The Eye of Judgment is coming. I played Sony Computer Entertainment Japan's card/video-game holographic mashup at PAX, and I'm somewhat ashamed to say I had a good time. It's foolish, but if someone were to walk in on me playing The Eye of Judgment by myself, I would be less embarrassed to be caught with my pants down, looking at some horrible Internet obscenity. Is that what Eye of Judgment means?

Regardless, Hasbro marketing director Christy Newton agreed to give me the details on the game, even after a grueling hour-long match in which I reclaimed some of the Shack's dignity editor-in-chief Chris Remo destroyed with five consecutive losses during his Comic-Con preview. Hasbro is a partner with SCEJ on the game, along with CCG giant Wizards of the Coast.

Shack: Who specifically is being targeted by this game? Are you aiming more for video gamers or card gamers?

Christy Newton: It really has two targets to go after and there's an appeal for both of them. For the trading card gamer, we've been to a lot of shows lately, and there's so much of a "wow" for them that they're loving it. I think a lot of them have fantasized this since they saw the Star Wars Chess game bringing that to life.

But the video gamers have a big appeal for this as well. We're seeing, one: they love the strategy play because there's not as much sort of strategy type video games out there. But it's also a completely new way to interact with their platform.

It's a little similar to Guitar Hero. It's not chasing, it's not shooting, it's not a twitch kind of factor. It's a completely new way to interface with your PS3, so that has huge appeal.

Shack: With the PS3 being the most expensive console already, and collectible card games being a fairly heavy investment for avid players, are you worried you won't be able to touch anyone outside of the wealthy-PS3-owner-and-CCG-player demographic?

Christy Newton: The price on the cards are already determined and they're right in line with what other trading cards would cost. There are only 110 cards in the first set, and every single one of them is either a creature or a spell. And your library being only 30 cards--the cost of entry on the cards is actually kind of less than half to play a game than what you would find on some of the other card games.

Shack: Do you have an estimate for the whole package including the game and Eye?

Christy Newton: So the bundled product--with the software that comes with the PlayStation Eye, the stand, the mat, the starter deck of 30 cards and a booster pack--the price hasn't been made public yet. We are hearing from Sony that it's going to have a slight premium on a PS3 title. Those have been standard for $60.

We're expecting it to be a really great value because not only are you getting $20 worth of cards in that bundle, but you're getting the PlayStation Eye, which will be sold standalone and will work with tons of other games going forward.

Shack: Could you explain exactly how online deck registration works?

Christy Newton: You actually have to take your 30 cards after you decide which cards you want in your deck. You're going to go into a deck-builder mode. It works really quickly--you just lay your cards down in front of the eye and you're going to register that deck.

Shack: Is there any mechanism keeping players from registering the same powerful card multiple times to increase the likelihood they'll draw it during the game?

Christy Newton: If your opponent was trying to cheat and take a rare card and say, "Oh look, I've got it once, I've got it twice, I've got it three times," it's not going to work. Any duplicates you have in your deck--and you could theoretically have three of anything unless you have a deck limit on it--you actually have to show those three cards all at the same time, and they'd register all at once.

And another thing they've done to make sure that your opponent wouldn't cheat is when you get into the game itself, the PS3 will actually tell you what you draw into your hand. So there's no stacking the deck.

Click to page 2 for info on deck limits, counterfeit cards, expansion distribution, and tournament play.