Aussie getting one new DS, Japan getting TWO.

Nintendo Australia has confirmed yesterday that Australia (and by that, I assume NZ as well) is adding a new colour to the DS family. The Ice Blue DS will go on sale on 29th July with the RRP of AU$199.95 (same as every other DS). That brings the total colour to 4 - Crystal White, Ice Blue, Noble Pink and Jet Black. No words on its Europe release.
Meanwhile, not to be outdone, not only did Nintendo of Japan announce today that they are getting TWO new colours, they are also coming out before us Aussies getting our hands on the Ice Blue DS. Metallic Rose and Gloss Silver are coming out on 23rd June, joining Crystal White, Ice Blue, Enamel Navy, Noble Pink and Jet Black to make it 7 colours.

What colour are they bring out next? Rainbow?

Source: PalGN, Aussie-Nintendo

Sega profit dropped 34%

Sega, the maker of Sonic and Daytona USA, reported 34% drop in profit for the 06-07 fiscal year. Profit fell to 43.5 billion yen (US$363 million), down from 66.2 billion yen the previous year.

Sega merged with pachinko maker Sammy in October 2004. The pachinko machine sales nose-dived 20 percent in the past fiscal year, and times will continue to be tough in that business in coming months. Guess not everyone is into Evangelion pachinko machines. Maybe they all went home to play Evangelion pachinko instead.

Sega Sammy projected a deteriorating 35 billion yen (US$292 million) profit for the fiscal year through March 2008.

Source: Mainichi Newspaper

Japanese Phoenix Wright 3 going bilingual

Same with Phoenix Wright 1 and 2, the Japanese version of Phoenix Wright 3: Trails and Tribulations, will come with an option to play the game in English. Not that it matters much to those in the US, given that the game will come out just a month later. But for other importers, this is great news. Between importing from Japan and the US, I'd say Japan. It's probably cheaper as well.

For those who are learning Japanese, maybe it's the way to go. Play the English version first, and then switch to Japanese, you'll have better understanding of the Japanese plot.

I have both the Japanese version of PW1 and 2, so I'm definitely thrilled about this.

Source: Kotaku

Brace yourselves, The Sims are coming to a movie theatre near you

Brace yourselves, people, because 20th Century Fox has just bought the movie rights to The Sims. Now games are not exactly the kind of media that makes a great movie. Having said that, I do enjoy the DOA movie for some unknown reason. And no, it's not because of the chicks.

Anyway, moving on... Right, The Sims. How in the world is anyone going to create a movie about... nothing? It's not Jerry, you know.

According to Sims Studio head Rod Humble, "The Sims has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it's like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it. Given that that's an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional story telling." Ummm, Mr Humble, if we can call you that because you certainly doesn't sound humble, but The Sims doesn't have a story to tell, you know. That's the beauty of the game, players can have their own stories.

Now you want to put that onto the big screen, that's kind of defeating the whole purpose of the game. And let's not forget the guy who helped write Scary Movie 3 is writing the screenplay. Scary Movie 3 is a crap movie. Period.

I'll tell you what, the other way this movie is going to be successful is if we see some hot lesbian action and bitch slappings. Then again, porn does the same thing.

Soucre: Joystiq

P.S. maverick_saturn_626's comment sounds better already.

TETRIS THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHEN FALLING BLOCKS COME FROM THE SKY AND LAND ON EARTH DESTROYING HUMANITY AND LIFE AS WE KNOW IT, THE ONLY ALTENATIVE IS TO GET RID OF THE BLOCKS BY GETTING STRAIGHT LINES, CAN HUMANITY DO IT? WHO KNOWS!


COMING TO A CINEMA NEAR YOU!!!!!!!!


FALLING BLOCKS HAS NEVER BEEN SO DISASTEROUS!!!!!

Nintendo up for sale

Actually, no. It's Nintendo's land that's up for sale. NoA has confirmed that Nintendo is taking bids for a 27-acre prime Redmond real estate. It's just north of the NoA headquarters and south of their neighbour, Microsoft's Redwest campus.

