If the riots in Akihabara, Tokyo's famous Electric Town district, are anything to go by, then the release of Sony's new super-console, the PlayStation II, on March 4th has completely captured the imagination of Japan's computer game fans.
Unfortunately those outside Japan will have to wait a further six months before they can get their hands on it and judge for themselves whether it lives up to the hype.
Originally named the Next Generation PlayStation, the PlayStation II hardware specification is certainly impressive. In Havok.com we have had our PS2, as it is known, for nearly six months now and are involved in developing some of the first software to be released for the console.
More recently Sony invited me to the official release of the PS2 in Tokyo's cavernous Makuhari Messe conference centre where I got a chance to play all of the launch titles including Namcos Tekken Tag Tournament and Ridge Racer V, Squares Emotion Type-S racing game and Gran Turismo 2000 from Polyphony Digital.
To be honest some of these much-hyped games didn't seem to be the enormous leap forward that everyone is expecting. Graphically, all were amazing with fantastic lighting effects and super realistic shadows and animation. But, you would expect this from the revolutionary hardware that the PS2 features under the hood.
Lacking, though, was any tangible improvement in game-play, plot development and characterisation and it's exactly these elements that Sony are hoping developers will extract from their cleverly named Emotion Engine, the central processing unit (CPU) at the heart of the PS2.
Sony really wants to see rich game environments, completely interactive worlds, fully developed plot-lines populated with characters you can believe in. I think it's going to be at least a year before developers really get to grips with the capabilities of the machine. Until then we'll have to satisfy ourselves with updated versions of existing PlayStation 1 games with the occasional glimmer of what it's really capable of.
Aesthetically, it's a beautiful piece of engineering, with jet black metal casing and translucent blue trimming.
I could easily see this as part of the living room hardware, under the TV, keeping Dad happy with DVD playback facilities, Mum has e-mail access, and online bridge sessions on Thursdays, and the kids play games on the Internet with their friends across continents, while pretending to study maths interactively via an educational portal. And all for a projected price of $299 (#311)!
You have to hand it to Sony, they've come up with what could turn out to be the next walkman, the piece of kit that absolutely everyone wants to own. It remains only for it to deliver on the promise before other console manufacturers like Microsoft with its X-Box or Nintendo with the Dolphin get a chance to steal the show.
Dr Steven Collins is chief executive officer of Telekinesys Research, and Havok.com, its gaming division. Its new software product, the Havok Engine, will be officially launched today at the Games Developer Conference in California.
