Games Industry Wire

Atlus asks: “Who loves you, baby?” and if their announcement of Persona 4 is any indication, Atlus does love english speaking gamers. Persona 4 is the latest installment in the famous horror RPG plus pet/monster collecting series and is sure to please anyone who loved Persona 3.

Persona 4 is coming to North America. It will be in stores THIS holiday season, December 9th, in a deluxe 2-disc release. Each and every copy of Persona 4 will include a soundtrack CD with select music from the game.
Persona 4. December 9th. Only $39.99. Mark your calendars.
Images courtesy of …read more

Comments Off

Santa Clara, Calif., (March 5, 2008) – Leading video games developer and publisher NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., announced today that NARUTO™: Ultimate Ninja® 3 has gone gold for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. Based on the popular NARUTO™ animated series, from VIZ Media, this fighter steps it up a notch and delivers new innovative features, enhancements and customizations. Battle through 20 stages with over 40 popular NARUTO characters in the fiercest battles the series has ever seen when it is released on March 25.

Comments Off

It looks like the rumors were true, after all. Persona 3 FES. Coming to a PS2 near you courtesy of Atlus.
Dear Atlus Faithful,
Ok, we give up. The rumors were true.
Persona 3 FES is coming to North America!
Months of trying to keep FES a secret are now behind us (which means all of us here can reflect on just how futile an effort that was).
So what’s the big deal about Persona 3 FES? “FES” is short for “Festival,” and in Japan, FES was released as a reward for gamers who picked up the original. Not only does the …read more

Comments Off

Another week, same number one spot for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The Wii fighter doesn’t look like it will be knocked off the top spot of Media Create’s Japanese software sales charts any time soon, at least not while folks are snapping up Brawl and Wii Fit so fast that even Tokimeki Memorial cant keep up.
The top thirty games for the week of February 11 to 17 in Japan are:

Comments Off

Sony has recently announced rebounding profits of 73.7 billion yen ($645 million) for the July-September quarter, thanks to increased sales of TVs, PCs, and cameras, with 1.31 million PlayStation 3s sold, but the game unit’s losses are widening due to the cost of PS3 hardware and its inability to sell enough units. Sony’s game segment (the SCE division), sales did increase 42.9% year-on-year, primarily as a result of the contribution to sales of the PlayStation 3. However, an operating loss of 96.7 billion yen ($841 million) was recorded, significantly larger than the previous year.

Comments Off

- The PS3 edition of karaoke game SingStar is set to be released in June with 30 tracks to get you started. Additional content will be made available each month after for an unknown (hefty?) price. (source)
- Industry stats:

$1.1 billion sales in March
Up 33 percent in March
Wii was the top selling console at 259,000 units
Xbox 360 – 199,000 units
PS3 – 130,000 units
DS – 508,000 units
PSP – 180,000 units

- GameDaily has a list of the top 10 planet friendly video games
- The US Army is being criticized over its choice to use video games as a recruitment tool by groups claiming …read more

Comments Off

Sony has released their complete list of Q2 (April-June) releases. Here’s the list from Neogaf.com:
PS3 – BR disc
- F.E.A.R. (Vivendi)
- Spider-Man 3 (Activision)
- Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo)
- MLB 07 The Show (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Disney Interactive Studios)
- The Darkness (2K Games)
- The Bigs (2K Sports)
- Transformers: The Game (Activision)
PS3 – PSnetwork
- Calling All Cars (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- Championship Sprint (Sony Online Entertainment)
- Gauntlet II (Sony Online Entertainment)
- Joust (Sony Online Entertainment)
- Rampage World Tour (Sony Online Entertainment)
- Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix (Capcom)
- Rampart (Sony Online Entertainment)
PSP
- Alien Syndrome …read more

Comments Off

- Veterans from EA have left to form their own game studio Jet Black Games which will be dedicated to DS and Wii titles. (source)
- There is an ongoing debate about whether the VT shooter was a video gamer especially after the Washington Post removed a claim he played Counter-Strike from their article. News has surfaced that no games were found in his room. I’ll keep you posted on this one. (source)
- GameTrailers.com has released their list of the top 10 gaming consoles. Here’s the list:

Comments Off

Yep, we were let down by the gaming hype yet again as Island of Rhodes turned out to just be a site where developers of God of War II could post videos about the game. So much for an announcement.
The site features videos from the games director Cory Barlog as well as other designers, animators, and artists. And that’s it. Feel free to check it out but it’s a pretty empty site. I am so glad I didn’t stay up to see what it was about.

Comments Off

Boy that was a quick turnaround. After news just surfaced earlier today of the upcoming release of new Guitar Hero 2 tracks GameDailyBiz reports that the song packs have already become available. Here’s a snip from the story:

Track Pack 1 includes Hey You, Ace of Spades and the infamously difficult Bark at the Moon as made famous by Ozzy Osbourne. Track Pack 2 features Killer Queen, Take it Off and one of the better multiplayer tracks from Guitar Hero 1, Frankenstein. Finally, Track Pack 3 has Higher Ground, Infected and Stellar.

The post also mentions that “theme packs and gamer pics” …read more

1 Comment