Hi everybody. It's programmer Takenaka here.

The other day, at a certain location in eastern Japan, a location test was carried out for the new game in the Wangan Maxi Series, "Wangan Maxi 3DX".
We were worried that Wangan fans might not come along, but our fears were unjustified! Loads of you guys came from all around Japan.
Thank you so much.

We saw many different types of people at the location test.

Lots of long-term fans were of course there, but we also saw some older fans and some girls.
And even people from other regions who had come especially for the test! Some of the project members told me that we even had some people come from overseas...

Just from looking at the people playing Wangan Maxi 3 these days, I had my suspicions that different sorts of people were starting to play the game, and the location test confirmed my suspicions.

People have said to us that they would like games to become a more accessible type of entertainment, like TV or movies. We do try to make our games like that as much as possible, and, seeing the diversity of fans at the test, I felt we had come one step closer to that goal.

I was relieved to see the fans playing on the new course I was responsible for - the Nagoya Speed Ring.
The Nagoya Speed Ring, in addition to having long wide straight sections, has got winding roads and hills, making it a challenging course.
As your tuning improves, the course gets more difficult, making you want to conquer it even more! That's why you need to start playing this game as soon as it comes out!!

Once again, thanks very much to all those who came to the location test! There's not long to hold on now until Wangan Maxi 3DX comes out - I hope we can rely as always on your kind support for the Wangan Maxi Series.

OK, see you later!

(Original article in Japanese released on 9.3.2008)