Japan Sales 2010: Monsters, Mario Clean Up

Console software remained brisk all year in Japan, but a major slowdown in hardware purchases resulted in a drop of 9% in total sales for the Japanese game industry, according to figures released by media outfit Enterbrain in the latest issue ofFamitsumagazine.

The total size of the console biz in Japan last year was estimated at 493.6 billion yen (about $6.03 billion), with software sales down by about 2.5% over 2009 and hardware down by nearly 19% to 175.6 billion yen.

In software, Nintendo was by far the most successful publisher, with a total of 11.4 million games sold through in Japan -- and that's not counting Pokemon, which is technically published by a satellite company in the region. Out of the top 100 bestselling games of 2010, one out of five were Nintendo titles.

"The game industry may have seemed largely dormant for most of 2010,"commentedFamitsu'seditorial team,"but seven titles sold over a million nonetheless {the same number as in 2009} and software sales remained steady. On the hardware side, the PSP did very well, with a variety of new models and colors helping Sony sell half a million more units than the previous year. Meanwhile, the Nintendo DS's seemingly insurmountable lead dropped a bit, perhaps due to users waiting for the 3DS to go on sale. With the 3DS coming in February, 2011 is shaping up to be a transitional year for hardware platforms."

A list of the top 20 bestselling games in Japan for 2010:

1.Pokemon Black/White(4,914,813)

2.Monster Hunter Portable 3rd(3,480,989)

3.New Super Mario Bros. Wii(1,599,845)

4.Wii Party(1,539,228)

5.Dragon Quest VI (DS)(1,297,344)

6. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (1,276,303)

7.Tomodachi Collection(1,196,148)

8.Super Mario Galaxy 2(900,539)

9. Inazuma Eleven 3 (890,440)

10.Wii Fit Plus(849,664)

11.Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker(780,969)

12.Super Mario All-Stars(753,019)

13.Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep(733,248)

14.God Eater(617,828)

15.Wii Sports Resort(577,042)

16.Donkey Kong Country Returns(559,968)

17.Yakuza 4(557,771)

18.Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage (PS3)(553,229)

19.Gran Turismo 5(545,127)

20.Mario Kart Wii(527,874)

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Grateful Dead Videogame in the Works

The Grateful Dead are the latest band to make the transition into videogames, as developer Curious Sense announced this week that it is developing an online and mobile title starring the classic American rock and roll band.

According toa reportby USA Today, this will not be a rhythm game along the lines of Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Instead, it seems to be a collection of mini-games, each themed around a specific track.

"It could be, for example, Terrapin Station or it could be Dark Star and they will be taken into a game that is specific to a certain song,"said Curious Sense founder Adam Blumenthal."Even Angry Birds, this new blockbuster game, that model could maybe be adapted for a game based on the song Samson and Delilah in which the chorus is 'If I had my way, I would tear this old building down'."

The game is expected to launch in August.

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Japan Review Check: The Last Story, Valkyria 3

The New Year holidays are over, and Japan's game industry is back to feverishly releasing new titles. It's a bumper crop for Asian console gamers this week, and here are the main highlights, as seen in the review section of this week'sFamitsumagazine:

-The Last Story(10/10/9/9, 38 points): High marks abound for Hironobu Sakaguchi's latest full-scale RPG, with much of the praise focusing on the game's fights."The battle system seems complex at first, but it's actually simple enough to control that even casual users won't have a problem,"Famitsusaid."There's a ton of strategy involved. Your party members talk a lot, too, which adds a great deal to the feeling that you're on an adventure."

"It's a very classical RPG,"another reviewer added,"but the battle system is revolutionary in the way it combines fast action with deep strategy. It allows for players to come up with original strategies for any situation."

-Valkyria Chronicles 3(9/9/9/9, 36 points): Many gamers were disappointed that Sega's unique strategy/action hybrid series stuck with the PSP for the second release in a row, but luckily, the game itself doesn't seem to be any the worse for wear for it."The unique setting and deep storytelling elements really pull you in,"wrote one reviewer."The battle map helps with that, too, making it easy to gauge the situation at all times. I also like how each unit is really different; how you use and improve them has a direct effect on your battle tactics, which is fun."

"The BLiTZ system has been expanded and updated, giving you more freedom than ever,"another added."The more you understand it, the more unique the battle strategies you're able to come up with."

-MindJack(7/7/6/6, 26 points): Square Enix isn't doing much to advertise this shooter on either side of the Pacific, and looking at the review scores, it's plain to see why."The way you can switch to online co-op or competitive gameplay at any time in story mode is a novel idea,"one writer said."However, the game's hard right from the outset (because co-op play is a given, perhaps?), and battles tend to go on forever, which makes them samey after a while. The fact that not even a headshot will take an enemy down fast really hurts the pace of the game."

Another reviewer had different complaints:"The controls need work, like with the way you leave your cover if you move your view around in cover mode. The AI is a little suspect as well, with enemies and allies both flying into fire without any backup."

