Famitsu Xbox may have been starved for information in the
past, but with the 360 launch just around the corner (and a
rush of support for the console from local developers), they're getting their hands on more and better interviews
of Japanese game creators than ever before. This time around, they've got the latest word on what it's like to work on
the 360, as well as how friendly the development environment is.
Dead or Alive 4 producer/director/all-around guru Tomonobu Itagaki praised the 360's graphics, sound, and interactive capabilities, and Yuke's Wrestle Kingdom director and chief planner both talked up the visual realism afforded by the 360's impressive graphics hardware. Though Capcom producer Keiji Inafune feels that many games won't take full advantage of the system's multi-core architecture (especially considering how much time and effort must be made to make the next-generation leap in visual quality), most of the developers interviewed seemed to like the Direct X-based development environment and flexible programming tools.
Perhaps the most interesting bit of news to come out of the interviews, however, was that From Software had already filled up the 360 DVD game disc with their RPG launch title Enchant Arm. In fact, they may need two (or even more) discs to adequately release the game they have planned. I guess Itagaki was right about disc space limitations after all. Where's our next-gen optical disc format when we need it? Of course, the original PlayStation had many games span two or more discs back in the day, but it is a mite embarrassing (unless you're into boasting 'bout how many megabits your games take up and such).
