Via Spong

According to reports from our friends in the Japanese press, retailers in the RPG-obsessed land of Japan have begun taking pre-orders for Final Fantasy III, the somewhat anticipated series filler for the Nintendo DS. And amazingly, with a month before the game hits store-shelves, a massive 450,000 customers have paid upfront for their chance to kill things in a turn-based fashion.

It would seem that interest in a Famicom remake (albeit the only game in the series never to see a proper global release) outstrips demand across the board in Japanese game retail right now, a telling indicator of the power of the Lite-revived DS and hard-wired addiction consumers have to all things Square.

It was not explained how many pre-orders were linked to sales of these little beauties. Though given that in real-terms, a Lite costs as much as a slice of pizza in Japan, we can only assume it's a lot. ...

News from Play Asia:

Around 450 new J-Pop, Anime, Soundtrack & Movie releases - Bleach OST 2, Naruto Best Hit Collection 2, 183Club - The First Album, Jasmine Women, Insanity DVD: The Lunatic Ibara & more

Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing all new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 450 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.

More info --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...

Linkers4u.com have posted this news about the new much slimmer Supercard DS LIte:

First batch of SuperCard Lite has been sold out. Next batch of SuperCard Lite will arrive within this week. Part of the pre-orders have been shipped. We will ship the remaining pre-orders immediately once we receive the SuperCard Lite.

Heres more info about the Supercard DS Lite:



Price is $43

Product Features

Use MicroSD Flash
Compatible to SuperKey, SuperPass, Max media Launcher...etc.
Higher Speed than SuperCard MiniSD and SuperCard SD version
Fits into NDSL gba slot PERFECTLY

More Description
SuperCard Lite (MicroSD) is Specially designed for NDS Lite Consoles. For backuping files it uses MicroSD card. It allows you to run a variety of software, Play Game, Watch movie, E-book, Music and Photo albums. Super Card is easy to operate. Just use the bundled software to convert NDS games/HomeBrews and copy them to MicroSD card. Then, you are ready to enjoy the games. *SuperCard Lite is designed for NDSL consoles only.* *SuperCard Lite must be work with PassMe device in order to play NDS games/HomeBrews, e.g. SuperKey, Max Media Launcher...etc.*

Buy at Linkers4u.com ...

After posting an $18 million dollar net loss today, Activision spoke via conference call on development for all three next-gen platforms: "[360 to PS3 porting] has always been a core focus and strategy and ours... we're encouraged. We are starting to port elements from the 360 to the PlayStation 3, and also from current-gen platforms into Nintendo Wii." We're guessing that by using the word "encouraged," porting or development for PS3's Cell processor is either moving along nicely or it's a pain. And it sounds like Wii is a glorified GameCube in terms of tech specs. But wait, there's more!

Gamasutra writes: "A follow-up comment noted that, of the three next-gen platforms, there are '...many more similarities between 360 and the PS3, and we are getting the benefits over all 3 platforms in art and animation investment', implying, perhaps, that more complexity in terms of polygon counts and animation blending is available on the Wii than current-gen machines."

So let me get this straight: Wii is a super-glorified art and animation investment? ...

The PlayStation 3 isn't out yet, but that doesn't stop Sony's Phil Harrison from making wild speculations about the capability of Playstation 4. According to him, the PS4 won't support physical discs. At all. He opines:

I'd be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive.
So you mean in 5-10 years, our home's series of tubes/big trucks/broadband connections will be fat enough to download a 50GB game in a decent amount of time? We sure hope so.

But wait, Phil! You mean those precious Blu-ray discs that your company's humping so hard is going to be gone by the time PS4 is out? Oh wait, Kotaku's Ashcraft already beat me to that joke/conclusion. Damn you Ash! Damn you and your 16-hour head start. ...

Source: What appears to be a Ubisoft press release posted on French site Jeuxpo.com.

The official story: US Ubisoft reps directed inquires to the company's French representatives, who had not returned GameSpot's requests for comment (and were likely asleep, given the transatlantic time difference) as of press time. Attempts to contact Jeuxpo.com editors were also unsuccessful.

What we heard: Earlier today, a press release from Ubisoft went out to herald the company's commitment to releasing seven launch titles on the Nintendo Wii. However, it appears that not everyone received the same release.

French site Jeuxpo.com has posted a version of the press release en francais that mentions that a Prince of Persia game will be released for the Wii in March 2007. The Jeuxpo release is identical to the one on Ubisoft's official French-language Web site, with the exception of the Prince of Persia line in question. Instead of stating that the Prince of Persia franchise will appear on the Wii, it merely says that Ubisoft has other, unnamed games in development for the system. That's basically the same line used in the English-language release as well.

