Overheard: LocoRoco team member says,

We'd love to have made a DS version. We're just gamers. But, we work for Sony.

Hence, the no-chance-in-hell of that happening.

Via Kotaku ...

We got this link to Gamespot's Korean arm (who knew?) from a tipster. It's a six image gallery apparently of a huge pile of PlayStation 3s being boxed and placed in their retail packaging.

They appear to be the 20GB, $499 variety. In some of the pictures, a non-descript Asian man bends over to place a finished unit in the box; his jeans are curiously rolled up to his knees. It appears as if he's wrapping them up for shipping.

Screens Here ...

News from Insert Credit

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A new story trailer has been released for Resistance, the PS3's WWII shooter set in an altogether different World War II where it's our world versus the aliens - and they're the winning team.

Check the movies tab HERE for an introduction to playable character Nathan Hale's UK tour of duty. Starting off grim, with the alien Chimera overrunning Europe, it finishes on another less-than-happy note, with its awfully British narrator Rachel Parker explaining that Hale was never seen again after the events of the game.

We'll have to play Resistance after the PS3's American launch in November to discover exactly what Hale gets up to (apart from shooting a whole lot of Chimeran troops, which is a given). Those of you with stronger wills will want to avoid impressions from our lucky American cousins until the game invades our shores in March 2007. ...

PlayStation boss Ken Kutaragi kicks off Sony's TGS action tomorrow with his keynote speech. The Tokyo-based conference kicks off at 10am local time (1am over here) and our sister mag PSM3 will be bringing you live updates from the ground as Ken tells us more about Sony's plans to dominate next-gen gaming.

To find out all the news from the Sony conference as it happens, keep your eyes on PSM3's blog in the early hours of tomorrow morning for live updates - technology permitting, of course. ...

The weather was hot and sunny in Tokyo on Wednesday, probably making more than a few attendees of the Xbox 360 media briefing wish they were relaxing in one of the city's many parks with an ice tea or cold beer rather than hanging out in the Cerulean Tower Hotel's underground ballroom where the event took place. However, the 200 or so journalists who turned out were rewarded with a dynamic and in-depth presentation. This briefing served both to introduce the new Xbox 360 games and peripherals that will be shown at the Tokyo Game Show and to fire an opening shot in Microsoft's bid to "relaunch" the Xbox 360 in Japan.

The event kicked off on schedule, opening with a video projected on a wide screen at the front of the ballroom. The video pummeled the spectators with a blast of load music and visuals that juxtaposed images of a martial artist with those of the Xbox 360 hardware and software. Though the martial artist appeared to kick the Xbox a couple of times, the overall impression was one of speed and power.

When the video finished, Microsoft Japan's Xbox czar, Takashi Sensui (pictured above), welcomed attendees. His voice rising and falling rhythmically, he seemed to stutter or stumble over his own words as he delivered the opening comments. Not to say that he seemed unsure of himself; rather, he appeared to become quite emotional as he discussed the Xbox and its community of users. "The first thing I want to say is that since its launch last year, the user base of the Xbox 360, which we can say constitutes a single global community, has been steadily and greatly increasing. Microsoft is on target to ship 10 million units worldwide by the end of this year." He hoped this might indicate Microsoft is doing something right, even if Japan sales have been a bit sluggish so far.


Swanky.Speaking of which, Sensui did not directly mention the Xbox 360's hitherto spotty Japan-side performance. Rather, he focused on the future. "The [Xbox 360] is approaching a turning point in its growth in the Japanese market. From now on, evolution in next-generation games will require qualitative changes." The kinds of changes he meant are outlined in Microsoft's new marketing campaign for the system. This campaign consists of three components, as suggested by the advertising slogan: "do! do! do!" The three "do's" are "do! Game," "do! Choice," and "do! Live," and it's on these three pillars that Microsoft hopes to build a foundation for success in Japan.

Sensui said the Xbox will have "the strongest lineup in history...Over 100 titles, including those for Live Arcade are planned for Japan." Regarding the "choice" aspect, Sensui touted the Xbox's personalization features, both in terms of hardware configurations and online profiles. "[The Xbox] offers flexibility found in no other console," he said. As for Xbox Live, he remarked that it was building a "brighter, more social environment" for gamers.

