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Sony Believes Vita Japan Launch “A Good Start”

Joshua Spudic
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Despite retail sales that would make any CEO of an electronics giant worry, Sony has been cool about the Japanese launch of the Playstation Vita. In fact, they have a very optimistic look at the launch figures and the future of the handheld. Sony’s chief financial officer Masaru Kato had this to say when they had revealed sales figures during the latest financial call:

Now the company has not publicly announced the units of shipping and sales, [but] at the appropriate time, we would do so. But as far as sell-through, three weeks have passed and our sell-through is 500,000. This was announced on the 10th of January. So as a start, I think we had a very – a good start.

Including software and hardware, we are carrying out the sales promotions and we do it to boost the sales, and we do not think we have any problems.

In order to support the Playstation Vita after the international launch later this month, Sony have to be optimistic, otherwise lose customer and third party support for the handheld. Is this misplaced optimism by Sony? No, it is not. The Vita is a great piece of hardware. It will also help determine the future of not only future Playstation portable devices, but also the future of the dedicated handheld space. However, sales of the 3DS show that the dedicated handheld can succeed in this market. Let’s hope that the Vita can see success.

Source: Eurogamer

Jak And Daxter Collection Going Digital

Joshua Spudic
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Just like the Sly Collection and the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection, the Jak and Daxter Collection will be heading to the Playstation Store. The digital copies will be released alongside the retail release of the collection. This will be a first for the HD collections Sony have released, as both Sly and Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were released on the Playstation Store after release at retail.

However, the nature of the digital release will be the same as the other two collections. Each game will be released separately at $14.99 each. All together, it will cost players $44.97. In contrast, all three games will be available at retail for $39.99. That is quite strange, as digital copies should be cheaper than the retail version. Maybe Sony will offer all three games in one package for digital release soon, as consumers will not want to spend more for all three from the Playstation Store, considering that it does not come in packaging and does not require shipping.

The Jak and Daxter Collection will be available on the Playstation 3 on February 7.

THQ loses $56 million in Q3

Travis Bruno
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THQ loses $56 million in Q3

After all the bad news we’ve heard about THQ over the past week this piece of news should come as no surprise. THQ’s CEO Brian Farrell began yesterday’s third quarter earnings meeting with investors with some rather unfortunate news. Apparently last time they talked he had promised that the company had been “anticipating that our third quarter would be the largest in our company’s history. Unfortunately, we were wrong.”

It seems that over the last quarter, the company has actually lost $56 million during the earning period that ended on December 31, 2011… which means over the holiday season THQ actually lost money while most companies were seeing profits. In fact they actually lost three times more than they did last year. It appears that, while Saints Row: The Third and WWE ’12 did well for the company, the uDraw tablet system cost the company the most money.

Farell explained to investors that the company still has “1.4 million [uDraw units] still in inventory we haven’t sold that we planned on selling.” Though if the company did not go for the uDraw option, they “would have doubled the profitability in the quarter.” Now it is quite obvious as to why THQ has stopped making games for children.

Game of Thrones Invites you to Riverspring

Claire Phillips
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Game of Thrones Invites you to Riverspring

The first half of 2012 is going to be a busy one for Game of Thrones fans. The first season of the award winning HBO TV show will release on Blu ray and DVD next month,  shortly followed by the premiere of season two  on April 1st. Rounding out the package is Game of Thrones the RPG, being brought to life by Cyanide Studios and published by Focus Home Interactive in May of this year.

The game has just seen the release of a new location trailer accompanied by a handful of screenshots. Just one of the many locations open for exploration in the game will be Riverspring, a troubled waterside town ruled over by the Sarwyck family. Alester Sarwyck is one of the two playable characters in game, who finds himself returning to his ancestral home after fifteen years of self imposed exile. Mourning the death of his father, Alester must consider reclaiming Riverspring in his own name. Riverspring and the Sarwyck’s are not mentioned in the novels (as far as I recall), but hopefully author George R R Martin’s involvement in the title will allow the new location and characters to slip seamlessly into the realm of Westeros.

Clicking on the thumbnails below will give you a closer look at the latest screenshots, and the new Riverspring trailer is ready and waiting below – can Game of Thrones the RPG make us forget the disappoint that was Game of Thrones Genesis?

The Witcher 2 Gets a New Dev Diary

Julien Durand
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With The Witcher 2 coming to the Xbox 360 on April 17th, CD Projekt Red, the developers of the game, have taken time out to detail just what will be different and improved in the new “enhanced” edition of the game.

