Late Night Consoling

According to translated reports, Japanese publication Ge-Maga, apparently the country's oldest video game magazine, recently published survey results and comments from Japanese game developers regarding the upcoming PlayStation 3. Though not overwhelmingly negative, the findings definitely skewed in the skeptical direction.

PS3's price was the hardest to swallow for the developers, with 90.29% feeling the machine is too expensive and 9.71% feeling it is priced appropriately. "It's more expensive than my rent," pointed out one developer. On the two-tiered model strategy, 56.31% disagreed with the move while 39.32% agreed it makes sense. "There are fears that confusion will develop amongst users and retailers," said a respondant.

It doesn't seem that the currently announced game lineup has won everybody over just yet either. 55.82% believe that the machine's known lineup isn't enough to sell PS3, while 39.32% disagree. However, the opinions on PS3 of nearly half of the respondants--48.54%--were unaffected by E3; 32.52% were less confident in PS3 after E3, and only 3.39% were more confident after the show. Sony has stated it plans to have six million PS3 units on the market by next March. 62.13% of survey respondants do not believe Sony will sell that quantity in that time frame; 35.43% believe the company will.

Ge-Maga also spoke directly with Kojima Productions' Hideo Kojima and Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura. Kojima, long a supporter of Sony platforms, remains more confident in PS3 than many of his colleagues, though he does share a few criticisms. "No one will say that the price is cheap," he admitted. "However, the PS3 is 'the future.'" Nomura agreed, pointing out that the machine will likely hit its stride in a few years. "Thinking two to three years from now, the PS3 will be the most appropriate," he said. "We feel that when the games that we're making are released, the PS3 will be strong in the market." Some have expressed concern that development costs for PS3 will be difficult to manage. Kojima sees this as a necessary burden. "Making games for the PS3 will of course cost money, but if you put a stop to that, what will happen to the games industry?" he asked. "Is it okay if everyone just makes variety-style games? It will become like television is now."

Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series is notorious for its clever and appropriate usage of controller rumble functionality, so the designer has been understandably disappointed in the feature's absense from PS3, calling the move "unfortunate." Nomura speculated that it may be added to later revisions of PS3; Kojima proposed that if indeed Sony's reasons for ditching rumble are due to interference with PS3's motion sensing, the company should include an option to switch between the two functions.

In regards to Nintendo's upcoming Wii, Kojima has put heavy praise on its unique control scheme, and has stated that he is working on a game for the system. However, it is clear that the PlayStation brand remains his first choice. "The Wii is interesting, but in terms of functions, it's a machine with past concepts," he said. He'd like to see a console combining the features of the two machines: "The best thing would be a PS3 with controls like the Wii."

A demo of the Xbox 360 version of Human Head and 3D Realms' Prey (X360, PC) has finally arrived on Xbox Live, a full week after its PC counterpart hit FileShack. It's a big one too, clocking in at 1.17GB--considerably more than twice the size of the PC version. The demo contains the same content as the PC demo, featuring five single-player levels and two multiplayer levels.

Prey ships for Xbox 360 and PC on July 10, 2006. - Screenshots.

Reuters reports that Sony has been ordered to pay 27.9B yen ($243M) in taxes incurred between March 2000 and March 2005. Apparently, the company engaged in undervalued trasnactions between its gaming, CD, and movie branches located in Japan and those located in the United States. This resulted in the company taking in 74.4B yen ($650M) in income which was not reported to Japanese tax authorities.

Sony and gaming subsidiary Sony Computer Entertainment claim the order was "unsatisfactory" and plan to appeal the demands.

EA today announced the cover athlete for the upcoming NASCAR 07 (PS2, Xbox) and NASCAR (PSP): NEXTEL Cup Series driver Elliot Sadler, who happened to win the EA SPORTS Drivers Gaming Competition last year.

NASCAR 07 and NASCAR will ship September 6, 2006. - Box shots (PS2, Xbox, PSP).

Ubisoft sends over a short Q&A regarding the animation techniques used in Rainbow Six Vegas

IGN has launched a developer blog for Ubisoft Paris' Red Steel (Wii). The first team member to post an update is Red Steel producer Marie-Sol Beaudry.

IGN has a Q&A with Incognito's Brian Upton about the studio's upcoming Warhawk (PS3).

IGN has some translated details on the PS3 version of SEGA-AM2's Virtua Fighter 5 (PS3, also arcade).