I thought they were close, but I didn't know they were literally this close.

Anyway, Microsoft is naturally interested in the land, given its proximity, but it's not the only one. Why didn't Nintendo want the land? It's probably because of some of its personnel are moving to NY and Silicon Valley.

Source: Kotaku, SeattlePI

Jack Thompson is at it again. This time, Bill is the target.

Virtually getting barred from suing Take Two for their games like ManHunt and GTA, Jack Thompson found a new company to sue harass. He's taking on the richest man in the known universe, Bill Gates.

Apparently, he didn't bother over Halo 1 and Halo 2, but Halo 3 is now considered "violent". Hellooo, it took you 3 instalments to realise Master Chief carries a gun? He, of course, threaten to sue if Microsoft does not stop the plan to sell the game. Microsoft, of course, would not stop any plan to sell the game. See where we are going?

Can someone just shut this guy up? He's an embarrassment to his profession and an embarrassment to the human race. Just WTF is wrong with this person? By his definition of violent, he will have to sue each and every game developer in the world, and then some.

I'm waiting for him to sue EA because a character has just bitch slapped another in The Sims. Oh, the violence. Save us from the bitch slap.

Source: GameAlmighty

Sales Chart JPN: PS2 is shining on top... literally, while PS3 sold less than 10,000

Week 14 - 20 May 2007

Last week saw yet another PS2 games taking the top honours, six months after the PS3 came out on the market. PS3 is definitely not getting any love at the moment. Anyway, PS2 is shining on top... literally. Sega's latest instalment in their Shining series, Shining Wind, sold 78,030 last week. 7,000 units behind it is a new game, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! 2 on the DS, selling closed to 71,000 units. It a sequel to Elite Beat Agents.

Number 3 is back to the PS2 again, with Odin Sphere (59,248), yet another new game. Looks like the PS2 still has the power to draw gamers in.

The top 3 spots have been taken by new games. So what happens to the old games? Well, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War on the PSP is the best selling 'old' game, with close to 39,500. Still doing quite good. The other Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings on the DS is still around (23,904) at 6th place. Wii Sports is, as usual, leading the charge for the Wii at 5th place (27,788), splitting the two FF games. Another FF game, the Final Fantasy Anniversary, however, is somewhere at 31st last week, and continue to fall. Do Japanese games have no love for it, or did they all flock to FF Tactics?

Couple of usual suspects are still in the top 20, like More Brain Training, New Super Mario, Mario Kart, Wii Play, and Animal Crossing. Notice the trend here? Yeah, they are all on the Nintendo. Sony tends to stay around the middle-to-lower end. Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd at 23rd and Pro Baseball Spirit 4 at 34th.

Detective Conan, a very popular anime series in Japan, didn't fare too well on the Wii, though. It's at 36th, and unlikely to gain any higher place.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

PS2 - Shining Winds
DS - Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! 2
PSP - Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War
Wii - Wii Sports

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 34
Wii - 7
PS2 - 5
PSP - 4

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Like I need to say this every week, Nintendo is still way ahead of everyone else. Let me rephase, DS is still way ahead of everyone else. It accounts for more than half of all gaming consoles sold last week. This situation has been going on for month after month after month, and looks like there is no end to it. Japanese people just love the DS. The way things are going, the DS will become the world best selling console, even surpassing the mighty PS2. But then we can't compare it like that, can we?

Well, let's look at the current-gen home console then. The Wii outsold the PS3 by 6 to 1. If you think PS3 can't get any worse, let last week's chart prove you wrong. Only 8,659 PS3 were sold last week. It's even worse than the week before. As I said, the PS3 is definitely not getting any love at the moment. With 2 games in the top3, PS2 still manages to get almost 11,000 new owners, 2,000 more than the PS3. Unbelievable.

DSL - 111,213
Wii - 52,193
PSP - 27,505
PS2 - 10,881
PS3 - 8,659
Xbox360 - 2,026

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
80.17% vs 19.83%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
83.01% vs 13.77% vs 3.22%

Source: Media Create

Kyoto schools introduce Nintendo DS into classes

Starting 21 May 07, all 2nd year students in all the secondary schools in the city of Yawata in Kyoto will have a DS. No, it's not for playing Mario Kart. The DS is introduced as an educational teaching tools for English.

