Welcome to my first official blog for Castlevania - Lords of Shadow. My name is Dave Cox and I am the Producer of this title here at Konami.

This blog will, I hope give you some insights into the development of the game and also reveal some cool stuff about what's to come. I will try to keep it updated as much as possible, so check back regularly if you can!

You can also follow me on twitter if you like?  @castlevaniaLOS.

I usually post on twitter everyday so it's a great way of keeping up to date with what we are doing.

Game development these days can take a long time, years in fact. I know many of you are itching for more information on the game. I can assure you that over the coming months, we will be sharing lots of juicy stuff about this new Castlevania with you.

This version of Castlevania is a brand new take on the classic series. We have re imagined the world of Castlevania and designed it in a new modern, gritty realistic way whilst remaining as true as we can to the original concepts.

Our design goal was to recreate Castlevania for modern audiences. To do that we went right back to the beginning and took the original Castlevania game from 1986 as our starting point.

We are developing the game in Spain with our development partner Mercury Steam. These guys are bringing a real European sensibility to the game. Mercury Steam is headed up by Enric Alvarez who is in charge of some of the most talented individuals I have had the pleasure of working with.

He has a very gifted team who are committed to delivering a new and unique take on Castlevania.

But we have help... This game development is truly a worldwide collaboration. Why?

Kojima Productions who are one of the most respected game development studios is also helping us bring this new vision of Castlevania to your game console.

What is exciting for me is exchanging ideas and knowhow with such brilliant people and seeing such impressive results. I hope as you get to see more and more, you will be just as excited as we are about this very special project.

I know you have lots of questions and I know you are impatient for more. Let me assure you that over the coming months you will discover that Castlevania is back and back with a vengeance.

But forget everything you know or think you know about Castlevania because all bets are off.

Newbie and hardcore fan alike will visit a new world of darkness and peril that will send chills and shocks that truly deliver a next gen experience like no other. If you have never played a Castlevania game before then this is the right moment for you to jump in.

Don't worry as this story is totally new and unconnected to all the previous versions of the game. You can easily pick up and play!

So come and experience a series that has set the standard for almost 25 years and now re emerges from the shadows as the ultimate action adventure game for your console!

More Soon.

Dave

I wanted to update you about a few things. Firstly, we've got another free update available. It's had a feel teething problems, but those have now been sorted.

From the main menu in game, go to System Settings and  then Download to update team rosters and add a new boot...we're looking to simplify that process in PES2011 by the way. You'll also be pleased to hear we've got a number of other updates planned which will keep PES fresh right up until the next version.

I've also been back to Japan to see the team. They started work on PES2011 months ago and as promised the basis for changes has been feedback from fans. The big news from me is that I've already played a really, really early version of the code and it blew me away! Obviously I'm sworn to secrecy, but what I've seen is the biggest shake up of PES ever! I'm not kidding. It's awesome, but I can't say more.

Finally, it's great to welcome the Champions League back into my life - although my other half isn't such a fan of wall to wall footie! If like me you can't get enough of the competition check out the PES2010 online Champions League events every Wednesday and Saturday nights (22:00-00:30 GMT).

Cheers,

Jon.

Hello Everybody,

just wanted to inform you quickly about some good changes in Online Play for PES 2010 - We now have merged the separated PES 2010 PC servers. The most recent PES 2010 update file eradicated any previous problems experiences with CPU incompatibility. You can now experience the best ever PES 2010 online experience.

I am currently in Tokyo discussing lots of ideas from your feedback with WEP, stay tuned for more details coming soon.

Sayonara,
Jon

Hi everyone, this is Seabass.

I wanted to take some time to thank everyone for the amazing response we've had to our latest survey. You've answered in your thousands with fantastic feedback and loads of well thought out comments. Your support really does make all the difference. We want to make the PES of your dreams, but we can't do that without hearing from you.

As we keep saying, this is an ongoing process so please keep an eye out for future surveys and keep the forum posts coming on your favourite fan sites. We do take notice.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday. Good luck for 2010.

Hello iPES-Fans!

Thanks for all your interest in our iPhone/iPod touch fan app for PES 2010. We hope that, with iPES - the Fan App, we've created an application which will keep you up-to-date with PES. Whenever and wherever you are - even at times you´re not glued to your console.

As part of our continued support for iPES we will have an update at the end of January that will deliver new content: more quiz questions, more collector cards and more videos for PES 2010! Beyond that we're also regularly reading your feedback on iPES and we'll consider your suggestions for further improvements. In the near future we'll have an update to support trading collector cards via Bluetooth and we aim to reduce the app size.

You can leave feedback on our planned improvements on our iPhone website Touch Konami. You can find a poll when you visit the site http://touch.konami-europe.com with your iPhone or iPod touch device.

To all of you who do not already know the app: iPES - The Fan App is the multimedia app for Pro Evolution Soccer and is available for free on the iTunes App Store.

Thanks for your support!

Hello hardcore PES fans.

By now you should know how committed the Konami team is to getting your feedback and considering your requests for future versions of our game. We're about to start that process all over again with the release of an online questionnaire. Remember the more useful info we can get from you, the better PES will become. Anything that can't be included into the next version will be considered for future versions.

As executive producer I've got plenty of ideas I'm already working on, but believe me your feedback, both as football fans and PES fans, is crucial.
So get involved and have your say here:

http://www.konamisupport.com/pes2010survey/

Thanks in advance for you support.
Seabass.

Hello Everybody.

It's now more than a month, since PES 2010 has been released on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC across Europe. Many of our staff went on well deserved holidays after finishing the game. Every product has a crucial crunch time towards the end, and it was good to spend some time with family after that. Football still kept me busy on my days off, watching matches on satellite TV.

After returning to work we still had to focus on PES 2010, as we wanted to deliver lots of downloadable content as promised.
Those updates require additional approvals from Sony and Microsoft, and finally this week we were able to offer additional stuff: The latest free download includes club team roster updates, so
all the transfers made after we finished the game are now included.

We also added four teams into the UEFA Champions League Mode with their proper CL kits. Atletico Madrid, Olympiacos, Lyon and Fiorentina were in the game in their respective leagues before,
but their qualification for the CL happened after we'd completed PES2010. Last but not least especially for my home country, there's an updated Japanese national team home kit, which has recently changed.

Overall, quite a few updates to boost realism. Unfortunately, we can't act as quickly as things happen in the real world, but we hope you appreciate all the effort we put into improving your game. Of course this won't be the final update. We're in constant discussion with clubs and will keep checking what kind of additions we need to make . As usual all our updates are free - there is no charge for this downloadable content. So, look out for more news about PES 2010 in the next months. The development process hasn't finished for us yet!

Keep on playing and have fun,

Naoya Hatsumi

Welcome back to the PES blog.

We've been a little quiet recently, getting the game into shops and
checking how people like it. I've also been back to Japan for a debrief with the team and to check on preparations for next year.

Forum feedback has been excellent, with most fans rating PES2010 the best PES to date. There are still some online issues, which we're constantly checking and we'll improve the system further where we can.

Our next release is a really awesome app for iPhone and iPod touch,
called iPES - The Fan App. It's stuffed full of sections for PES news, blogs, sports news, quizzes and top PES goals scored by you guys. You can also earn points and use them to collect special cards which can be swapped. All this is combined with the ability to link with facebook.

iPES - The Fan App is totally free and out there on the App Store now, so give it a go.

That's about it from me right now. Wrap up warm if you have to go out, or you could just stay in and play Master League!

Cheers,
Jon.