My Gaming Rant

Final Fantasy XIII English Theme Song

2009-11-20T07:22:00.000-08:00

English version of the latest Final Fantasy XIII has been announced last Friday. The game will come out on 9th March 2010. Excited, definitely, but at the same time, a bit sad.

You see, the English Theme Song, titled 'My Hand', is sung by one Leona Lewis. I have nothing against the song or Leona herself, but what's unfortunate is that the western theme song is not Final Fantasy XIII exclusive. It is not written specific for the game. Instead, SquareEnix opted for something that is commercially available. Kind of like 'off the shelf' song. It will mark the first time that us western audience will not be hearing the work of FF's music father, the legendary Nobuo Uematsu.

Check out the English theme song at YouTube, then check out the Japanese theme song. Which one do you like better?

Final Fantasy XIII theme song

2009-11-11T01:21:00.000-08:00

Final Fantasy XIII Theme Song is out! on radio at least. Titled Kimi Ga Iru Kara, it is composed by the famous Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu and sung by Sugawara Sayuri.

You can find the mp3 at Final Fantasy XIII.net, and the lyrics is here.

I like FFXIII already ^_^

Final Fantasy XIII is finally coming

2009-11-11T00:56:00.000-08:00

I was just browsing Play-Asia, and found the Final Fantasy XIII English version is slated for June 2010 release! Yipee!, after such a long wait, it is finally making an appearance.

For those who can't wait for the English version, there Japanese version is coming on 17 December 2009. Why does it take so long in between the Japanese and the English?

Anyway, I watched a 7 minutes trailer of FFXIII, and I must say, it has damn good graphics, probably one of the better graphics on the PS3. The game play looks a little like FFXII. I just hope it will be as good as FFXII.

Finally, a PS3 game worth getting.

If I were the main protagonist in a H-Game turned Anime...

2009-11-05T03:14:00.000-08:00

I will only enroll in a co-ed school where the proportion of girl vs boy is 5 to 1.
My best friend will be the only other male character in the series.
I will make sure that I bump into and be introduced to no less than 3 girls in the first episode, and will continue to do so until midway through the series.
If my parents are meant to be alive, I will check on them every day to make sure that it remains the case. If they are on an extended overseas trip, I will call them everyday just to say hi. Too often, parents are forgotten in anime such as the one I am in.
My best female friend will be someone I have known since kindergarten.
My best female friend will be living within five minutes walking distance from my place. Preferably, she will be living next door literally. Better still, we live in the same place.
I will try my best to keep eye contact, rather than starring at my female friends' beasts, even though they are all more well developed than they should be at the age that they are in.
Whenever I am feeling down, my best female friend will be the girl who knows my trouble. After all, she is the only one I can fully open up to.
I don't need to impress anyone, there will be at least one girl in that group of girls that I met who is fond of whatever that I am good at.
Even if I am good at nothing, I will not need to worry about not getting a girlfriend, because there will be at least one girl in that same group of girls that I met who will find me adorable, attractive and is willing to become my partner.
I will get used to the complaints that I get from my best friend about how all the girls are flocking to me and not him.

Finally, I have a PSP, albeit phat

2009-06-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

I was went window shopping yesterday when I spotted a PSP with Media Manager Pack selling for less than half price. Curiosity got the better of me because a) this particular department store that I went to is not known for cheap stuff, b) I don't really know what the Media Manager was, and c) the other PSPs were selling at retail price.

So I had a closer look at the box and discovered that the package contain the actual PSP + the value pack + media manager. The model number PSP-1000 printed on the box basically gave it away. This is the PSP phat. But I don't really care whether I have a phat PSP or the new slim PSP.

Excited, I went home and made sure that it is what I saw. With the good news confirmed, I happily went back today and bought the last one they had (there were two yesterday).

So now I am an excited owner of a PSP. I still love my DS. But now that love will have to be shared. Can anyone suggest any good 'must have' games on the PSP?

Old Games

2009-02-19T23:56:00.000-08:00

Recently, I suddenly have the urge to play old games, like those made in the 90's. Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventure being one of them. I still remembered playing that, but can't remember exactly what happened in the game.

So here I am, playing it all over again on my 2 years old PC. There are plenty of old ones I wanted to re-visit as well:

- Gangsters
- Theme Park
- Theme Hospital
- Syndicates
- SimAnt
- SimTower
- Indy and the Fate of Atlantis
- ...

Man, I can't believe I've actually played that many games. Even more unbelievable that I wanted to play them AGAIN.

PlayAsia 15% off till Friday

2008-10-28T04:14:00.000-07:00

PlayAsia is having another one of their irregular sales. This time it is their 15% off sales. Looks like with the economic crisis everywhere in the world, everyone is in a bit of a pinch here. PlayAsia seems to be feeling the crunch too, I'd say.

But someone's loss is another one's gain. Maybe I can finally get Metal Solid Gear 4 Special Edition.

Wii Fit, We Fit.

2008-07-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

So I went to a friend's place yesterday to play the Wii Fit on his Wii, and boy, was it fun. Besides exercises, there are many mini-games. Two stood out. The first one is a Soccer head butt game. Basically you shift your weight from left to right in order to hit the incoming soccer ball, or dodge incoming shoes or panda head that looks like soccer balls. It was hilarious to see players getting hit by the shoes or panda heads.

The second one is Ski Jumping. Just like the real thing, you have to lean forward going down the hill, and then stand up on to 'jump' in the air, keep in balance and land. Absolute fun, especially when someone else fail some epically rolling down the hill instead.

2 days to go in the Play Asia sales

2008-07-18T01:55:00.000-07:00

With only 2 days left in the Play-Asia 25% sales, what did you get? I've scored myself a Wii Remote, a Nunchuck. Both the Ghost Squad Zapper pack and House of the Dead Zapper pack unforunately sold out. The price is back to the normal price.

But I did manage to get Mario Strikers Charged, a DS Pouch and a DS screen protector before they went back to normal price. Now my DS (or what's left of it) is finally protected.

Hurry, only 2 days left in the sale. Grab whatever is left to get.

Animal Crossing on the Wii

2008-07-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Yep, Animal Crossing is coming out on the Wii. The DS version is the first game I've got on my DS. And I loved every second of it. Wii version is probably more of the same, but now comes with a city that you can actually visit, a chat room and an auction site. Interesting.

Looking forward to it.

GTA coming to the DS

2008-07-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

So the extremely popular GTA series is making its round to the handheld. It's coming out on the DS. I thought it's a bit strange to release GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS. Maybe it's because of its wide install base. But I thought over 50% of DS owners are females?

I thought PSP would have been more appropriate. Strange, that. But I guess whatever float the boat.

Sony replacing 40GB with 80GB, nothing else change

2008-07-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

At the E3 event, Sony announced that the 40GB PS3 is going to be phased out with the 80GB SKU. What's interesting is that the price pointer will stay at the 40GB. So basically, you will get an PS3 for the same price with double the storage. Hardly anything exciting, if you ask me.

What I'd like to know is if it includes the Dual Shock 3 controller.

In other news, Sony is going to sell a "Family Value Pack" PS2. Yes, PS2. For a cent shy of $150, you get a PS2, Lego Batman and Justice League: New Frontier on DVD. It seems like Sony is the only company still selling an old Gen console. Good thing? Bad thing? Hard to tell. But with the price of PS3 still somewhere north of $1,000. $150 is a very attractive price pointer indeed.

Who would like to play Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox360? Now you can.

2008-07-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

Sony's exclusivity reign on argubaly the most famous JRPG that came out of Japan is seemingly over. Final Fantasy XIII is coming to Xbox 360, or so says Yoshinori Kitase, producer of FFXIII.

Maybe it's because of the lack of install base for the PS3 or to ~~make~~ recoup as much money as possible, Sqaure Enix has decided to release FFXIII on the Xbox 360, alongside with the PS3 version. It is still going to be a PS3 game, with the XB360 version being a port of the PS3 version.

But still, I don't know if I should laugh at Sony for losing the exclusivity, or cry over Microsoft's gain.

Either way, no doubt PS3 fanboys are going to cry foul upon hearing the news (much like they did when Capcom annouced DMC4 is coming to XB360).

That said, FFXIII will still be a PS3 exclusive in Japan, seeing that the Xbox 360 install base is anything but big. Each and every Xbox 360 owner might have buy the game twice to justify the cost to port the game over (Shenmue on the Dreamcast, anyone?).

So the timetable is Japan get it first on PS3. US is going to get it on PS3 and XB360 in near simultaneously, and Europe (and whoever else in the PAL region) is going to get it last.

It's still unclear if it will affect the other FFXIII games.

PlayAsia 25% off all stock

2008-07-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

PlayAsia is have 25% off sales from now till Sunday 20 July.

Better get in quick in you want some cheap stuff.

I just bought a Wiimote ($33.67US) and Nunchuck ($14.93US). That's much cheaper than if I buy them locally. Even without discount, it's still cheaper.

Next purchase, a Wii Zapper. Can't decide which one to get yet, the Link's Crossbow Training, House of the Dead 2 & 3, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicle, or Ghost Squad. Maybe RE:UC. Killing zombies is fun.

Finally getting mii-self a Wii

2008-07-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

It took me 4 years after the PlayStation 2 first appeared to get my hands on one. But in the seventh generation console, it took me just one and a half years to achieve the same feat. A Nintendo Wii is now a permanent fixture in the house. It has been 16 years since I last saw a Nintendo logo on the TV screen, and the TV is not even mine.

Now here is the delimma. I still have so many games on the PS2 that I haven't played yet. And with the Wii looming in the background (or rather, on top of the PS2 in a strange colour combination of white on black), I am tempted to play the Wii, even though I only have a handful of games. The cut between PS1 and PS2 was so clear. Once I bought the PS2, the PS1 is thrown into storage (to be fair, it's mostly because the PS2 can play PS1 games). But I can see that the PS2 will still reign for the time being.

In all honesty, there are not that many games that I really, desparately, hungrily want to get on the Wii. Well, maybe RE4, Okami, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Meteroid 3. But seeing that I still have so many PS2 games (mostly RPGs, that just made the matter worse due to its long game time), I will probably wait for the aforementioned games to drop in price before buying them. Afterall, I am a very patient person.

Still, I want MGS4. So it's not a matter of if, but when, the PS3 will become part of the household furniture as well. Another 4 years, I'd say.

Finally a game worth getting a PS3 for

2008-06-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, the three words that will make a lot of people buy a PlayStation 3. Metal Gear Solid. Actually, to be more precise, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The game is to be the final chapter of the Solid Snake arc of the Metal Gear series.

Having played the first three MGS games, it is something that I would like to finish. There are just too many questions left unanswered in the first three. But it still hasn't quite convince me to get a PS3 yet. MGS4 is one of my '3 must have games on the PS3', the others being GT5 and Final Fantasy XIII. So until at least one of the other one comes out (most likely to be GT5), I'll still hold on to my money.

Meanwhile, I am still looking for a Wii.

Dead Fantasy II, Dead Gorgeous

2008-03-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you might remembered there's a popular Dead or Alive mixed with Final Fantasy fan made fighting video on the web. Well, here is the second installment - Dead Fantasy II.

It is still as awesome as ever. Word has it that there will be 5 more in the works. So stay tune for more.

Sales Chart JPN: Everyone is getting in a brawl.

2008-02-11T02:32:00.000-08:00

Week 28 January - 03 February 2008

Everyone is getting a brawl this week, as Super Smash Bros Brawl takes over the lead with 819,647. Wii Fit has been demoted down to 5th. In fact, the first 4 are all new games, with PS3 version of Devil May Cry 4 a very far behind 2nd (205,390). The Xbox 360 version taking 7th place (40,023), some 5 times less.

Only World Soccer Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 on the PSP and Mario and Sonic Olympics on the DS survived this week's new game onslaught, both 10th and 8th this week respectively.

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

Wii - Super Smash Bros Brawl
PS3 - Devil May Cry 4
PS2 - Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut
PS2 - Haruhi Suzumiya's Wonderment
Wii - Wii Fit

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

DS - 24
Wii - 9
PS2 - 7
PS3 - 5
PSP - 4
360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Has PSP taken over the DS? This week saw the PSP overtaken DS by about 5K. Quite a feat. Super Smash Bros Brawl taking the Wii to new heights, more than twice of the PS3. Not a bad week for PS3, either, selling over 40K. PS2 is still selling in the 10 thousands.

Wii - 94,473
PSP - 72,528
DS Lite - 67,472
PS3 - 41,796
PS2 - 12,115
Xbox 360 - 6,060

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
48.19% vs 51.81%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
66.38% vs 29.37% vs 4.26%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Fit to go... still.

2008-02-05T00:45:00.000-08:00

Week 21 January - 27 January 2008

Looks like the Wii is getting back into the grove, with Wii Fit still ruling the Earth, well, at least in Japan. It sold yet another 89,248 this week. World Soccer Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 on the PSP came second kicking the goal... post with 76,669, more than 10,000 behind. A PS2 game still dominates. Lucky Star is getting lucky with 71,512. PSP has another game, Yggdra Union, in the top 10, albeit only selling 17,304 copies.

All the Mario franchise is still doing well. Mario and Sonic Olympics on the DS is at 4th (50,169) and Mario Party DS is at 6th (21,840). Xbox 360's Call of Duty 4 survived two weeks and has now dropped out of the chart.