A successful trial run with a group of 3rd year students was held over 5 months with the 'game' Chuugaku Eitango Target 1800 DS. Apparently, the vocabulary of the students increased by an average of 40% over the 5 months. Seeing the improvement, they decided to introduce it to all 2nd year secondary school students in the city.

Well, good luck finding a DS at the moment in Japan, as they are still sold out everywhere. So are they going to get a student discount on a video game console?

Come on, what do we have to do to get some Japanese trainers?

Source: Insertcredit, Mainichi

Square Enix profits surge, but no FFXIII until 2008

Square Enix, the maker of popular RPG game Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series today reported a 67.5% rise in operating profit over the previous year, but it's predicting a 19% during the 2007 fiscal year.

Operating profit is up from last year's ¥15.47 billion, to ¥25.92 billion (US$213 million). Sales also increased 31% to a record ¥163.47 billion ($1.34 billion).

During the 2006 fiscal year, Square Enix shipped 16.93 million video games globally, and it's packaged game business brought in ¥16.3 billion ($133.9 million). The firm's online game business also saw marked improvement over last year, posting elevated operating profit of ¥6.8 billion ($55.8 million), up from last year's ¥5.9 billion. Other divisions, including publishing, cellphone content and amusement facility businesses also improved over last year.

However, net profit was down 32% to ¥11.62 billion because the company “wrote back only 3 billion yen in provisions, having written back 9 billion yen in provisions the year before,” according to a report by Japanese service AFX News.

During this fiscal year, the company projects ¥12 billion net profit, while operating profits drop 19% to ¥21 billion.

According to IGN, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has indicated that the PS3 saviour next Final Fantasy title, not surprising called Final Fantasy XIII, would not be released before 2008. "It will still take a bit more time," said the president. "At the very least, [a release] this fiscal year is definitely out of the question." So that rules out any time before April 2008.

So I guess we'll just have to keep on watching the trailer until the new one comes out. That's bad news for Sony. They desperately need a blockbuster game right now to boost sales of the PS3. With MGS4 delayed, and now FFXIII not coming until 2008, looks like Sony will have to battle through 2007 with, I don't know, swords and guns ,maybe.

Source: Gamasutra

Konami net revenues up, but profit down, despite selling 8M Pro Evo Soccer.

Konami, the maker of Winning Eleven, Dance Dance Revolution and DrumMania reported today the net revenues for the company rose by 6.9% to ¥280.3 billion (US$2.31bn). Operating income also rose sharply to ¥28.1 billion ($231.4m), while overall profits dropped 29.5% to ¥16.2 billion ($133.4m).

The company also reported that they have shipped 8 million copies of their soccer franchise Winning Eleven (better known as Pro Evolution Soccer) during 2006 fiscal year. I've played both FIFA from EA and Winning Eleven from Konami. While Winning Eleven is so much more realistic, FIFA is easier to control. But I love Winning Eleven more than FIFA, despite FIFA getting all the official names and whatnots.

The Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series was noted as the company’s most successful franchise, with global sales of eight million during the year representing the highest level ever.

Sales of the Dance Dance Revolution series were also strong, with over one million unit sales, alongside other series such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and new titles such as manga license Death Note: Kira Game and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

You might not know this, but Konami has a range of health & fitness clubs all over Japan. Equipment sales from the division is up 8.9% to ¥88.5 billion, with operating profit of ¥7.5 billion.

You might also not know this, Konami also produce slot machines for casinos. The gaming & system segment, which includes arcade machines and gambling, saw sales rise by 57.6 percent to ¥16.7 billion ($137.5m) with an operating income of ¥2.2 billion ($18.1m).

Metal Gear Solid 4 is probably the company's most awaited game for this fiscal year, and it will be the main driver for Konami.