Corporate vice president of interactive entertainment business, entertainment, and devices division Peter Moore also stepped in to talk a little more about Microsoft's Japan strategy. Key to this will be "redefining the way Japanese gamers think about games" and producing more content "by Japanese developers for Japanese gamers." This will include 50 titles that will be exclusively for Japan, though he did not mention how these are divided up between Live Arcade and retail games. He also stressed that of the 110 titles to be released in Japan, fully 70 will be produced by Japanese developers. He further emphasized that Microsoft's strategy is global in scope, with the Xbox 360 slated to roll out in India later this week and in South Africa next week. Moore also introduced five new Xbox Live Arcade titles: Yie Ar Kung Fu, Gyruss, Rush 'n Attack, Ms. Pac Man, and New Rally X. Yie Ar Kung Fu will be exclusive to Japan.


MS gets the ballroom in the basement.It was in this context that Peter Moore announced the first-ever World Pac-Man Championships. The championship will pit the top 10 Xbox Live players against each other sometime in 2007. Details, such as the venue and date, are still TBA. During Moore's presentation, Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani made a surprise visit. When asked about his thoughts on his creation, Iwatani said, "I hope that Pac-Man will become a new communication tool that transcends generations."

Some video presentations of upcoming third-party games were also shown. First off, the DOA Extreme 2 trailer treated attendees to a titillating display of prancing female characters from Tecmo's Dead or Alive franchise. Following the five or so minutes of bouncing and jiggling, Sensui simply said "I have nothing further to add," to the amusement of the audience.

Footage of Lost Planet and a first look at Trusty Bell, an animelike Japanese role-playing game, were also shown. Infinite Undiscovery also got a brief plug but unfortunately no visuals. However, the centerpiece of the game videos was live demos of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, ...

THQ's World Wrestling Entertainment line of games is one of the company's staple franchises year in and year out, but it has also been the source of a number of lawsuits. The company is currently fighting a trademark-infringement case brought against it by the wrestler formerly known as The Ultimate Warrior and another from the WWE itself, which is seeking to have its game license agreement nullified.

Another legal tangle surrounding the popular series has sprung up, as last month a New York musician named Michael Tumbarello, formerly knows as "Vada," filed a civil suit against the publisher, charging that it used one of his songs in last year's SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 without permission. Tumbarello claims that his performance of a song titled "King of the Mat" appears in the game in its entirety, and that THQ neither asked for nor was given permission to include the cut.

Tumbarello's suit says the musician notified THQ of his grievance in January of this year and demanded the publisher stop distributing the game to no avail. Now Tumbarello is seeking damages of no less than $3 million for copyright infringement, no less than $3 million each for misappropriation of property, violation of New York civil rights law, and one other charge referenced but not actually specified in the suit.

THQ representatives had not returned a request for comment as of press time. Attempts to contact Tumbarello's lawyer for clarification on the last charge were unsuccessful.

News via Gamespot ...

News via Gamespot

The days leading up to the Tokyo Game show have already seen the Xbox 360 Media Briefing, an event that set out Microsoft's next-generation console strategy in bold strokes. Yesterday, a far more low-key, but no less important event took place. The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan held a professional luncheon with two of the game industry's most knowledgeable experts: Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura and KBC Securities research director Hiroshi Kamide.

Both are widely quoted individuals whose opinions carry significant weight among their respective constituencies--Enterbrain publishes the widely-read weekly game magazine Famitsu, while Kamide covers the game sector for KBC and is often quoted in newspaper and magazine articles read in Japan as well as the West.

The luncheon was held in an area of Tokyo which straddles the Marunouchi business district and celebrated Ginza area. This neighborhood is eccentric to say the least. Amid the buttoned-down, suited masses shuffling to work, one finds a series of bizarre cow sculptures, apparently placed as part of an art-in-the-street campaign. A Shinto shrine guarded by two stone foxes grace the front of the glass and concrete pillar that is the Yurakucho Denki Building, where the FCCJ's offices are housed. Further underlining the contrast between the two districts--or perhaps offering an attempt at harmonizing the two areas--are the lush green grounds of the Imperial Palace, located just a block or two from the venue.