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

Wii - Wii Fit
PSP - World Soccer Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008
PS2 - Lucky Star: Misasagi Sakura Gakuen Sakura Fuji Festival
DS - Mario and Sonic Olympics
Wii - Wii Sport

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

DS - 27
Wii - 8
PSP - 6
PS3 - 5
PS2 - 4

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

The PSP is much closer to the DS now, less than 2,000 between them. The DS, PSP and the Wii are doing in the range of 70,000's while the rest is, well, lacking way behind, but at least the PS3 is continuing to outrun the PS2 as it should be.

DS - 79,370
PSP - 77,933
Wii - 74,544
PS3 - 34,363
PS2 - 11,364
Xbox 360 - 4,296

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
50.46% vs 49.54%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
65.85% vs 30.36% vs 3.80%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Nintendo still Fit to rule

2008-01-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

Week 14 January - 20 January 2008

The Wii is still fit to rule as Wii Fit continued to take control (92,471). Behind it is the DS version of Mario and Sonic Olympics (89,909). Third place belongs to Mario Party DS (33,003), while Wii Sport is at number four (30,458). PSP's Monster Hunter Portable 2nd remain fifth (23,614). Xbox 360's Call of Duty 4 dropped to 29th this week.

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

Wii - Wii Fit
DS - Mario and Sonic Olympics
DS - Mario Party DS
Wii - Wii Sport
PSP - Monster Hunter Portable 2nd

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

DS - 26
Wii - 9
PS2 - 5
PSP - 5
PS3 - 4
360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

DS continues to lead ahead of Wii and PSP. As usual, PS3 and Xbox bring up the rear. PS3 has selling a lot more than PS2 lately, so maybe it is finally time for the PS3 to shine. Who knows? Maybe GT5, MGS4, etc will make the PS3 a dominant force once again.

DS - 88,575
Wii - 81,638
PSP - 79,923
PS3 - 38,117
PS2 - 13,539
Xbox 360 - 4,552

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
52.57% vs 47.43%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
65.67% vs 30.66% vs 3.66%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Mario takes a back seat as everyone do their exercise

2008-01-19T22:07:00.000-08:00

Week 07 January - 13 January 2008

Mario Party DS took a back seat this week to second places (43,082) as Wii Fit took control (89,584). Wii Sport still at number three (33,267). A surprise mover this week is PSP's Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, which has constantly be PSP's entry in the top 50 since its debut. It went up to 5th this week (25,927), just behind Final Fantasy IV (32,427). Professor Layton is still doing very well indeed, with Curious Village (the first game) at 17th and Pandora's Box (the second game) at 6th (25,303). Xbox 360 also scored an entry with Call of Duty 4 at 22nd, which should see them drop next week.

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

Wii - Wii Fit
DS - Mario Party DS
Wii - Wii Sport
DS - Final Fantasy IV
PSP - Monster Hunter Portable 2nd

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

DS - 24
Wii - 11
PS2 - 5
PSP - 5
PS3 - 4
360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Another pretty even week, DS are only slightly ahead of the PSP in terms of sales, only just over a thousand separating them. Wii, on the other hand, is till miles ahead of the PS3. Quite a different in console numbers.

DSL - 97,369
PSP - 96,159
Wii - 84,530
PS3 - 38,907
PS2 - 14,499
Xbox 360 - 4,690

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
50.31% vs 49.69%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
65.97% vs 30.37% vs 3.66%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Mario, Mario, Mario and Mario in the Top 10.

2008-01-12T20:48:00.000-08:00

Week 01 January - 06 January 2008

It's still the world of Mario over in Japan at the moment. After the Christmas break, the ichiban spot is still Mario Party DS (195,781), Wii Fit at niban (127,142) and Wii Sport at sanban (118,286). Is it because of Christmas break, or if the Japanese has rediscovered Nintendo's dominance? The top 13 games are all Nintendo's, with quite a many making a come back.

But looking at the top 10, four of them are Mario themed, such is the power of the plumber during holiday seasons. It happens every year, and it will continue to happen for many years to come.

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

DS - Mario Party DS
Wii - Wii Fit
Wii - Wii Sport
DS - Final Fantasy IV
Wii - Super Mario Galaxy

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

DS - 32
Wii - 9
PS2 - 3
PSP - 3
PS3 - 3

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

DS continues to dominate, but PSP is showing signs of resistance. Less than 50K separate them this week. The same can't be said of the Wii and PS3, though. It's more than 3 to 1 in favor of the Wii. PS3 is struggling, but is doing a lot better than PS2, which continues to sell in the ten thousands. Maybe it does have another year to go before PS3 finally takes off (maybe with GT5 or MGS4). Even Xbox 360 sold almost 10K this week.

DSL - 266,568
PSP - 218,234
Wii - 207,797
PS3 - 64,183
PS2 - 32,010
Xbox 360 - 9,763

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
54.98% vs 45.02%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
73.75% vs 22.78% vs 3.47%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: MArio holding on

2007-12-29T01:04:00.000-08:00

Week 17 December - 23 December 2007

For the second week, Mario Party DS held on to the top spot leading up to Christmas (not that the majority of anyone care about the religious significant of the event in Japan). Another 329,826 was sold this week.

It's rare to see a Final Fantasy game not getting to number 1 on its first week. And now we have seen it. Only 287,697 FFIV on the DS were sold, coming second this week.

The other new games on the top 10 were Naruto: Shippuuden N-Ultimate Accelerator 2 (PS2; 108,717) and Doraemon Baseball: Dramatic Stadium (DS; 84,639). Why does Doraemon have a baseball game, I have no idea.

It has been a long time, but the number of games on the top 50 for the DS has risen back to above 30.

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

DS - Mario Party DS
DS - Final Fantasy IV
Wii - Wii Fit
Wii - Super Mario Galaxy
PS2 - Naruto: Shippuuden N-Ultimate Accelerator 2

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

DS - 32
Wii - 9
PS2 - 4
PS3 - 3
PSP - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Still the holiday season over in Japan. DS sold more, Wii sold more, more PS3, less PSP, less PS2 and less Xbox 360.

DSL - 279,551
Wii - 232,907
PSP - 171,804
PS3 - 58,167
PS2 - 20,391
Xbox360 - 7,908

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
61.94% vs 38.06%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
77.9% vs 19.46% vs 2.65%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Mario fighting back

2007-12-22T02:55:00.000-08:00

Week 10 December - 16 December 2007

Same guy, same game. After two weeks absent, you might have forgotten about Mario, but no, he's back. Mario Party DS jumped back to grab the 1st spot this week, selling 180,042. Must be the holiday season. Wii Fit is just behind, on 124,238.

If you were to pay for an uncompleted game, you would probably complain, but not so if that game is Grand Turismo 5 Prologue. Seriously, it's just another way for Sony to make money, right? If you can't wait for the real game, you'll have to settle of this. 115,748 people did. Prof. Layton is still doing well in 5th (74,378).

It must be the holiday season, some of the older games creped back up onto top 10, with only 2 new game (GT5 Prologue and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: the Labyrinth of Forgotten Time (Wii, 40,580). Wii Play and Wii Sport both jumped back up.

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

DS - Mario Party DS
Wii - Wii Fit
PS3 - Grand Turismo 5 Prologue
DS - Prof. Layton and the Pandora's Box
Wii - Mario Galaxy

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

DS - 28
Wii - 10
PS2 - 4
PSP - 3
PS3 - 3
360 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Holiday season is certainly coming. DS sold almost a quarter of a million, while the Wii more than doubled that of PS3. One good news is that the PS3 sold a significant amount more than the PS2, while the Xbox 360 still struggles, selling only roughly the same amount as last week.

DSL - 222,132
PSP - 184,610
Wii - 170,558
PS3 - 63,720
PS2 - 18,025
Xbox360 - 8,561

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
54.61% vs 45.39%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
70.24% vs 26.24% vs 3.53%

Source: Media Create

Review: Zoo Hospital

2007-12-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

New game review at Mobile Tech Review. It's my second review for the site. And this time, it's Zoo Hospital. A simple, but repetitive game. In fact, it's boring after a while. Read my review after the jump.

Review: Zoo Hospital

Sales Chart US: Modern Warfare kills on the field.

2007-12-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

November Sales Figure

Three months on, Master Chief is still in the top 10. But guns still rule the top of the chart. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came in at number 1, killing the rest of the field. Super Mario Galaxy came second, while Assassin's Creed is the highest ranking new IP in 3rd. No chart should be completed without at least one Guitar game.

Overall, US spent $2.63 billion in November and with Christmas shopping as well, that figure is still to soar, now that's a lot of money.

1. Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360, Activision) - 1.57 million
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo) - 1.12 million
3. Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360, Ubisoft) - 980k
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock w/guitar (PlayStation 2, Neversoft/Budcat/Activision) 967k
5. Wii Play w/remote (Wii, Nintendo) - 564k
6. Mass Effect (Xbox 360, Microsoft) - 473k
7. Call of Duty 4 (PS3, Activision) - 444k
8. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock w/guitar (Wii, Neversoft/Vicarious Visions/Activision) - 426k
9. Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft) - 387k
10. Assassin's Creed (PS3, Ubisoft) - 377k

Console War VII: Battle for America

Everything is on the ups, with DS taking charge in November, selling over 1.5 million units. Something that still struck me as odd is PS2 still doing better than PS3. Why oh why? Oh wait, I know. That's because PS3 doesn't have any 'must have' exclusive games. Games like COD4, Assassin's Creed are all multiplatform. So why bother getting a PS3 when you can play the same thing on the cheaper Xbox 360?

Nintendo DS - 1.53 million
Wii - 981,000
Xbox 360 - 770,000
PSP - 567,000
PlayStation 2 - 496,000
PlayStation 3 - 466,000

Market share for the month

DS vs PSP
72.96% vs 27.04%

Wii vs XB vs PS3
44.25% vs 34.73% vs 21.02%

Source: Gamasutra

Sales Chart JPN: Wii is still Fit to rule

2007-12-15T18:19:00.000-08:00

Week 03 December - 09 December 2007

It comes as no surprise that Wii Fit will continue its strong performance (149,587). It has toppled Prof. Layton and the Pandora's Box to take first place. As a matter of fact, the professor dropped to 5th this week (75,609). Mario Party DS jumped back to second (106,995).

There are four new games on the top ten, with Tales of Innocence leading the way (104,317). Xbox 360 has yet another game on the top ten, courtesy of Lost Odyssey (54,581). Is the Xbox 360 finally making in-roads in Japan? Highly doubt that.

Top 5 games:

Wii - Wii Fit
DS - Mario Party DS
DS - Tales of Innocence
PSP - Hot Shots Golf Portable 2
DS - Prof. Layton and the Pandora's Box

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

DS - 26
Wii - 9
PS2 - 5
PSP - 5
PS3 - 3
360 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Wii Fit still rules, and it looks like that is exactly what the Japanese want. That's exactly what Nintendo needs. In the time when PS3 looks like it's finally taking over the ~~world~~ the lead, Nintendo bounded back with yet another innovative way to 'play'.

Leading up to Christmas time, the Japanese is probably going to spend as much as the rest of the world, even though it doesn't celebrate Christmas the religious way.

DSL - 168,255
Wii - 115,057
PSP - 91,481
PS3 - 38,123
PS2 - 11,987
Xbox360 - 8,876

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
64.78% vs 35.22%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
71.00% vs 23.52% vs 5.48%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Layton claim top spot while Wii is Fit to rule.

2007-12-07T01:05:00.000-08:00

Week 26 November - 02 December 2007

As I have expected, Prof. Layton and the Pandora's Box topped the chart this week (293,897), but not by much. Wii Fit found some footing to come second (261,226). As a matter of fact, the top three games (SD Gundam G Generation Spirits on PS2 coming home in 3rd; 252,380) all sold more than 200,000 copies each. The top 5 games made up more than 1 million copies of software sold this week. Dragon Quest IV is still doing quite well in 4th, while Xbox 360 has yet another game in the top 10 with Assassin's Creed killing at 8th place.

PS2 still rules for now, with SD Gundam G Generation Spirits, Sengoku Basara 2: Heroes and World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008 scoring in the top 10.

Top 5 games:

DS - Prof. Layton and the Pandora's Box
Wii - Wii Fit
PS2 - SD Gundam G Generation Spirits
DS - Dragon Quest IV
PS2 - Sengoku Basara 2: Heroes

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

DS - 29
Wii - 11
PS2 - 5
PSP - 2
PS3 - 2
360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

With the help of Wii Fit, the Wii is fit to rule the world once again. This week taking second behind the forever leading DS. Is Wii Fit going to last as much and as long as Wii Sports (which is still in the top 20)? Is the Wii going to take over Japan again?

Despite having 3 games in the top 10, the PS2 is not selling as much nowadays. Is PS3 finally gaining momentum?

Why am I asking so many question?

DSL - 124,591
Wii - 74,764
PSP - 74,626
PS3 - 37,092
PS2 - 13,703
Xbox360 - 6,632

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
62.54% vs 37.46%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
63.10% vs 31.30% vs 5.60%

Source: Media Create

Wii fetching high price over at eBay

2007-11-30T00:40:00.000-08:00

If you are thinking about getting the Wii for Christmas this year, think again. Over at eBay, the prices are going bananas. They are fetching something like $350-$400, when the RRP is $249. Got to love supply and demand.

Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: Another remake, another ichiban

2007-11-29T23:51:00.000-08:00

Week 19 November - 25 November 2007

If you think remakes can't make money, you should know better, especially when you are talking about Square Enix. Yep, this week's number 1 is yet another Square Enix remake special. It's Dragon Quest IV, selling over half a million (597,301).

Besides Mario Party DS (109,522), which was last week's number 1, everything else on the top 10 is new. Soccer is still big, with Winning Eleven 2008 PS2 version (293,926) edged out the PS3 version (141,432).

I am surprised that gamers are still playing FFXI. Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess sold 67,724 copies, while the Xbox 360 version debuted at 26th place. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games is 6th (62,550), not particularly good, if you ask me. And why on earth are the Japanese playing Pachinko (10th; 35,882) on a gaming console? Strange bunch of people, they are.

Some of the bad performers include Heavenly Swords (from 7th down to 39th) and Armored Soldiers (from 10th to 50th).

My prediction next week, Professor Layton and the Devil's Box going straight to the top.

Top 5 games:

DS - Dragon Quest IV
PS2 - Winning Eleven 2008
PS3 - Winning Eleven 2008
DS - Mario Party DS
PS2 - Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess

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

DS - 27
Wii - 7
PS2 - 6
PS3 - 5
PSP - 3
360 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

After 2 weeks of dominance, the PS3 has gone back to the old days. But not by much. Everything has gone up by a lot since this week. Must be the start of the holiday season, everyone gearing up for the Christmas end of year spending spread. But it is still a familiar sight with Nintendo taking charge on both counts.

DSL - 116,694
PSP - 75,027
Wii - 54,362
PS3 - 50,564
PS2 - 14,875
Xbox360 - 7,117

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
60.87% vs 39.13%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
48.52% vs 45.13% vs 6.35%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Mario still reigns and so is the PS3

2007-11-29T00:23:00.000-08:00

Week 12 November - 18 November 2007

Same guy, same game. Japan is still having a Mario frenzies right now. The week before, it was Mario Galaxy, last week, it was Mario Party DS, and this week, it still is Mario Party DS, selling roughly half of last week (115,680). But still managed to beat the second place, Bio Hazard (aka Resident Evil) Umbrella Chronicles (82,637). Shin San Goku Musou 5 (or better known as Dynasty Warrior) still doing well at third place (75,515). The Xbox 360 version, however, dropped to 19th. Sports still play a great part on the DS, with Pro Baseball Family Stadium taking out 4th (49,365). PS2 is still hanging onto the top 10 chart, with Armored Soldiers at 10th. Professor Layton and the Curious Village upped another 5 spots to 44th. The second installment is well and truly going to be a hit over Christmas, one would hope.

And it's now looking a bit more rosy for PS3. It has more games on the chart than PS2.

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

DS - Mario Party DS
Wii - Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
PS3 - Shin San Goku Musou 5
PS2 - Armored Soldiers
XB360 - Shin San Goku Musou 5
PSP - Dungeon Explorer: The Promised Door

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

DS - 26
Wii - 7
PSP - 6
PS3 - 5
PS2 - 4
360 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

The PS3 has outsold the Wii again! What's going on? Has the Japanese crazed finally faded? Or has the people finally accept the PS3? Or is it just that they have finally saved enough money to buy one ever since Kutaragi said they should? Who knows? All we know are the numbers.

DSL - 76,069
PSP - 65,609
PS3 - 39,178
Wii - 36,230
PS2 - 8,855
Xbox360 - 6,525

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
53.69% vs 42.78%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
44.22% vs 47.72% vs 7.96%

Source: Media Create

2007-11-28T00:44:00.000-08:00

So, fancy playing your (really) old Famicom cartridges? Now you can do it on the go. On sale in Japan is this Famicom adaptor that allows you to plug and play your Famicom carts. The unit plugs into the GBA port. Just add Famicom/NES games.

Source: MyDS

Nintendo sold a lot of DS and Wii (as if we didn't know)

2007-11-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

Nintendo of America released a statement today, reporting that it has sold a shitload of DS and Wii, and by extension, making another bucket load of money. The first week of the 2007 holiday season saw NOA getting over 653,000 DS and 350,000 Wii out there in storeland.

It also reported that with the increasing fuel prices, people are planning to spend less this holiday season, and claimed that the DS and Wii fits well with the price range (since everything else is more expensive).

Take that with a grain of salt. While it's true, my guess is Nintendo try to market itself off as a cheap console (at least that's what the RRP is saying).

Source: Nintendo

Prison Break Special: Haruhi Dance

2007-11-22T04:13:00.000-08:00

No, it's not Prison Break Season 3 Winter Special. This clip is filmed in a Philippine prison, apparently. The infamous Haruhi Dance has official infiltrated hell, so we've been told.

The moment an astronaut / cosmonaut / taikonaut (chinese astronaut) starts dancing the Haruhi dance in space will be the day I move the Mars.

Review: Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon

2007-11-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

So, I was scouted by Mobile Tech Review as one of their game reviewers a couple months back. I was thrilled. It was my other reviews on GameFAQs that got their attention. I knew my hard work wouldn't go to waste, plus, I have fun writing them.

I have finally finished my first review for the site, and it's now up. Go check it out. The first game I reviewed for the site is Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. It is addictive if you are a Harvest Moonie.

Check out their site as well, it's all about Mobile Tech, including reviews of iPhones, Laptops and such.

Sales Chart JPN: Different Mario, Same Place

2007-11-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

Week 05 November - 11 November 2007

Same guy, different game. Japan is having a Mario frenzies right now. Last week, it was Mario Galaxy, this week, it is Mario Party DS, selling roughly the same sort of numbers as Mario Galaxy (234,708). Second belongs to the well establish chart selling, Shin San Goku Musou 5 (or better known as Dynasty Warrior) on the PS3 (188,456). Even the Xbox 360 version is on the top 10. Such is the power of the warriors.

All the new entries to the top 10 this week are all from well established franchise, with Mario and Dynasty Warrior leading the way, but also Castlevania Chronicle (6th) and Ratchet & Clank Future (10th). Whatever happened to original IPs? Well, Professor Layton and the Curious Village made it back to the chart at 49th. Must be the anticipation for 2nd installment, Professor Layton and the Devil's Box. Can't wait for that.

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

DS - Mario Party DS
PS3 - Shin San Goku Musou 5
Wii - Mario Galaxy
XB360 - Shin San Goku Musou 5
PSP - Castlevania Chronicle
PS2 - NBA Live '08

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

DS - 25
PSP - 6
Wii - 6
PS2 - 5
PS3 - 5
360 - 3

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Ladies and gentlemen, this week you have witnessed yet another history in the making (sort of). The PS3 outsold the Wii in a country where it has been trailing ever since the dawn of time. So what's up with that? you ask? Well, Dynasty Warrior had something to do with that, but also the 40GB that came out in Japan with obviously a lower price point. The Wii hasn't really decreased, it is still the same kind of numbers, it's just that the PS3 has increased. Everywhere else is roughly the same, with the exception of Xbox, which went back down to the thousands.

DSL - 78,854
PSP - 58,964
PS3 - 55,924
Wii - 34,546
PS2 - 9,043
Xbox360 - 5,817

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
57.22% vs 42.78%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
35.88% vs 58.08% vs 6.04%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart US: Guitar Heros reign on the chart, and so does the Wii.

2007-11-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

October Sales Figure

So, into the second month, and Master Chief is still the Chief of the charts. But it is Guitar Hero that takes the reign, with the next 3 spots filled with various version of the game. The best DS selling game was Zelda in 5th, while Wii Play is still up there in the top 10.

1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft) - 433,800
2. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock w/guitar (Xbox 360, Neversoft/Activision) - 383,200
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock w/guitar (Wii, Neversoft/Vicarious Visions/Activision) - 286,300
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock w/guitar (PlayStation 2, Neversoft/Budcat/Activision) 271.1K
5. Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS, Nintendo) - 262,800
6. Wii Play w/remote (Wii, Nintendo) - 239,700
7. The Orange Box (Xbox 360, Valve/EA) - 238,400
8. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock (PlayStation 2, Neversoft/Budcat/Activision) - 231,700
9. FIFA Soccer '08 (PlayStation 2, EA) - 129,700
10. Brain Age 2 (DS, Nintendo) - 116,900

Console War VII: Battle for America

Wii has regained the lost spot due to the arrival of Master Chief, with over half a million sold. The DS also also back to 2nd spot, while the Xbox 360, after having sold over half a million last month, is back to third place. Not surprisingly, the PS3 is last, as usual. The PSP is roughly the same as last month, which is roughly the same as every other month.

Wii - 519,000
Nintendo DS - 458,000
Xbox 360 - 366,000
PSP - 286,000
PlayStation 2 - 184,000
PlayStation 3- 121,000

Market share for the month

DS vs PSP
61.56% vs 38.44%

Wii vs XB vs PS3
51.59% vs 36.38% vs 12.03%

Source: Gamasutra

Top 10 DS games to play on a plane trip

2007-11-15T00:18:00.000-08:00

If you ever had the 'pleasure' to travel halfway around the globe in a pressurised tube, chances are, you will be glued to your seat for a good 10-15 hours, maybe even longer. You can do read the newspaper, or annoy the hell out of your neighbour who is trying to read the newspaper. So what to do with the rest of the plane trip when your neighbour finally had enough and told you to shut up? Handheld portable is your saviour. Either that or the in-flight entertainment. Here are the top 10 games that you can play on a long plane journey halfway across the globe. Some you can even finish before you set foot on your destination.

No 10. Trace Memory

A short but sweet game about a girl finding her father and a ghost finding his memory on a remote island. Its lack in length is made up by its interesting puzzles. Most you will solve in no-time, and some will require a bit of thinking and backtracking. Just pray that your plane do not need to make an emergency landing on the island.

No 9. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

The game is short, but definitely not hollow. The vampires are back, and it is your job as Soma Crus to once again get rid of them. Gameplay is easy to learn, graphics are pretty, albeit in 2D. If you finish the game before the plane lands, you can play again as Julius on hard mode.

No 8. Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Some people read a novel to pass time on the plane, but why read when you can play? Hotel Dusk: Room 215 plays like a visual novel. You make a few choices and go to a few places, all in the confinement of a hotel. The game is heavy on dialogue, just like any good mystery novel. This might just be the hotel you are going to stay in when you arrive.

No 7. Animal Crossing: Wild World

A game without a real start or an end (or even a real purpose, as for that matter), you can be rest assured that your neighbour in this game will not tell you to shut up like your real life fellow traveller would. You can talk to them for as long as you want, and they will not get annoyed, at all. But when you arrive at your destination, make sure you have the right time zone, because Animal Crossing is a real-time interactive game.

No 6. New Super Mario Bros.

Mario is back, and he is bigger! Yes, Peach is kidnapped again *sigh*. What can you do? Go forth and rescue her, Mario. In NSMB, you can literally grow big and stomp over anything and everything in your path. What's a better way to cause destruction? Of course, Bowser's minnows will try to stop you. Plenty of replay value with secret worlds and alternative paths. It will keep you occupied until the plane lands.

No 5. Super Princess Peach

Move over Mario, I am the princess, and this time, I am doing the rescuing. If you finish NSMB before your plane touches the tarmac, play this one. It is very similar to NSMB, except you get a life bar, carry a super umbrella, and you are Peach. Mario is locked away on Vibe Island and it is your task to recuse him. If my plane had to make an emergency stop on a remote island, this is it.

No 4. Osu Tatakae Ouendan!

Best played using earphones, you will tap, slide and drawing circles to victory in this musical rhythm game. It's better than listening to the iPod, if you don't mind the small selection of songs. Best not to draw circles too violently unless you intend on taking revenge on your fellow traveller for telling you to shut up.

No 3. Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

More of the same as the first game, but with new songs. Again, nothing really changed in this game. Same as the first one, you can get tremendous amount of replay value out of this one, as the beats get harder and faster. On second thought, you probably want to bring your iPod just in case.

No 2. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

If you are ever charged with murder, you better hope Phoenix Wright is your lawyer. His choice of hairstyle is the butt of many jokes, but he get his job done, winning his client's freedom against all odds. This game is text driven but the dialogue is hilarious and the gameplay is as simple as making a few choices. Just don't shout out 'Objection' in the middle of a flight. Fellow travellers might think that you are crazy.

No 1. Professor Layton and the Curious Village

By far the best puzzle game on the DS to date, this game is refreshing, engaging and entertaining. There are over 120 puzzles to solve, and the story is nothing short of brilliant. Graphics might be 2D, but they are beautifully drawn. Game time depends greatly on your IQ. The lower your IQ, the longer it takes. Note, English version coming out early 2008, unless either you or the person sitting next to you knows fluent Japanese.

Make sure you fully charge your battery before you leave for the airport. And bring your charger and adaptor too, so you can charge it before you hop on the return flight. As a health warning, don't eat anything that would make you fart unless you want to stink the whole plane.

Sales Chart JPN: Mario takes Wii back to the top.

