GameSpy: What is the most exciting change coming to Smackdown vs. Raw in 2009?
Taku Chihaya, Senior Creative Director: Working on Smackdown all these years, we've made a lot of match types for the game. We specifically tailored ladder matches one year, Hell in a Cell another year. But I didn't personally feel that we ever created tag team matches per se. This year we're really focusing on tag team matches and making them a stellar part of the game design, which is very exciting to me.GameSpy: Is tag team wrestling very popular these days in Japan, or was it just a feature that you felt would be a good fit for your next game?
Taku Chihaya: Personally, I'm a big fan of the tag team match in general. The reason being is that it's not just taking a one-on-one match and making it two-on-two. It's because there are so many opportunities for unforeseen drama to come up in the match that you couldn't imagine occurring in a one-on-one match. I think that both American fans and Japanese fans, it doesn't matter where you are, can appreciate that extra element of the unknown and surprise that come up in tag team matches.
GameSpy: Do the features that are introduced in the tag team matches this year apply to triple threats and other match types?
Shintaro Matsubara, Senior Technical Director: Yes, of course. When we say tag, we don't just mean two-on-two, it applies to any combination you can think of in the WWE. But the most important thing for us to remember, is that when we're developing this, it doesn't just mean that we're increasing the number of people involved in a match. It means that we're adding a whole new level of interaction into a match that allows a player to think of different types of strategies, and ways to use those extra people to have a different kind of experience.