-Dragon Age Origins(10/10/8/9, 37 points): A variety of old-ish Western games are hitting Japan console shelves in the coming week, and Dragon Age Origins was by far the oneFamitsuhad the most enthusiasm for."With the game's deep setting and diverse range of characters, it's like you're in a medieval fantasy movie,"one review began."It's very impressive how much your party, the story, and the attitudes of people around you change depending on your decisions. It really makes you want to play the game with all the different races and classes."

Another writer summed it up well:"If you want to sit down and really get into a work of dark fantasy, this is the game for you. There's a lot you need to keep track of, but any fantasy RPG fan should try it."

-Scribblenauts(9/9/7/10, 35 points): Konami has finally localized the original Scribblenauts for Japan, andFamitsu's reviewers had a very interesting divergence of opinion about the results."There's a lot of fun stuff to do in this game -- finding new words, thinking about how to use items, discovering a novel use for something you had before,"one said."You can't help but want to show your friends whatever uncommon and neat solution you just came up with to solve a puzzle. It's that sense of discovery that makes this special, something you only see in games."

Another reviewer, while liking the concept, complained about a lack of real gameplay content."There isn't a lot here that motivates you to keep on playing,"he wrote."I think this is something you'll get bored of pretty easily. Some more story elements, or some kind of character-improvement system, would have been nice."

-The Sly Collection(8/8/7/7, 30 points): The reviewers were polite, if not all that adulatory, about the PS3 Sly Cooper compilation."All three games are easily approachable and don't require difficult controls,"one said."The first one is divided into stages and is pretty easy to handle, but the others are more about finishing missions in much larger environments, greatly expanding the 'thief' element."

"The camera angles are a bit rough in spots -- particuarly annoying in the first game, where you die in one hit,"another noted."Still, it's a very nice, well-connected package, even if the PS Move stuff is nothing more than a little bonus."

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Acquire Announces Game Set in Akihabara

Acquire, the Japanese developer behind theWay of the Samuraiseries, is changing things up a tad with their latest release.Akiba's Trip, revealed in Japanese game mags this week, is an action/adventure hybrid similar in style to the maker's samurai games, but with one difference -- it's set in modern-day Akihabara, the Tokyo neighborhood packed with game shops, anime outlets, maid cafes, and other otaku delights.

In Akiba's Trip, you play a typical 18-year-old nerd whose friend has recently gone missing. There's been a rash of disappearances around Akihabara lately, and rumor has it that the Kageyashi -- a shapeshifting vampire who can turn into anyone he wants -- is to blame. Hooking up with NIRO, an underground Akihabara group fighting the Kageyashi, you walk the streets of the famed"Electric Town"as you get to the bottom of this case.

Akiba's Trip takes place entirely within the streets of real-life Akihabara, which Acquire is reportedly taking great pains to recreate in 3D for this game. The developer has signed deals allowing for a large number of actual Akihabara shops to appear in the virtual neighborhood exactly where they are in real life, from hardcore game outlet Messe Sanoh to anime-goods dealer Tora no Ana.

The PSP title is due out April 14 in Japan; no retail price was given.

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Is a Walking Dead Videoame About to Be Announced?

A videogame based on the comic book and television series The Walking Dead may be in the works by a veteran adventure game developer.

According to an invitation we received Wednesday, Sam&Max and Back to the Future episodic game developer Telltale will be announcing five new multi-platform projects during a formal event in San Francisco on Thursday, February 17. Among them, says the invitation, is"one based on a just-launched property from the TV and comic book world whose popularity is changing life as some know it."

The Walking Dead television show, based on the Image Comics series, launched on AMC last October, fitting the vague description admirably. Admittedly we have no actual evidence to support this theory, though the series -- which often focuses on human interactions over zombie killing -- fits Telltale's style of games rather well.

We'll report back if and when we learn more.

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Yuji Naka's Studio Reveals Rodea

Japanese publisher Kadokawa Games released the first info today onTenku no Kishi: Rodea, the latest title from Yuji Naka's Prope studio and the first to be released on the Nintendo 3DS.

Rodea, which will be hitting both the 3DS and Wii systems, offers flight-based gameplay that's a bit like Naka's 1996 classicNights, except with more emphasis on shooting enemies and taking down enormous bosses. Control on the Wii version is handled entirely with the remote -- instead of directly controlling Rodea, you point to onscreen locations and tap the B button to direct him over there. A, meanwhile, is the attack button; you can press it down to fire at will, or point to objects or enemies and hit A to target them.

"I've always wanted a game that captured the wonder of flying through the air, the sort of thing everyone's dreamed about at least once in their lives,"Kadokawa producer Hitoshi Hasegawa toldFamitsumagazine."The idiosyncracies of player and camera control have always been a problem with that, but with his unique perspective and experience, Naka has been able to find a solution for us."

Rodea's story and world design is being handled by Takumi Miyajima, a game-industry veteran who's worked on RPGs likeTales of the AbyssandArc Rise Fantasia. The game is set in a fantasy world where two kingdoms compete for natural resources. The titular character, an android who's just been woken up after 1000 years of stasis, is thrown into the midst of this conflict and has to figure out which superpower to side with as he fends off his pursuers.