Source: Gamasutra, GameSpot

Sales Chart JPN: Another Final Fantasy tops the chart

Week 07 - 13 May 2007

As if one Final Fantasy game at number one is not enough, here comes the second Final Fantasy game to be released into the number one position in three weeks. This time, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion's War on the PSP took out the ichiban, with over 154,000 sold, leaving the other Final Fantasy game behind.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings looked out of shape, only managed to sell just over 38,000 units. But it still managed to come second (albeit almost 120,000 behind). This week has been quiet week for games. It seems traditionally game sales in Japan are generally weaker after the Golden Week.

Everywhere else has been fairly consistent with no major surprises. Besides Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, the DS also scored More Brain Training, New Super Mario, Momotarou Dentetsu DS: Tokyo & Japan and Yoshi's Island in the top 10.

Super Paper Mario is still doing well, with 20,670 sold, taking 6th place. But it was Wii Sports that is still heading the charge for the Wii, with another 30,180 sold. It seems like there is no stopping anyone from playing sports on the Wii. That' s a good thing. Do you know how expensive it is to play golf bowling in Japan?

Both Phoenix Wright 1 and Phoenix Wright 2 are still on the charts (47th and 33rd respectively), no doubt because of Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Phoenix Wright 4). I guess the biggest surprise of this week is that the best selling PS2 game of the week, Wrestle Kingdom 2, only managed 26th place.

No XBox 360 or PS3 games managed to get into the top 50. Again.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

PSP - Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion's War
DS - Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Wii - Wii Sports
PS2 - Wrestle Kingdom 2

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 35
Wii - 6
PSP - 5
PS2 - 4

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Despite the number one spot, it seems to have no effect on the PSP's sales figure. As a matter of fact, it has dropped slightly. Maybe it's because of the after effect of Golden Week, because every other console have dropped, with the DS dropping a massive 122,000 units back to its normal weekly pattern. So in that regards, PSP is holding up quite well.

The same can't be said of PS3, though. It has broken the 10,000 mark. It only managed 9,000 units. As if Sony is not having enough trouble in America, it doesn't do well back home either. This week, it's being outsold by the Wii at almost 6 to 1. DS outsold PSP by 4.75 to 1. XBox continues to be ignored by the Japanese.

DSL - 163,785
Wii - 52,544
PSP - 34,433
PS2 - 10,414
PS3 - 8,839
Xbox360 - 2,105

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
82.63% vs 17.37%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
82.76% vs 13.92% vs 3.32%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart US: Pokemon drives Nintendo to the top

April Sales Figure

The latest US sales figure for April is released by NPD today. And it paints a gloomy picture for Sony while Nintendo enjoys another month on top. First, the software. Nintendo took up the first four spots, with Pokemon leading the way. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl combined to sell just over 1.75 million units. Third was Super Paper Mario, selling 353,000 while Wii Play sold 249,000 to take up 4th spot.

Guitar Hero on both XBox 360 and PS2 sold a combined total of almost 340,000. Sipder-Man 3 for the same two consoles sold 222,000. God of War II took up 9th spot with just over 100,000 and bringing up the last place is MLB ’07: The Show (79,000).

As you might have noticed already, not one PS3 game is featured in the top 10. Not that PS3 fair any better on the Japanese charts. PS3 games don't usually feature in the top 50! Sony really deseparately need some new 'must have' games on the PS3, otherwise, it will die a horrible death.

Console War VII: Battle for America

It's no surprise that Nintendo rules once again on the hardware charts given its strong performance on the software front. In April, the DS sold 471,000, down from the half a million units sold in March, but the Wii is up 20% to 360,000. XBox 360 is also down from 199,000 to 175,000. PSP is roughly the same at 183,000, but the biggest loser is the PS3, which only managed to move 82,000 units. Come one, 82,000! Even Gameboy Advance sold more (84,000).

For every PSP sold, Nintendo sold 2.6 DS. For every PS3 sold, M$ sold more than 2 XBox 360 and Ninty sold a massive 4.4 Wii. Something is seriously wrong with PS3. If Sony doesn't reduce the price soon, and release new, exclusive, must-have games, people is going to stay away from it. At the moment, big name games like FFXIII, MGS4 and GT5 is not coming out anytime soon (with MGS4 delayed until next year). No-one is finding a reason to buy a PS3 right now, and that's Sony's problem.

