GAMES

Hideo Kojima is taking the delay (in Japan) of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker very seriously, and has posted a personal mea culpa asking for fans’ forgiveness and their continued trust.

“I always preach to the staff, ‘You must not have a delay after a release date has been announced. There is no greater crime as a game developer.’” Kojima wrote (this according to a translation by andriasang).

“Official announcement of a release date is nothing less than a promise to fans and business partners. In other words, a release date change is like betraying the expectations of everyone,” Kojima added, according to the translation.

The game originally was slotted for a March 18 drop; it’s now been pushed to April 29. The North American (May 25) and European (May 28) release dates are not affected.

Andriasang reports that Kojima’s apology has been met with wide forgiveness, in the form of numerous blog comments pledging support.

Hideo Kojima Takes Peace Walker Delay Seriously [andriasang]

To: Crecente
From: Bashcraft
RE: Gadgets

Guess there are loads of gadgets in Japan, but haven’t really had the time to think about them. Exhausted and drained. Emotional week, looking forward to the weekend.

What you missed last night
Introducing “Vanquish”, A New Game From The Creator Of Resident Evil
“Entirely New” Pokemon Series Coming This Year
Final Fantasy Creator Working On Wii Game
Where Is Metal Gear Arcade?
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City Announced for PS3 and PC

As announced yesterday in Tokyo, Gears of War characters Marcus and Dom will be coming to the Xbox 360 version of Capcom’s Lost Planet 2.

Three screens have been released of the Gears character in their Lost Planet 2 setting. To see the characters in motion, check out the trailer Kotaku posted that announces the Lost Planet 2 collaboration with Gears of War.

Xbox360??????????2???GoW??????????????? ?????? [Kotaku Japan]

Square Enix, the company behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, announced a ¥35 billion ($386 million) zero-coupon convertible bond.

As Hiroshi Kamide at KBC Securities Japan points out, “convertible” means that these bonds can be changed to shares at some point before they mature.

While Square Enix has around ¥80 billion in on hand cash, the company has decided to raise another ¥35 billion. There could be several reasons for this.

The company has a debt of ¥50 billion that needs to be repaid in November 2010. “So this new ¥35 billion bond is helping them repay it — swapping an old debt with a new one,” says Kamide.

It could also mean that Square Enix is out shopping for another company to acquire and needed to extent its credit limit. “The cost of borrowing monies is so low in the world at the moment,” says Kamide, “that Square Enix is being opportunistic in raising funds on the cheap today, just in case it feels like shopping for something.”

If this is in fact true, then what could Square Enix be shopping for? Probably not new shoes!

Last year, Last year, Square Enix purchased Eidos and integrated the company, best known for the Tomb Raider games, into Square Enix Europe after unsuccessfully vying for Japanese developer Tecmo. Tecmo ultimately merged with Dynasty Warriors developer Koei.

Frankly, we don’t get Nier. In Japan there are two different Nier games with different names and slightly different plots coming exclusively to the 360 and PS3, but in the US, we’re just getting one of those, but it’s coming to both the 360 and PS3! And if it wasn’t bad enough we’re expelling all this energy keeping Nier straight, we already sort of hate it.

At least one thing — the release window — is now clear: Square emailed this morning to let us know that the game would arrive in spring this year. Square also haughtily informed us that the game is an action RPG rather than a pure action game, and should be classified as such. Hey, isn’t it enough if we remember how many of them exist?

Nier gets close in spring 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Tecmo’s third-person-shooter Quantum Theory for the PS3 has been dated for Japan.

Quantum Theory is penciled in for March 25.

The game was developed by Tecmo’s Team Tachyon, which recently developed Undead Knights and before that Wii title Rygar: The Battle of Argus. Quantum Theory features a cover system a la Gears of War. The spin is that the environment is “living”, so ideal cover can disappear.

The release comes in two flavors: standard and limited editions. The ¥9,980 limited edition one is packed with a special art book, a soundtrack CD and a character download code for multiplayer. Standard version is ¥7,980.

Lost Planet 2 may be produced in Japan by Japanese developers at a Japanese company, but it’s rooted in Western design philosophies — namely, the art of shooting. In a Capcom published developer interview, producer Jun Takeuchi explained the company’s marketing strategies in and outside of Japan.

“In foreign countries that account for a large share of sales,” Takeuchi said, “we are going to rely on the brand recognition of Lost Planet and emphasize the new features in the game, as well as four player co-op mode.” To emphasize the parts of the game that Japanese gamers might be more interested in, Takeuchi suggested, “we’re going to focus on pushing the concept of ‘enjoying four player co-op mode’ instead of the fact that this game is an action shooter.” In other words, Capcom’s hoping to make Lost Planet 2 sound as much like Monster Hunter as possible.

Additionally, as part of its “Single Content Multiple Usage” multimedia initiative, Takeuchi said that Capcom may extend Lost Planet to manga as a promotional tool in Japan.

Takeuchi on marketing Lost Planet 2 across our planet originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Metal Slug XX, due out for Japanese PSPs this month, joins three other SNK arcade titles on Xbox Live Arcade in early spring, Siliconera reports. In the past SNK has released its Japanese, North American and European XBLA titles simultaneously.

The three other titles going to XBLA are NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, The King of Fighters 2002: Ultimate Match, and KOF Sky Stage. Then SNK will finish The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match for summer 2010.

Siliconera says that, while the release windows have only been announced for Japan, in the past SNK’s Xbox Live Arcade games have arrived in North America and Europe the same time they release in Japan, whether or not they’re fully translated.

More Metal Slug And King of Fighters For Xbox Live Arcade [Siliconera]