"The developers wanted a story that both kids and adults can identify with,"Miyajima said toFamitsu,"and so I wanted to emphasize the bonds and other feelings that people have for those they encounter in their lives. Seeing how Rodea, this mechanical creation with a very pure emotional outlook on the world, interacts with the other people in his world is something I think players will really enjoy."

No release date has been given for either version of Rodea yet.

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Duke Nukem Forever Release Date Revealed

Duke Nukem Forever, the long, long, loooong-awaited sequel to the original Duke Nukem 3D, finally has an official release date.

The game will debut for the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 onMay 3, 2011in the United States, with a worldwide release on May 6. This release date comes just overfourteen yearsafter the game was first announced.

Thanks toGame Informerfor the heads-up.

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Modern Warfare 3 Release Date Expected This Year

Modern Warfare 3 is well into production and is expected to be released this year, according to online reports.

L.A. Times blog Company Townreportsthat the game -- which has not yet been officially announced -- will be the first Modern Warfare title developed with outside help, as series developer Infinity Ward is said to be sharing single-player development duties with Sledgehammer Games. Singularity and X-Men Origins: Wolverine developer Raven Software is said to be developing the multiplayer component.

Citing"people familiar with the situation,"the report says that the game is expected to ship in November, and will be 2011's annual release in the Call of Duty series.

Sledgehammer was originally tapped to develop its own Call of Duty spin-off, often rumored to be a space adventure, but it is rumored that the departure of several key Infinity Ward staff last year caused development of that game to be put on the backburner in order to help Modern Warfare 3 reach completion.

If the November rumor is true, we expect to hear an official announcement either at or just before E3 on June 7.

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Final Fantasy XIV's New Boss Speaks

It seems fair to say that Square Enix would have likedFinal Fantasy XIV'slaunch to go a tad more smoothly. The MMO, which debuted on the PC in September, met with poor reviews and annoyed players worldwide, eventually leading to producer Hiromichi Tanaka'souster in December. Most of the core development team has since been reshuffled, and the PlayStation 3 port -- originally announced for early 2011 -- has now been put on indefinite delay.

"The decision {to make the team changes} was officially made in late November, although we had been talking along those lines with what are now the core members of the new team,"new producer/director Naoki Yoshida toldFamitsuin an interview published this week."I was in a position of responsibility within the FFXIV directorial team, and the state of the game is something that's been concerning me for a long time, so it's not as if this came out of the blue. Ever since we launched last September, we've received a great deal of requests and complaints from players. That certainly played a role in the reshuffling, but there's also the fact that if we're going to call this a Final Fantasy game, then the entire company needs to pitch in and raise the standard of quality."

Yoshida's name likely isn't too familiar to overseas gamers -- outside of his involvement with FFXIV, his main credit in Square Enix is theDragon Quest Monster Battle Roadline of Japan-exclusive arcade trading card games. Since officially taking over as leader of the MMO in December, Yoshida's been actively linking with the userbase via questionnaires and discussions posted on the official website.

How much change does he want out of the game?"My policy is that I'll never do a total wipe of the game,"he toldFamitsu."Players have a lot of memories wrapped up in their characters; wiping that out would be unthinkable. It's possible that we'll make adjustments that dramatically redefine skill ranks and player levels, but if so, we would allow players to reroll their parameters."

One possibility that came up in the player questionnaire was implementing an auction house -- a popular feature inFinal Fantasy XIthat was omitted from the new game."Up until now, we were too preoccupied with making FFXIV as different from FFXI as we could,"Yoshida commented."However, players plainly need an easy-to-use gameplay system that encourages a healthy in-game economy. If an auction house is that system, then I say we should implement it. Making everything new and original isn't necessarily the right thing all the time."

But what's going to be changed first?"The user interface,"Yoshida said."We can work on other things all we want, but if we don't fix the controls at the same time, then players will be too frustrated to fully appreciate the other improvements. Also, changes to the battle system. Right now, Eorzea is a little too peaceful, isn't it? I'd like to see more chances for players to work together and take down stronger enemies -- more of that Final Fantasy style of play."

How good a leader Yoshida proves to be will be shown in how FFXIV improves and expands in the coming year. In the meantime, though, PS3 owners probably shouldn't be holding their breath for the console port."I don't think we'll give a firm release date for it until we improve the game's quality,"the producer said. We want it up to the point where current players are saying to us 'This is fun!' before we do give one. I promise that we will give PS3 owners a game that's truly worthy of the Final Fantasy name."

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Monkey Island Games Get Porno Parody

Hit movies tend to spawnhilarious pornographic parodies-- Edward Penishands, Dawn of the Head and The XXXorcist come to mind -- but there are few examples of videogames receiving the same treatment. Rarer still are those videogame parodies that stay within their medium: Super Hornio Brothers is a classic, to be sure, but it isn't a game, it's a movie.

Independent developerGrimmstoneis doing its part to remedy this unfortunate oversight in our industry with the release of The Secret of Spunky Island, a parody of the classic adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island.

The game is part of an add-on pack for a pornographic Tetris-like game called Sexy Adventures on Porn Island, in which players fill the role of an adult film director creating parody movies by positioning the"actors"as they fall from the top of the screen.

