A recent panel interview was held at IGN between Metal Gear guru Hideo Kojima, MGS4 art director Yoji Shinkawa and Square-Enix's own Tetsuya Nomura (pictured right) regarding their take on the PS3. Having likened it to many things before, Kojima had a lot to say about Sony's new box o' tricks, saying "If you think about the future of the industry and game creators, I get the feeling that the winner had better be the movie theater -- or, the PS3. No one will say that the price is cheap." He adds later on that his optimal choice of gadgetry would have been "a PS3 with controls like the Wii."

How about Nomura's take? Final Fantasy games were a huge selling point on the PSX and the PS2, not to mention other fantastic Square-Enix RPG's, so his opinion will carry a lot of weight in the Japanese RPGamer crowd. He felt that "as a game machine, it's too expensive." But he softened this typical argument with "Thinking two to three years from now, the PS3 will be the most appropriate."

The three also joked about another Zone of Enders title. Maybe they weren't joking -- those were some pretty good games. Either way, it seems the big names at Konami and Square-Enix are voicing their support of the PS3. Whether it hits big right at launch or creeps its way to the summit of the mountain in a few years, they seem to feel the PS3 is going to be it.

[Edit: added a reference for the picture, clarifying that it is Tetsuya Nomura -- Should have made that more clear.]