Entertainment Electronics Blog

Level-5 held its annual Vision press conference in Tokyo last night (Saturday morning in Japan) for nearly two hours. It covered a great variety of games, among them the absolutely gorgeous Ni No Kuni, which was confirmed again to be headed to North America and Europe in 2012, now with Namco Bandai attached as publisher. We learned that Professor Layton has a son who will be starring in Layton Brothers Mystery Room, a reworked version of DS title Mystery Room that is now coming to iOS. The Gundam Age game made an appearance and we heard about how the aim is to make something for a younger audience fans in order to create a new generation of Gundam fans.

In addition to the conference, also taking place this weekend is Level-5 World, a two-day event being held for the first time ever. You can check out our liveblog for a recap of the conference and flip through our gallery to get a look at pictures and video from the ensuing event. Click on any of the photos for a larger view.

Sony may have abandoned the PlayStation Portable’s UMD format for Vita, but gamers will still be able to opt for physical copies of games if they so choose. The PSP Go experimented with the idea of a digital-only system in 2009, so why isn’t the Vita — being released in December in Japan and early 2012 elsewhere — also eschewing physical media? It all comes down to a matter of digital not being right for everyone at this point in time.

“We believe, for some consumers, the time is right, but for other consumers, the time is still not right,” Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told Edge. “So we believe the time is still not right to go download-only as a platform. Some PS Vita titles, like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, will be close to 4GB in size, which could be too large to download for consumers who do not have a fast broadband connection. Also, some consumers like shopping in retail stores, talking to knowledgeable store clerks, buying and playing games on the spot. We do not want to remove that capability from consumers.”

Fortunately for those who do wish to abandon the need for physical games, Sony has indicated more than once that all Vita retail games will be available as downloads. (There will be some downloadable games that can’t be found at retail, but by and large those should be smaller titles as opposed to something on par with Uncharted.) This is very good news, and it’s nice to see Sony learned from the PSP Go. Those who purchased the device had spent a premium to go digital-only and then were unable to play the entire back catalog of PSP games because many titles were not available on the PlayStation Store. To make matters worse, the lack of sales and competitively-priced content (as compared with what could be found at retail) made owning a Go a less than attractive prospect.

Two high-profile PSP games made their debut during Christmas week in Japan but only one of them could come out on top. Of course, in the land where Monster Hunter Portable 3rd still rules, “on top” is second place in this week’s Media Create sales figures (via Inside Games).

The victor was AKB 1/48, a dating game that features members of the J-pop supergroup AKB 48 (so named because there are 48 young women in the group). The game launched with four different retail SKUs, some including a special pink PSP, others just pink battery cases featuring kiss marks. All combined, these different versions sold 236,000 copies while The 3rd Birthday, the anticipated sequel to the Parasite Eve games, sold 140,000 copies and ended up in sixth place.

Two other debuts of note were Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force, an Xbox 360 port of a popular mech arcade game from 2001, and Echochrome ii, the Move-based puzzle game for PS3. Virtual-On ended up in 29th place and Echochrome fell somewhere out of the top 30.

This week’s Media Create hardware data comes from NeoGAF and it shows another increase across the board for all consoles. Individually the PSP remained at the top, but when all models are combined the DS actually sold a few more units. The Wii remained the number one home console by a wide margin.

The full Top 10 software chart (new releases in bold):

1.Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) – 404,000
2.AKB 1/48 Idol to itoshitara… (PSP) – 236,000
3.Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) – 214,000
4.Pokemon Black/Pokemon White (DS) – 165,000
5.Wii Party (Wii) – 162,000
6.The 3rd Birthday (PSP) – 140,000
7.Mario Sports Mix (Wii) – 136,000
8.Inazuma Eleven 3: The Ogre (DS) – 117,000
9.Ni no Kuni (DS) – 84,000
10.Tongari boushi to maho no omise (DS) – 74,000
And the hardware sales:

Home Consoles:

•Wii: 131,761
•PS3: 64,228
•360: 5,298
•PS2: 2,604
Handhelds:

•PSP: 177,691
•DSi: 93,464
•DSi LL: 92,329
•DS Lite: 5,790
•PSP Go: 5,380

Japanese consumers continued to devour Nintendo software and hardware according to the latest Media Create weekly sales report (via 4Gamer.net). The recent success of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd kept Sony at the top of the charts, but fifteen of the top twenty games run on Nintendo hardware.

Monster Hunter came in first place (again) with 581,543 copies sold, passing the 3 million sold mark in its third week of release. Likewise, the PSP remained the top-selling console in Japan with 162,558 units.

