Everyone likes reading Team Ninja boss Itagaki-san’s comments and ponderings. This is because he appears quite insane, often launching bitter, unexpected attacks on rivals which are as refreshing as they are startling.
And it would appear that this temperament reaches the very upper echelons of Tecmo, with company president Jun Nakamura mauling Sony Computer Entertainment’s current stance towards its ever-illusive PlayStation 3 project.
“There's not much information from Sony [about PlayStation 3]", he said. "The situation with Microsoft is very different. The CPU was developed for a next-generation game machine, but the hardware is conceived by an appliance manufacturer… I feel that they're probably trying to use games as a way to increase their power in the home appliance industry,” concluded Nakamura-san, seemingly at odds with SCE’s convergence strategy; a strategy in no smaller part accelerated by Microsoft’s arrival in the sector.
Yet interestingly, Nakamura-san seems happier with the progress of his new best friend Microsoft. “[Microsoft should] be able to use their experience of the current machine's failure to succeed, even in Japan,” he said.
SPOnG awaits Tecmo’s full Xbox exclusivity deal with a great deal of excitement.