So what happened? The more paranoid theory is that Jeuxpo decided to fabricate mention of a Prince of Persia Wii game and slipped it into a Ubisoft press release. The other is that the information actually came from Ubi in an early draft of the release, which was revised at the last minute before hitting newswires.

Of the two, the latter scenario seems more plausible. Game-news outlets often get information under embargo about news that game companies will announce soon. The site agrees not to publish the news early so it can get the information and arrange to have its coverage ready to go when said embargo breaks. Sometimes the information is delivered in the form of press releases that aren't quite final and wind up being revised before the news is actually released. So it appears that Ubisoft released--and then retracted--the version of the announcement on Jeuxpo's site, or Jeuxpo had access to a copy that never was approved for release.

However, even if the news did come from Ubisoft, that doesn't necessarily mean it's accurate. The announcement and release date could have been omitted because the game's development status is in limbo. It seems unlikely that the existence of the game itself would be inaccurate, but its release date could very well be up in the air at the moment, enough so that the publisher wouldn't want to commit to a March launch.

Bogus or not bogus?: Though Jeuxpo's not a major game-news outlet, it seems unlikely that it would forge a press release, so this appears to be not bogus. ...

Over 100 games are currently in development for the PS3, according to Sony's worldwide studios president Phil Harrison - who revealed that over 10,000 development kits have now been shipped.

Speaking to British newspaper The Guardian, Harrison was upbeat about the amount of software which will be available for the PS3 around launch - both in terms of game titles, and Blu-Ray movies.

"We have shown more playable games than ever before, so the signs are good," he commented, "and right now there are more than 100 Blu-ray movies available today in the US. More than 100 games are in development, and all the major third-party publishers have pledged their strategic support for the platform."

Harrison described work on the PS3 as being "in full swing, from a developer point of view," and pointed to the firm's success in delivering hardware to its partners long before the scheduled launch.

"Developers now have final hardware in their hands, though there will be some upgrades to the operating system - there's nothing unusual about that," he explained. "The new controller is now in developers' hands, so all the pieces of the puzzle are there."

Harrison noted that one crucial step - the shipping of Blu-Ray burners to developers so that they can actually test games running off real discs - has been accomplished, with studios "now doing their first iterations of games running off discs."

While Harrison is, of course, duty-bound to present a positive picture of the PS3 situation, his assertions are backed up by comments from outspoken Epic Games boss Mark Rein, whose platform-agnostic firm is working on the biggest title for the Xbox 360 this Christmas, Gears of War.

Speaking to Eurogamer TV recently, Rein said that Sony was "in a better place vis-Ã -vis Microsoft in relation to launch", pointing out that "developers were just getting final PS3 hardware [around E3], which is a long time before ship - developers did not have finished Xbox 360 hardware last year at E3."

"I think Sony's in a good spot with the PlayStation 3," he added. "I know we're getting some great results with it back at our house, so I would expect other developers will be as well." ...

Ubisoft has demonstrated its confidence in Nintendo Wii with the promise of seven titles at launch.

Ubisoft had previously announced Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids for Wii, and this week followed it up with talk of Far Cry, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII, Monster 4x4 World Circuit, Open Season and GT Pro Series.

A disputed French version of the publisher's press announcement also made reference to a Prince of Persia Wii title, although that release was soon retracted and reworded to reference other, unnamed games also in development.

Speaking to IGN, North American Ubisoft president, Laurent Detoc, said the depth of the publisher's Wii line-up was down to starting development earlier than its rivals. "We don't have a crystal ball but we think the Wii is going to be a huge success right away and we want to be the number-one independent publisher for Wii in 2006," he said.

According to Detoc, Far Cry will include elements of Xbox title Far Cry Instincts Evolution, in addition to a new storyline, levels, characters and equipment. First-person shooting control will be handled by the Wii remote, as will piloting of vehicles like cars, trucks and boats. In Blazing Angels, he said, the left and right hands would perform separate roles.

New title Monster 4x4 is a arcade driving title with an emphasis on stunts, while GT Pro Series is another racing game "inspired by a Japanese game that was never released here". Ubisoft's attempts to get into driving recently have included the acquisition of Atari's Driver series and the signing of Xbox 360 title Import Tuner Challenge from Genki in Japan.

Ubisoft promised more details on each of its seven announced titles soon. ...

TransGaming Inc. is making its 'Cider' portability engine for Apple's Intel-based Macs available to Windows game developers. The software promises to let Windows games run on Intel Macs without Windows or Apple's Boot Camp. 'Cider works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an Intel-Mac and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 APIs,' the company claims. Cider is a software for game developers, not end-users. Cider-enhanced games are scheduled to appear as soon as October. If Cider works well, will there be any more Mac-specific game development? And if not, will it matter ...