Pelican Interview: E3 2006
Written by John Ondrey and Max Bunge.
N-Philes had the opportunity to speak with Birute Tursa, Sales Assistant of Performance Designed Products. Pelican is a division of PDP, which is responsible for the design and creation of a plethora of peripherals for every major console and handheld. These peripherals include carrying cases and screen guards for the DS and DS Lite, extra styluses for DS Lite, movie licensed controllers for GameCube and more.
Find out what's in store for Pelican and Nintendo. And what's this about a new handheld?
N-Philes: What exactly do you have planned for the Wii?
Pelican: There is nothing specific that I can talk about right now until everything is signed and official.
N-Philes: What would you like to develop for the Wii?
Pelican: Definitely controllers to another level. Basically when someone is buying it, it may have an extra feature that a fan is getting for a specific game maybe.
N-Philes: We've seen Pelican make controllers catered specifically toward movie licenses. For example, you have a Pirates controller and DS Lite kit/pack based on the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean movie and a similar Cars package based on its movie. Do movie production companies come to you to develop these peripherals or do you come to them to reach a license agreement?
Pelican: Usually we go out. Pelican is mainly known for regular standard controllers with additional features such as "glow", but this is a new niche we are looking into. I believe once other companies do see our license products, they will come to us as well.
N-Philes: Wii's unique controller allows it to "morph" into different things for different games. For example, Duck Hunt may be played with a peripheral that turns the remote into a gun. Red Steel may turn the remote into a sword. Do you see Pelican making these types of Peripherals?
Pelican: I definitely imagine this is something we may do - some cool accessory that can help the gameplay.
N-Philes: How unique are your product designers looking to be when you make your controllers?
Pelican: We are definitely looking for more than just a "standard" controller. Are you familiar with the Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller? We definitely want to, very possibly, move in that direction - with collector editions.
N-Philes: We noticed portraits of future handheld gaming units that you are coming out with. One of the games being played on it was Castlevania. Is this the NES version?
Pelican: You know what, actually this is something we're still not allowed to talk about until it's all final.
N-Philes: Can we ask, do you plan on bringing other games besides Castlevania to this new handheld?
Pelican: Absolutely. We're working with other developers.
N-Philes: When can we expect this handheld to come out?
Pelican: Christmas.
At this time, more details and specifications were discussed about the handheld, but upon the request of Pelican, we cannot disclose this information. Pelican says that this a feature focus of their department at this time, and that gamers should be excited about it.
N-Philes: Where does your priority lie with Nintendo in terms of developing peripherals on each console - Xbox, Playstation 2, 360, etc.?
Pelican: We try to do as much as we can for [Nintendo]. It depends how easy they are willing to work with us. With the 360, we would like to do a lot more, but we are not able to because [Microsoft] is not allowing anyone to do wireless controllers. I think it depends on Nintendo's side. We would love to put our focus there.
N-Philes: Thank you very much for your time.
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