The developers at Grimmstone appear to be genuine fans of the original, as the game seems to at least loosely follow its plot, with Shortplank Hardwood journeying to Scrumm Island to rescue Governess Molly Rhider from LeBonq. As the above image shows, LeBonq even employs ghost pirates on his ship, though we don't remember this particular scene in the game.

More on theofficial site. Warning: adult content (duh).

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PS3 App Reportedly Threatening Trophy System

It looks like the first genuine fallout of the now-infamous PS3 root key release has bubbled up, as reports are circulating that a new homebrew app allows cheaters to instantly unlock all the Trophies in a PS3 game, and even sync the illbegotten Trophies through the PlayStation Network so they show up on their Trophy lists.

The app, called PS3 Unlocker, of course only works on"jailbroken"consoles. According toCVG, one user on an unnamed (for obvious reasons) hacking forum claimed to have used the app, writing,"Just tried it with BUZZ Quiz TV (EU) original disc -- Played a round of the game then quit, trophy's now show as 100% I have 70% previously."Evidently it doesn't work with all games, though, asResident Evil 5: Gold EditionandBatman: Arkham Asylumfor some reason reportedly resisted the hack.

Sony issued a statement to CVG when asked about this application, although it is word-for-word thesame prepared statementthey released after the PS3's root key was published online:"We are aware of this, and are currently looking into it. We will fix the issues through network updates, but because this is a security issue, we are not able to provide you with any more details."

Once again, though, whether Sony can fix the issues through network updates remains to be seen -- hackers have claimed so far that the fallout of releasing the root key online is irreversible. As for the PS3 Unlocker app, one has to wonder: Doesn't cheating your way to instantly unlocking Trophies defeat the entire point and fun of unlocking them? Aren't these things evenmoremeaningless when you can't brag about the obsessive play-time it took you to achieve them?

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Cult Classic The Last Express Finally Available to Buy

Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner's cult classic adventure game The Last Express is finally available to purchase again after being unavailable for over a decade.

The game comes in a digital"Collector's Edition"courtesyDotEmu, which is a French distributor that operates similarly to Good Old Games. The pack costs $9.99 and contains the game's original soundtrack, a walkthrough, and a making-of video (presumably the same one that came on the original game's disc).

The Last Express is not very well known outside of the adventure game community, though ifrecent rumorsare true, a major film by RoboCop and Total Recall director Paul Verhoeven may put the game into the public spotlight that evaded it back in the 1990s.

Mechner himself seems to be particularly proud of this title, as evidenced bythis pageon his portfolio website, and he should be: The Last Express was an innovative take on the adventure genre that still holds up to this day.

This is not the only way the game has been available since its initial release, as games-on-demand service GameTap at one time offered access to the game as part of its subscription service. Today's release from DotEmu, however, is the first time players have been allowed toownthe game since it was on store shelves.

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THQ Almost Signed West and Zampella Instead of EA

Following the greatInfinity Ward Purging of 2010, we all know Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella ended up forming Respawn Entertainment and signing a publishing deal with EA Partners. But according to THQ core games boss Danny Bilson, itverynearly turned out differently -- and would have expect for one demand THQ couldn't meet.

"We were one deal point away from signing {Respawn},"Bilson said toWiredat a New York City event earlier this week."I saw {West and Zampella} recently, and they said it was that only one deal point, one that I wouldn't cave on."That deal point was about IP ownership: West and Zampella wanted to own the IP they created, and THQ couldn't agree to that demand.

"My responsibility to our stockholders and to my CEO and the company is to build an IP library,"Bilson said. And apparently it came down to not wanting to set a precedent that would"open the doors for everyone else to say, 'I wanna own it too.'"Zampella confirmed Bilson's account, saying they had"serious discussions"with THQ but"frankly, after what we'd just been through with Activision, owning the IP we were going to create was important to us. Unfortunately, THQ did not want to agree to that."

Electronic Arts, however, did -- EA Parters will publish whatever new franchise West and Zampella create, but Respawn Entertainment will still own the rights to it.

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Kojima Hiring for"Next Gen Metal Gear Solid Series"

We don't know much, but we know this: There will be more Metal Gear Solid. A job listing from Kojima Productions (viaAndriasang) states that the studio is hiring"Next Generation Metal Gear Solid Series Production Staff."

Kojima has been coy about what his next game will be followingMetal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, but this certainly suggests it will, indeed, be yet another Metal Gear Solid game (a series he's promised he was finished with something like three different times in the past). But then the wording is left vague enough that there could still be other possibilities -- maybe Kojima Productions is just hiring more staff to continue working on theMetal Gear Solid: Risingspin-off series. Or then again maybe it's both, as they'vestated in their pasttheir intention of turning Rising into a series that'll continue separate from the official MGS series, which theyalsoplan to continue.

But whatever game this job listing is for, we know it'll be multiplatform: the programmer category asks for candidates with experience on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. So could a potential Metal Gear Solid 5 be released on the PS3 and 360? First we have to see if Kojima's next game evenisMetal Gear Solid 5, so time will tell.

