Japan always have it slightly better, right? First the FFVII Crisis Core PSP, then the early DualShock 3 release and now Japan is getting the 40GB and a price drop on the 20GB (they still make those?) and 60GB models. So what's new? Europe is getting the same thing, right? Wrong - Japan is getting a new PS3 colour for the 40GB model as well as matching Dualshock 3 controllers. The new 40GB PS3s and controllers (all in Clear Black and Ceramic White) will be available on November 11th, about a month after the European release, and will sell for 39,980 yen (around 340 dollars or 240 euros). The Dualshock 3s will not be bundled with the console but will be available for 5,500 yen each (about 33 euros or 47 dollars).
In addition to this, effective October 17th the 20GB and 60GB models will be dropping price to 44,980 yen (about 384 dollars or 273 euros) and 54,980 yen (about 334 euros or 469 dollars) respectively. They will also be eligible for a free copy of Spider-Man 3 on Blu Ray for the first 200,000 purchasers, as will the 40GB once it is released. With price drops of about 5,000 yen across the board, and the inclusion of a new budget system, Sony really seem to be pushing forward through this holiday season.
If you're disappointed about not getting rumble until next year, or you just want a white controller, then don't fret. Most of this year's new games will have rumble out of the box so feel free to import the controllers from Japan.
They say that Japanese and American gamers have different taste in games. Well, that certainly appears to be the case in Japan. Lair (or Rise from Lair, as it's called in Japan) has been getting a serious push by Sony's Japanese marketing team. They might have an easier job of selling the game in the territory, thanks to the fantastic critical reception of the game. Famitsu, Japan's leading gaming magazine awarded the game an impressive 34/40, which is far more generous than the current critical average of 55/100.
Will Lair be able to dominate the Japanese sales charts next week? With Halo 3 taking the top spot this week, it seems anything is possible.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi is known for creating some off-the-wall games. I mean, this is the same guy who helmed Space Channel 5, Rez and Lumines, but Angel Love Online could be the strangest one yet.
While the free-to-play MMO features the standard RPG knights, mages and robots, you'll also apparently be able to command humanoid pigs, cats, dogs, zombies with candles on their heads, Native Americans and several creatures the English language has no names for.
Although, it's difficult to understand what's going on in the video since it's all in Japanese and the screen is obscured by disturbingly cute characters, Mizuguchi and his team definitely know what they're doing ... at least we think they do.
A very small, very strange update for Japanese PSN users today. The following item is available for free:
FolksSoul new Folk "Gemaga editor-in-chief"
That probably doesn't make any sense to anyone at first, but let us explain. In FolksSoul (better known to non-Japanese as Folklore) there are monsters called "Folks", and you can capture these monsters' souls and use their powers against your foes. This update adds a new monster, who just happens to be the editor-in-chief of Japanese video game magazine Gemaga. He uses his narcissistic pose to unleash a barrage of flower petals to attack enemies... or something. Let's just say today's Japanese PSN release is like an inside joke that no one but the Japanese could understand, okay?
The Japanese PSN site lists the demo's name as "Heavenly Sword" Nariko Personal Experience version (or at least that's what it roughly translates to). Assuming it's the same demo that the US had, maybe "Nariko Personal Experience" is Japanese code-speak for 5 minute tease?
A book was recently released in Japan called "プレステ3はなぜ失敗したのか?" tries to answer the question "Why did the PS3 fail?" It's a bit early, but the sensational title certainly will turn heads (as it did ours).
It's clear that system sales did not meet Sony's expectations. However, it's premature to declare any system a "winner" or "loser" in a generation that has been in motion for less than two years.
First of all, we're late with this update by a day. Actually, two days if you live in Japan. Secondly, we have been neglecting our Japanese PS3 account owning friends a bit. We apologize for all that, but we'll start righting that wrong, by listing these new items in the Japanese PlayStation Store:
While America has gotten a fantastic amount of new content in their PlayStation Store weekly update, Japan's update is no slouch either. Sporting fourteen new PlayStation titles that can be played on your PSP or PS3, they continue to get showered in retro love. Here's the full list of updates:
PlayStation titles:
Ape Escape
Athena –Awakening From The Ordinary Life-
ECHO NIGHT
Crash Bandicoot 2
Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi S
King's Field 2
Major Wave Series : The Conveni 2
Major Wave Series Arcade Hits: Sonic Wings Special
Memorial * Series: Sunsoft Vol. 2: Route-16 Turbo & Atlantis no Nazo
The chief marketing analyst for Japanese analysts group Enterbrain, has stated that he believes Sony Japan will follow SCEA's lead and will introduce the 80GB PS3 in Japan as well as slash the price of the current 60GB model. He feels that Sony Japan is unlikely to go the Sony Europe route and merely introduce a new bundle, but will slash the price and bring out a new SKU in response to struggling PS3 sales.
While Hot Shots Golf 5 has helped boost the sales of the PS3 by over 200% in the Land of the Rising Sun, the sales still pale in comparison to the Wii and it seems likely that Sony Japan will need to slash prices to help keep the sales spike going. Hopefully they'll take notice of the sales generated by titles like Hot Shots 5 and Ninja Gaiden: Sigma as well and realize that as important as the price of the console is, available and attractive games are really what sells a system.
If you'll pardon the rather heavy handed pun in the title, we can let you in on some choice information regarding Sony console sales in Japan. The week ending the 1st of July saw increased sales for the PS3, PS2 and PSP. We've collated all the interesting statistics into handy bullet points for you, so check them out below. All increases are compared to the week ending the 24th of June.
