Ya know, I've been kinda meaning to look at what GamiP said in that Famitsu article, but I've never really gotten to it. This is probably all stuff that's been seen before, but eh.
About the title, like... think of the idols becoming stars. Made of platinum. Or something. (Yes, he uses platinum as an adjective to describe star, and says that's what the idols are trying to be.)
They kinda wanted this to be a fresh start, so they made a new logo.
You can see some of the screenshots where the camera is behind the idols. The range of the camera, and all the funky stuff they do with it, has been improved.
I didn't see anything about where the player controls the penlights in the audience, he literally says they are being controlled to do stuff. Could be automatic (sounds that way to me), but yeah - up to 50000 penlights in the audience at once.
He says he wants to have the first PS4 Im@s game be a sort of benchmark for the rest. I take this as something like a baseline, and that the sort of stuff you see in Platinum Stars will be seen in other PS4 games, like the rendering engine. That's just my interpretation, though.
Either way, they've been doing a lot of R&D to pull that off. He says Im@s kinda exists between 2D and 3D, kinda like the series is rendered in 2.5D, if you get what he's saying.
Variable Toon, and Famitsu mentions that this seems to be the next thing R&D pulled out after Im@s 2's Sensitive Toon, has many parts. One of which... if I got this right... is taking an illustration that's been made and touched up in 2D, and applying effects to it that are normally used in 3D graphics - specifically mentioning shadows. I should note that I'm having trouble picking out what exactly he means - backgrounds are 2D, but then so are textures applied to 3D models. Me personally, I'd check for changes in 2D backgrounds depending on time of day (or something similar - something obviously a 2D image changing dynamically to light), if I'm looking to be impressed. I think that's more in line with what he means, 'cause otherwise it's all stuff that's been done before. That, or I'm totally not getting what he's getting at.
They were going for a softer (gentler) look with their modeling, and at the same time want to make their models more expressive than before.
He reminds people that the producer is going to summer (spring, or whatever they're just training) camp with the idols and meeting them for the first time, we've heard this before. Chihaya P's can get chewed out by her all over again.
Then he says again that this is the Takagi Training Camp for Starving Idols and stuff.
Then, about the franchise as a whole...
Yes, we love Cinderella Girls and Million Live and Side M, and we're doing stuff for them don't worry. 10 is a big round number and we like it, so we're all looking for something new and fresh. (Oh yeah, 31 January Million Live Tour in Nagoya - please come! Except it was a week ago since translator is lazy.)
Finally, please support your friendly neighborhood Platinum Stars and stuff. We'll say more later, trust us. K thx bye.
... Okay, maybe he didn't say it like that, but that's essentially what was in the article.