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New Bond Game Reportedly Green-lit Along with Film

License-holder MGM studios was locked in bankruptcy struggles for over a year, but they've finally announced that the next James Bond film will finally move forward in development and hit theaters on November 9, 2012. And this is apparently good news for gamers as well, as reports also state MGM is moving forward with a new Bond videogame to coincide with the movie.

Deadlinereports that along with the movie announcement,"yet another James Bond videogame, which also had been held up because of the uncertainty, recently got the go-ahead."That's as much detail as the report goes into, but it sounds like it could be referring to a new Bond game rumored to have been in development at Raven Software.

Back in December, areport circulatedthat Raven restarted development on a"stealth-centric"Bond game they had in the works, which was put on hold for a while both because of MGM's troubles and so Raven could work on Call of Duty DLC. A short reel of early development footage for the game surfaced at the time as well, but was quickly taken offline.

The last Bond game,Blood Stone(which wasn't connected to any movie), was released just back in November.

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Japan Review Check: Majin, Kinect Joy Ride

Bit of a slow week for console games right now worldwide. That goes double for Japan, where the top-rated game coming out (according toFamitsumagazine, at least) isZombie Daisuki, a cutesy DS game where you raise an army of zombies to fight monsters and defeat bosses for you. It's from Chun Soft, best known for the roguelike RPGs they've released a bunch of on the DS, and it cleaned up in the review pages of this week's issue, earning 33 points and the only Gold award this time around.

Whether it'll ever leave Japanese shores is a question we won't explore here. Instead, let's check out the other interesting games coming out in the next week over there:

-Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom(8/8/7/8, 31 points): Interestingly,Famitsu's scores for Game Republic's latest pretty well match what the Western media gave, on the average. There's no"home field"score boost, in other words, which is a bit of a surprise considering how muchFamitsuhyped the project once upon a time.

"Majin's dialogue and mannerisms are really cute,"one reviewer said,"and it's fun how you're going on this adventure with him. The story's nice, too, and I enjoyed how the hero and Majin have to work together, dividing their powers."

However, the game's assorted faults couldn't be ignored by the review crew:"In a way, the game's a little too simple for me, which led to disappointment. It's a shame that you're asked to do the same kind of actions so often in the puzzles, such as dealing with levers to open gates and so on. The camera angle has a habit of changing on you in the midst of battle, too, which is a little rough."

-Kinect Joy Ride(7/7/7/7, 28 points): The least noticed game in the Kinect launch lineup does about as well as you'd expect inFamitsu."It's the sort of thing that families and young children can easily enjoy,"one reviewer began. The controls are certainly simple enough for that, and the fact that there's a lot more to it than just racing (like score for tricks and doing poses) is nice."

Things went downhill from there, though."Trying to drive the way you want can be frustrating,"another editor wrote,"but you get ample chances to make up for mistakes, and it's a simple enough race game that I can deal with it. However, the game itself is too basic, really, and there's no depth at all to it. I get the impression that there's just not enough here."

-Venus&Braves(8/8/8/7, 31 points): This PSP game is a port of an RPG originally released by Namco on the PS2 in 2003. The game wound up being a Japan-only release at the time, something many RPG fans lamented due to its distinct look and uncommon, isometrically-oriented battle system.

"There's a lot of unique little quirks to this game,"saidFamitsu,"from how you need to position your party members in battle based on their skills to how you can have the offspring of members join the party later on. The battles seem simple at first -- just a matter of switching units in and out -- but it unlocks a great deal of tactical elements for you to play with as you figure out who to put in and who to have deal the final blow."

The PSP port has a few problems, though. One of the more noticeable ones: The voiced narration in the cutscenes doesn't always match the onscreen text, something two out of four reviewers brought up. More worrying, though:"The system is addictively novel at the beginning, but you go through long series of fighting the same sort of enemies. This makes the game seem more and more like work the further you advance."

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WoW: Cataclysm Sells 4.7 Million in December

Apparently it's not yet impossible to hit ridiculously astronomical sales numbers on the PC, provided your game has World of Warcraft in its title. In an announcement that will probably shock no one at this point, Blizzard revealed the latest WoW expansion,Cataclysm, sold a whopping 4.7 million units in December.

As previously revealed, 3.3 million of those 4.7 million units were sold in the first 24 hours of its December 7 release alone. The huge number makes Cataclysm the fastest selling PC game ever -- although technically, yes, it's an expansion pack and not a full-fledged game. So for sticklers, let's call it the fastest selling"PC videogame software"ever. And the game it beat to take the title? Surprise: the last World of Warcraft expansion,Wrath of the Lich King.

"We've been floored by the community's response so far, and we'd like to thank them for their continued passion and support for World of Warcraft, and for helping Cataclysm reach this incredible milestone,"said Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime.

Cataclysm certainly seems worthy of its huge success, though, as ourglowing reviewattests to.

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Nintendo World 2011: The 3DS Goes Public

Nintendohas been upfrontabout the difficulties of selling consumers a gaming console with a 3D display that can only be properly seen with the naked eye. Today the company kicked off Nintendo World 2011, a free public showing of the Nintendo 3DS outside Tokyo, giving thousands a first-hand look at the new handheld device.

