member Shuji Utsumi, and immediately wanted to be featured in it. The game's creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi received the call about Jackson's wishes only one month before the game's completion, and initially wanted to turn him down due to these time constraints. However, he and the rest of the team eventually conceded and wanted to include him, having been inspired by his music videos during development. They ultimately added him into the game by substituting a Morolian-controlled NPC character for a model based on him and added moves based on his famous dance moves, initially expecting him to dislike it. Jackson, fully realizing the pressures the team were facing, approved the appearance and provided voice lines for his character. Mizuguchi recalled Jackson's reaction in a 2009 Den-fami Nico Game interview following his death:
Mizuguchi: "I could only do this much, so I wondered if Michael would refuse. Then ... (Mr. Mizuguchi imitating Michael's voice) 'Oh, OK!' …… Because!"
Jackson would reprise the role of Space Michael in an expanded capacity in Space Channel 5: Part 2.
In the code for the "Alien Auto-topsy: Part 1" mission, there is a command called "AllowRockOut()" which can be triggered after collecting the nuclear waste barrel and parking the car while Homer is a passenger and someone else is driving (this can be performed while Homer is the driver, but is reportedly trickier to pull off). Homer can then be seen "rocking out" to the mission's music by performing the "Task Completed" animation over and over again (any other character animations will temporarily override it). However, if you cancel the mission during this animation loop, it will be revealed that the speed he rocks out at changes to accompany the tempo of the song that is currently playing. The RMS files (which control music events) contain tempo data for every song in the game, despite mission warping effectively causing rocking out to go unused.
The developers at Platinum Games, who were huge Transformers fans since childhood, decided on the Generation 1 aesthetic of this game. In order to modernize it, in addition to the 80s G1 cartoon, they also took inspiration from the G1-themed Transformers comics by IDW as well as the Transformer: Generations toyline, which is also based on the original 80s designs.
A special PlayStation Portable port of the game was planned called "Transformers: 2nd Strike", but was cancelled by Atari due to the Transformers video game publishing license being given to Activision by Hasbro after the Transformers live-action film was announced.
According to the consumer marketing director at The Pokemon Company JC Smith, one of the big hurdles that Game Freak and other Pokemon devs have to endure is the balance between massive fan demand and the developers' own specific vision for each game.
“...there’s also a vision for what the creators want to provide, and it’s [a matter of] finding that delicate balance throughout. We have a group of creators and professionals working at the Pokémon Company that have been through a lot – seen, heard [a lot]. They have thicker skin than many people do because they’ve heard it.”
Smith also revealed that the company does listen to fan demands of wanting a grander and more sophisticated game in the series, but he also revealed that Game Freak very much strives to make future games extremely accessible at their cores as well.
According to Terence J. Rotolo, the series voice actor for Frank West, he was not asked by Capcom Vancouver to reprise his role for the eighth installment in the series due to Dead Rising's asset manager, Trant Lee-Aimes, changing Frank West's character development. Lee-Aimes was asked by fans regarding the lack of Rotolo's involvement within the game, to which he responded in a fan Q&A:
"We wanted to work with someone to provide a more grizzled, older take on Frank at this stage. It's no disrespect to history or previous actors--TJ Rotolo has done a bang-up job."
Rotolo shared a Change.org petition made by fans through social media to have him return back for this game, but to no avail.
According to the game's art director, Tatsuya Yoshikawa, The Order of the Sword is based on the Amish religious sect as a means of blending the medieval elements within the modern setting.
"We brought up the Amish early on, although the goal was never to focus on emulating them too much. I think any given religion represents a closed-off space, in a way. The Order tends to dress its knights in these flashy costumes, but there's a slightly modern sense to them. If they were really shut off from the world, there wouldn't be any modern elements in their costumes at all, right? Those designs were meant to show that the Order has adapted to modern times while stilt retaining their gaudiness. That was our goal there."
Santus was originally going to be named Benedict. The name was changed when, coincidently, Pope Benedict was elected in real life during the early development of the game.
Gloria was going to be a fully-fledged character. According to Bingo Morihashi, he begged to be included in the game, to which they humored him. She was going to be one of the antagonists, but due to a number of problems, she was simply modified to be Trish in disguise.
According to Bingo Morihashi, he originally planned to have Agnus speak in a drunken fashion. However, the voice actor suggested that he speak with a stammer instead. The dialogue for the intro sequence to his second boss fight was also adlibbed during the recording session.
"When recording his lines, his voice actor suggested inserting the stammer, which I thought added to his characterization. Having the musical-like scene came from another impromptu suggestion during a recording session. The staff in the studio at the time thought it was a great idea, so we went with it. That helped Agnus come into his own as a character. I originally thought to have him talk almost drunkenly, which seems pretty standard for mad scientist characters. But the voice actor's suggestions brought the character to an entirely different level of likability."
