Ben Judd | |
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Born | |
Occupation |
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Years active | 2002–2019 |
Employer | Formerly Digital Development Management, Formerly Dangen |
Ben Judd (born October 25, 1974) is an American translator, producer, and agent. He is a former Capcom employee. [1] Judd is an American and lives in Japan and became Capcom's first non-Japanese producer. [2] [3] [4] [5] Judd has had several voice acting cameos in his career, including the English voice of the character Phoenix Wright in the Ace Attorney series.
He formerly worked for Digital Development Management (DDM), a video game agency. [6] At DDM, Judd helped organize the Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaigns for Mighty No. 9 and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as well as helped create the deal to make Scalebound . [7] Judd is a co-founder of Dangen, a video game publisher. [8]
Judd resigned as CEO of Dangen Entertainment following allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by multiple people who had worked with him. [9] [10]
Judd joined Capcom in 2002 where he worked in the localization department at Capcom at the Osaka, Japan, branch. [2] [11] [12] Judd is a fluent speaker of Japanese, and speaks in the Kansai dialect. [13] He helped write the English localization of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney , as well as providing the English voice to the character Phoenix Wright in the Ace Attorney series. [14] [15] [16] He also worked on the localization of Viewtiful Joe , Onimusha 3 , God Hand and Resident Evil Outbreak . [17] [18] He would later become Head of Globalization at Capcom. [19] [20]
Judd became acquainted with Capcom senior corporate officer Keiji Inafune while working on Dead Rising . [21] Judd would often act as a translator to Inafune at press events. [22]
Judd says he is a big fan of the original Bionic Commando games. [23] He says he made an original pitch for a new Bionic Commando game in 2004, but the pitch was not approved by higher ups at Capcom. [21] Judd was producer for two Bionic Commando games and Judd states that Inafune gave his support to both projects. [23] [3] The titles were developed by Swedish developer Grin, and Judd expressed views at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show that Japanese developers lagged behind Western developers. [4] [3] This made him the first foreign producer at Capcom. [7] In 2008, Judd also expressed interest in a new Bionic Commando title for the Wii. [24]
The first released was Bionic Commando Rearmed , 2008. [11] The game was digitally distributed and sold over 130,000 copies during the launch week. [25] [26] The second title was Bionic Commando, released in 2009. The title sold 27,000 copies in America in its first week. [27] As of 2018, the game has sold 1.1 million copies. [28]
Judd acted as translator for Japanese video game producer Keiji Inafune when he appeared at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show and Inafune criticized the state of Japanese video games. Inafune, through Judd, stated, "Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished," [29] [30]
Judd was to oversee the development of a first-person shooter Mega Man game code-named Maverick Hunter . [31] However, the project was cancelled in late 2010. [31]
Judd left Capcom in 2011 and joined Digital Development Management (DDM). [22] He was the Director of Business Development at DDM Agency and was the Vice President and head of DDM Japan. [7] At DDM, Judd helped organize the Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaigns for Mighty No. 9 and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night . [7] He later worked as Comcept's agent. [6]
Following the release of Mighty No. 9, Judd hosted a livestream and translated for Inafune. [32] Judd was highly critical of the game's development, [lower-alpha 1] and also said the game was "better than nothing", a quote that at first was mistakenly attributed to Inafune. [35] [36] Judd has not represented Comcept since 2017, when they were purchased by Level-5, and became Level-5 Comcept. [6]
Judd is Koji Igarashi's agent and translator. [37] [38] Igarashi hired Judd after leaving Konami, and he attempted to find funding for Igarashi's new project. [39] [40] Judd later introduced Igarashi to Inti Creates. [41]
Judd set up a deal with Microsoft for PlatinumGames to develop the action role playing game Scalebound . [38] The game was later cancelled in 2017. [42] He has also acted as a translator for Hideki Kamiya. [43] Judd acted as a translator for Kamiya and Inaba for the announcement of Bayonetta 3 . [44]
In 2017, Judd co-founded Dangen, an independent video game publisher in Japan. [8] [12] Dangen focuses on publishing Western independent titles in Japan. [1] Atsushi Inaba, co-founder of PlatinumGames, is advising Dangen. [45]
Judd helped organize the "Indie Megashow" held on September 20, 2017, in Tokyo. The event was part of a series of events called "Indie Megabooth", that showed off independent games. Igarashi and Tetsuya Mizuguchi were also in attendance. [46]
Judd has made regular appearance at Bitsummit, an annual independent gaming show in Kyoto. [7] [47] Judd was the MC for the Bitsummit events in 2013, 2016, and 2017. [48] At the third Bitsummit in 2015, he was the moderator for a discussion with Atsushi Inaba. [49] At the fourth Bitsummit in 2016, Judd led a panel discussion with Ian Flood of Yacht Club Games, Takuya Aizu of Inti-Creates, and Rhodri Broadbent of Dakko Dakko. [50]
In 2019, following reports of mismanagement and sexual harassment by Judd, he stepped down as CEO of Dangen Entertainment, and was replaced by Dan Stern. [9]
In November 2019, an anonymous designer who worked with Dangen (verified by USGamer to be legitimate) accused him of predatory behavior and violations of non-disclosure agreements, as well as negligent behavior when handling the release of certain games. Another anonymous source had reason to believe the allegations, and suspected that their prominence prevented people from speaking up about it. [51] Dangen came to an agreement with the game developer in 2021. [52]
Capcom Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, and Marvel vs. Capcom. Established in 1979, it has become an international enterprise with subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and North America.