Given the wild domestic success of the Nintendo DS and the lack of an admission charge, there were surprisingly small crowds at today's event. The above photograph was taken less than a half-hour before the doors opened, yet people at the end of the line were within visual range of the entrance. Contrast that with the Tokyo Game Show (held annually at this same convention center) where early morning visitors spend hours waiting outside.

On the show floor, empty stretches of chains reflected the lack of crowds. Of thesixteen playable titles, few saw waits of forty minutes or more. The most popular game by far wasThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Timewith posted wait times of over two hours.

Of course, the lack of crushing mobs was certainly not a negative, simply a statement as to how different Nintendo World felt as opposed to Tokyo Game Show. Whereas TGS is dark, loud and hard to navigate, today's event was bright, relatively quiet and pushing was non-existent. In fact, when the doors opened we were lead down the stairs by staff members who walked in front of us, arms outstretched, asking us not to run towards the booths.

The promotional material on the show floor demonstrated Nintendo's continued push towards a broad audience for the 3DS -- not just established gamer consumers. The five men pictured above are the pop group known as Arashi. They are a fixture in Nintendo's domestic advertising and they are extremely popular musicians/actors/television hosts. Videos shown on a loop at every booth featured all five members picking up a 3DS and marveling at the graphics. These commercials showed absolutely no game footage, just reactions to the console. I expect to see these ads on television very soon.

These game-free ads reflect the overall tone of today's event: the 3DS was the star of the show, more so than any individual title. At each new booth I approached, eager staff members made sure to point out the consoles' basic features -- the 3D slider, the analog nub, etc. One even went so far as to begin by identifying the device's name as if I didn't already know what it was.

Several booths were dedicated to software that will be pre-installed on every 3DS. The above booth was for visitors to play with the 3D camera. Another booth showcased card-based augmented reality games. Yet another featured"Face Shooting,"a game where players take a picture of themselves which is then mapped onto a 3D model. These models become animated enemies with blinking eyes and moving mouths for players to shoot down.

Besides these bundled applications, a number of today's playable titles will be available at the system's Japanese launch next month. Nintendo announced eight launch games today onthe company's official 3DS website, six of which (Winning Eleven,Ridge Racer,nintendogs + cats,Dynasty Warriors,Super Street Fighter IV, andProfessor Layton and the Mask of Miracle) were available to play today.Puzzle Bobblewas visible but not playable andCombat of Giants Dinosaurswas not shown at all.

Today's Nintendo World was only the first step taken by Nintendo to convince the general public that the 3DS is for real and worth the upgrade from the DS. They might not have shown up in droves, but those who attended seemed genuinely enthusiastic about what they saw here. Even those games which were hands-off demos hidden behind glass (seen above) drew lots of attention from visitors and booth attendants alike. Whether they're willing to drop 25,000 yen next month (approximately $301.10 USD, nearly as much as a PS3 or Xbox here), however, remains to be seen.

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1UP At Nintendo World 2011: Check Out Videos And Impressions Here

The usually secretive and elusive (at least when it comes to upcoming hardware) Nintendo has finally opened the 3DS to public scrutiny. Previously only shown at trade shows or press conferences, Nintendo is putting the 3DS on full display during Nintendo World 2011 in Japan this weekend, and here's our compilation of Nintendo World coverage. Start with our quick summary of the eventhere, and keep an eye out for updates and impressions as they come.

In the meantime, check out our videos of Nintendo World 2011 so far; here's the line just to get in:

Here's a quick walk-around of the show floor:

Check out this snippet ofKid Icarus: Uprisinggameplay narrated byKirbyandSmash Brothersguru Masahiro Sakurai:

Some more Kid Icarus: Uprising footage:

And our last bit of Kid Icarus: Uprising footage -- this time against a boss:

We also found some off-screen footage of the 3D Layton installment:Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle:

And finally, some footage from an upcomingResident Evil(we're assumingMercenaries, notRevelations) 3DS game:

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Unannounced PlayStation Phone Gets First"Review"

It started with a couple of tantalizing leaks. Then the leaks kept on coming. Now...well, now this is getting almost farcical. No, Sony did not officially announce the PlayStation Phone at CES this week -- but that hasn't stopped Chinese siteIT168from obtaining yet another leaked unit, and what's more, reviewing it.

Well, putting it through"evaluation efforts,"anyway, according to Google's translation of the website (viaEngadget). But of particular note here is that we now have a lot more details about the technical specs of the phone, at least as far as this model goes (which, to be clear, is not necessarily the final version that'll go to market). According to IT168's write up, the phone is powered by a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU, along with a 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8255 processor. This evidently results in the phone producing a graphics benchmark of 59.1 frames per second.

More details include a 4-inch LCD screen, 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, a microSD slot, SIM slot, and micro-USB connection. There's also, of course, a new wave of pictures and videos of the device provided, which also show off its menus (which are all in Chinese, naturally).

So, once again, all that's left now is for Sony to finally put their horse before their cart and announce the damn thing already. Maybe at GDC next month?

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Bobby Kotick's New Year's Resolutions Found?