DS - 471,000
Wii - 360,000
PSP - 183,000
XBox 360 - 174,000
GBA - 84,000
PS3 - 82,000

Market share for the month

DS vs PSP
67.87% vs 32.13%

Wii vs XBox 360 vs PS3
58.44% vs 28.25% vs 13.31%

Source: Next-Gen

Top 10 questions Sony / SCE is asking themselves right now.

10. "Alright, who hired the Welshman?"
9. "Now that Crazy Ken is gone, who can we blame next year?"
8. "Are we Home yet?"
7. "How did we miss the 6 million target? I thought we stopped making the PS2 already."
6. "What do you mean you don't know? We need the release schedule now!"
5. "Last? We're just first backwards."
4. "Remind me again. How did we lose DMC4 exclusivity?"
3. "What? The PS3 trucks are going to the landfill?"
2. "What do you mean MGS4 is delayed?"

And the number one question asked:

1. "What do you mean no-one is working their asses off to pay for the PS3?"

The number one comment made by everyone at SCE right now:

"This is NOT living."

New Sakura Tasien coming out

For a lot of people, this news is probably nothing more than just another game. But for those devoted followers of the series out there, this is indeed the best news since ages. A new Sakura Taisen game (better known as Sakura Wars in the west) is coming out! If you bought a PSP just because you want to play the Sakura Taisen Remake, now you'll need to buy a DS as well, because that's where all the action is. That's right, a new Sakura Tasien game on the DS. The details are still sketchy, but it looks like the casts from all three Troupe (Tokyo, Paris and New York) will be featured.

Sakura Taisen is probably not very well known outside Japan, despite the availability of the anime in the west. The main problem is of course, the language. None of the dozen games or so are available in languages other than Japanese (ok, so I lie). But that never stopped people like me from getting the games. I've got Sakura Tasien 1 and 2 on the Saturn and Sakura Tasien Atsuki Chishioni on the PS2 in hope that one day, I will learn enough Japanese to play them.

I'll probably end up playing them anyway, like I did with TokiMemo all those years ago, but that's another story for another time.

Check out wiki for more details on the series. It's a very popular series, and it's one that is often overlooked by western players.

Source: GoNintendo, Famitsu (Japanese)

Square Enix games coming to the west

Square Enix has confirmed their two biggest cash cow is coming to the US on Nintendo hardwares.

The first Square Enix cash cow is, without a doubt, Final Fantasy (courtesy of Squaresoft before they merged with Enix). So it comes as no surprise that the latest FF game, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, is getting a US release in Winter 2007. The game was released in Japan on the DS three weeks ago, and is selling like hot cake right now. Revenant Wings is sequel to Final Fantasy XII. Vaan is now a sky pirate and together with Penelo, they travel the world (or something like that).

Second cash cow is Dragon Quest (courtesy of Enix). This series is immensely popular in Japan, shipping over 30 million copies (40 million worldwide). The latest game on the DS, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, is coming out in Q4. It was released in Japan at the end of last year, and has already sold over a million copies. If it wasn't for the Japanese language, I would have got one as well when I was over there.

Still on Dragon Quest, the Wii is getting Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirror, coming out some time next year. The game is not released in Japan yet, but an English version has already been confirmed.

Together with Final Fantasy, the two series represent the Japanese gamers and their love for RPG.

Source: Cubed3

Autographed DS up for sale

If you need one good reason why you would want a DS Phat in this day and age, this would be the one.

Not long after a Zelda DS Lite went for US$800 on eBay, a DS Phat is now up for sale (currently at US$620). This is not just any DS Phat, this one is signed. And it's not just one signature either. On this one DS, three people signed it - Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and Charles Martinet.

