The future of SmackDown vs. Raw

GR: Next to the superstars, one of the most important assets of the WWE is its writers. How much interaction do the games' script writers have with the WWE show writers?

KK: In the past there hasn't been much interaction. This year we have an unprecedented amount of interaction. The head writer of WWE's ECW brand, David Lagana, loves videogames and naturally loves our videogame. He's a really cool, hip guy, so he understands what videogames mean to the WWE. Lagana has actually taken his own personal time to help us out on the game. He'll spend time after work hours or on the weekends, to help up represent the WWE brand in a proper way.

What happened this year was we presented him all our scripts for season mode. He rewrote around 60 percent of the scripts and supervised the rest of the scripts that had to be written. Lagana made sure everything we had was appropriate to the brand and also just made everything better. To be honest, we have some really good, talented writers on our team, but there's nobody in the class of David Lagana. He's an extremely talented, A-plus creative person. To get his input on the scripts for season mode this year was a huge benefit to THQ.

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Next year, you're going to see some even bigger changes as far as our story mode goes. David Lagana is going to be with us from the beginning to write the original content and supervise the process. So in the past, there hasn't been much interaction between our writers and WWE's writers. This year we have a lot. Next year, it's going to totally collaborative with the WWE's writers from the get-go.

GR: Next to the superstars, one of the most important assets of the WWE is its writers. How much interaction do the games' script writers have with the WWE show writers?

KK: In the past there hasn't been much interaction. This year we have an unprecedented amount of interaction. The head writer of WWE's ECW brand, David Lagana, loves videogames and naturally loves our videogame. He's a really cool, hip guy, so he understands what videogames mean to the WWE. Lagana has actually taken his own personal time to help us out on the game. He'll spend time after work hours or on the weekends, to help up represent the WWE brand in a proper way.

What happened this year was we presented him all our scripts for season mode. He rewrote around 60 percent of the scripts and supervised the rest of the scripts that had to be written. Lagana made sure everything we had was appropriate to the brand and also just made everything better. To be honest, we have some really good, talented writers on our team, but there's nobody in the class of David Lagana. He's an extremely talented, A-plus creative person. To get his input on the scripts for season mode this year was a huge benefit to THQ.

Next year, you're going to see some even bigger changes as far as our story mode goes. David Lagana is going to be with us from the beginning to write the original content and supervise the process. So in the past, there hasn't been much interaction between our writers and WWE's writers. This year we have a lot. Next year, it's going to totally collaborative with the WWE's writers from the get-go.

GR: Since WCW was purchased by the WWE, THQ hasn't had any real competition in terms of high-profile wrestling-games. Is Midway's upcoming TNA Wrestling title a concern?

KK: It's not a concern for us at all. The TNA brand is nowhere near as popular as the WWE brand. In addition, they're making it right down the street from our offices, so we get a chance to talk to them every now and then. They're not going to be releasing it anywhere near our release. They're going to try to stay away as far from us possible, because they know that they shouldn't be releasing a game near when we do.

To be honest, we're kind of excited to have them compete with us. We like competition and our developer, Yuke's, loves it. One of the saddest things was when Aki stopped making competitive products. In a way, Yuke's didn't have anyone pushing them. Now to have Midway come in... Yuke's is just getting aggro! They're getting excited about the idea that another dog is trying to step into their territory. You're going to see these guys pushing themselves harder than they've ever been pushed before, to make sure that dog goes away.

GR: Since WCW was purchased by the WWE, THQ hasn't had any real competition in terms of high-profile wrestling-games. Is Midway's upcoming TNA Wrestling title a concern?

KK: It's not a concern for us at all. The TNA brand is nowhere near as popular as the WWE brand. In addition, they're making it right down the street from our offices, so we get a chance to talk to them every now and then. They're not going to be releasing it anywhere near our release. They're going to try to stay away as far from us possible, because they know that they shouldn't be releasing a game near when we do.

To be honest, we're kind of excited to have them compete with us. We like competition and our developer, Yuke's, loves it. One of the saddest things was when Aki stopped making competitive products. In a way, Yuke's didn't have anyone pushing them. Now to have Midway come in... Yuke's is just getting aggro! They're getting excited about the idea that another dog is trying to step into their territory. You're going to see these guys pushing themselves harder than they've ever been pushed before, to make sure that dog goes away.