Been listening to a lot of Midlake lately. Very cool band. And how can you hate a group inspired by the novel Walden?

http://mp.i-revo.jp/user.php/kp-ryan/attach/54/midlake.jpg

Just had Valentine's Day in Japan. I usually don't pay attention to this holiday, but I do appreciate Japan's unique take on it.

In J-Land, girls give chocolates to guys. All we men need to do is go about our days as usual and keep the upcoming White Day in mind. What's that you ask? White Day is a holiday in March where guys return the favor. I guess you're supposed to give marshmallows or other white sweets.

I received some really nice chocolates. Now the pressure's on to find some chocolates worthy enough to be presented in return.

http://mp.i-revo.jp/user.php/kp-ryan/attach/55/valentines.jpg

The world's greatest video game magazine, EDGE, has a big Kojima Productions feature in its upcoming issue. Japanese correspondent Christophe Kagotani visited us last month to interview Mr. Kojima for the story. He was also kind enough to join me in the studio and record a short talk that we'll broadcast soon on The KP Report podcast.

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(c) Hiroki Izumi

Reading the February 2007 issue of EDGE right now. It's got its usual mix of fantastic, insightful articles and head-scratching reviews. The issue has a nice six page interview with one of the game industry's most important people, Gabe Newell from Valve. He obviously has got vision and I appreciate his candor on issues. He did, however, have one comment that surprised me: "A good game is a good game and it's going to be successful. I've never seen a great game fail because it was targeted at the wrong audience."

There are plenty of examples of great games that failed due to poor marketing, poor timing, or poor choice of platform. The first game that comes to mind is Beyond Good & Evil, a great game that was mistakenly marketed to an older audience.

The game co-stars a talking pig.

Critics loved the game, but they're used to playing games made for younger audiences. But college freshman John "Halo0wnzU" Smith isn't going to open his wallet for it.

Disagree? Add your comment to this blog entry. Check out this nice tutorial for foreigners who want to register with i-revo: http://mp.i-revo.jp/user.php/rlgfzlti/entry/21.html

Hope you all had a memorable Valentine's Day.

rp