2007-11-10T05:50:00.000-08:00

Week 29 October - 04 November 2007

After many weeks of substantial absence on the top of the chart, the Nintendo Wii has finally got its charm back this week, with none other than its famous plumber, Mario. Mario Galaxy blasted its way out of this earth and into the next with over a quarter of a million sold (250,585). No doubt the game will stay for a long while on the charts, hovering about in top 10. Is this the hit Nintendo is looking for to revive the somewhat sluggish sales of the Wii in recent week? Only time will tell.

The closest competition only sold 76,708. Yet another flying machine. This one is of the mechanical type. Bandai-Namco's popular Ace Combat is flying the flag for the company at 2nd with Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. Funny thing is that the game is on the Xbox 360. And this week, there are not one, not two, but three Xbox 360 new comer on the chart!!! Besides Ace Combat, The Idolm@ster came in at 21st and Earth Defense Forces 3 came in at 29th. This is probably the best week for Xbox for a very long time in Japan.

Third is last week's number 1, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (50,514). FF is losing steam on this one, me thinks. Not many new comers in the top 10 this week, with Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander the 2nd the third and last new comer this week at 4th (20,525). Quite a mix this week with 4 different system featured on the top 4. But guess what? No PS3 or PSP games. The best PSP game is still Gundam Battle Chronicle, and the PS3 Hot Shot Golf 5. Last week's PS3 entry, Imabikisou, which was 4th, has got lost and can't find its way back to the charts. Wii Sports found its way back to top 10.

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

Wii - Mario Galaxy
XB360 - Ace Combat 6
PS2 - Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander the 2nd
DS - Final Fantasy Tactics A2
PSP - Gundam Battle Chronicle
PS3 - Hot Shot Golf 5

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

DS - 25
PS2 - 8
Wii - 7
PSP - 5
360 - 3
PS3 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Ladies and gentlemen, this week you have witnessed history in the making (sort of). The Xbox 360 outsold PS3 in a country where it traditionally does shit. I don't think most of the number comes from Ace Combat, but certainly a large number of it is contributed by Idolm@ster. I won't be surprised in that was the case, given the Japanese idol culture. Not even during the week of Halo 3 did Xbox archived these kind of amazing numbers for Microsoft.

Elsewhere, DS and PSP is roughly the same while Wii has bounced back from the 20K-ish per week, at least for now. Interesting to see the numbers in the following weeks.

DSL - 78,552
PSP - 59,714
Wii - 37,617
Xbox360 - 17,673
PS3 - 17,434

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
56.81% vs 43.19%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
51.73% vs 23.97% vs 24.30%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Yawn, yet another FF game on top.

2007-11-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Week 22 October - 28 October 2007

Seriously, when was the last time a non-re-release Final Fantasy game not make it to the top at least once? This time, it's Final Fantasy Tactics A2. Get it while it's hot (142,191). It didn't sell as much as the last FF game released, Crisis Core (that sold almost half a million in the first week), and also less than the last FF game on DS, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (274,004 in the first week). Hmm, is the Japanese finally got tired of the FF ~~milking~~ franchise?

Onto other news, number 2 is taken by yet another new PS2 games, Ar Tonelico 2 (72,365). Developers are still producing PS2 games like PS3 never existed. 7 out of the 10 PS2 games on this week's chart are new. Well, at least Sony is still kind of making money from their out system. But I wonder if that would be the case when they stop the BC in the PS3, and stop making PS2 consoles altogether.

Number 3 is Konami's Winning Eleven DS (28,985). PS3's Imabikisou (22,663) is number 4. 7 out of the top 10 games are new. The only ones that stayed up are DS Bungaku Zenshuu, DS Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense New Detective Series: Kyoto, Atami, Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana and Pokemon. Wii games have been noticeably absent for the past few weeks, but Ghost Squad has rectified the situation, coming in at 7th, while Xbox 360 has another entrant this week with Bladestorm at 33rd. Beautiful Katamari has been rolled off the island altogether, never to be seen on the chart again. Probably it was a bad idea to release the game on the XB.

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

DS - Final Fantasy Tactics A2
PS2 - Ar Tonelico 2
PS3 - Imabikisou
Wii - Ghost Squad
PSP - Gundam Battle Chronicle
XB360 - Bladestorm

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

DS - 22
PS2 - 10
Wii - 8
PSP - 5
PS3 - 4
360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

The hardware numbers have been more or less stable this week. Everything increased slightly, some more than others. Maybe people are preparing for the "holiday" season. Japan doesn't have Christmas holiday, but they still have the Christmas spirit (not the religious kind). We should see some big numbers in the weeks ahead.

DSL - 76,243
PSP - 59,792
Wii - 27,502
PS3 - 18,785
PS2 - 11,698
Xbox360 - 3,718

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
56.05% vs 43.95%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
55.00% vs 37.57% vs 7.44%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Seaman evolves to number one, just by a nose.

2007-10-27T05:26:00.000-07:00

Week 15 October - 21 October 2007

Yet another PS2 game topped the chart this week. Sega's Seaman 2 sold 32,798, just a nose in front of yet another non-game game on the DS, DS Bungaku Zenshuu (32,438), a collection of Japanese literature readable on the dual screen. Why is non-game game so popular on the DS? I have no idea. Goku is still hanging onto top 3. While the detective mystery DS Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense New Detective Series: Kyoto, Atami, Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana still going well in 4th.

Surprise comes at 7th with Beautiful Katamari on Xbox 360. Why it was released on the Xbox 360 only when the last ones were on the PS2, I have no clue either. But 18,935 for an Xbox game in Japan is not bad.

It has been a while since a Wii title is in the top 10, and this week, the best one is Wii Sports at number 12. Has the Japanese finally released the lack of games on the Wii?

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

PS2 - Seaman 2
DS - DS Bungaku Zenshuu
PSP - Gundam Battle Chronicle
XB360 - Beautiful Katamari
Wii - Wii Sports
PS3 - Lair

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

DS - 27
PS2 - 8
Wii - 5
PSP - 5
PS3 - 4
360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

DS is still leading the charge, but no where near as dominant as it once was. It dropped this week while the PSP stayed around the same. The situation is the same with the Wii and PS3, the gap is closing.

Nintendo better release some good games soon. Otherwise, the Japanese might finally get over the "wow" factor, like so many things (read: idols) before it.

DSL - 70,608
PSP - 58,669
Wii - 24,932
PS3 - 17,130
PS2 - 10,281
Xbox360 - 3,011

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
54.62% vs 45.38%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
55.31% vs 22.81% vs 6.68%

Source: Media Create

Nintendo continues to print money.... many many many of them

2007-10-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

Nintendo upgraded their full financial year operating profit forecast for the year to March to 420 billion yen. The first half year profit is 188.8 billion yen. For those who don't understand yen, that's lots and lots of money.

Nintendo has also upgraded their Wii forecast from 16.5 to 17.5 million units, and globe sales of software to 97 million units. Its stock rose to 66,400 yen (AUD$644 a share). It revised its annual net profit forecast to 275 billion yen, 58% higher than last year.

Looks like the Wii and the DS is still taking over the world.

Source: Reuters

Care to play Gameboy games on the DS?

2007-10-25T02:09:00.000-07:00

Next-Gen has reported, among other things, that Nintendo is rumoured to be offering a Virtual Console style service for the DS. It's likely that it will be used for Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. So it acts as the handheld equivalent to the Wii's VC service. Details are still sketchy at the moment.

Are you game enough to play the original Tetris on the GB? Me don't think so, but there can be some old-skool games. I'd like to see Terminator 2 from the GB era. That game is gold. Will we finally be able to play Game Gear games? That would be most interesting.

Source: Next-Gen

Super Dodgeball Brawlers coming to the West

2007-10-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

Remember back in the days of NES/SNES, when you play a game called dodgeball? Nah, you probably don't, but I do. Dodgeball on the NES was fun. The chibi figures getting hit by the ball and flew off the field would be at least as hilarious as seeing Jack Thompson on TV linking that game to the higher level of street brawls.

Anyway, publisher Aksys Games has signed on to bring Arc System Work's Super Dodgeball Brawlers to the US on the DS. Fun times ahead. You basically need to throw your opponents out of the ring by hitting them with your ball, but with Super Dodgeball Brawlers, it would be throwing anything but the ball to get rid of your opponent. There will be CQC (close quarter combat), there will be weapons, there will be blood.

Can't wait for JT to condemn the game. Bring it on.

Source: Shacknews

What do you mean it's not to cut cost?

2007-10-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

By now, you should know that the new 'downgraded' 40GB PS3 does not have backwards compatibility. And if you don't, well, I'm telling you now. You cannot play PS2 games on the the new 40GB PS3.

Jack Tretton, the SCEA boss, has implied that the main reason for removing BC is not because to cut cost on the black brick, but to "encourage buyers of the entry-level PlayStation 3 to purchase more games designed specifically for the new system."

In other words, "you can't be fucked buying a PS3 game? We can't be fucked letting you play your PS2 games". Removing BC is, IMO, is stupid move by Sony. Here's a couple of quick reasons:

One, in some region of the world, the PS2 is still outselling its younger brother. And the PS3 has been out for almost a year now. How embarrassing is that? It's like seeing a truckload of people buying an Xbox over the Xbox 360 or getting a GBA instead of a DS.

Two, Game studios are still developing games for the PS2 system, some weeks we still see a PS2 game top the Japanese chart. Clearly, gamers are still hanging onto their PS2.

Three, PS3 has shitall. Almost no good game, and none of the 'good' games are a 'must have'. GT5 is still a way off, and MGS4 is next year (maybe) and FFXII is God-knows-when. There is absolutely no games on the PS3 now that gamers would want. A friend who bought a PS3 now complains about no games on it. He hasn't touched the brick for over two months!

Sony, if you actually release some good games on the system that people actually want to play, maybe they won't need to play PS2 games anymore, and by extension, don't need BC. But no, you have jack shit, and now you're removing (almost) the only reason to buy a PS3. And don't get me started with Blu-ray. Not everyone buy a PS3 for Blu-ray. I can't even remember when was the last time I put a DVD into my PS2.

Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: Detective found out how to get to ichiban.

2007-10-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Week 8 October - 14 October 2007

After a couple of weeks away from the top, DS has regain the top spot. If you are not a follower of Japanese literature, you won't know why this week's number one is a detective suspense game based on works by Nishimura Kyotaru. He is apparently, a famous writer in Japan.

But I've got a question, what is with Japanese and a bloody long name? The full name of this week's number one is *big breath* DS Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense New Detective Series: Kyoto, Atami, Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana *phew*. 33 Japanese characters. God, that was long. A detective story that uses your brain. I bet you haven't been using that rusty brain of yours besides the occasional brain age, right?

Anyway, it sold 60,707 copies, beating Goku down to number 2 with 47,085. This week only 3 new games, one is the DS Kyotaru Nishi... blah blah blah, and the other one is Arcana Heart on PS2 (22,891) looks like a chick fighting game (but not the Dead of Alive kind of chick), and Lair on PS3 (21,813). The rest is the old stuff. Pokemon is still there, and so is Gundam. Master Chief is still hanging on at 48.

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

DS - DS Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense New Detective Series: Kyoto, Atami, Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana
PS2 - Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor
PSP - Gundam Battle Chronicle
Wii - Mario Party 8
PS3 - Lair
XB360 - Project Gotham 4

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

DS - 27
PS2 - 8
Wii - 6
PSP - 5
PS3 - 2
360 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Is PSP faze over? By the look of it this week, yes. DSL fell, but not as much as the PSP fall. It's not dropping back to the 'pre-slim' 30-40K range for the PSP, maybe the slim PSP is doing something right for once. Wii is about the same, while the PS3 rose just a little bit. Xbox sold more hardware this week with PG4, than the week with Halo 3. Go figure.

DSL - 78,746
PSP - 59,584
Wii - 20,575
PS3 - 12,365
PS2 - 10,181
Xbox360 - 6,161

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
56.93% vs 43.07%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
52.62% vs 31.62% vs 15.76%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart US: Master Chief ran away... with US$1b

2007-10-19T21:12:00.001-07:00

September Sales Figure

It's no secret that Master Chief is going to dominate the sales chart this month. Halo 3, an Xbox 360 exclusive title, has helped the US game industry to break the US$1 billion mark, to $1.3 billion.

Master Chief sold 3.3 million copies in September. The next best game is Wii Play, which sold a measly 282,000, which is just 3 million copies behind the first guy. The long waited Zelda didn't fare too bad, but Meriod Prime 3 managed less than 200K, a bit disappointed by Nintendo standard.

The best Sony game is still on the PS2, with Madden NFL 08. With Sony pulling the plug on backward compatibility in the new 40GB PS3, Sony would have no games worth buying anymore. Won't be surprised if next month's sales chart is dominated by Nintendo and Microsoft. Oh, sorry, they already are.

Top 10 games in US for September

1. Halo 3 - Xbox 360 (Microsoft) - 3.3 million
2. Wii Play - Wii (Nintendo) - 282,000
3. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - DS (Nintendo) - 224,000
4. Madden NFL 08 - PS2 (EA) - 205,000
5. Skate - Xbox 360 (EA) - 175,000
6. Madden NFL 08 - Xbox 360 (EA) - 173,000
7. Metroid Prime 3 - Wii (Nintendo) - 167,000
8. BioShock - Xbox 360 (Take 2) - 150,000
9. Brain Age 2 - DS (Nintendo) - 141,000
10. Heavenly Sword - PS3 (Sony) - 139,000

Console War VII: Battle for America

With Master Chief taking charge, it's easy to see why the Xbox 360 took the lead in September. Followed closely by the Nintendo hardwares. The top 3 consoles sold close to or over half a million units each. The bottom 3 are all Sony (who else?). To their credit, PSP increased sales due to the PSP slim, but PS3 fell. PS2 is still selling in shitload. Almost a year on, and PS2 is still selling, hate to say this, Sony, but your black brick sucks.

