Opening Night
Microsoft gathered many Japanese celebrities to kick off opening night. They got celebrities from both inside and outside the game industry, to open the doors to the Xbox 360 Lounge on Monday evening.
The night kicked off at 7:00PM. Afro arrived nearly an hour late, but still managed to make it in time for the arrival of the night's stars. Big-name game creators like Keiji Inafune (Capcom), Yuji Naka (Sega), Hideo Kojima (Konami), Yoichi Okamoto (Game Republic) and Hiromichi Tanaka (Square Enix) took the stage first and gave brief statements about the X360. Naka stated "I hope the industry is spurred by the appearance of the Xbox 360," with Kojima simply stating "I've been waiting!"
The assembled television camera crews seemed a bit more interested in the stars Microsoft had lined up for the event, though. Many of the stars are big in Japan but unknown in America: Hitomi Nagasawa, Ishikawa Asami, Kazuhi Sakuraba (the Pride fighter), Otoha (future Gaming Life in Japan young idol). Olympic swimmer Kousuke Kitajima, when clued in on the fact that there aren't any swimming games, pointed out that it's hard to make such a game because you can't see the swimmer's face. Many of these stars, including track & field star Dai Tamesue, had designed a face plate.
Read more about this topic: Xbox 360 Lounge
Famous quotes containing the words opening and/or night:
“They don’t advertise for killers in the newspaper. That was my profession. Ex-cop. Ex- blade runner. Ex-killer.”
—David Webb Peoples, U.S. screenwriter, and Ridley Scott. Rick Deckard, Blade Runner, reading the newspaper—his opening lines (1982)
“How insupportable would be the days, if the night with its dews and darkness did not come to restore the drooping world. As the shades begin to gather around us, our primeval instincts are aroused, and we steal forth from our lairs, like the inhabitants of the jungle, in search of those silent and brooding thoughts which are the natural prey of the intellect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)