About 25 guests, including journalists from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg wire service and London's Guardian newspaper, feasted on sautéed salmon or more blue-collar roast beef sandwiches in the club dining room. Wolf Blass Bilyara Chrdonnay and Mommessin Cotes-du-Rhone wines were also supplied, possibly to encourage guests to freely speak their mind about the upcoming battle royale in the Japan game industry.

After the gastronomic activities concluded, it was time for a photo op. A number of bright studio-sized lights were focused on the two men to facilitate the taking of snaps. And then, with a few words of introduction from Birga Becker, moderator for the event, the gloves came off and the talk began.

While much territory was covered, the core of the conversation dealt with a topic on most gamers' minds--the three-way competition between Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

Hamamura fired the opening shots, opening with a slide presentation and speech that incorporated some of the vast raw data and projections the Enterbrain organization puts into its yearly gaming white paper.

He gave an overview of the Japanese game market, which is currently booming, thanks to traction from the Nintendo DS.

"With ten million units sold to date, this is the fastest growing console in the Japanese market," he said. "No console has ever exceeded 19 million units, but I think the DS will." The success of the DS may be due to more to an overall and evolutionally trend than Nintendo's genius.

Just as small, agile mammals replaced the enormous dinosaurs, Hamamura's figures show handhelds have been steadily devouring market share over the last four years. This share grew from 25 percent in 2002 to about 45 percent in 2005--before jumping to over 60 percent as of July 2006. But this sort of thing has happened before in Japan.

"You can compare this with the emergence of mobile phones," he said. "Mobiles have been growing while fixed phones have not. The shift has been from one phone per household to one phone per person." He also stressed that much of the DS's success has been due to word of mouth--players finding a fun game and telling their friends about it. Due to these factors, Hamamura said "I expect the DS to exceed 20 million, or maybe even 30 million in [worldwide] sales."

Hamamura then proceeded to dissect each of the next-generation consoles. He had a lot of praise for each, beginning with the Nintendo Wii, which he called a "sure bet" for the end of this year.

Hamamura believes the Wii will build on the word-of-mouth effect enjoyed by the DS to eventually reach ten million units over its lifetime. Showing a graph of project sales curves for the current Nintendo consoles, he said: "The growth pattern will be very similar to what we've seen with the GameBoy Advance." That is to say, moderately paced, stable growth in sales.

"They will at least sell double the number they sold with the GameCube." He also pointed out that Wii's advertising campaign focuses on the players interacting with the hardware, not spectacular graphics.

Moving on, Hamamura then lavished praise on the PlayStation 3, outlining its features and "unparalleled graphics." However, he was not sure that these would guarantee it instant success. "In a poll we ran, 50 percent of the respondents said they wanted a PS3. But when asked if they could afford to buy one, most said they would wait for a price drop. ... In the case of the PlayStation 2, the DVD player was a very attractive feature. But I don't think the Blu-ray feature in the PS3 is as attractive now as DVD was then."

Hamamura feels that growth ...

New release for PS2:



In the most fearsome war ever fought, emerged the most fearless soldiers ? the Commandos. Have you got what it takes to join the original elite Special Force in the World War II shooter Commandos Strike Force? In a new direction for the multi-million selling series, Commandos Strike Force takes you right into the heart of the action from a first person perspective. Take control of the three members of the Strike Force unit, each with their own play style. Switch between the Green Beret, always at the heart of the action with his expertise in combat and the use of heavy weaponry; the Sniper with his nerves of steel and expert marksmanship; and the Spy, stealthily striking at the heart of the enemy. However, it is your choice how you execute plans of attack by using the Commandos' unique skills. Set in war torn Europe amid the backdrop of World War II, you must take your highly trained group on a series of daring missions, deep behind enemy lines in France, Norway and Russia. Taking control of a Nazi-occupied town, freeing French Resistance prisoners and kidnapping a general are a few of the large range of missions. As well as a compelling single player campaign, the game features a variety of online multiplayer modes.

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