A Blue Dragon faceplate (pictured inside) is just the latest Microsoft Japanese gambit, as we try to discover what went wrong with the original Japan-busters Ninety Nine Nights and PGR3 and whether or not Gears of War will play in Tokyo....
Xbox 360 is simultaneously the underdog in Japan, and backed by nearly infinite billions of dollars. So what's been going ion this week? First and foremost, it has been revealed that the Blue Dragon Xbox 360 pack will include a fancy "Blue Dragon" faceplate.
It was announced a few weeks ago that a demo disc of Lost Odyssey will be included in every issue of Famitsu published on October 20th. The demo is said to offer players a taste of the first hour of the game, drawing them in with amazing cinematics and introducing them to the main characters.
Just today, it was announced that the demo disc will also be included as part of the Xbox 360 Core System Anniversary Pack along with Project Gotham Racing 3 and Ninety-Nine Nights...
The collaboration you’ve all been waiting for is here – Yorkshire Tea and your favorite console’s controller.
Hmph, you were lucky enough to be playing games with a yorkshire tea controller!
Back in my day we only had rectangular controllers that would give you blisters and wear your thumbs down to a nub!
The new rules set by Japanese gaming giant, Nintendo, might threaten future content, directly impacting the profitability of many community-driven events.
"The profit of these tournaments is directly impacted by these new rules, as sponsorships are being forbidden, maximum prize money is limited to $5,000, and food/drinks can’t be sold at the tournaments."
Why even bother.
1 thing I've realized over the years is that Nintendo likes bragging about "fun", but it's "fun" how they see fit, and they often go against their consumers for the dumbest reasons. Just gonna do this stuff underground style, who are Nintendo to stop anyone from organizing community based tournaments anyway? How does this actually hurt em?
They've always wanted smash to be seen as a fun, casual game and nothing remotely competitive, which is in stark contrast with how Sakurai develops smash. He puts in so many little things to master for high level competitors. It's just sad, especially for the melee community. They kept the community going for 2 decades now even while all the time nintendo was trying to sabotage them.
Best Buy is offering the LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone set for an aggressive rate this Cyber Monday.
This starts out as a good article on the 360's chances in japan and then seems to quickly jump on every negative it can. It even goes so far as to ask why microsoft didn't change the main character in GoW for the japanese audience (ya.. and why didn't they just shoot cliffyb??) The seemed like a moderately good read, and he seems like he really wants blue dragon and lost odyssey to succeed, but not too much. In fact, he simply wants them to push other game developers in the right direction...
I also didn't understand that he only mentioned western games when he talked about the Z-rating... Dead Rising (completely japanese developed) got a z-rating and still sells.