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is without a doubt one of the most visible execs in the game industry, so it's not every day one has a find like this. 1UP memberrevocolot, known for his remixes on the1UP Oddcast, claims he has a friend who works as a janitor at Activision, and this guy happened upon some notes scribbled down and tossed away by Kotick upon his return to the office this week. We have no way of verifying the authenticity of this, but screw it, it's the start of the new year and we're in a funny mood, so we're passing it along.

Yeah, yeah, it's a slow day since CES hasn't officially kicked off yet.

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Microsoft Sold 8 Million Kinects Since Launch

Along with announcing Avatar Kinect and upcoming Kinect controls for Netflix and Hulu Plus, Microsoft also took a brief moment during their CES keynote for a little bragging. CEO Steve Balmer revealed that since its launch, the Kinect has sold 8 million units worldwide -- that's 8 million in about 60 days.

The number crushed Microsoft's target of 3 million Kinect sales by the end of 2010 that they set before its launch, and even went way beyond the 5 millionthey expectedto sell 10 days after it was on market. Then again, it's of course possible they were low-balling their sales targets to manage expectations a bit in the first place.

Still, 8 million in 60 days is a strong number, so at least so far, Kinect seems to be quite a hit.

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From CIA Director to Videogame Designer

On January 5, 1994 -- 17 years ago today -- game publisher Activision announced that it had hired 74-year-old former CIA director William Colby to consult on and direct a series of spy-themed computer games.

"{Colby's} first-hand experience makes him the key to successful one-of-a-kind, true-to-life espionage thrillers,"Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement released to the press that day, promising that the series would have"all the elements of a major motion picture."

According to interviews, Colby was at the time considering lending his expertise to films but, after being introduced to a copy of Activision's Return to Zork, decided to work with the publisher to bring a sense of realism to the videogame medium.

"Any fiction writer can come up with a spy story,"Colby told the long-defunct CD-ROM World magazine,"but I think my contribution is to be the reality check."

The result of this partnership -- which eventually included input from former KGB Major-General Oleg Kalugin as well -- wasSpycraft: The Great Game, a full-motion video adventure that tasks the player with unraveling an international conspiracy and, at several points, choosing among several branching story paths that force the player to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Further titles in the series never materialized, as Colby was found dead two months after SpyCraft shipped, the victim of an apparent boating accident.

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Looking Back: When Nintendo Was Accused of Discrimination

On January 4, 1990 -- twenty years ago today -- Nintendo of America responded to ongoing racism accusations and protests by adopting its first affirmative action policy. The policy, according to the group leading the protests, was inadequate, leading to even harsher criticism in the future.

The trouble started the previous year, when a group of 25 African American Nintendo employees took discrimination complaints to the Seattle CORE Group, a political watchdog organization. According to their complaints, Nintendo's workforce had fewer than 35 black employees out of around 1,600 total. Only ten of these were full-time employees, and none of them were supervisors.

"I've never considered myself an 'activist.' But it got to a point where I couldn't live with myself and keep working there,"Carey Wiggins, a former Nintendo temporary warehouse worker with a marketing degree, told theSeattle Times."I was passed over so many times. It was like a slap in the face to see everyone hired in front of me."

The Group sent a complaint to the Washington Employment Security Department and staged a protest at the Rainier Job Service Center (where a temp agency was interviewing prospects for Nintendo) after receiving an unsatisfactory response from Nintendo's Howard Lincoln, which leader Oscar Eason called"a bunch of nothing"that failed to address their complaints. The protest worked: the Commission stopped referring temporary employees to Nintendo for nearly a week while the charges were investigated and a meeting between Nintendo and the Core Group was arranged.

Nintendo's internal investigation revealed that the actual number of black employees among its 767-person full-time workforce (it didn't track minorities among its 900+ temporary workers) was actually 24, or 3.1 percent -- three of them managers. By comparison, the overall percentage of black employees in the counties Nintendo employed from was, at the time, 3.6 percent. Overall minority employment at the company was found to be 14 percent, which was actually higher than the entire minority population of the area, which was 13 percent.

"If you have basically the same percentage in your work force as the general population, it means you're not discriminating,"said Nintendo's Phil Rogers to a Seattle Times reporter."There is no smell."

Part of these accusations could be related to America's xenophobic nature toward Japanese companies at the time. Other companies under similar fire included Honda, Toyota, and Nikko Securities. Still, even Nintendo admitted that its numbers could be improved.

"There certainly is an indication there were a few problems that needed correcting, so I think Mr. Eason was warranted in bringing this kind of information to us,"Nintendo senior vice presicent Howard Lincoln told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer."I just feel bad that we were not able to get on top of it immediately."

Nintendo announced its new affirmative action policy on January 4 of 1991, but according to the Group, it was inadequate.

"They've drafted a generic plan that is skewed towards training and awareness, but has less of any kind of solid content,"said Eason."We had hoped to work out an agreement where African Americans would be retailing their products."

Such a policy, called a"fair-share agreement,"was already employed by companies like Burger King and Coca-Cola. Unfortunately, this was impossible for Nintendo to agree to, as Nintendo did not operate its own retail shops; it sold its products to independent dealers.

"We can't agree that some percentage of our dealers will be minority firms,"said Lincoln."That's not the way it works."

