3rd Birthday made on PSP due to "size of the game," says Tabata

The 3rd Birthday was developed for PSP due to the "size of the game," director Hajime Tabata has told VG247.

Speaking in a just-published interview, Tabata, speaking to Lauren Wainwright at a Square Enix PSP showcase, admitted that PSP had more to offer the game than Japanese mobile phones; The 3rd Birthday was originally intended for mobile.

"Why PSP? Well, when we evaluated the size of the game we felt that PSP would be most appropriate," he said.

"We are very much aware of the fact that the PSP is not currently the most attractive or popular console in Europe, but we’ll have to deal with that depressing fact. We should have made the game for PS3, really."

Tabata added: "Game size was the main the reason when we thought about the features and aspects we wanted to achieve. As you may know, this game was originally for mobile, which wasn’t enough. The PSP has memory that was just about right for what we wanted."

3rd Birthday will be "first step into showing off the franchise"

Tabata also expressed interest in making sure that The 3rd Birthday turned into a proper franchise rather than just one game.

"Parasite Eve 2 finished the story for Parasite Eve, so we couldn’t do a Parasite Eve 3," he said.

"We really thought Aya was such an attractive protagonist, so we didn’t want to just leave her alone. We wanted to resurrect her in hope to make an Aya Brea series our next big franchise... We are hoping to see this franchise grow bigger and become more established.

"This entry will be our first step into showing off the franchise; hopefully there will be more to come."

Tabata further added: "We haven’t really made our minds up yet. We’d like to wait and see how the game is received by fans, so we can see what the name should be, what should be improved and what the series should be. What challenges we should overcome."

The full interview with Hajime Tabata is here.

The 3rd Birthday releases on March 29 in the US for PSP. A European release date hasn't been announced by Square Enix, but the Twisted Edition of the game was announced yesterday.