Japan News, Japan Features - Page 9 of 23

The schedule in full

The news that Ridge Racer will only launch with three courses and five cars attracted some raised eyebrows, but for Namco Bandai it's all part of a bigger plan: a plan that will see the game milked for all its worth increase its value proposition over the coming months. We should also point out that Ridge Racer will cost...

Backwards incompatibility

Sony's Japanese Vita website has confirmed that the upcoming portable will not run original PlayStation games right out of the box, as rumoured in an issue of Famitsu last month. As reported by Andriasang the Japanese site asks "can Vita play PlayStation Game Archives games?", which refers to PSOne and...

After a batch of rumours, Sony has officially confirmed that the PlayStation Vita will not support PSone titles at launch

The news was revealed in a Japanese Q&A translated by Andriasang. The question read, "Can Vita play PlayStation Game Archives games?" to which Sony responded, "It won't be supported at the time of the PS Vita launch. Regarding future support, we'll share..

According to Japanese magazine Famitsu, the PlayStation Vita is the most-wanted gaming hardware in Japan this holiday

The publication asked readers to select their most desired hardware and software, and published the results online. The PlayStation Vita topped the hardware poll with 374 votes, nearly a hundred more than the 3DS in second-place. PlayStation 3 came in at third with just 72 votes. Of..

With the PlayStation Vita less than a month away from release in Japan, Sony's started ramping up its promotional campaign for the portable system

Sadly, the device's first commercial isn't the traditional bonkers Japanese fare — showing a man cycling down a hill and not much else. Hit the jump to watch it in action.

Sony and Team Siren's achingly gorgeous PlayStation Vita exclusive, Gravity Daze (or Gravity Rush elsewhere), has been given a firm release date of February 9th in Japan

The retail version of the game will ship with a comic, illustrations and other extras for ¥5,980. It'll be available as a download for ¥4,900. Whether the game makes it out in time for the PlayStation Vita's Western release (on..

Be there for the launch

Don't feel like waiting around until next year for PS Vita? Have you always wanted to visit Tokyo? Are you extremely lucky? If you answered yes to any or all of the questions above, then you'll want to check out the competition Sony's European PS Blog is holding. If you subscribe to their newsletter Inside PS Vita before...

What we'd give to be in Japan

In anticipation of Vita's launch across Japan next month, Sony has started sending out review units of the system to members of the country's press, along with launch game Hot Shots Golf Next and February release Gravity Rush (known as Gravity Daze in Japan.) The machine is out in just over a month, giving the Japanese...

The latest entry in SEGA's Hatsune Miku Project Diva series took the top-spot for the PSP in this week's Japanese sales charts

The title sold 184k units, easily beating out its nearest competitor Sengoku Basara 3 Utage on PS3 which managed 124k units. Sony's remake of classic PlayStation RPG Oreshika occupied the third spot, selling 94k units. Elsehwhere Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition..

With the PlayStation Vita's December 17th Japanese release date nearing, Sony has sent out the first review units to a smattering of press outlets

GetNews decided to send us green with envy by taking a snap of their shiny new system running the next Hot Shots Golf title. Sony also sent the outlet a copy of Gravity Daze (known as Gravity Rush in other territories) which is not due out until February..

The PlayStation Vita is not the only platform set to get a promotional push in Japan this holiday

Sony's announced a duo of new campaigns designed to advertise both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable too. The former — which focuses on Sony's new Scarlet Red and Splash Blue PS3 systems — carries the tagline "Yaruzo! Toruzo! PS3!" or, roughly, "Play it! Take it! PS3!"..

Thousands of Japanese gamers queued outside electronics stores on October 15th to register their demand for Sony's PlayStation Vita

The device promptly sold out, driving up prices on auction websites like eBay. But according to Famitsu, a number of Japanese retailers are set to re-open pre-orders for the PlayStation Vita today. The publication reports that Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera and Sofmap..

Using the PlayStation Vita as a remote play device for Sony's uber-popular Torne PlayStation 3 DVR kit is one of the handheld's biggest selling points in Japan

That functionality is due to arrive next month via a new firmware update that will bring the Torne's software up to version 3.50. With the update you'll be able to write video to your PlayStation Vita's memory card, and use the system as a..

When a lot of people criticised the PlayStation Vita's launch line-up for being too Western oriented, we were right there with them

Who in Japan would want to play Uncharted: Golden Abyss? If the sales performance of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is anything to go by, then a lot of people. Media Create's released its weekly sales figures for the Japanese region, showing Naughty Dog's latest..

Back in October we posted a couple of stories pertaining to Japanese pre-orders for the PlayStation Vita

The region went nuts for the new handheld, with heavy queues outside popular retailers and online allocations scooped up within minutes. It all makes a Japanese survey — conducted by Goo Research — seem a bit flimsy. The firm claims that from a sample of 1083 consumers, just 10% want to buy..

It's always exciting when Sony teases the words "surprise announcement"

But it nearly always leads to a bunch of wild and unattainable expectations. So let's keep our hype gauge in check, then. Jump Festa, a Japanese games festival, is set to take place in Tokyo later this year. Awkwardly the event will coincide with the launch of PlayStation Vita, with the exposition taking place on December 17th..

Another week, another set of Japanese sales figures

It was another bumper week for 3DS hardware — get this, Nintendo released a pink system — but PlayStation software continued to rule the roost, despite seeing a minor drop-off in console sales. PlayStation software accounted for seven spots in the top-ten, and half of the chart as a whole. Macross F Sayonara no Tsubasa topped, while FIFA 12..

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon topped the Japanese sales charts this week, scooping up just shy of 150,000 units sold

It was a pretty uneventful week for PlayStation software elsewhere, with Dead Rising 2: Off The Record the only new entry. PlayStation hardware numbers remained static, with Sony's home system sitting at sales of around 28k and the PSP settling just a little lower on 25k. Nintendo's..

SEGA's announced a new game in the Shining series in this week's Famitsu magazine

The game — Shining Blade — will launch on PlayStation Portable next Spring in Japan. Further details are scarce to the point of obscurity.