Any Nintendo fanboy can tell you who these people are (well, maybe not so much Martinet, but definitely the first two... anyhow, let's move on). For those who don't know who they are, Miyamoto is the brain behind Mario and Zelda, Iwata is the current CEO of Nintendo (also worked with Miyamoto on Mario and Zelda) and Martinet is the voice actor for Mario.

Now I'm not a Ninty fanboy (or fanboy or anything, for that matter), so I had to ask, "Mario has a voice?"

For those who didn't get the Zelda DS, this is your second chance.

BTW, read the listing for a behind the scene look at how the seller managed to get the signatures onto the DS.

Sony's profit fell 68%

Sony today has reported a 68% drop in profit for the 2006-07 financial year. The gaming division, which is in charge of the development and ongoing support for the PS3, has reported a loss of over $1.9 billion.

We have known for months now that the PS3 is not selling as well as Sony has hoped. The report today confirmed the gloomy prediction. Sony has made 5.5 million PS3, well short of the 6 million target set. Out of the 5.5 million, only 3.9 million made it to the store. The remaining 1.9 million are in transit or sitting in Sony warehouses, mounting to as much as $1.1 billion in inventory. In comparison, Nintendo, which released the Wii at around the same time as PS3, has shipped 5.84 million units. Microsoft, which has a year head start, has 10 million XBox 360 en masse.

During the same period, Sony has shipped 14 million PS2 and 8 million PSP.

In lights of stiff competition, Sony had no choice but to discount the PS3 earlier than expected. The price of the 60GB model (now the one and only model) has been slashed. Merrill Lynch estimates the discounts would shave nearly $600 million off the division's sales. PSP also suffered the same fate in the face of the never ending popularity of Nintendo's DS, outselling it by a factor of 2 to 1.

Sony hopes to spur demand for their console and keep the third party games development companies from holding off their PS3 games development. Unlike Nintendo, a large amount of games on the PS3 and XBox are third party titles. As game companies pay licensing fees for the right to create game on the console, any games sold adds to Sony's bottom line.

With big name titles like Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gran Turisumo 5 not coming out until next year, Sony hopes that major titles like Heavenly Swords, Warhawk, Lair and the upcoming Home will help sell the PS3 before then.

Source: Business Weekly

Sales Chart JPN: Final Fantasy XII still takes the lead.

Week 30 April - 06 May 2007

I don't think anyone is going to doubt that. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is continuing to hold the number one spot for the second week running. However, it has gone down from 274,004 to 109,326 units this week. Maybe it's because of Golden Week. No shop is opened. ^_^;.

Super Paper Mario, on the other hand, sold another 90,151, up from last week. Somewhat of a surprise attack is Yoshi's Island on the DS coming back to 4th place with almost 59,000 sold. Software on Nintendo's hardware accounts for the top 21 places, with Nintendo first party games taking up 15 of those places. Bloody hell, no wonder Nintendo is making shit load of money.

Momotarou Dentetsu DS: Tokyo & Japan has dropped to 9th from 2nd last week, while More Brain Training is back up to 10th from nowhere. I tell you, it must be Golden Week where parents buy new games for the kids.

Phoenix Wright 2 is still hanging on at 46th. As expected for any XBox 360 games, it appears one week and then drop off completely the next. Last week's Test Drive Unlimited and Rainbow Six: Vegas have all but disappeared from the chart. Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd is back to the best selling PSP game because Final Fantasy has dropped to 25th this week. And Pro Baseball Spirit 4 is back to the top of PS2 game after Fate / Stay Night [Realta / Nua] continue to fall.

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker has popped back up again at 19th spot. What is with games popping up? Or is it just me never paid too much attention?

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS - Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Wii - Super Paper Mario
PSP - Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd
PS2 - Pro Baseball Spirit 4

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 36
Wii - 6
PS2 - 4
PSP - 4

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Must be the effect of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. DS continues to sell strong. As a matter of fact, it sold more this week. The ratio between DS and PSP is more 8 to 1 now. The Wii has dropped, but still managed to sell more than 100,000 units. Ratio between Wii and PS3 is almost 8 to 1. So, in essence, for every 1 Sony game console sold, Nintendo sold 8 of theirs. One interesting figure this week is that DS sold more than everything else combined (285,123 vs 168,602). Such is the power of the DS.