Next month, it's likely Wii will take back the lead, or are they? Can Master Chief hold out another month and lead Xbox to the promised land?

Xbox 360 - 527,800
Wii - 501,000
Nintendo DS - 495,800
PlayStation Portable - 284,500
PlayStation 2 - 215,000
PlayStation 3 - 119,400

Market share for the month

DS vs PSP
63.54% vs 36.46%

Wii vs XB vs PS3
43.63% vs 45.97% vs 10.40%

Source: Gamasutra

Dead Fantasy or Final Alive?

2007-10-16T05:09:00.000-07:00

This has to be one of the best fighting video I've seen made by fans. Made by Monty Oum, it's absolutely awesome. Mixed with characters from Final Fantasy and Dead or Alive, everything is perfect, the action, the camera angles, the music. I love it. I want more... now!

So the 40GB is out in Australia

2007-10-14T01:59:00.000-07:00

So Sony has tried the 60GB model in Australia (and 20GB and 80GB elsewhere), all of which didn't move a significant amount of the black brick (relatively speaking). Now, it's trying to move some with the 40GB model. The price is reduced from AUD$999 to AUD$699, and is already in store right now.

But before you go out and start to ransack the store shelves for the cheaper PS3, just wait till you read the 'new' specs. It's what I would call a 20GB 'upgrade'. It has 2 ports, instead of the current 4. It does not have memory card slot, and the biggest different of all (besides the obvious storage capacity) is that under the hood, you cannot play PS2 games anymore.

That's right, the new 40GB won't play PS2 games anymore. So in the current climate where there is jack shit on the PS3 in terms of games, what am I suppose to play if I can't play my PS2 games on the shiny black brick (I believe you can still play PSX games)?

GT5, MGS4 and FFXIII are not coming fast enough, but hey, at least you might still be able to play GT2, MGS and FFVII.

Meanwhile, the Japanese are getting colourful. No longer is console a one-colour only affair anymore (I suspect it has something to do with the DSL). Ceramic White is the new colour. PS3 is getting one step closer to becoming a Wii.

As if that's not enough, Sony is introducing Dynasty Warrior bundle, which includes a white 40GB PS3, Dynasty Warriors 6 and a whole bunch of nifty Dynasty Warriors stuff like character art folders and dog tag-looking things. The whole package will cost ¥49980 (USD$426)

New Final Fantasy with a twist

2007-10-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

New Final Fantasy game has been announced at the Nintendo's Fall Conference. It's called Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Small King and the Promised Country. A long mouthful. It's for the Wii as a Wii Ware exclusive, so download only game. Not much details is known, but Kotaku says that the player builds and governs their own land. Sound like a interesting concept, maybe Square Enix has finally released that there are games other than killing monsters and former friends and saving the bloody princess / kingdom for the nth time.

Check out the graphics at Kotaku as well, it looks kind of cool.

Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: DS is back on top, only just.

2007-10-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Week 1 October - 7 October 2007

Is it just me, or are the Japanese still not getting sick and tired of Dragonball? The anime went on for 10 years, the manga spanned more than 30 volumes, and then there are endless trading cards, figurines, plushies, etc. And don't get me started with games.

I'm not saying I don't like Dragonball, but come one. It's still number one in Japan? I just don't know anymore. Anyway, yes, Dragonball is still number one in Japan, apparently. And it's still on the PS2. Named Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor, it sold 203,828. You know you're in trouble when the best game of the week is sold on your previous gen gaming console when your latest one has been out for almost a year.

Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor on the Wii sold a modest 39,708 to take on 4th place. Gundam Battle Chronicle on PSP (86,208) and Archaic Sealed Heat on DS (49,678) filled up 2nd and 3rd.

Konami's next soccer game, Jikkyou Powerful Major League 2 (34,577), is 5th. Overall, new games filled the top 5 spots.

BTW, if you see Halo 3, please say hi to Master Chief for me. He dropped from 1st to 36th. Not unexpected, but still... Ouch.

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

PS2 - Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor
PSP - Gundam Battle Chronicle
DS - Archaic Sealed Heat
Wii - Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor
PS3 - The Elder Scrolls IV
XB360 - Halo 3

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

DS - 23
PSP - 10
Wii - 7
PS2 - 6
PS3 - 3
XB360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

It's only back a couple of months ago that you see Wii selling over 40,000 a week. How a couple of months has changed the landscape. Wii only sold just above 20,000 this week. PS3 did half that number.

Things seemed to have died down a bit between DS and PSP, each sold roughly the same, with DS just edging out PSP by less than 1,000 unit. Xbox 360 is back to its normal weekly numbers. It is interesting times indeed. Wonder what next week will hold.

DSL - 87,445
PSP - 86,895
Wii - 20,704
PS3 - 10,822
PS2 - 10,446
Xbox360 - 1,547

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
50.16% vs 49.84%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
62.60% vs 32.72% vs 4.68%

Source: Media Create

Is that a DS that I see in a Japanese store?

2007-10-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

Since the DS came on sale in Japan, there has virtually not one day that has gone by with a DS on any store shelf anywhere in Japan. Everywhere you go, it's sold out. So much so that Nintendo had to re-import the US version to meet demand back home.

I have personally 'experienced' (read suffer) the long queue of people buying the DS when I unknowingly walked into a store in Akiba that just so happened to have a rare shipment of DSes.

That was back in early 2006. Fast forward to October 2007. Things are a little different. The PSP is ruling the hardware charts for the third week running. Maybe it's because of new games - Final Fantasy Crisis Core and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus; maybe it's because of the new slim design; maybe everyone in Japan has DS already; maybe supply is finally outstripping demand.

Whatever the reason, it seems like that people can now walk into a shop and pick up a DS without too much trouble.

Source: Kotaku

Master Chief creator says bye bye to Mircosoft

2007-10-07T01:28:00.000-07:00

No sooner has Halo 3 been released, Bungie, the gaming studio responsible for probably the most successful Xbox franchise, has announced that it's splitting with Microsoft. Apparently they want to go solo now.

Microsoft will probably keep the Halo IP while Bungie goes off and develop new IP. I've never played Halo (and probably never will), but good for you, Bungie, go out and do what you want to do.

Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: Master Chief taking charge

2007-10-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

Week 24 September - 30 September 2007

Microsoft's latest, and probably the most anticipated game, Halo 3, made the run around the world in September. And that includes Japan. As many gamer knows, Japan's game scene is not Microsoft friendly. Week after week, the Xbox 360 was outsold by the PS3 and Wii by a massive margin. But forget all that for the moment, because this week, Master Chief took charge and headed for the ichiban. You'd be surprised, but there are at least 58,672 Xbox 360 owner in Japan!

Microsoft should be thrilled. Nowhere near as much as Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core during the first two weeks, but impressive number considering that it's a game that is produced for a console that sell 10 times slower than the Wii. If it was released in Japan in the last two weeks, it would have failed. And talking about FFVII, it has dropped from 1st to 3rd (54,240), while Pokemon Dungeon continues to hold on to 2nd place (55,438). We certainly won't see the end of Pokemon or FF anytime soon.

Now for the shock. The highest placed Nintendo first party game is Mario Party 8 at... wait for it... 14th. That was the Wii's highest placed game as well. Hmm... Nintendo's party over?

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

XB360 - Halo 3
DS - Pokemon Dungeon
PSP - Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core
PS2 - Bleach Blade Battles 2
Wii - Mario Party 8
PS3 - The Elder Scrolls IV

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

DS - 22
PS2 - 9
PSP - 7
Wii - 7
PS3 - 4
XB360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

For the third week running, the Japanese still haven't got enough of the slimmer PSP. Maybe gamers are getting second handheld consoles, maybe everyone in Japan has already got a DS, who knows.

Halo 3 helped Xbox 360 to increase sales almost 4000 units more than previous week. PSP gone back down to about 100,000, but still ahead of the DS. It's going to be interesting times ahead.

PSP - 102,809
DSL - 72,895
Wii - 24,143
PS3 - 13,105
PS2 - 12,980
Xbox360 - 5,215

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
41.49% vs 58.51%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
56.86% vs 30.86% vs 12.28%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Nintendo's honeymoon over?

2007-09-28T05:52:00.001-07:00

Week 17 September - 23 September 2007

Cloud and gang are certain getting a lot of attention nowadays. For the second week running, FFVII: Crisis Core tops the Japanese games sales chart with 108,519. No wonder Square Enix is milking as much they could possibly can out of the series.

And second on the chart is yet another PSP game, Kojima's MGS series - Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus (93,354). That pushes both Pokemon down the 3rd and 4th spots. Does this mark the end of Nintendo's honeymoon? Or is it just a minor hiccup? Only time will tell.

But DS games still take a stranglehold on the number of games on the top 50 week in, week out, it's hard to imagine Nintendo losing market share anytime soon.

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

PSP - Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core
DS - Pokemon Dungeon
PS2 - Kiniro no Corda 2 Anchor
Wii - Mario Striker Charged
PS3 - Everybody's Golf 5

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

DS - 28
PSP - 8
PS2 - 7
Wii - 5
PS3 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

With the slim PSP on sales on the 20th and the influx of FFVII sales still going strong into its second week, it's no surprise that PSP has taken over the hardware sale this week for the second week running.

Much like what happens with the DS not so long ago, PSP sold more than twice as many unit as everything else combined. It's so quick how the tide turns. Certainly not a good week for Nintendo, no doubt the Sony guys are laughing now. But is this a long term thing, or will it be over in a month? Sit tight, PSP still has a very very long way to go till they catch up with the DS. Maybe the DS is not selling because everyone and his dog in Japan has one?

PSP - 277,794
DSL - 70,523
Wii - 24,992
PS2 - 11,373
PS3 - 10,732
Xbox360 - 1,687

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
20.25% vs 79.75%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
66.80% vs 28.69% vs 4.51%

Source: Media Create

Master Chief locking up.

2007-09-28T05:31:00.000-07:00

You just know it's going to happen someday. Master Chief might save humankind, but he certainly as hell not going to save your Xbox 360. Threads have already appeared on Xbox.com and Bungie claiming that Halo 3 is literally killing their Xboxes.

Xbox owners are obviously not happy, but hey, I thought you would have gotten used to it by now. Remember Forza 2, anyone?

Not sure whether it only affects the earlier Xbox or not, but it looks like it's the ~~cheap stakes~~ standard edition that is causing most of the trouble. I'd laugh if a Halo 3 owner was told by a Microsoft technician to stop being a cheap ass and buy the Limited Edition instead.

Source: Kotaku

Nintendo now Japan's 2nd most valuable company

2007-09-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

Back in July, Nintendo became the 5th largest Japanese company. Two months on, it is now Japan's second most valuable company, surpassing Canon with 8.34 trillion yen. As said so many many times before, Nintendo's fortune is fueled by the demand for both the DS and the Wii. Nintendo software also plays no small part in its fortune.

However, it will be a long way to the top, as the big mother of them all, Toyota, has a market value of 24 trillion yen, 3 times more than Nintendo. Nintendo shareholders is laughing all the way to the bank with their share quadrupling over the past 2 years.

Source: Reuters

Sales Chart JPN: Gamers just never get enough of FFVII

2007-09-23T02:49:00.000-07:00

Week 10 September - 16 September 2007

Final Fantasy VII was made 2 generations ago, all the way back on the PSX. FFVII has been hailed arguably as the BEST FF game there is. I haven't finished it, so I can't tell. But what is certain is that Square Enix hasn't finished milking the series yet.

Given the popularity of FFVII, it's not surprising that PSP's Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core topped the chart this week with 486,659. The other Final Fantasy on the DS, the FF Chronicle Ring of Fate is still at no. 8 with 23,672.

Next in no.2 and 3 are another milking series, the Pokemon. It's another Pokemon Dungeon something rather something. Yeah, don't ask. I have no idea why it's still selling like there's no tomorrow, but they are. And since they are, why not make two of the same game, and then give it a different colour each - blue and red. Oh look, we can double our sales by selling essentially the same game!

4th belong to another PSP game - Fate / Tiger Colosseum. I think it's based on the Fate/Stay Night anime series.

Nothing else is interesting on the top 10. But look! Wii Sports is at no. 14! and Xbox 360 has Musou Orochi at no 33!

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

PSP - Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core
DS - Pokemon Dungeon
PS2 - Another Century's Episode 3 THE FINAL
Wii - Mario Party 8
PS3 - Blade Storm
XB360 - Musou Orohi

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

DS - 33
PS2 - 8
Wii - 3
PSP - 4
PS3 - 2

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

OMG! Is that PSP that I see on the top of the chart!? So it is. Must be the push of FFVII. This week, PSP outsold DSL by about 16,000. And the Wii only outsold PS3 by 2 to 1. Is this really the end of Nintendo's run in the land of the rising sun? Only time will tell.

