Namco says We Kill Katamari

By Tom Bramwell Published 20 March, 2006

No more, says website.

Namco has put paid to speculation about a new Katamari Damacy game by, er, dissolving the development team and declaring that it won't be making any more.

Last week the official Japanese website said it was about to be yanked down. Given the timing, which seemed to line up nicely with previous Katamari-related activity, there was speculation that Namco was about to announce another game.

Instead, it's clawed the site down and replaced it with a holding page, partially translated by Gamasutra, which says that "Doctor Katamari" (believed to be series creator Keita Takahashi) has moved on to a new, non-Katamari project and that the rest of the team has been split up and is working on other things too.

In a double blow for fans, all the old website content - including a vast range of gorgeous desktop wallpaper images and screensavers - has been dismantled too, leaving us with little to look forward to other than the May 5th European release of PSP title Me & My Katamari which, er, we didn't really think was all that brilliant anyway.

On the one hand then, boohoo! On the other, there's something oddly refreshing about it. Sure, nobody knows where Katamari might have gone under the auspices of its dedicated minders, but on the other hand here's a developer and a publisher saying "right, that's enough of that" instead of just making 58 of them in a row. Will you be mourning Katamari Damacy 2006: Road to Our Beautiful Chin?

Perhaps it's best to simply go and wave goodbye. What do you reckon?

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • PlugMonkey #1 6 years ago

    Boo Hiss etc...

  • Dr Strangelove #2 6 years ago

    Nooooooooooooooooooooo...

    Or yes maybe!?!

  • Bitkari #3 6 years ago

    Good news!

    Katamari was great [not that the original was ever released here], and We love.. was a worthy update.

    I'm sure they possibly could make another one, but that doesn't mean that they should. I'd rather see efforts put towards something just as good, but different, rather than a derivative sequel. We have enough of those already!

  • Blerk #4 6 years ago

    Nice to hear of someone doing something good then going on to do something else before they spoil it for a change.

  • lemonfist #5 6 years ago

    Yes, let's hope they come up with another original concept for a game.

  • riz23 #6 6 years ago

    Yup, that was good, now what's next?

  • smoison #7 6 years ago

    Ohh no, what will I be able to play if I want to roll a ball on screen that gets bigger....

    / End of sarcasm

    Its not like this has some awesome possibility for sequels.

  • Cabelo #8 6 years ago

    I'd still not mind seeing a VASTLY complex ps3 version ;)

  • SeesThroughAll #9 6 years ago

    Good thing then.

    Time to put it to rest, instead of making zillions of "different" games featuring the King of All Cosmos...

  • Huntcjna #10 6 years ago

    Well I know its widely loved here but I thought it was repetative nonsense so no real loss to me.

  • JonFE #11 6 years ago

    So, no chance for a DS version then ?

    Shame...
    Edited by 1 at 20/03/06 @ 12:07

  • Bezzy #12 6 years ago

    They got out before the inevitable unnecessary stealth mission. Good show!

  • chronom4n #13 6 years ago

    the guys know when a good thing is a good thing and decided to call it a day before accusation of sequelitis start being hurled at them. good on them. i can never imagine the guys at EA taking on this philosophy!

  • ecureuil #14 6 years ago

    This is a good thing. As much as I love the games, they did the right thing to stop now, and we'll all have fond memories of it. Milking something dry can tarnish the entire history of it.

  • regmund #15 6 years ago

    i imagine that EA might be a bit gutted at no longer having this franchise to distribute to death
    ..err..not that they did anyway
    Edited by 2 at 20/03/06 @ 12:58

  • Corvus #16 6 years ago

    It's definitely good to hear that Takahashi is being allowed to work on something different, considering he didn't really want to be involved with We Love Katamari.

    But why shut down the website? The design for that website was one of the coolest I've ever seen. Is Namco being vindictive because Takahashi didn't want to play ball and make another sequel?

  • Scientist #17 6 years ago

    "But why shut down the website? The design for that website was one of the coolest I've ever seen. Is Namco being vindictive because Takahashi didn't want to play ball and make another sequel?"

    It's the team's own website which they update. If the team's been disbanded there's no one to look after it.


  • Corvus #18 6 years ago

    "It's the team's own website which they update. If the team's been disbanded there's no one to look after it."

    I see. Pardon my ignorance :-).

  • kangarootoo #19 6 years ago

    The candle that burns twice as bright....

    Good news in my book, for the reasons others have given above.

  • msephton #20 6 years ago

    I think this is the right decision, onwards and upwards!

  • absolutezero #21 6 years ago

    Holy crap Namco in "Not Bastards" shocker!!

  • ali-uk #22 6 years ago

    Well I know its widely loved here but I thought it was repetative nonsense so no real loss to me.

    -

    Agreed.

  • firm3d #23 6 years ago

    I don't have any three of them (perhaps this a good place to ask which one I should buy if I'm only getting one of them?), but I got the impression the creator wanted to leave it at one, so this can't be bad news.

  • JayScott #24 6 years ago

    I don't mind, although I'd love it if they'd get around to releasing the first game in Australia. Oh well, we can dream...

  • l_p_4_7 #25 6 years ago

    /waits in anticipation for Katamari Damacy's Pro Roller Namco Wasteland Underground 3.

  • Repsode #26 6 years ago

    As Strong Bad would say: "Too much of a good thing is awesome. Too much of an awesome thing is....really...dumb."

    I say kill it off. It would be too easy to run that game down to a shell of it's former self.

    Katamari is awesome, best not to let it become another Tomb Raider(we'll see about Legends).

    Thank god there is a company in the industry that knows when to quit.

  • Feanor #27 6 years ago

    They should keep releasing Katamari music CDs even without games to accompany them. Cherry Tree Times and Baby Universe ftw.

  • kangarootoo #28 6 years ago

    "Well I know its widely loved here but I thought it was repetative nonsense so no real loss to me"

    Sex and Pizza are both repetative if you are just looking at the mechanics of it. The devil, as always, is in the details.

  • Triggerhappytel #29 6 years ago

    How about Katamari: Underground, where you can mod your ball (with spoilers, custom paint jobs and a new exhaust), roll around the city and get missions off low-lives, whores and corrupt officials in order to try to rise to the top of the criminal tree, in the dreaded gang known as the Spheres?!

  • silver-jon #30 6 years ago

    I'm just gutted that I forgot to visit the website and get some of those funky screens.

    Brave move - to be applauded. Wise man (with bruised face) once said:
    If you want to move forward but keep looking back you'll walk into a lamp-post.