Well, enough said. Let's look at the crushing figures.

DSL - 285,123
Wii - 101,320
PSP - 35,172
PS2 - 14,815
PS3 - 12,974
Xbox360 - 3,205

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
89.02% vs 10.98%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
86.23% vs 11.04% vs 2.73%

Source: Media Create

Namco-Bandai profit up 71%

We're now hearing Japanese game companies release their full year result for the financial year ending 31 March. Namco Bandai has announced a profit of 24.2 billion Yen, up 71% on last year. Operating profit rose 18% and sales 2%.

Part of it is due to Gundam DVDs. Japanese people just never get sick and tired of that mecha. Besides DVDs, Namco Bandai also has amusement facilities (read, arcade shops).

The company forecast a slow 2008, though, due to the slow uptake of PS3 that affect their PS3 games like Gundam Musou, which sold only 300,000, way below the 500,000 they expected. As a result, the company only plans to launch 23 titles on the PS3, comparing to 24 on the XBox 360 and 37 games on the Wii.

Source: Forbes

Final Fantasy IV Remake confirmed

Rumour one day, confirmed the next. It has been confirmed (by the way of a magazine scan from Shounen Jump in Japan) that SquareEnix is to remake Final Fantasy IV on the DS. It was kind of expected, given the Final Fantasy III reamake is already out there.

If I count correctly, that makes the fifth Final Fantasy game announced for the DS. So we now have Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and Final Fantasy IV.

So when are we going to see FFV, FFVI and FFVII on the DS? Well, FFV and FFVI is already out on the GBA.

Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: Vaan and Penelo take the lead

Week 23-29 April 2007

With the latest Final Fantasy game coming out on the most popular handheld console at the moment, it's no surprise that Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is this week's number one on the DS (don't tell me you didn't see that coming). It was released on the 26th, so the 274,004 units sold was achieved in only 4 days. Don't forget that the special edition DS is also part of the deal. It will be interesting to see what FFXII:RW can do in a full week of being on sale.

Following almost 200,000 copies behind is another new comer, the Momotarou Dentetsu DS: Tokyo & Japan, another special DS edition (78,980). Super Paper Mario is third, still having a strong sale at 75,839 units sold. Elsewhere on the chart, some of the top 10 games have dropped off. Gyakuten Saiban 4 has fallen slightly, but still in the top 10 at number 9, but Final Fantasy on the PSP fell to 17th, while Persona 3 and Fate / Stay Night [Realta / Nua] (both on PS2) dropped to 18th and 21st respectively. Games on Nintendo hardware have taken all but 2 spots on the top 20, such is the power of Nintendo.

Surprise of the week is no who's number one, but XBox 360, with not 1, but two games on the top 50. They are Test Drive Unlimited at 24th and Rainbow Six: Vegas at 27th, none of which is developed by a Japanese company.

This is the worst week for the DS in terms of the number of games in the top 50. Only 29 games made it, the worst so far this year. But who cares when all the cool stuff is on the DS.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS - Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Wii - Super Paper Mario
PSP - Final Fantasy
PS2 - Persona 3

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 29
PS2 - 8
Wii - 6
PSP - 5
XBox 360 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Not to be unexpected, Nintendo dominated this week like every other week. Fuelled by Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings and Momotarou Dentetsu DS: Tokyo & Japan, the DS sold more than 2 times its next rival, its bigger cousin, the Wii. Needless to say, it killed the PSP by more than 7 to 1.

Since it's debut in March 2006, the DS Lite has sold 10 million units in Japan. The total DS units sold is 16.6 million. So if VGCharts is anything to go by, then the Japanese must have snapped up 39.77% of all the DS in the world. 4 out of 10 DS is bought in Japan!

Super Paper Mario is also helping the Wii as well, pushing it over 100K units. That's 15 Wii for every PS3 sold.