PSP - 95,487
DSL - 79,974
Wii - 26,181
PS2 - 13,128
PS3 - 13,101
Xbox360 - 1,243

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
45.58% vs 54.42%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
64.60% vs 32.33% vs 3.06%

Source: Media Create

Nintendo makes $74 per Wii

2007-09-20T04:11:00.000-07:00

According to some analyst in Japan, they reckon Nintendo's non-stoppable Wii makes money right from the first day. Citigroup analyst Soichiro Fukuda estimates that Nintendo's gross profit per console is 1,500 yen in Japan, 5,600 yen in the U.S. and 8,500 yen in Europe. That's about $13, $49 and $74, respectively.

Sony and Microsoft is yet to make any money. Microsoft might make profit if the XBox isn't that shit, and Sony... well, don't hold your breath. You might die before they make any profit on the PS3, if ever.

The flow thru effect is that companies that provide components for the Wii are riding the high waves as they post profits all because of their number 1 customer - Nintendo. Tabuchi Electric, for example, produces the AC adaptor for the Wii. It reported a 492% increase in operating profit during its first quarter.

I wonder how the Blu-Ray component companies are doing right now.

Source: GameDaily

Crimson/Black DS coming out... in Japan

2007-09-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

As if Japan doesn't have enough colours for their DSes yet, here comes another colour. Well, actually, here comes two colour in one. It's a Crimson / Black DS that is packaged with the Brain Age 2 in the US.

Can't do the same package in Japanese, probably because everyone in Japan already has ~~one~~ both Brain Age game.

Coming out in October 4, priced tag: 16,800 yen, same as every other colour. This is one colour you don't have to wait for. Just go and buy the Brain Age 2 package.

Professor Layton 2 coming out in November

2007-09-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

Level-5, the maker of Dragon Quest VIII and more recently, Professor Layton and the Curious Village (coming to US in December), has announced that the next instalment of Professor Layton is coming out in November. Titled (translated) Professor Layton and the Devil's Box, it will feature the continue adventure of our beloved English professor and his sidekick, Luke.

This time, looks like they are off to find a box of some sort. I just can't wait for this to come out. For those who know, I am a Layton fan. I love the game. November can't come fast enough.

I might have said before that Layton would be a good source for Anime material, but seems like Level-5 has different ideas. There is going to be live-action Layton movie. We'll just have to wait and see how it will turn out.

Teaser after the jump.

Source: Famitsu [via Kotaku]

Just you wait, Japanese otakus are going to speak Gundamium with you soon.... in English.

2007-09-01T23:43:00.000-07:00

Learning English has always been hard for people in non-English speaking countries. In Japan, the English business is a big business (most of that business goes to Nova, but that's another story). So what's a better way to learn English than to read up on Gundam!

Gundam is a big business in Japan, and English is big business in Japan, too. So I guess it's only natural that the two would go together... someday (like today). There bound to be people who would buy this stuff. But judging from the book's cover, I'm not sure how useful these Gundam would be. "Fighting with Gundam is not always the best solution." Yeah, right. It's the ONLY solution.

Source: Q-Taro

Hold it! US Phoenix Wright gets plushy.

2007-09-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

Phoenix Wright 3 might be out in Japan (and many importers' hand), but there might still be some incentive to get the official English release. Those who pre-order the Phoenix Wright 3 will get a pretty plushy doll that you can use to poke the eyes of others instead of using your own finger.

Now if only the plushy comes with the voice recording of "Objection!", "Hold It!" as well, that would be perfect.

Source: Kotaku

Wii sell, and Wii sell fast, like a million in 38 weeks fast.

2007-09-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

It's official. Chart Track, an independent sales tracking company for the gaming industry, has reported that Wii is now the officially the fastest selling console in the UK. The Wii took just 38 weeks to sell 1 million units in UK, 11 weeks faster than PS2, and 22 weeks faster than the Xbox 360.

PS3 has no games and expensive, while Xbox 360 is plagued by issues. Nothing bad so far has been said about the console, besides broken TVs. But hey, maybe you shouldn't be playing bowling then.

Source: The Telegraph

Sales Chart JPN: After 9 months into next gen, PS2 is STILL on top

2007-09-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Week 20 August - 26 August 2007

With the PS2 being 'out-dated' by the next generation consoles some 9 months ago, you would have thought that should be the end of the line for the 6 years old console. Not so, according to the Japanese. This week, Sengoku Musou 2 (182,484), by the same maker of the popular Dynasty Warriors series, Koei, tops the sales chart. And yep, it's PlayStation 2 game. It's either the game developers themselves don't have faith in the PS3, or that all their next gen budget is in the Nintendo camp right now. Either way, one can't discount the fact that PS2 still sell around the same number of PS3 every week.

But who would have thought that the Square Enix can't put it off with its latest ~~milking~~ instalment of the Final Fantasy series. The new one, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates only managed 177,845 in its opening week, almost 100,000 less than Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. Did the Japanese got burnt by FFXII or something? Maybe FFIV DS would make a better impression, and maybe Square Enix should stick with remaking and remaking and remaking previous Final Fantasies.

Talking about remakes, 3rd places belong to a DS remake, Phoenix Wright 3 (56,787). It's the DS remake of the GBA version. That promote Phoenix Wright 2 back onto the top 50. Kind of expected that.

I don't know what's with the Japanese, but My Housekeeping Diary is back to 5th place with 23,678. Maybe there's a lot of housekeeping to do on the DS?

PSP managed a game in the top 10 with Dragoneer's Aria (23,617) at 6th. Despite having 4 new games in this week's top 10, it still can't push Wii Sports (18,223) out of the top 10.

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

PS2 - Sengoku Musou 2
DS - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
Wii - Mario Party 8
PSP - Dragoneer's Aria
PS3 - Everybody's Golf 5

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

DS - 34
PS2 - 6
Wii - 6
PSP - 3
PS3 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Maybe it's a slow week in Japan or something, the DS fell to just 100K this week, and the Wii dropped to 46K. Most have dropped as well, but as usual, Nintendo is still winning. Don't think it will be any different next week, and the week after, and the week after, and the week after...

DSL - 100,430
Wii - 46,283
PSP - 26,089
PS3 - 16,393
PS2 - 15,139
Xbox360 - 2,044

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
79.38% vs 20.62%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
71.51% vs 25.33% vs 3.16%

Source: Media Create

Hurry, Sony warehouse is out of 60GB model.

2007-08-31T01:44:00.000-07:00

Sony said it. GamePro reported that Sony has run out of 60GB PS3 in their warehouses. The only ones left are those on the shelves at retail stores. If you want a PS3 for just US$499, you better hurry before they run out.

Sony still hasn't decided what to do after the 60GB runs out. Are they going to reduce the price of the 80GB model? Maybe, given that MS has slashed the price for the XBox 360 by US$50. Well, we will just have to wait. Maybe, just maybe you can find one under the Christmas tree this year with a US$499 price tag.

Source: GamePro

Sales Chart US: Football's not quite football, but it sells.

2007-08-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

July Sales Figure

Another month, another sets of US figures from NPD. Software first. Top selling this month is Football... American football, that is. And only in America would you be able to sell NCAA Football 08 to the mass. Almost 400K is sold in July. Guitar Hero Encore on the PS2 takes 2nd place. And yes, it is a PS2 game. PS3 still haven't caught on yet, eight months into its release. It is surely a grim sign of the big black brick.

Wii Play made it back on the Wii chart, coming in 3rd place, despite the game being released so many moons ago. Is it just that there is no good game on the Wii, or just that people really need that second controller? Who knows, but it was certainly a smart idea on Nintendo's behalf.

Top 10 games in US for June

1. NCAA Football 08 Xbox 360 (EA) - 397k
2. Guitar Hero Encore PS2 (Activision) - 339k
3. Wii Play - Wii (Nintendo) - 278k
4. NCAA Football 08 PS2 (EA) - 236k
5. Mario Party 8 - Wii (Nintendo) - 177k
6. NCAA Football 08 PS3 (EA) - 156k
7. Pokemon Diamond - DS (Nintendo) - 144k
8. Transformers: The Game PS2 (Activision) - 143k
9. Guitar Hero II - PS2 (Activision) - 138k
10. Guitar Hero II - Xbox 360 (Activision) - 108k

Console War VII: Battle for America

The Wii continues to take charge at the front. Many reports in Europe is indicating that Nintendo is winning Console War VII. And VGCharts has already reported that Wii has overtaken the lead. Believe it for what you will. VGCharts is not very accurate.

Back to NPD, hardware sales rose to US$381 million. Nintendo's Wii and DS have outsold all other systems combined. Good sign for Nintendo, no doubt. Despite the price drop and Microsoft's fiasco with PR. The XBox 360 still outsold the PS3. But the funny thing is, PS2 outsold both new gen consoles.

DS - 405,000
PSP - 214,000

Wii - 425,000
Xbox 360 - 170,000
PS3 - 159,000

Market share for the month

DS vs PSP
65.43% vs 34.57%

Wii vs XB vs PS3
64.98% vs 25.99% vs 9.03%

Source: Gamasutra

Cool your Xbox 360 with a pan of water... or not.

2007-08-21T01:12:00.000-07:00

A 14 year old ~~dumb ass~~ boy in where else but the good ol' USA tried to cool his Xbox 360 by putting the power supply wrapped in plastic and tape into a pan of water. The result? Getting literally Bioshock-ed.

It seems like the little adventure was prompted by the Xbox turning itself off every 5 minutes. So the kid must have thought it was the thing is overheating and after doing some "research" on the net, he found that he could stop it from cutting off by cooling the power supply.

And what's a better way to cool the power supply than dumping it in a pool of water? After all, all these bloody big mainframes are all in a big pond of water in every movie.

For crying out loud, he 14 years old, not 4. What kind of moron are you? You ought to know electricity and water don't mix. Did you even pay attention in class? Actually, does the US of A education system teach home safety?

Source: Fun Tech Talk

Drink up with the DS

2007-08-20T01:27:00.000-07:00

So when you thought there can't possibly been another more weird game titles coming out on the DS, we are treated to this, Bartender DS. Yep, that's right, now you can be a bartender-in-training with this game.

There are over 850 cocktail recipe. Your next drinking game would have so much more fun, I bet. Is there anything DS can't do? Next DS title: How to save the world with only your DS.

Source: Famitsu

Only 0.2% PS3 dies

2007-08-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

Some good news for Sony. In light of Microsoft's infamous "1-in-3 Xbox 360 dies" saga and its subsequent announcement of the $1.X billion extended warranty, Sony is proud to (sort of) announce that their PS3 failure rate is "around 0.2%", at least according to Chris Deering, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe founder. That's 2 in 1,000 PS3 dies. It ought to be, really. With a price tag like that, a lot of us would expect the thing to last, like, forever.

So Ken Kutaragi is not that crazy afterall. At least he makes one hell of a machine that lasts forever.

So would you like to buy a cheaper system that will probably die constantly and had to go to the repair shop more than the number of time you got drunk, or pay a lot of money for something that will probably last till your grandkids learn how to drive?

Of course, there is also another option of buying the cheapest console that would probably last longer than your TV.

Source: SPOnG

Sales Chart JPN: It's back to kicking the football again.

2007-08-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

Week 30 July - 5 August 2007

So Beckham is not the only person in the football world to be making news at his new home in the US. J-League is also making headlines, albeit only on the sales chart. 149,584 kicked some goals this week.

Mario Party 8 is still doing the round at 134,786, and Everybody's Golf 5 is still on everybody's shopping list, coming in 3rd with 64,093. It's holding on, maybe it's because all these perverts old men in Japan can now look at panties all day long. It's still a wonderful world out there for Square Enix's latest game, though just by checking out their website, I'm certainly not going to buy this game.

There were 7 new games in the top 10 last week, this week is back to normal. New Super Mario Bros is back, and so is Wii Sports.

Xbox 360's The Elder Scroll IV is still doing the run at 32st.

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

PS2 - J-League Winning Eleven 2007 Club Championship
Wii - Mario Party 8
PS3 - Everybody's Golf 5
DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
PSP - GTA: Liberty City Stories
XBox - The Elder Scroll IV

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

DS - 33
Wii - 7
PS2 - 5
PSP - 3
PS3 - 1
360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

PS3 is finally doing somewhat decent numbers, doubling the PS2 like it should. Not even a top Winning Eleven game can push PS2 pass the PS3. While PSP is still far behind, the Wii has dropped for the 3rd week running. Is it like what Kotaku claimed, the ~~Wiidding~~ wedding is over?

Well, the Wii has gone back down to May's level. Hmm, there will be interesting months ahead.

DSL - 135,729
Wii - 61,498
PSP - 33,886
PS3 - 24,289
PS2 - 12,784
Xbox360 - 2,691

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
80.02% vs 19.98%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
69.51% vs 27.45% vs 3.04%

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Mario is in. What else do you expect?

2007-08-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

Week 23 July - 29 July 2007

What do you expect? It's Mario we are talking about. The world can never have too much of that plumber. The Americans love him, and so does the Japanese. Last week, Mario Party 8 sold an amazing 264,953 units.

Normally, selling 152,379 could make you the week's number 1, but no, Sony has to release Everybody's Golf 5 on the same week as Mario. So yet again, the number 1 eluded the PS3. Don't know when the next PS3 game will make it to the top 3.