According to Bingo Morihashi, Credo was originally planned to be the final boss of the game, similar to Vergil in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. The idea was abandoned due to writing complications.
"We actually planned to make him the final boss at one point. Final bosses are rarely young men, so that would have been exciting. But that would have been really hard on poor Kyrie. and she would come to resent Nero, so we realized that Credo shouldn't be an out-and-out villain. Besides ruining Nero and Kyrie's relationship, making him a villain would have been a rehash of the "family betrayal" plot from "DMC 3". So rather, he starts off doing questionable things but later has a change of heart. Credo was easy to craft, in that sense."
According to Bingo Morihashi, the game was originally planned to dedicate a lot more time to Nero's story, rather than the semi-even split that ended up in the final game.
"At first, the intent was more of a 70/30 split, with Nero taking the larger role. Giving Dante nothing was unthinkable from a sales perspective, so we were bouncing around between 70/30 and 60/40. In the end, though, they each received an equal slice. We somehow gave Dante more missions and weapons than we expected to. (laughs)"
According to Bingo Morihashi, Red Queen and Blue Rose were created as a means to visually differentiate Nero's movement and gameplay from Dante.
"For the main weapon, motion artist [Yuichiro] Hiraki-san said he wanted a motorcycle-like sword. What does that even mean, though? He explained that the sword's handle would rumble and sputter like an engine, and everyone loved the idea. Using that sword was important for Nero's characterization, because it gave him this "biker gang" element. That plus his wildness signaled the shift to the current Nero."
According to the game's writer, Bingo Morihashi, Nero was originally envisioned as a noble and sophisticated demon hunter, akin to the likes of Sherlock Holmes. However, the idea was rejected, and the team heavily debated the type of character Nero should be.
"I think he came out all right in the end, but he actually started out as a Sherlock Holmes-type character, sipping tea as he fought off demons. (laughs) But they decided that wasn't such a good idea. (laughs) That was the angle I was gunning for, though. He wound up being your typical wild and crazy kid, but in that sense he resembles Dante quite a bit, so I thought we needed ways to distinguish between the two. I gave him one part Dante's wildness and one part Vergit's sophistication, which gave him a refined, noble nuance. But that wasn't well-received either. So I was told to simply write the scenario as if the character was Dante, and once the team was satisfied with the story's direction, we began to flesh out Nero; his childishness, his unexpected serious moments. I believe this anecdote has been mentioned in some interview somewhere, but the team debated over whether Nero would be the type to cover up his privates in a public bath or let it all hang out. The base for Nero's design is undoubtedly Dante, and if you aged him ten years, Nero would basically resemble Dante physically. After a lot of discussion, though, I was convinced that Nero would definitely cover up his junk in a public bath, whereas Dante wouldn't have ever cared about that from a young age, and it wouldn't make a difference to him as an adult in "DMC 4". either. But Nero begins as a more reserved young man, so the big questions were, 'Is that enough of a difference?' and 'Are we implying that he'll grow up to be just like Dante?'"
In 2021, an anonymous Xbox developer informed Kotaku of an undiscovered developer credit on the Xbox. To find it, insert a music CD, and from the Audio CD screen choose Copy, Copy, and then New Soundtrack. Delete the default soundtrack title and replace it with the following name (without quotation marks): "Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
A lengthy hidden developer credit for all those who worked on the Xbox console can be found by inserting a music CD, going to the Audio CD menu, selecting and pressing Copy, Select All and then Copy again. You are then taken to a menu to name the Soundtrack you have just selected, where you should enter the following name without the quotation marks: "[two less-than symbols]Eggsßox[two greater-than symbols]"
A model and a self-heal ability parameter for Ratchet were extensively worked on, suggesting the Autobot Medic was going to play a bigger role in the game than just appearing in cutscenes, possibly as a playable character in the Autobot Campaign or as a boss in the Decepticon Campaign.
Michael Jackson's cameo appearance in Space Channel 5 under the name "Space Michael" originated from when he was shown a near-finished version of the game by Sega staff member Shuji Utsumi, and immediately wanted to be featured in it. The game's creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi received the call about Jackson's wishes only one month before the game's completion, and initially wanted to turn him down due to these time constraints. However, he and the rest of the team eventually conceded and wanted to include him, having been inspired by his music videos during development. They ultimately added him into the game by substituting a Morolian-controlled NPC character for a model based on him and added moves based on his famous dance moves, initially expecting him to dislike it. Jackson, fully realizing the pressures the team were facing, approved the appearance and provided voice lines for his character. Mizuguchi recalled Jackson's reaction in a 2009 Den-fami Nico Game interview following his death:
A special PlayStation Portable port of the game was planned called "Transformers: 2nd Strike", but was cancelled by Atari due to the Transformers video game publishing license being given to Activision by Hasbro after the Transformers live-action film was announced.
