In an interview following his appearance at last week's China Joy, Ouji Hiroi talked about his newest project, tentatively titled Sakura Taisen MMO. The game is jointly developed by teams in Japan and China. Hiroi himself will again serve as producer and focus on concept design. While he would not talk about the game's content or gameplay, Hiroi said that fans should expect a completely different Sakura Taisen experience (compared to the series' offline installments). Since the game's development has begun only recently, the development team has not decided which features will appear in the final product yet. However, Hiroi plans to create a beta version, release it, hear fans' opinions and then make adjustments accordingly.

Asked about the series' future, the producer promised that he will continue to work on offline installments of Sakura Taisen as well. However, he was aiming to create a balance between on- and offline titles in the future.

The Sakura Taisen MMO is currently scheduled to be available in China sometime next year. Releases in Japan and possibly other countries will follow thereafter.

• 4Gamer.net