Nintendo DSi Instantly Sold Out

The DS has already been through two versions and one would think the last version holds few incentive to buy, especially considering the loss of Game Boy Advance cartridge slot and the amount of devices that can already do what the DSi is offering.

In any case two things are for certain, The Japanese people know how to stand in line on launch dates and Nintendo knows how to sell handhelds (the DS is now the biggest selling portable sytem ever). As a result the DSi launched on November 1st in Japan and sold 170,779 units within 48 hours.

Nintendo is of course already shipping 100,000 more units to store while we wait for a date for North American and European releases.

Wednesday October 22, 2008

E3 Overhaul Confirmed

As I posted yesterday, this year E3 will become bigger and hopefully better. It seems G4 was right and Newsweek was wrong since the show will take place Tuesday June 2 through Thursday June 4 and will not be open to public. However audience invites will be more numerous and hopefully will include us bloggers/journalists 🙂
Booth size will also be bigger, doing away with the 20×20 feet space limit.

PSP-3000 Woes

The portable console just came out in Japan and apparently people are already complaining.  The problem apparently is coming from the scanlines which are supposed to improve contrast and rendering.
The screens speak for themselves and apparently since the problem is from the new screen there can be no software update. Which means if you don’t like you can re-buy the old one…or wait for a new version.

Gears of War 2 Banned in Germany and Possibly Japan

This trend is really starting to annoy me (and I’m mincing words). You would think that democracies would be smart but this is no different than Book Burning or the Church censorship of the Middle Ages.
These countries don’t shy away from releasing every other porn movie (especially Japan which borders on the underage sex cult) and violent movie out there so what stops them from putting an ‘Adult’ label on the cover and give it a rest???
I guess Germans will have to buy their games on Amazon.uk……ooooohhh maybe the police is going to knock on their door for contraband importation…..
Whatever.

Friday October 17, 2008

LittleBigPlanet Recalled

What is probably the most anticipated PS3 game of the holiday season has been pushed back to a somewhat undetermined date due to lines from the Qur’an holy book being featured in one of the game’s level’s music.
SCEA confirmed the speculations on their blog and said that they “will begin shipping LittleBigPlanet to retail in North America the week of October 27th.”
Somewhere Sackboy is frowning.

Tom Clancy Games to Merge?

It seems UbiSoft is looking to combine five of its series into one big sprawling saga. In the future Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, EndWar and HAWK could see their plotlines intermingle.
They already plan to mix EndWar 2 with another title, possibly Ghost Recon, and are hoping that EndWar will become the main universe which will tie all the others.

Vader and Yoda Will Battle…for V.I.Ps

Microsoft has announced that on October 23 Japanese players will be able to download Yoda (for the PS3) and Darth Vader (for the 360) in Soul Calibur IV.
Here is where the cookie crumbles: each player will have to fork about $6 (¥600 and 400MS Points) for them.
So if you feel like being treated like a stupid kid with holes in his pocket, go ahead and download… provided you live in Japan.

Blizzard’s New MMO Will Be Different

Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, said in an interview with Wired that there new unknown MMO project will not be a World of Warcraft sequel. He added: “It will be different. We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully, World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released.”
Considering they have said that it may also be released on consoles let us hope that it doesn’t bring the quality of the title down.

Friday September 5, 2008

Tales of Hearts Screens

The next Tales of, set to come out on the Nintendo DS, will be released on December 11 in Japan. An interesting aspect of the game is that it will be available in two different versions. One will have CG cinematics like many RPGs since Final Fantasy VII came out, the other will stay true to the series and feature anime cutscenes.

Tecmo Blows Square-Enix Off, Tangos with Koei

Last week Square-Enix made a $200M bid for Tecmo (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive…) with a September 4 deadline. Yesterday Tecmo rejected the RPG giant’s offer and announced it was in talks with Koei (Dinasty Warriors, Kessen…).
No financial details of the potential merger were published yet.

Far Cry 2 Collector Details

The very nice edition will feature a ‘making of’ DVD, an art book, a map of the game world and a limited edition T-shirt. all this wrapped up in a nice wooden box.
The game is coming out on October 21 in North America and October 24 in Europe.

Dead Space Ban Trifecta

The upcoming Electronic Arts space shooter has been banned in Germany, China and Japan according to EA community manager Ben Swanson. While China is expected and Germany has had some recent mayhem surrounding video game ratings, Japan is outright suprising and not understandable.
Why the country that has created Resident Evil, Fatal Frame and Silent Hill is banning an FPS is beyond me.

Disgaea Spin-Off on PSP

Set for release on November 20 in Japan Prinny: Ore ga Shyujinkou de Iinsuka will be a side-scrolling platformer based in the famous world of the Nippon Ichi franchise. In it you will play as one of the famous penguins from the series which will be on a quest for Etna’s sweets which have been stolen, lest he faces her wrath!
Let’s hope this sees an American release. Check out the trailer here.

Dates, Dates and Dates

• Call of Duty: World at War confirmed November 11
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel PC version was postponed to coincide with console launch on November 7
• White Knight Story (still alive!) as been confirmed by Famitsu for December 11 in Japan
• Dead Space console release moved forward to October 14, PC version still set for October 20