Out of the top 10, the top 7 are all new games. Every platform has been represented in the top 7. Wii took charge with Mario, while PS3 got their hot golf chick to do their ~~dirty~~ work. Drumming Taiko (93,909) on DS seems sounds fun, the PSP has GTA (44,939) to thank for and even Xbox 360 has The Elder Scroll IV (40,168) in number 7.

What a week for the new comers. Of course, that means everything else is pushed out of the way. But look, Wii Sports and Zelda still refused to get out of the top 10. It's still staying around in 10th.

Wait, did I see a new GameCube game making the chart? Gotcha Force made it to 50th for a GameCube. Very strange happening this week. Must be the new comers syndrome.

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

Wii - Mario Party 8
PS3 - Everybody's Golf 5
DS - Taiko Drums
PSP - GTA: Liberty City Stories
XBox - The Elder Scroll IV
PS2 - Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 14
NGC - Gotcha Force

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

DS - 30
Wii - 7
PS2 - 6
PSP - 3
PS3 - 2
360 - 1
NGC - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

So, with so many new games on the top 10, what's happening with the hardware this week? Well, DS and Wii still lead, but demand for the Wii has dropped for the two weeks running. Is Japan finally realised the Wii is not all they want afterall? Or is it just because of the golf chick? Who knows. But golf chick is certainly working with PS3.

Wii's dominance has dropped from 85% down to only just above 70% this week.

Bundled with the PS3, the number of the black brick more than doubled from last week. Xbox 360 is also up, all thanks to The Elder Scroll. But it will probably go back down soon.

DSL - 154,459
Wii - 86,786
PSP - 32,894
PS2 - 14,059
PS3 - 12,187
Xbox360 - 2,664

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
81.10% vs 18.90%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
70.24% vs 26.24% vs 3.52%

Source: Media Create and their new shiny website

Sony gets sued... again.

2007-08-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's one of those days when you were happy going about your own business of trying to sell the black brick when all of a sudden, a company you probably never heard of filed a lawsuit against you.

This time, the company is Parallel Processing Corporation of Newport Beach, California. It alleged that Sony's PS3 has infringed upon its patent for "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory" that was approved on October 8, 1991.

Normally, I would have laughed at companies that get sued by another company because of patent infringement, but this time, I actually felt very angry towards PPC.

I mean, we've known about Cell chips for years before it was ever put into the PS3. Surely, if PPC knew about it, they could have ask for the royalties and whatnots then, and not wait until 5 million PS3 are in the wild, then pounce on Sony.

I am not a Sony fanboy, but this time, I'm standing behind Sony. I really hope PPC get nothing out of this. Can't people play nice any more these days?

Source: Kotaku

4.5 Million PS3 worldwide

2007-07-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Sony has reported that they have sold 4.5 million of their big black box worldwide. To make the number a bit of creditable, it is the actual number sold, as compared to the number shipped. During the first 5 months, Sony has sold 665,000 PS3 in the US. As a comparison, Nintendo has sold 1.73 million and Microsoft 1 million. Still lacking far behind the rest, but with no ~~good~~ games being released during that period, you would expect the number to be like that.

Sony, as a whole, has reported their first quarter profit more than tripled. Their digital camera and the weaker yen is helping the profit. For the first quarter, net profit more than doubled to 66.5 billion yen, while operating profits rose three-fold from 27 billion yen last year to 99.3 billion yen. Sales were up 13.3 per cent to 1,977 billion.

The film division made a 3.25 billion yen profit against a 1.17 billion loss last time, largely thanks to the success of the third Spider-Man film.

So Sony as a whole is still very healthy, but it's PS3 that's killing them. And that's probably all we care about at the moment.

Source: PS3fanboy, International Business Times

More of the same law suit against Microsoft

2007-07-28T01:06:00.000-07:00

As I've told you before, MS is now facing 2 more lawsuits from gamers who claimed the Xbox 360 caused them grieve. One was filed in Seattle, the Microsoft heartland, and another one is filed in California.

Long story short. Both filing are for the same thing. Microsoft sold a shitty console that killed the game disc. The replacement program only covers Microsoft published games plus a $20 charge per disc. No wonder they are all suing MS. I would have too.

Source: Information Week

Sales Chart JPN: Baseball hitting home runs

2007-07-28T00:15:00.000-07:00

Week 16 July - 22 July 2007

What is with the baseball and the Japanese? There is not one, but two baseball games on the top 10 this week. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 14 on the PS2 and the same game on the Wii has hit home run at 1st and 3rd place. Sales were 153,266 and 47,995 respectively.

Right between them is Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (53,097).
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass continues to swing that ~~stylus~~ sword around in 4th place (46,762), while Wii Sports yet again made up the top 5.

Other new titles in the top 10 includes Mushi King Super Collection (some bug catching game) and Naruto Shippuuden: Strongest Ninjas Unite 5: Decisive Battle at Dawn (what a long title).

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

DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
PS2 - Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 14
Wii - Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball
PSP - Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
PS3 - My Summer Vacation 3

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

DS - 33
Wii - 8
PS2 - 7
PSP - 1
PS3 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

More of the same, nothing really changed. DSL still selling more than everything else combined, and the PS2 is still selling more than PS3. Anything going to change next week? Don't bet on it.

DSL - 154,459
Wii - 86,786
PSP - 32,894
PS2 - 14,059
PS3 - 12,187
Xbox360 - 2,664

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
82.44% vs 17.56%

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
85.39% vs 11.99% vs 2.62%

Source: Media Create

Nintendo now 5th biggest Japanese Company

2007-07-26T01:42:00.000-07:00

Things doesn't get better than this. Nintendo is now the fifth biggest Japanese company by market value after their stock rose the the maximum allowable daily rise of 5,000 yen. Its market value now stands at 8.76 trillion yen, outstripping Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, NTT and Honda Motor Co, which had placed higher in the rankings only a day before.

That is after reports of its first quarter profit. The first quarter saw a net profit of 80.25 billion yen to June compared to the previous year's 15.55 billion yen. Operating income in the fiscal first quarter more than tripled to 90.63 billion yen from 28.80 billion previously, while revenue expanded 160 percent to 340.44 billion yen from 130.9 billion the year before.

Nintendo raised the forecast for both of their hardware. It now expects to sell 26 million DS and 16.5 million Wii consoles this fiscal year, up from 22 million and 14 million.

In case you don't know how to count in a million, that's a shitload of Nintendo power.

Source: Forbes, Reuters

Sales Chart US: Nintendo taking charge... again.

2007-07-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

June Sales Figure

Another month, another sets of US figures from NPD. After some delay, NPD finally released the numbers for the US.

First up, software. Nintendo continued to destroy all opponents with the new Mario Party 8, which was released just a few days before the start of the reporting period. So far, it has shipped a total of close to 800,000 just in the US alone. If anything, this game will go on to sell well over a couple of million worldwide. Guess no one can stop the Mario attack.

In 2nd place is Wii Play, the game that comes with a controller, or as I like to put it, the controller that comes with a game. This could be a direct reason of Mario Party 8 given MP8 is a party game and Wii owners needing new controllers to play with friends.

In 3rd and 4th place is yet another month of Catch 'em all. Combined total of the two Pokemon version is another half a million. Just goes to show Nintendo hasn't caught all the kids yet.

Xbox 360 featured 3 games on the top 10, but only one is exclusive - Forza Motorsports 2, the game that crash. The other 2 - Guitar Hero 2 & The Darkness - can be found on other platforms.

With Nintendo taking over 6 of the top 10 and MS 3 spots, only 1 spot remained for Sony. And it wasn't a PS3 game. A lone Guitar Hero 2 on PS2 filled the remaining spot at 6th. What does it say about PS3? Well, Sony's hardware has yet again failed to make the 100,000 this month since March. That's at a time when Nintendo is pulling further ahead of everyone else.

Top 10 games in US for June

1. Mario Party 8 - Wii (Nintendo) - 426,200 units
2. Wii Play - Wii (Nintendo) - 293,200 units
3. Pokemon Diamond - DS (Nintendo) - 288,400 units
4. Pokemon Pearl - DS (Nintendo) - 214,700 units
5. Forza Motorsport 2 - Xbox 360 (Microsoft) - 197,400 units
6. Guitar Hero II - PS2 (Activision) - 197,350 units
7. Guitar Hero II - Xbox 360 (Activision) - 177,600 units
8. Pokemon Battle Revolution - Wii (Nintendo) - 157,900 units
9. Resident Evil 4 - Wii (Capcom)
10. The Darkness - Xbox 360 (Take Two)

Console War VII: Battle for America

If you were expecting something different this month, well, don't. Nintendo continues to let everyone else bite their dust, both in the handheld and console front. The DS averaged 112,500 per week during the 5 week reporting period. That's edging closer towards the weekly Japanese numbers.

Wii done 381.8K, roughly 76.4K per week, on par with the Japanese. PSP in 3rd place moved 290.1K during June (58K per week). It's actually selling more than their Japanese counterpart, which only managed about 30-odd thousand a week. Xbox averaged 39.7K per week while PS3 only managed 19.7K, both higher than the weekly figures in Japan.

Wii outsold Xbox 360 by almost 2 to 1 and the PS3 almost 4 to 1, while the DS outsold PSP by almost 2 to 1.

DS - 562,000
Wii - 381,800
PSP - 290,100
Xbox 360 - 198,700
PS3 - 98,500

Market share for the month

DS vs PSP
65.95% vs 34.05%

Wii vs XB vs PS3
56.23% vs 29.26% vs 14.51%

Source: Gamasutra

Phoenix Wright sings

2007-07-21T19:36:00.001-07:00

Okay, not quite. But close to it. Capcom is releasing not one, but two Original Sound Track (OST).

Rob Pereyda, from Capcom posted on the company's BBS announcing the release of the two OST, titled "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Orchestra" and "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Jazz".

I'm only guessing here, one soundtrack will feature orchestra and the other one jazz. But you know, I could be wrong.

So for all you Phoenix Wright fans, now you can listen to it. I doubt there will be any Objections here.

Check out the announcement after the jump.

Hi Guys and Gals,

I promised I would have news on something that "sounds" good, and I'm coming through! We have just signed a licensing deal to have a partner release both "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Orchestra" and "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Jazz" as "Ace Attorney Meets Orchestra" and "Ace Attoreny Meets Jazz" in North America! So that's right, Ace Attorney fans, official swag you can go to a store and buy is finally on the way! There will be a press release shortly with all the details!

Best, Rob

Source: Capcom

Xbox Sales fell 60%

2007-07-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

With not one, but two lawsuits against Microsoft for scratched discs and the cost of extending warranty, the Entertainment arm of MS is bleeding pretty bad right now. In the last fiscal quater, MS only shipped 700,000 Xbox 360, as compared to 1.8M same time last year.

Of course, that 1.8M was without challenge. Now with both PS3 and Wii on the market, we're now seeing the truth nature of competition. Clearly the Wii is winning the war at the moment, and PS3 is losing.

MS is obviously unlikely to chop off the Entertainment arm, but with a loss of $1.9 billion loss, it's certainly making MS bleed. Meanwhile, MS's overall profit rose 7% to $3 billion in the forth quarter. $1.9 billion? that's small change.

Source: Information Week, Game Industry.biz

Microsoft getting sued, again and again.

2007-07-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here comes the avalanche. No long after gamers in Florida filed a lawsuit against MS for scratched Xbox discs, gamers in the pretty state of California are doing the same. The suit alleged that "Microsoft improperly and/or negligently manufactured the Xbox 360 console in a manner that causes the expensive game discs ... to be scratched, rendering the games unusable."

This time, it's for $5 million. Of course, MS denied all allegation.

Guess MS has more than the red ring of death to worry about. Now it's the scratch ring of death that's bothering them.

I still can't believe after a year, you would have thought MS would fix a 'significant' problem. Yet, they sat on their big fat asses and did nothing. A year later, it cost them $1 billion to extend warranty. Mind you, that's not fixing the root of the problem. That's just replacing your dead Xbox, which means, the new Xbox that replaced your dead one is still prone to the same problem. Great going.

Source: Information Week

Sales Chart JPN: More sword swinging as Dragon Quest made it to the top

2007-07-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

Week 9 July - 15 July 2007

Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors made number one this week as it shipped 305,254 units in its first week. The Dragon Quest (aka Dragon Warriors in the US) brand name rivals that of Final Fantasy in Japan, and it's no surprise that it went straight to ichicban.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass still swing that ~~stylus~~ sword around in 2nd place (69,896).

For whatever reason, DS has turned into a PDA for keeping track of your expense. My Housekeeping Diary makes it into 3rd places with 46,947. Actually, it's not at all surprising. In Japanese household, the wife is the boss, and so everything to do with household expense are controlled the the female species. And given Nintendo openly targets the female population for its hardware, one would expect something like My Housekeeping Diary to appear sooner or later. Damn, should have thought of that idea first.

This week's top 10 has been dominated by Nintendo. Some it hasn't done for a while now, with 7 DS games and 3 Wii games.

Tom Clancy made it to the chart again for Xbox 360 at 26th. No doubt it will drop off by next week.

The touchy touchy witch game Doki Doki Majo Shinpan has dropped from 11th to 39th. I guess no every moe loving person is getting it.

