Illegal doujinshi?

Japanese government is planning to make changes to the copyright law that would allow the police to judge for themselves whether a work is in violation of the copyright law. Currently, if the copyright holder doesn't say a thing, then no-one can do anything about it.

But if the law is passed, we might see the end of the likes of Comiket, as most of the doujinshi sold are based on other people's work (eg. manga, anime, games, etc).

Source: Insertcredit

Sales Chart: OMG!, is that a PS3 game at ichiban?

Week ending 4 February 2007

Oh my God! A PlayStation 3 game has taken the top spot on the games sales chart last week! That's right, folks. It has been a long time coming, but a PS3 game has finally made it to the top for the first time this year. The honour goes to Virtua Fighter 5. Sega has done it again this week. Last week it was J League Soccer Club 5, and this week, the arcade port Virtua Fighter 5 has taken on a golf club, baseball bat, bowling ball, tennis racket and boxing gloves heads on... and won! Wii Sports missed out on the top spot by about 2,500 copies (48,365 vs 45,897). Considering that Wii Sports has been selling for yonks, it is not a bad effort.

So is it the game that Sony is hoping for? Probably not, that would have to wait until at least Gundam Musou. Hopefully that one is better than MS Gundam: Target in Sight. But considering the new Gundam game is from the creator of Dynasty Warriors (aka. Shin sangoku musou), there is a certain appeal to it. We'll just have to wait and see.

Elsewhere on the chart, DS games has taken 50% of the top 10, while the Wii and PS2 both have 2 titles in the top 10, and from 11th all the way down to 21st, they are all DS games. No wonder the DS Lite found another 201,177 homes last week, outselling the PSP (32,175) like usual. Wii (78,550) is selling more this week. Matter of fact, most of the consoles sold more than last week. PS3 has 23,431 while the forever dying XBox360 is still there with 4,811.

Cumulative total for the DS (both phat and lite) surpassed 15 million units in Japan. 15 million! Now that's a lot of DS. It will only go higher when Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings comes out. No doubt about it.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week:

PS3 - Virtua Fighter 5
Wii - Wii Sports
DS - Brain Training 2
PS2 - GTA San Andreas
PSP - Monster Hunter Portable

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 33
PS2 - 7
Wii - 6
PSP - 3
PS3 - 1

Source: Media Create

Anime theme Computer. Now that's an idea. Why didn't I think of that?

For those of us who think Anime-related wallpaper on our own computer desktop is not enough, why not have the whole computer covered in Anime arts? Well, here is your chance. A Japanese made-to-order computer company, Decore, is selling PCs and Laptops featuring girls in bikini, school uniform and a high concentration overdose of kawaii-ness.

Just imagine the weird looks admiration that you get when you bring Nanatsuiro to school / work. The specs are not half bad, either. This particular model here feature:

• CoreDuo T2300E
• DVD Super Drive
• 512MB Memory
• 80 GB HDD
• ATi M56P-256M Graphics card
  
• 15.4 inch screen
• WinXP Home
• 802.11a+b+g WiFi

Plus custom-made Starting screen, wallpaper and login screen. All for 198,000 yen. A bargain. There are other Shuttle PC to choose from. One of them will definitely fit your need, whatever that may be. <_<>_>



Take that, ASUS and Acer and your Lambos and Ferraris.

Source: Kotaku, DECORE

Sales Chart: PS2 continues to kick goal and DS still flying off the shelves

Week ending 4 February 2007

Another week, another sales chart. PS2 is yet again at the top of the games sales chart, kicking some goals with another soccer management game J.LEAGUE プロサッカークラブをつくろう！5 from Sega. Can you believe that? That makes two in a row for PS2. Well, can't say PS2 is doing all that bad at the moment. Publishers are still coming out with games for the PS2, just like GBA games. Well, I guess backward capability of the hardware (GBA on the DS, some PS2 on the PS3) is a factor here. I mean, you still play PSX games on your PS2, right?

Anyway, Nintendo still dominates the top 10. DS games occupies 6 spots while Wii takes out 2. The best selling game for the DS is the millionth make of Harvest Moon. Seriously, do people still play that? After all, this game has been incarnated on almost every platform imaginable. I must admit, though, it was fun... and very addictive.