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Keiji Inafune is a Japanese video game producer, illustrator and businessman. Starting his career at Capcom in the late 1980s, his job was as an artist and illustrator. The first two games he worked on were the original Street Fighter and Mega Man in 1987. He was then an illustrator and artist of the Mega Man series during the NES and Super NES era. For Mega Man X, he created and designed the character Zero.
Mega Man, known as Rockman in Japan, is a 1987 action-platform video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was directed by Akira Kitamura, with Nobuyuki Matsushima as lead programmer, and is the first game of the Mega Man franchise and the original video game series. Mega Man was produced by a small team specifically for the home console market, a first for Capcom, who previously focused on arcade titles.
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Koji Igarashi is a Japanese video game producer, programmer, writer, and creative director. Often credited as IGA, he began his career by joining Konami in 1990 as a programmer. Over the next ten years, he moved into a senior role within the company, working on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a programmer, writer, and assistant director. He later served as the lead producer on the Castlevania series, starting with Castlevania Chronicles in 1999 and ending with Castlevania: Harmony of Despair in 2011. During his time with Konami, he was also involved in other titles, such as Nano Breaker and Tokimeki Memorial. In 2014, Igarashi left Konami to later become the co-founder of Artplay who in June 2019 released Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night.
Inti Creates Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development company. Formed by ex-Capcom staff in May 1996, they are best known for developing games in the Mega Man series, namely the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series, and their flagship Azure Striker Gunvolt and Gal Gun franchises.
Bionic Commando is a 2009 action-adventure video game, part of the Bionic Commando series. The game was developed by Swedish developer Grin and published by Capcom. The game is a sequel to the 1988 NES game Bionic Commando, with certain storyline elements taken from its 2008 remake Bionic Commando Rearmed. The game runs on Grin's Diesel engine.
Bionic Commando Rearmed is an enhanced remake of the 1988 Nintendo Entertainment System version of Bionic Commando. It was developed by Grin and published by Capcom for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade, and was released in August 2008. The BlackBerry version was developed and published by Beeline Interactive and released on April 23, 2009. The remake serves as a prelude to the 2009 video game Bionic Commando.
Bionic Commando, originally released as Hitler's Resurrection: Top Secret in Japan, is a platform game released by Capcom for the Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. It is based on the 1987 arcade game Bionic Commando.
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Mighty No. 9 is a 2016 action platform video game developed by Comcept, in conjunction with Inti Creates, and published by Deep Silver. The game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter and incorporated heavy input from the public. Mighty No. 9 closely resembles the early Mega Man series in both gameplay and character design, on which project lead Keiji Inafune worked, and is considered a spiritual successor.
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Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a 2018 platform game developed and published by Inti Creates. It is a companion title to developer ArtPlay's 2019 game Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and was conceived to fulfill the promise for a retro-style accompaniment to Ritual of the Night after its Kickstarter campaign exceeded crowdfunding goals. Curse of the Moon follows Zangetsu, a cursed swordsman hunting down demons for revenge, as well as three other playable characters named Miriam, Alfred and Gebel. It features an 8-bit aesthetic and gameplay style similar to Castlevania games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), particularly Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989).
The Inverted Castle is a setting in the video game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997), which was designed by Koji Igarashi. Players control the protagonist Alucard as they explore Dracula's Castle. Upon defeating Shaft, a minion of Dracula, players are able to enter the Inverted Castle, an upside down version of the original castle. The Inverted Castle was included because the designers wanted to add more content without having to create new assets. The Inverted Castle served as inspiration for multiple games, such as 2014's Strider and Igarashi's Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.