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

Wii - Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
PS2 - Super Robot Wars: Original Generations
Xbox 360 - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
PSP - Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
PS3 - My Summer Vacation 3

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

DS - 35
Wii - 7
PS2 - 4
PSP - 2
PS3 - 1
XB360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

More of the same, except everyone selling more of everything. With the Xbox almost made it to 3,000. But PS3 is still lacking behind the PS2. When was the last time PS3 surpass the PS2 sales? Come back next week for more of the same.

DSL - 141,967
Wii - 109,854
PSP - 37,578
PS2 - 15,777
PS3 - 13,493
Xbox360 - 2,942

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
79.07% vs 20.93

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
86.98% vs 10.68% vs 2.33%

Source: Media Create

Buy a PS2, but got cash instead

2007-07-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

What would you do if you pay £95 for a Sony PS2, but got €65,400 instead? Well, a teenager in Britain did exactly that. He bought a PS2 on eBay for £95, but when the package arrived, neatly stacked €65,400 appeared in the package instead.

No doubt the intended recipient of the money is very pissed at the moment, and if you don't hear anything about a dead body found somewhere in the marsh land, that's because it's hidden in a concrete slab somewhere.

The article cited that if no-one claims the money by September 22, the family can apply to have the cash back. Now that it has all gone public and all, I wouldn't be touching that money if I were the boy. You never know who's going to turn up at your door on Sept 23.

This raised 3 questions:

1) Which mafia boss did the money belong to?
2) Why did the boy tell the police?
3) Why did he pay £95 for a PS2?

Read the comment, it's pure comedy.

Source: Gizmodo

PS3 final hitting a million in Japan

2007-07-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

Yep, good news (depends if you're ~~Phil Harrison~~ a Sony employee or not) for Sony. The PS3 has hit 1 million unit in Japan. Famitsu reported that the PS3 as at 15 July 2007, the number of PS3 sold mount up to 1,010,492 units.

Took them long enough (8 months). Not entirely unexpected, given the Media Create numbers indicating that the PS2 has continuously outsold the PS3 week in week out.

Gundam Muso sold 280,000, while Ridge Racing 7 and Gundam: Target in Sight sold a respectable 140,000 and 138,000 respectively.

No doubt someone at Sony will make a big fuss about the milestone, how it is out-selling than the Xbox 360 in Japan, yadda, yadda, yadda. Because, you know, it's the only home console that it is outselling at the moment.

Source: Famitsu [via Kotaku]

New Final Fantasy Potion

2007-07-18T06:26:00.000-07:00

Still on Final Fantasy. Some of you might remember Square Enix joined forces with Suntory to produce Final Fantasy XII potion drink back in 2006. Not sure how many actually drank the thing. But that's besides the point.

Now, Square Enix is at it again. "Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Potion" will get a September 13th release, to coincide with the release of Crisis Core on the PSP on the same day, no doubt. The drink will set you around ¥3,980 each.

Not sure how many of us would drink that stuff... again. But if you do, that's what you'll be getting inside you: dolomite (to represent "the earth crust’s energy"), royal jelly and vitamin B1.

The question here is not whether to drink it or not, but how in the hell are you going to put it on display? As you might have noticed, there is not flat bottom.

Source: Japan News Review

Square Enix on yet another special edition. This time, it's the PSP.

2007-07-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

After the nth million special edition on the DS, Square Enix has finally run the other direction. Still a Final Fantasy Special Edition, but this time on the PSP. It comes in Ice Silver with only 77,777 made. I guess the number just so happens to be the number 7 for FF VII. Just a guess.

Coming out on 13 Sept 2007, it will set you 25,890 yen for one, plus the game Crisis Core. Better start saving, not for the PSP, but for the trip to Japan. Yep, it's Japan only.

For those who can't afford the trip, you can of course get it from PlayAsia. But expect to pay premium price for it.

So now us DS owners can't put our FF DS Lite SE in your face any more. But what the hell, you know we'll do it anyway.

Source: GameWatch

Interview with Toriyama and Yokoyama of FFXII: Revenant Wings

2007-07-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

IGN had a chance to catch up with Toriyama and Yokoyama, both involved in the Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings game. While the game didn't quite ignite a FF rush on the DS, it is still a success in Japan.

Read on to find out how the Western version of the game has more dungeon, more enemy and the possibility of FFF (Final Fantasy Fit).

Source: IGN

Lawsuit filed against Microsoft... again.

2007-07-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

This time, it's the unhappy Xbox 360 owners that are suing Microsoft for scratched disc. The lawsuit claims that Xbox 360s scratch game discs, making them unusable. Thousands of people have been affected by and have complained to Microsoft about the problem.

Microsoft offers a worldwide disc replacement program for games that it authors. A user can send a damaged disc back to Microsoft plus $20 and receive a replacement. Microsoft also will examine and repair consoles that consumers believe may have scratched discs, the company said.

So what they are basically saying is that I need to pay $50 for a game, and on top of that, another $20 if it's scratched due to no fault of my own.

No wonder they are suing Microsoft.

Well done, Microsoft. Your fucked up hardware scratch disc, die while playing, 1 in 3 doesn't even bloody work and has a fault that is so general that no-one knows what it is. How the hell did you sell 11 million of these $500 paperweight?

Source: Washington Post

PSP slim colour hitting Japan.

2007-07-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

So the DS Phat has colours, the DS lite has colours, the PSP Phat has colours, and now the PSP Slim has colours (wow, didn't see that coming there). The PSP Slim will hit Japan September 20th for ¥19,800 (US $162) and will come in six colours: Piano Black, Ceramic White, Ice Silver, Rose Pink, Lavender Purple and Felicia Blue. All six colours coming at once.

In all seriousness, PSP Slim looks no difference than the PSP Phat, except for being 33 percent lighter, 19 percent slimmer, has sped up game load times and improved battery life. The only real "new" features is a video output capability to allow you to play your PSP games on a big screen TV. At least the DS Lite has some major design change. I don't know, it just doesn't feel all that fresh for me. I was expecting something flashier.

Source: Kotaku, Engadget

60GB PS3 no more.

2007-07-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Kaz, the new head of SECI, has confirmed that the 60GB PS3 is no more. In an interview with a Norwegian site VGTV, US will not see any more 60GB after the current stock runs out. Instead, they will see a upped 80GB with the game MotoStorm, at a SRP of $599, same price as before.

Sometimes you just knew a price cut is too good to be true.

Source: Kotaku

The Idol Master dance

2007-07-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so The iDOL M@ster dance might not be as popular as the Suzumiya dance, but that never stops people (mostly Japanese chicks, actually, make that professional chick group SKD48) from doing the dance. First the original opening.

Next, the dance. They are pretty darn close, if I may say so myself.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, it's on the Xbox 360.

WiiFit. Don't tell me you didn't see that coming.

2007-07-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

We all know that the Wii is the alternative gym with Wii Sports. But Nintendo has announced at E3 something bigger and fitter is coming to a Wii near you. It has come up with the idea of putting aerobic and TV 'game' together. It's not the first one to do so. Konami is introducing Groove Motion DDR. Nintendo seems to be the first one to cater for 'home users'. What you need is a TV, a Wii and a what I'll call WiiPad.

All you need to do is stand on it and do some balancing, kicking, and... aerobatic things, things that you never thought you could do at home. Looks like Nintendo is going to have another winner here.

It's cheaper than going to the gym. But of course, if you going to the gym is all about looking at other people's muscle, then I don't think you'll fit in with WiiFit.

Watch out, Fitness First, here Wii come.

More pictures after the jump.

Can't wait for Duke Nukem Forever?

2007-07-13T19:47:00.001-07:00

Duke Nuken Forever is certainly one game that takes on its title too literally. But fear not, what the developers can't do, the pirates have done it for them. I present you, Duke Nukem Forever.

Yep, China Town material. Save yourself a few buck and head over to MyGen. It's not quite the Duke Nukem as we know it, but it's still pretty funny.

Source: MyGen

Pikachu, I choose you.... on second thought, maybe not.

2007-07-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

As if Pikachu has entered the Hall of Mirrors, this Pikachu has turned into Evangelion Unit 04 or something. This is one Pokemon I don't want to catch. Are they trying to scare little kids away?

Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: Zelda swung back

2007-07-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

Week 2 July - 8 July 2007

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is back on top this week, shipping 74,937 copies after being relegated to second spot last week. It has muscled its way back to form. Another mecha (the non-violent variant), Chibi Robo! Park Patrol, fought off the super robots to 2nd place, while Super Robot Wars: Original Generations takes the reign in 3rd. Eye Training is still there (42,279). It's not going to get off the chart. Ever. Just like Wii Sports.

The touchy touchy witch game Doki Doki Majo Shinpan only managed to debut at 11th. It's quite anti-climax, really. I thought it would do better than that.

Anyhow, PS3 has yet another game on the chart. My Summer Vacation 3 actually made it on the top 10 at 7th, while another débutante, Blazing Angels, made it at 47th! The biggest drop is also on the PS3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas dropped from 19th to 46rd.

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

DS - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
PS2 - Super Robot Wars: Original Generations
Wii - Wii Sports
PSP - Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile
PS3 - My Summer Vacation 3

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

DS - 37
Wii - 7
PS3 - 3
PSP - 2
PS2 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Despite only having 1 game in the top 50, PS2 still outsold PS3 this week. It comes at a time where Nintendo pretty much dominate the charts with 44 games in the top 50. There's no much to say really. DS continued its march towards world domination Xbox360 went back into hibernation.

DSL - 139,271
Wii - 75,279
PSP - 32,946
PS2 - 14,120
PS3 - 12,691
Xbox360 - 2,370

Market share this week

DSL vs PSP
80.87% vs 19.13

Wii vs PS3 vs XBox 360
83.33% vs 14.05% vs 2.62%

Source: Media Create

English Professor Layton coming out in December

2007-07-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

Just as I finished Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village, out came the news from E3 that Nintendo is released the English version. The official title is now called Professor Layton and the Curious Village, heading to stores on 3 December, just ready for the Christmas rush.

As I've said in my previous post, if you love puzzle games, you'll love this. It's the best puzzle game. Ever. But looking at the Brain Age sales in America, I won't be surprised if this game doesn't sell as much as it deserves.

Fear not, Europe should embrace this. They are smarter, right?

Poor design, cheap component, lack of testing contributes to Xbox failures

2007-07-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

With recent 'figures' suggesting that 1 in 3 Xbox 360 become a heavy paperweight, it's a wonder where it went wrong.

An article over at SmartHouse suggested that Microsoft, in a bid to beat everyone else to release a console, did so cheaply by rushing everything through. Poor design, cheap component and lack of testing are all blamed for the high failure rate. Microsoft has recently announced that it will take over $1 billion charge to extend warranty coverage on repairs and replacements.

While Xbox 360 owners are not 'out-of-pocket', so to speak, there is no doubt Microsoft's reputation will take a beating. One can't discount the fact that it will inconvenience gamers who need to get their consoles repaired, thus ruining the whole gaming experience. That's something money can't buy.

Even though Sony has an expensive brick, it at least works over 99% of the time. Less of 1% of the PS3 sold are returned as faulty. According to one source, no Wii sold was ever returned.

Source: SmartHouse

Touch me merchandise

2007-07-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

The inappropriately witch touching game from SNK Playmore, Doki Doki Majo Shinpan, now has merchandise for you to wear and touch. T-shirt, CDs, cups, Mousepads, Art books, Phone hangers, Phone cards, the lot.

Just look at the size of the ~~boobs~~ mousepad. All features the prime candidate, Akai Maho. What on earth is she on? Growth hormone?

I still want this game, but I think I'll give the T-shirt a miss.

Source: Official Website

And so the price war begins

2007-07-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

As the title suggested, the price ~~war~~ cut beings for Sony PS3. After months in denial, Sony has finally confirmed that NA is getting a PS3 price cut, from $599 down to $499 for the 60 GB model.

A higher version, the 80 GB model bundled with MotorStorm will hit American shores in August for $599. Still expensive, but at least you're getting more for less, in a sense. So either hold on to your money until the 80 GB comes, or buy the 60 GB for $100 less.

It took me about 3 price cuts before I was remotely interested in getting the PS2, so this news really means nothing to me. If I were ever getting one, I might wait till the slim PS3. Of course, that is assuming the PS3 is still alive by then.

Source: Kotaku

Professor Layton: The best puzzle game on DS

2007-07-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

After 15 hours, 120 puzzles, and lots of brain power later, I have finally finished Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village. It is the best puzzle game out there on the DS. The puzzles are great, and the story is even better.

For those who don't know what this game is about. The story revolves around a 19th century looking town/village where Professor Layton and his assistant, Luke, were invited to solve a great mystery known as the "Golden Seed". The professor and sidekick need to solve puzzles from villagers before solving that big great mystery.

It's a bit like Sherlock Holmes and "my dear Watson".

The puzzles are not too hard, but enough to make use of that tiny brain of yours. A lot of them are trick questions, so you need to read the question very carefully.

Unfortunately it's only in Japanese, and if you don't know the language, or don't know someone who does, it could be problematic. However, help is on hand. I'm writing a FAQ that will detail all the questions (and answers, just in case you're too lazy to figure it out). It should be at GameFAQs soonish.

Read my review at GameFAQs.

If you want to import it, PlayAsia is having 20% until next Thursday, so you better be quick. If you love puzzle game, get this game. You won't regret it.