PS2: 16,316 sold. An increase of 26%
PSP: 38,305 sold. An increase of 15%
PS3: 11,914 sold. An increase of 20%
The PS3 is clearly seeing the effects of the previous week's releases. Most notably, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, FolksSoul and perhaps even Boku no natsu yasumi 3. With figures rising like this from week to week, even before any AAA titles have been released, we should be seeing huge rises once titles like Lair and Heavenly Sword start making their way onto the shelves.
The Japanese PSN has had a veritable explosion of PS1 titles added to its collection. This puts the total number available on the Japanese Store up to twelve million or so now, we think. Hopefully we'll be seeing some more being released onto the US and EU stores in the near future. The full list of titles made available today are as follows.
AI Mah Jong Selection (hamster)
DEPTH (Sony computer Entertainment)
Gussun Paradise (IREM software)
Jet Moto (Sony computer Entertainment)
Jumping Flash! 2 (Sony computer Entertainment)
Major Wave Series: Puzzle Mania 2 (hamsters)
Major Wave Series: Zipangu Jima: Unmei wa Saikoro ga Kimeru!? (Hamsters)
Samurai Spirits IV: Amakusa Kourin Special (SNK Playmore)
Spectral Tower 2 (Idea Factory)
SuperLite 1500 Series Cotton original (Success)
SuperLite 1500 Series Sanvein (Success)
The King OF Fighters '98 (SNK Playmore)
The King OF Fighters '99 (SNK Playmore)
The King OF Fighters Kyo (SNK Playmore)
XI [sai] (Sony computer Entertainment)
There are a total of two games in that list that, if made available, we would download. Perhaps it's best to stick with the quality-over-quantity philosophy that SCEA and SCEE have for the PS1 releases. Though having said that, perhaps there's a happy medium between the two that means we can actually get some new games at some point.
The Japanese sure have crazy advertisements. Our favorite this week? The ad for FolksSoul (aka Folklore). The newly released demo highlights the title's unique SIXAXIS controls, where shaking your control can suck the soul out of a monster. But, what happens when that concept becomes too real? Check out this commercial, and a strange Ninja Gaiden Sigma ad, after the cut.
Sony's Network Ticket allows gamers without credit cards to make purchases off the PlayStation Store. Sony's lively collection of tickets will be available to purchase next week, June 6th. Japanese gamers must visit kiosks at a participating convenience stores and ATM machines.
So far, there are no plans on releasing the Ticket outside of Japan. However, depending on the popularity of these prepaid cards in Japan, that might change.
Polls and surveys, in their ever-accurate representation of market share, can at least show how certain audiences are reacting to what companies are offering. Take this latest chart for example. Amazon of Japan has some numbers which show the next-gen Sony console climbing past the Nintendo Wii in popularity. To be specific, we're talking about the 60GB version as the 20GB PS3 was the least popular.
Yes, this does in fact contradict a Famitsu poll that showed quite the opposite (with the Wii taking 73% and the PS3 pulling out 17%). What readers need to understand is that this is coming from Amazon's vantage point and doesn't take into consideration the opinions of retailers or developers. It's a relative poll showing some positive feedback, which is always welcome, but it's not definitive (and as Sony fanboys, we know about over-reacting and how to avoid it).
In the end, this does show some good news for Amazon of Japan though. However we're still waiting on those scientifically proven surveys to come out (should be any minute now...).
Here's some more quote cud to chew on, this time from CEO Howard Stringer. The big boss has admitted that they're taking a pretty big gamble with the price of the new console, but if the full potential is realized then the console will essentially be "future-proof" while kickin' around for years to come.
The "total potential" is the key point to that issue. The only way we're going to see the full potential lived up in the console is if third-party developers can push the hardware as far as they can (and how about some more innovation while we're at it?). Of course the more complicated the system becomes, the harder that's going to be. But once that happens, fans might be echoing his sentiments of the competition: "I don't think anyone will be worried about Nintendo or Xbox's cheaper price." We'll see!
A book was recently released in Japan called "プレステ3はなぜ失敗したのか?" tries to answer the question "Why did the PS3 fail?" It's a bit early, but the sensational title certainly will turn heads (as it did ours).
First of all, we're late with this update by a day. Actually, two days if you live in Japan. Secondly, we have been neglecting our Japanese PS3 account owning friends a bit. We apologize for all that, but we'll start righting that wrong, by listing these new items in the Japanese PlayStation Store:
The chief marketing analyst for Japanese analysts group Enterbrain, has stated that he believes Sony Japan will follow SCEA's lead and will introduce the 80GB PS3 in Japan as well as slash the price of the current 60GB model. He feels that Sony Japan is unlikely to go the Sony Europe route and merely introduce a new bundle, but will slash the price and bring out a new SKU in response to struggling PS3 sales.
If you'll pardon the rather heavy handed pun in the title, we can let you in on some choice information regarding Sony console sales in Japan. The week ending the 1st of July saw increased sales for the PS3, PS2 and PSP. We've collated all the interesting statistics into handy bullet points for you, so check them out below. All increases are compared to the week ending the 24th of June.
Polls and surveys, in their ever-accurate representation of market share, can at least show how certain audiences are reacting to what companies are offering. Take this latest chart for example. Amazon of Japan has some numbers which show the next-gen Sony console climbing past the Nintendo Wii in popularity. To be specific, we're talking about the 60GB version as the 20GB PS3 was the least popular.
