February 10^th, 2006 (8:17pm) - Kenji Matsuhara is an executive at Koei who is in charge of the developer’s online strategy for the current and next generation of videogame console and at the Asia Online Game Conference held in Tokyo this past week, Matsuhara spoke briefly about the next generation of online gaming. He spoke highly in regards to the online capabilities of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but also happened to express distaste towards Nintendo’s Revolution.

In regards to the Xbox 360, Matsuhara had praised the console for its "built-in" hard disk and array of Xbox Live features (it should be noted that every Xbox 360 comes bundled with a hard drive in Japan). However, he also expressed concern regarding the console’s extremely poor debut on Japanese sales charts.

As for the PlayStation 3, Matsuhara seems to believe that the PlayStation 3 will be key in spreading the use of online gaming in Japan. "I’m placing a lot of hope in it becoming a force in the spread of online games," he commented. Matsuhara also mentioned that he would like to see Sony include a hard disk with the console as a standard pricing option but is unsure as to what Sony will do.

Unfortunately, Matsuhara didn’t have anything too spectacular to say about the Revolution’s online capabilities. He believes that the lack of a hard disk drive will hurt its potential for taking certain types of games online and that’s its reliance on Flash memory may not be enough, stating that "a full 3D MMO may not fit." He went on to suggest that the DS’ Wi-Fi Connection service should be a hint as to what kind of online gaming experiences we should expect on the Revolution.