On the hardware side, no prizes for guessing which won this week. DS Lite sold 146,073 units, outselling PSP with a factor of 4.68 (PSP sold 31,216). Wii (65,740) again outsold PS3 (18,727). But this week, PS3 has done something right, it's outselling its bigger brother.

And on the side note, XBox360 continues to die.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week:

DS - Harvest Moon
Wii - Wii Sports
PS2 - J League Soccer Club 5
PSP - Monster Hunter Portable

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 32
PS2 - 9
Wii - 6
PSP - 2

Source: Media Create

Yet another Final Fantasy DS Special Edition

After the success of the Final Fantasy III Special Edition DS, SquareEnix have decided to follow the same path with their latest offering on the DS, Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings. The game is the squeal to FFXII, following Vaan and Penelo and their sky pirate way of life. But let's not worry about that for the moment. I'm more interested in the Special Edition DS. Let's put the two DS side by side:


Final Fantasy III Special Edition


Final Fantasy XII Special "Sky Pirate" Edition

Which one do you prefer? In case you're colour blind, it only comes in white. And only available in Japan.

For 21,840 yen, you can take one of these baby home after waiting in line for 6 hours. Oh sorry, you can only import them, so I guess you can skip the line then.

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here, but a Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle: Ring of Fate special edition is coming too, right?

Sales Chart: PS2 has a new game on top, and the DS Lite continues to obliterate the PSP

Week ending Jan 28 2007 - PS2 has a new game on top, and the DS Lite continues to obliterate the PSP

According to Media Create, you don't need to understand Japanese to see that Sony didn't even manage to sell 20,000 units of their new(-ish) PS3 AND was destroyed by their old(er)-gen console, the PS2, by 999 units.

So what this is saying is that more people are buying the old-gen video game console than the next-gen. Now, I'm not an "industry insider" on gaming, but I think Sony is panicking.

I mean, your literally shinny toy is getting its ass kicked by your old stuff? That's is just bad. To make a comparison, for every 1 PS3 sold, more than 4 of Nintendo's new baby (which still Wii on the floor) found a new home.

Now lots of you is probably going to say, "But there wasn't any PS3 stock to start with." I put this to you, "Well, there weren't any good games on the PS3 to start with." Only 1 PS3 game (that's right, ONE) made it to the top 50 chart for the week.

No doubt the top brass at Sony is hurrying guys at SquareEnix to finish Final Fantasy XIII. The PS3 definitely needs not one, but lots of big budget titles to keep it afloat.

As if adding salt to PS3's injury, this week's top selling game is on the PS2! Ironic, isn't it? GTA:SA made it to the top this week, finally dethroning a Nintendo title, any Nintendo title from ichiban for the first time this year.

Out of the top 10, 8 are on Nintendo hardware, with 3/4 of them developed by Nintendo themselves. They are smiling? Damn right they are. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
Why wouldn't they, the DS Lite is killing the PSP. It just goes to show, hardware is nothing if there's no good software to support it.

Oh, by the way, these figures are for the Japanese market only.

Wii are winning?

According to a study done by an online traffic metrics website Compete, the Nintendo Wii has more demand than either the Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's XBox360.

Sounds like good news for Nintendo fanboys. XBox360 is no doubt still ahead in terms of number of install base, given that it has a year head start, but Nintendo and Sony are definitely catching up. And if the graph is anything to go by, then Nintendo is surely going to win the Console War III (tm).

I'm eager to see the day when Nintendo will once again rule the console world. What Nintendo could really do to capitalise (besides meeting demand) is to release more sports games (or exercise games). That in itself is a good marketing strategy to get fat people obese individual to buy a Wii and do exercise to lose weight. I mean, it has been proven that playing the Wii can lose weight.

That would really break the "video games are nothing but violent" mode. Maybe Nintendo can tempt one of those nay-sayer to buy one?

You can read about the results at Compete.

Madgate Opening Ceremony

So 25 days after the Madgate incident, I have finally received my DVDs through the mail today. Yipeeee!!! Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you the Madgate Opening Ceremony....

These are the boxes:



Take one of this:



Cut it here:



And Da da!!!

Box 1



Box 2



Box 3