Q's for Tetsuya Mizuguchi

Lumines PSP was kind of attractive for the original workline. Lumines Live we and others made on 360 Live Arcade. You can download the music and the visuals, the skins, and you can customise. But you can't take it out, you know? The Mobile, you can take it out, any time, anywhere, and in many countries. A few months ago we just started from PSP. Now we're excited about seven different countries, so how many people? A billion? ["One billion subscribers worldwide," a PR aid offers.] So this is a big platform. This is not so powerful yet maybe, but I think we can start with this version, even though technological innovation is coming, like Windows Vista - Microsoft had that big announcement this week.

It's a great concept. It's not only Microsoft who programmed it though, it's this industry's big innovation - it's a great concept. In a few years, the mobile phone environment will change dramatically.

Not everyone has a high end phone. There are 700 versions of Lumines that will be made - to be compatible with the handsets at the low and high end and those in between. We want you to get the best gaming quality on each handset.

I got a great presentation from the Gameloft people. They knew plenty - the good points, the bad points, weak points, strong points - and were very professional. They had some great ideas. One of the key things about Lumines is the way the music's playing as part of the experience, and it's really difficult to make this on a mobile phone. They did a really good job to make a kind of atmosphere; a kind of chemistry they made between the music and the visual which is new to the mobile version.

That's one thing, yes. There are some new modes added to the mobile version too. Compared to the PSP where there were so many skins and the music was non-stop, rather than doing it in that format there's more of a mission mode too. There are also new shapes and new colours. A third colour makes it a little bit more difficult. There are also seven different items that you're going to see added to the mobile version.

We had a discussion with Microsoft about how we could do the presentation. It was just kind of a chemistry for the Peter Moore keynote, having Madonna. It'd be good if she played. I think she could, it's very easy gameplay [laughs]. But Madonna's such a great artist you know. For such a long, long, long time she's sung and danced and made a culture and a style, so I wanted to make a Madonna special edition, to ally her, the music and the video. A lot of the aspect of Lumines now is you can customise, or collect, your own Lumines, so if you love Madonna you can customise.

Mmm. That's a very deep question [grins]. I'm very healthy! When I was in SEGA, I was at United Game Artists, so the client was only SEGA and if they said no it was over. This era, there's not only one console, one technology - not only one "phrase" - and many dimensions. So we have everything from mobile phone to high-res technology like on PlayStation 3 and 360, and many countries. When I was at SEGA I couldn't keep up with the frustration, so I decided to leave, and I think it was good timing, and I'm really healthy and happy and enjoying myself. I can't really keep up with so much going on. I'm like a backpacker [laughs].

I love all music. All genres. No special genre. Not only music, but the music videos. You can learn a lot about their concept from the music videos. I love the style of Chemical Brothers, Black Eyed Peas, Fatboy Slim. They have some humour, or message. I love that.

Oh yeah.

Nintendo Wii is very interesting, a very special controller, a very original style. Too special, maybe, if you want to make the game not only Wii, but for other platforms, because you want to give the game the best chance. I'm really interested in the style, though.

Yeah. Yeah. At my stage, I'm watching what's happening in the future, planning how to combine the music, the visualisation, the futuristic - a Rez kind of experience. I don't mean I'm making a Rez sequel, but I'm thinking about the future, and what kind of games I can make in terms of high-def sounds and visuals.

I'm currently seriously considering it. It's always there. I'm always thinking about it. [Grinning] Also Space Channel 5.