I had the honour of meeting Wataru Mohri of Sony of Japan. A knowledgeable young lad who loves to play "Metal Gear Solid" series on his Sony PS3. He brought us in some "Lucky Cat" malt candy, packaged very cleverly. It is to bring you good luck. It was great meeting him and I appreciate him chatting with me after our meeting (he also bought me a big lunch).

I am paraphrasing my comments on things we discussed in which I will reference in note form.

1. We discussed the new Xbox tech and the current Wii tech in which we agreed that the Wii found the missing market, the adults and the little kids (non-gamer market). This (the Wii) seems to be a gateway system for kids to later go with the PS3 or Xbox360.

2. I learned that the Japanese have these "memory phone card things" that a player can use in an arcade to see their overall score and compare to others. This is something I have not seen here in the USA or Canada. Now I know why the network feature in an arcade machine exists.

3. No development from Sega has been heard as far as a new console. It is believed this will never happen just as the VHS will not make a comeback.

4. Sony is working hard at new innovations in projection systems in which there are some new features that they have put together.

5. The arcades in Japan still have those 2D type games. The titles are new or a sequel to an older game, but this is what they like.

That is all I got of note.

Japanese Lucky Cat Candy.jpg