DSL - 255,971
Wii - 192,522
PSP - 33,860
PS3 - 12,791
PS2 - 12,584
Xbox360 - 3,162

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
88.32% vs 11.68%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
92.35% vs 6.14% vs 1.52%

Source: Media Create

Zelda mod DS Lite on sales

So, you're a Zelda fan, and you want the perfect DS Lite to play your Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, what's the best way to do that? On a Zelda DS Lite, of course. Morpheon Mods has created a golden DS mod that features a backlit Zelda crest. There are also a custom-made charger and two stylii.

It's going for $760US so far on eBay, with 15% of the proceed pledged to charity.

If you a Zelda fan and can afford that kind of money, get it. It's one of its kind.

Source: EuroGamer

Touch me, I'm better than Zelda!

According to Amazon JP (via Insert Credit via Kotaku), the SNK game Doki Doki Majo Shinpan is more popular than Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The basis of the game has it that you are to find out which junior high school female student is a witch. The suspected junior high school witch is examined with the touch pen.

Usually, there's a "witch's crest" hidden somewhere on her body which can appear in "Witch Check Mode." And yes, that means touching junior high school girls all over her body. As to which part of the body is touchable, well, it's up to you to find out.

Now we wait for JT to cross international borders to file for its ban in Japan.

I am actually having more fun reading the comment section on Kotaku than the game itself. Read them at your pleasure.

Source: Kotaku

Father of Final Fantasy doesn't like Father of PlayStation

No sooner has Ken Kutaragi, the Father of PlayStation, left the Sony building, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the Father of Final Fantasy was having a go at him.

In the latest issue of EGM magazine, Hironobu Sakaguchi mentioned that the reason why there's is no PS3 titles planned is because "The machine's architecture is tricky, and I don't like Ken Kutaragi." Interrupt any way you want. But it sounds pretty clear to me, unless, of course, if it's been lost in translation.

He also has a stab at all the other platforms. For the Wii, he said, "The system is intriguing, but right now, I have no plans on making a game for the Wii."

And the XBox 360, "Microsoft has to change its marketing strategy in Japan. There are a lot of excellent games on the 360, far better games than what's on the Wii or PS3. But not a lot of people in Japan have a clear idea what games like Gears of War are all about. Just look at the Windows Vista commercial -- it's terrible."

Source: 1UP

Final Fantasy III originally planned for PS2.

CVG has caught up with Hiromichi Tanaka, the producer of Final Fantasy III on the DS. Apparently, Final Fantasy III was originally planned for release on the PlayStation 2. How did Nintendo persuade SquareEnix to change the platform, I don't know. But the end result was great. With Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings already out in Japan (and doing very well, mind you), and the other FF titles Crystal Chronicles and FF Tactics A2 also coming out on the DS, Final Fantasy seems to be leaving footprints all over the DS.

Must admit, though, the PSP is also getting a fair share of FF games as well, noticebly the Final Fantasy & Final Fantasy II anniversary, as well as the remake of FF Tactics. But where are the new games? huh?

Have a read.

Source: CVG

The Rise and Fall of Ken Kutaragi

Last week, it was reported that Ken Kutaragi is sacked retiring from Sony to become its honourary chairman. That's just another way of saying, "we'll pay you to do nothing. But we still got you on the leash, so you can't work for anyone else."

I've just found an article on EuroGamer about the rise and fall of the Father of PlayStation. It was an interesting read, to say the least. For example, did you know that when you played Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger, or just firing up Super Mario Bros. on your SNES, every note of music and sound effect were produced by a chip designed by none other than Kutaragi? Did you also know that the SNES were to have a CD plug-in called "Play Station", developed by, yep, Kutaragi.

For those who are interested in the history of PlayStation, and Kutaragi in particular, this article is worth a read.

After reading it, it makes you wonder if there will ever be a PlayStation 4.

Play-Asia Weekly Special: Crackdown US$29.90

This week's Play-Asia special is Crackdown on the XBox 360. The game just came out in Feburary this year. So it's still pretty new. And look, it's already a bargain. So if you haven't got it already, get it. This version is region free, so you can play it on any XBox 360.