Japanese Developers Look at Next-Gen Consoles

Kouji Okada is founder and president of Gaia, who released Jewel Summoner on PSP this January and is also the creator of the now-legendary Megami Tensei series of RPGs. He says the biggest surprise of E3 was "definitely the price of the PS3. As a Blu-Ray player it's cheap; as a game console, it's expensive. You might enjoy the games you get, though really. Is it a 'game machine' or an 'entertainment machine'? Then there's the Wii. The games are playable and sharp. They're friendly, though I imagine they'd get kind of boring after a while."

Noritaka Funamizu, executive director of Craft and Meister, makers of the Monster Hunter series, believes that "the network capabilities will sell the PlayStation 3." Maybe he knows something we don't about how cool Monster Hunter 3 is going to be? He also believes the Wii "has some potential none of us can imagine yet." His final comment is that "Final Fantasy XIII looks really cool. I watched that movie and thought, yes, this is what it means to make a game people love at first sight."

Tecmo's inimitable Tomonobu Itagaki says things only he can say: "It is most interesting to see Sony made the decisive judgment to revert the PlayStation 3 controller to its true shape. It takes great bravery for a company to change something that has already been announced."

In closing, he says "The Xbox 360 was doing well as always. Everyone smiled when they saw the footage of our upcoming games. America's love for the Xbox 360 has yet to waver. If only America would just explain Japan why they love the Xbox 360 already."

Akimi Watanabe, producer at Flight Plan, makers of Black Matrix and Summon Night, believes that "The PlayStation 3 looks like it might still be widely used ten years from now." He says it seems like it really has its head on straight about online content. He believes it will work out in the end. The Wii, on the other hand, he says will be a valuable training-ground for developers who serious "need to learn new ideas." Incidentally, three people who make games based on anime licenses all seem most excited about the Wii.

Via Next gen