Final Fantasy Designer: The PS3 is "Too Expensive"
- June 30, 2006 00:00 AM PST
In an interview with Japanese mag Ge-Maga (translated by IGN), Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and Square Enix character designer Tetsuya Nomura both support Sony's PlayStation 3 as the preferred home for their next-generation titles. But that endorsement doesn't come without a few reservations, especially on price.
"Right now, as a game machine, it's too expensive." -- Tetsuya Numora to Ge-Maga
"Thinking two to three years from now, the PS3 will be the most appropriate [choice]," said Numora. "We feel that when the games that we're making are released, the PS3 will be strong in the market."
Comparing the PS3 to a movie theater experience and Microsoft's Xbox 360 to watching a DVD at home, PS3 supporter Kojima feels that the winner of the next-gen console race in the gaming industry "had better be" the movie theater.
So if the PS3 is a movie theater and the Xbox 360 is a DVD, what does that make Nintendo's Wii? "A television program," according to Kojima.
But Kojima and Numora weren't entirely positive in their assessment of the PS3, especially when it came to the topic of Sony's recent announcements concerning rumble capabilities and price points. Kojima expressed his opinion about the loss of rumble capabilities in the PS3 controller as "unfortunate," while Numora voiced concern about the price. "Right now, as a game machine, it's too expensive," he said.
The PS3 reminds me of the PSX, the PlayStation 2 / DVR / personal computer that released in Japan and never really caught on. Gamers had the choice to buy an interactive PS2, and they didn't want it.
But it's different with the PS3. For starters, there isn't a model without Blu-ray and the rest of the bells and whistles, so we'll just have to see how it goes in November.