Regardless, the CORE Group's spat with Nintendo continued. Nintendo placed job ads in minority media and held job fairs especially for African Americans, and CORE continued causing a stir in the press.

"They are not interested in improving their working environment,"Eason told a reporter."A sister went out there to work for them. While she was reading the affirmative action plan, some Japanese came out and threw something at her."

By December of 1991, according to Eason, Nintendo stopped returning the Group's calls."They said, you guys are talking to the press and we're not going to do anything,"said Eason."This is as much as we'll give you."

Eason protested the sale of the Seattle Mariners to Nintendo in 1992, but this appears to be the end of his public battle with the company's hiring practices. He went on to serve for a time as the president of the Seattle branch of the NAACP, and currently serves on theCommission on African American Affairsfor the state of Washington.

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Half-Minute Hero Sequel Launches Twitter Caption Campaign

The sequel to 2009'sHalf-Minute Herois coming to Japan next February and Marvelous Entertainment has launched a special Twitter campaign to get fans communicating about the high-speed PSP RPG.

Visitors toTwitter30.jpcan choose a screenshot from the upcoming game and write a caption of 100 characters or less. These are then posted on the user's Twitter feed and the Twitter30 website. Naturally, submissions must be written within 30 seconds.

The website is entirely in Japanese but there's nothing to stop users from submitting content in English. It might even make the people at Marvelous consider a Western release for Half-Minute Hero Second which has yet to be announced. For now , the game is scheduled to be released in Japan on February 10, 2011.

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Thirty Years Ago Today: The Very First Videogame Charity Marathon

Thirty years ago today, six young people stepped into the Gold Mine arcade in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, set a bucket next to an Asteroids machine, and took turns playing for the next five straight days, raising money for a family in need. This very well may be the first recorded videogame charity marathon in history.

The participants -- The Hill high school students Dan Arch, Jan Trunzo, and Rob Kovach, along with friends Andy Galamba and Bruce Walters -- played in four hour shifts, and accepted donations for the family of 18-year-old Leo Wampole, who died Christmas day of pneumonia complicated by cerebral palsy. Remarkably, none of them had ever even met Wampole.

"I didn't know him at all, but it's a very good cause,"Arch told a United Press reporter at the time.

Leo Wampole spent most of his 18 years confined inside of his low-income housing project due to the severity of his illness. When he passed away, a local funeral director gave Wampole a free burial, but his mother Carol was unable to pay for a grave marker.

At the end of the marathon, which lasted 132 hours, hundreds of dollars were raised for the Wampole family. The marathon might have gone on longer, but the three high school students had to return to school on Wednesday; their Winter vacations were over.

"My eyes started to smart after a while, but the hardest part was standing around for 3 1/2 hours,"Walters told a reporter.

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The Murder of Jonny Habib

On New Year's Day in 1984, 18-year-old New Yorker Jonny Habib was beaten to death with a baseball bat in an Upper East Side arcade, the victim of a possible mistaken identity and whatone reportcalled"a spasm of teenage machismo."The arcade was running without a license, and according to some reports, other patrons continued playing their games as the murder took place.

Habib -- described as a tall, lanky young man with a love of electronics, videogames and girls -- was the son of separated parents, and the grandson of a Turkish rabbi. He was a dancer, and had a particular fondness for disco rollerskating and hanging out at Studio 54. On the morning of the first, plans to hang out with his girlfriend fell through, so Habib headed down to the Games, Games, Games arcade to play Atari's Star Wars, one of his favorites.

Games, Games, Games was seen by most as an unlicensed arcade, and one that officials had been attempting to shut down for the past two years. Zoning regulations of the time prevented large game parlours from operating in the area, but the arcade's owners -- a company called March Toys -- maintained that Games, Games, Games was not an arcade. Rather, it was a showroom floor for the sale of arcade cabinets directly to consumers. The quarters spent on the games, they maintained, were"down payments"toward an eventual purchase.

At about 7:30 that night, 17-year-old Joseph Brennan and 21-year-old Richard Dinnery entered the arcade, the latter wielding a baseball bat, searching for a man named Brian. Allegedly Brian had been harrassing Brennan's girlfriend, who was also Dinnery's sister. It is unclear exactly what provoked the attack (Brennan later testified that Habib gave him"a funny look"), but witnesses said that Brennan started punching Habib while Dinnery came behind him and hit him over the head with his bat.

Witness reports say that Brennan threatened the other arcade-goers while the fatal beating commenced, telling them to continue playing their games. Dinnery's beating was savage, and at trial, it was revealed that even Brennan had trouble stopping him.

The beating doesn't appear to be a case of mistaken identity, at least not entirely, as the duo eventually found Brian that night, who managed to get away with a few bruises before police chased the attackers away.

Three days after the attack the owners of the arcade quietly trucked all of the games out and padlocked the doors, shutting down the entire operation. At trial Brennan was given the maximum sentence of 7 to 22 years for combined manslaughter and assault charges. Dinnery went to trial separately under a plead of insanity, but we were unable to locate records of that trial.

{Images:New York Magazine, via Google Books}

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