Dead Fantasy or Final Alive?

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

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

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.

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?

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

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

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