Some of the more notable points are the refinement of the combat system, new quest content during the main game to add further depth to the world inhabited by Geralt, and the fact that all of the updates and improvements being brought to the Xbox version of the game will also be translated over to the PC completely free of charge (and so thousands of gamers go from feeling duped to endless jumps of elated joy).

Check out the whole video diary below!

NIS America announces acquisition of Occult Academy anime; releases trailer

Travis Bruno
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NIS America has been very aggressive ever since the start of 2012 when it comes to licensing anime. This includes picking up multiple series that just began airing in Japan as well as acquiring a few older anime as well. Today NIS America has revealed that they have picked up the rights to the 2010 anime called Occult Academy.

While the anime name may fit in quite well with their upcoming release of Disgaea 3 on the PS Vita it is currently set to be released a little bit after that game on May 8th. They will be releasing the series on two Blu-ray discs which is a separation from the previous releases from NIS America would they would release a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.

Occult Academy will be given the standard loving treatment from NIS America by releasing the anime as a Premium Edition that will include a 36 page artbook that contains multiple bonus features such as draft designs, an occult encyclopedia and more as well as four bonus short episodes. Those eager to see what the contents will look like can see all the bonuses below.

For those who don’t know the anime series follows a boy sent back in time from hellish future where the world has been devastated by aliens. This boy, Fumiaki Uchida, has been sent back to the year 1999 in an attempt to destroy the “Nostradamus Key” to stop the apocalypse from ever happening. There he meets Maya Kumashiro, the daughter of the former principle of the Occult Academy who hates everything that the school represents. However upon meeting Uchida, the two must work together to prevent the destruction of the world.

PlayStation Vita now playable at 3,300 GameStops

Travis Bruno
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One of the biggest advantages of a demo is that players can try before they buy. However when it comes to consoles there obviously is a limitation on what type of demo can be released to the public. As such, Sony and GameStop will now have a PlayStation Vita demo unit set up in 3,300 stores across North America for gamers to try out.

The games that will be available to play on the demo unit are Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, wipEout: 2048 and Escape Plan. What are you waiting for… give your nearest GameStop a call and see if they have one of these units to try out so you can determine whether or not you should pick up the PS Vita when it is released in the next few weeks.

Twisted Metal gets censored and delayed in Europe

Travis Bruno
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David Jaffe has revealed today on NeoGAF that European fans of the Twisted Metal franchise are going to have to wait a bit longer than everyone else in the world to play the game due to a few problems with localizing the title for release in the PAL regions. As such the game will be released sometime in March now rather than February.

Besides the delay David Jaffe has also revealed that the game will be censored slightly by SCEE. The majority of the censorship is supposed to have taken place in cutscenes, not the gameplay itself but it is still disappointing that such censorship must still exist. Though not outright stated, one can assume the reason for the delay is such censorship.

Bakuman. & Ikkitousen Great Guardians put on indefinite hold by Media Blasters

Travis Bruno
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Bakuman. & Ikkitousen Great Guardians put on indefinite hold by Media Blasters

Fans of the female fighting anime Ikkitousen series and those who like the Bakuman. series will be sad to hear that the company that was meant to localize these titles and bring them to North America has now put these releases on indefinite hold.

The company who owns the rights to these titles is Media Blasters, the same company which had laid off nearly all of its staff early last month. The exact releases that are on indefinite hold is Bakuman. Second Draft DVD Collection #2 which was meant to be released on February 29th and Ikkitousen: Great Guardians Complete DVD Boxed Set which was meant to be released March 31st.

Things have been looking bad for Media Blasters in the past month, and this is only making the situation worse for Media Blasters which may just be on the brink of closure at this point.

Stepto, of Xbox Live Enforcement, resigning this month

J. Bradshaw
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Stephen Toulouse will be quitting Microsoft on the 15th of February.  He was a member of Major Nelson’s podcast, and he also was the Director of Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement.  According to his blog, his “reasons for leaving are complex and personal, but the parting could not be more amicable. I continue to believe this place makes great technology, and I am absolutely thrilled for the future of Xbox and Xbox LIVE.”  He also mentions that, “My leaving’s not tied to any event or thing.”  Currently, he has no plans for what his future work might involve.  Major Nelson will be releasing a podcast today, and Stepto will be on it describing his departure.  Good luck Stepto.

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