The Ceramic White PS3 has been out for a while in Japan. Yet, we haven’t see any comparisons to the other white consoles (the Wii or the Xbox 360). Perhaps that’s because either: A). Not many people own all three B). Not many people give a crap. Still! This is a fascinating comparison from Facebook friend Saeed. Just look at the Ceramic White PS3. It’s pearly. The Wii, on the other hand, is a standard white. And the Xbox 360? Not so pearly and looks, well, kinda grey.
Time for Japanese retailers to look into their crystal ball and see stuff. Stuff like which games and game hardware will sell this holiday season. Japanese game mag even made a top ten list of their predictions of the the hottest products. Let’s dive right in and gaze at the future:
1. Wii Fit (Wii) 2. Dragon Quest IV (DS) 3. DS Lite 4. Wii 5. Slim & Lite PSP 6. None (no response) 7. Professor Layton and the Devil’s Box (DS) 8. Final Fantasy IV (DS) 9. Game Center CX (DS) 10. Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden (PS2)
Geez, wonder which retailers were BIG WET BLANKETS and refused to make unscientific predictions. Boo-hiss on them!
Wii Fit was released in Japan. Did you hear? It perform… admirably. Solid (if not spectacular) sales, some might say. In its defense, surpassing a quarter of a million copies is nothing to sneeze at, it’s just that some of us expected to perform ridiculously. Granted, Wii Fit faced some hefty competition from Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box and SD Gundam G Generation Spirits, so we’ll cut it some slack.
And, hey, not a bad debut for the Xbox 360 version of Assassin’s Creed. The PS3 version doesn’t hit Japan for over a month, so we’ll see if Sony fans help it chart well then, too. The following represent sales from November 26th to December 2nd.
Even though SEGA isn’t producing the Dreamcast anymore, the console lives on. Heck, tiny Japanese hobby developers still make shooters for it. The DC’s legacy continues in our hearts, minds and Czech children’s books. Over at UK:RESISTANCE, a reader writes:
Hello from Czech republic. I like to read UKR so I decided to send you pics from book I found in niece’s hands. It shows many common life things include electronics in form of drawn pictures. The author of book had to be very distinguished as Dreamcast was choosed as example of true video game system (and not the Sony crap) which should be recognised by kids
The Mac clearly dates the book, but still. There’s a generation of Czech kids who equate the Dreamcast with a video game console. Think about that!
Dreamcast was commonplace [UK:R]
Angry Gamer is reporting that Brisbane-based developer Auran will be making a number of staff redundant tomorrow, as the company faces financial difficulties – no doubt a result of the lacklustre reception its MMO Fury received.
From the Angry Gamer story:
“Fury was a financial disaster, it lost Auran a lot of money”, one anonymous source told Angry Gamer.
The story goes on to say that Auran’s QA department will feel the brunt of the cuts, and that Tantalus will take on “up to 20″ former employees.
I’ve sent an email off to Auran and Tantalus seeking more info. If true, it’s a sad development, regardless of how you may feel about Fury.
Personally, I wish Auran all the best. Let’s hope it doesn’t become Australia’s Interplay.
Auran out of steam [Angry Gamer]
Trinity, the latest content update for the sci-fi MMO EVE Online, is overwriting an important boot file required by Windows XP. As you can guess, the bug prevents affected systems from starting. Not only is this stopping people from playing the game, it’s making it rather hard for them to do much with their PCs at all.
There are three ways to update to Trinity – using a classic patch, classic to premium and full premium. It’s the second of these that’s causing the problem. The update comes with a file called “boot.ini”, which just so happens to be the exact same name for a critical file of Windows XP’s bootstrap. For some reason, the update overwrites this file, even though it resides in a completely different directory.
EVE Online developer CCP has confirmed that the bug exists and has posted various solutions on the game’s official forums. It’s my understanding that CCP is working on a fix.
Only Windows XP machines are affected, so Vista users and users of older versions of Microsoft’s operating system can sleep easy.
Boot.ini problems [EVE Online forums, via Atomic]
It may well have been, if the writers at Xbox World magazine are to be believed. They got hold of a copy just before the game was delayed a few months back, and the code they played wasn’t so great. Wasn’t good. Wasn’t even bad. It was worse than bad! As it stands, Army of Two is a juvenile swear-fest with clumsy controls, a story apparently penned by a seven year old who hates them ay-rabs, laughable level design that tosses you into a cut-scene every thirty seconds, sub Perfect Dark Zero graphics and the two least likable characters in gaming history. We’d rather play as a Bubsy the Bobcat/Raiden from Metal Gear Solid tag-team than these two douchebags. The delay is a stay of execution. It has four months to get even vaguely good. Hope for a miracle.
Hardly a glowing endorsement, then. How much can EA change in four months? Those with standing pre-orders may want to hope “everything”.
Misery loves company [Games Radar]
That’s the reception area for the new Nintendo San Francisco office. (By “San Francisco”, Nintendo means way out in Redwood Shores, which is an hour’s drive from SF.) Keep in mind that several key Nintendo of America execs chose leaving the company over relocating from Washington to this Northern California office. Looks pretty swank with Nintendo in classy gold lettering and all. Wired’s Chris Kohler scoped the place out, took pics of a kiosk room, a conference room and a half-eaten muffin. Good to know that Nintendo’s not only writing its logo in gold, but leaving half-eaten food around. How decadent!
Looooong time ago, Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki was accused – of all things – of sexual misconduct in the workplace. And while stereotypes and armchair judges of character had the man guilty at first reading, the law has found differently. Itagaki himself, speaking to 1UP: A verdict has been handed out in the sexual harassment case that was brought against me by a former female employee of Tecmo. I have held my head high and have fought the good fight for the past year in order to clear my name and to uphold the reputations of Team NINJA and of Tecmo. The former employee’s arguments were judged to have been false, and all claims that she has brought against me have been dismissed.
So not only did he win, he fought the good fight. Good thing he did. Otherwise we’d all go away thinking he and Team Ninja were a bunch of jubblies-obsessed pervs!
[1UP]
Michael Pachter doesn’t only gaze into crystal balls. Guy talks a lot of shit! Seems he’s hooked on flash game Tower Defence, and is not just wasting his days trying to hit the top of the game’s leaderboard, he’s slapping velvet gloves in the face of both MTV’s Stephen Totilo and Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal. Examples follow:Multiplayer: I wasn’t your motivation?
Pachter: No, it’s actually your wife I was gunning for.
Mulitplayer: Now have you proselytised this game out to other people? Are you continuing to sow the seeds here?
Pachter: I haven’t yet because I want to get a score on there that no one will ever top. Before I invite somebody foolishly like you and N’Gai provoked me into beating your scores. I don’t want to do that until I’m certain I have a score that my friends can’t beat. .. I’m N’Gai’s worst nightmare. He’s ruing the day he invited me to that leaderboard.
Oh, he so just brought your wife into it. Kick his arse, Totilo.
[MTV]