Making their debut in the top ten this week were two major sequels and a new RPG in a long-running series. Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 on PS3 came in second place, Inazuma Eleven 3: The Ogre (an updated version of the soccer-themed RPG) came in third, and Sega’s latest Shining RPG, Shining Hearts, came in sixth.

Floundering in seventeenth place was the Kojima-produced Castlevania Lords of Shadow, which arrived in Japan more than two months after its Western release. A special Japanese-dubbed edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops turned up in nineteenth place, but that’s not bad considering the subtitled edition arrived in November and did quite well.

Every gaming console saw bigger numbers this past week (yes, even the PSP Go), but Nintendo consoles saw the most growth. For the first time in weeks Nintendo took the majority of the console market with the Wii selling just under 100,000 units, outpacing the other home consoles in a landslide.

The full Top 10 software chart :

1.Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) – 581,543
2.Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 (PS3) – 185,908
3.Inazuma Eleven 3: The Ogre (DS) – 175,604
4.Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) – 163,310
5.Pokemon Black/Pokemon White (DS) – 152,990
6.Shining Hearts (PSP) – 106,733
7.Wii Party (Wii) – 92,949
8.Mario Sports Mix (Wii) – 87,114
9.Ni no Kuni (DS) – 74,329
10.Mario vs Donkey Kong MiniLand Mayhem (DS) – 54,628
And the hardware sales:

Home Consoles:

•Wii: 99,681
•PS3: 49,515
•360: 3,726
•PS2: 2,188
Handhelds:

•PSP: 162,558
•DSi LL: 72,146
•DSi: 71,804
•DS Lite: 4,227
•PSP Go: 1,949

After running a countdown clock that ended on Christmas Eve, Japanese publisher D3 revealed a trailer for four new installments in the Earth Defense Force series.

Two of the four titles in the trailer are console editions that are dated for 2011: Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable [sic] on PSP in the Spring, and Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon on PS3/360 in the Summer. The latter title has already been announced as coming to the US in March 2011.

Also coming next year – January, to be precise – is a mobile phone version called Earth Defense Force Legend. No details were released beyond an invitation for “20 million mobile users” to join the EDF.

Lastly, the trailer announced that the company is already “proceeding with development” on Earth Defense Forces 4 (above screencap courtesy of Hachimaki). The title suggests this new game will be a sequel to Earth Defense Force 2017 which was known as Earth Defense Forces 3 in Japan. How that will differ from Insect Armageddon was not explained, nor was any estimated release timetable.

The PSP version of Disney Interactive’s arcade racer Split Second will be out next month.

First released back in May for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, Split Second’s racing revolves around dropping explosive obstacles in front of opponents, such as crashing airplanes. We gave it an A in our review.

The PSP version adds an additional track as well as four-player ad-hoc multiplayer. There will also be a challenge mode.

Look for it on November 16.

Over in Japan this week, Namco Bandai Games took the wraps off Another Century’s Episode Portable, latest in their ongoing series of From Software-developed robot sims. The new title, a PSP exclusive, is due out January 13 in that nation for 6279 yen.

Originally debuting in 2005 on the PlayStation 2, Another Century’s Episode is an action game pitting mecha from Gundam, Macross and a variety of other anime series against each other in a single, unified story and mission set. Unlike the previous games, however, ACE Portable has no ongoing story; it’s instead a basic series of missions, which you’re able to tackle in any order you like. Why the lack of story focus? Because ACE Portable instead concentrates on multiplayer — up to three people can co-op their through the missions via the PSP’s ad hoc network mode.

The game is slated to feature robots from 20 different anime series, with mechs from Gundam 00 and Eureka Seven making their first appearance in the ACE series.

No US release has been announced.

THQ has revealed the full roster for UFC Undisputed 2010, slated to be released next month. GameStop has the list, which includes some 100 fighters across multiple weight divisions.
Additions include Marcus Jones, Pat Barry and Luiz Cane. Notably absent are Wanderlei Silva and Randy Couture, the latter signing on with EA’s MMA game. This year’s featured fighter is University of Minnesota and WWE alum Brock Lesnar, who is the current UFC Heavyweight Champion.

The demo set to be released this week will feature light heavyweights Lyoto Machida, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

The full game is due on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PSP on May 25. Check out the full roster below. “N” denotes new fighters, “P” refers to fighters available in promotional deals and “L” refers to PS3 exclusive legendary fighters.

HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
Mustapha Al-Turk (N)
Andrei Arlovski
Pat Barry (N)
Shane Carwin (N)
Mirko Cro Cop
Junior Dos Santos (N)
Todd Duffee (N)
Gabriel Gonzaga
Antoni Hardonk
Heath Herring
Marcus Jones (P)
Cheick Kongo
Brock Lesnar
Justin McCully
James McSweeney (P)
Frank Mir
Roy Nelson (P)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Eddie Sanchez
Brendan Schaub (P)
Dan Severn (L)
Kimbo Slice (N)
Stefan Struve (N)
Cain Velasquez
Fabricio Werdum
HEAVYWEIGHT & LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISIONS
Mark Coleman
Brandon Vera
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
Ryan Bader
Stephan Bonnar
Jason Brilz (N)
Luiz Cane (N)
Steve Cantwell (N)
Rashad Evans
Forrest Griffin
Matt Hamill (N)
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
Keith Jardine
Jon Jones (N)
Chuck Liddell
Lyoto Machida
Tito Ortiz
Mauricio Rua
Thiago Silva
Krzysztof Soszynski (N)
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT & MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISIONS
Vitor Belfort (N)
Michael Bisping
Rich Franklin
Wilson Gouveia
Dan Henderson
Anderson Silva
MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION
Yoshihiro Akiyama (N)
Ricardo Almeida
Alan Belcher (N)
Patrick Cote (N)
Kendall Grove
Dennis Kang (N)
Chris Leben
Demian Maia
Nate Marquardt
Drew McFedries
Dan Miller (N)
Yushin Okami
Nate Quarry (N)
Chael Sonnen (N)
MIDDLEWEIGHT & WELTERWEIGHT DIVISIONS Martin Kampmann
Mike Swick
WELTERWEIGHT DIVISION
Thiago Alves
Carlos Condit (N)
Marcus Davis
Jon Fitch
Royce Gracie (L)
Dan Hardy (N)
Dustin Hazelett (N)
Matt Hughes
Anthony Johnson
Dong Hyun Kim (N)
Josh Koscheck
Chris Lytle
Karo Parisyan
Amir Sadollah
Georges St-Pierre
Paulo Thiago (N)
Frank Trigg (N)
James Wilks (N)
WELTERWEIGHT & LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISIONS BJ Penn
Diego Sanchez
Matt Serra
Sean Sherk
LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION
Nate Diaz
Frankie Edgar
Efrain Escudero
Terry Etim (N)
Spencer Fisher
Kenny Florian
Hermes Franca
Tyson Griffin
Clay Guida (N)
Joe Lauzon
Gray Maynard
Cole Miller (N)
Ross Pearson (N)
Kurt Pellegrino (N)
Jens Pulver (L)
Dennis Siver (N)
Joe Stevenson
Caol Uno (N)

Konami released the first details today behind the two special PSP packs they’ll be shipping in Japan alongside Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which is due out March 18 over there.

The “Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Premium Package” combines a copy of the game with a PSP (3000 model) done up in skull-pattern camouflage, inspired by the logo of Snake’s Militaires Sans Frontieres guerrilla group. You also get a carrying pouch and handy cleaning cloth in the deal, all for the price of 26,980 yen.

If that’s not hoitie-toitie enough for you, there’s a limited-edition version of the same set available for 36,980 yen exclusively on konamistyle.jp, Konami’s shopping site in Japan. That box, only 1,974 of which are being offered for sale, also includes a strap, an original PSP stand, dog tags, and other unspecified goodies.

MGS: Peace Walker is hitting stores May 25 in the US.

The tower defense title Savage Moon is about to take its act on the road. Fluffylogic has announced that the formerly PS3-exclusive tower defense game will soon be on the PlayStation Portable.
“For the last few months FluffyLogic personnel have been toiling away in an underground bunker to produce the mobile incarnation of the game: Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign – featuring new weapons, new bugs, news maps and new gameplay,” wrote producer Ana Kronschnabl and designer Tom Rawlingson the PlayStation Blog.

New bugs include the Drainer, which emits a “bio-magnetic pulse-field” that can disable human technology, with the humans having developing the Sniper Tower in response. The latter’s name is pretty much self-explanatory, featuring the ability to seek out and destroy the deadliest bug on the map.

Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign is also introducing the ability to play as the Supreme Commander of the armada. Players will be able to take a tactical approach to the bug squashing, with the ability to concentrate their resources into different areas.

The original game was launched on the PlayStation Network last winter. No specific date for the PSP version, but it looks like we can expect it sometime next year.