jordan

http://news.spong.com/article/9831

Major Xbox 360 Briefing in Japan Next Week
Tales of and Phantasy Star to lead announcements

29th Mar 2006

Microsoft's Xbox wing in Japan today invited many media outlets,
including SPOnG, to a major briefing dated for April 6th next week,
with those close to proceedings hinting that some major announcements
are planned. Indeed, those close to planning have openly mooted
Phantasy Star Universe from Sega and a new Tales of title from Namco
will headline the event.

Microsoft has suffered terribly in the Japanese market, with consumers
again rejecting Microsoft's courtship dance, seeing its revised
offering go unsold. The situation has been compounded by the fact that
the Xbox 360 was in part designed to appeal to a consumer base renowned
as being the most discerning on the planet. Indeed, Microsoft openly
touted its refreshed credibility in the Japanese market prior to
launching its hardware and in fairness it had covered every base except
the inherent xenophobia of its target market.

As to what else Microsoft may show is up in the air, though a new
Square Enix exclusive has been mentioned in some circles, as have
various Sega arcade conversions including Virtua Fighter and
Afterburner. Other titles mooted include Konami's Winning Eleven as
well as various Xbox Live Arcade titles...

Whatever happens, it's going to be big, and attractive to our Japanese
gaming friends. As to whether they'll buy an Xbox 360 to play what is
offered is anyone's guess.

archang

Hey, what did we say about posting "news" from "Often-Wrong" Spong?


BTW, I spent a very short three days in a few neighbourhoods of
Tokyo late last year, and I _never once_ saw a VF arcade cabinet. Maybe I
just went to the wrong arcades (even though one had a big ol 'Sega' brand
on it and a guy dressed as Sonic standing outside), but the ONLY 3D
fighting games I saw there were Gundam games. (If you count those as
fighters, that is.)

--
Damned if you do, darned if you don't.

belpowerslave

One of the best things I've ever seen, ever, was in this one forum
where under the "News" title of the section it said "NOT Spong".


Man, that's kind of sad. Of course, GameWorks here in the states aren't
doing much better in that dept.

Bel

jordan

I've never had a problem with Spong, when they report a rumor they
specifically say it's a rumor. In this case it's an event they're
invited to... could be interesting.

- Jordan

belpowerslave

Personally, I'd love to hear that Phantasy Star Universe would make it
to the Xbox(regular) and that True Fantasy Live Online was coming back,
but this time for the 360.

Bel

jordan

"Won't that be nice?"
/Princess Bride

I expect we'll be getting Phantasy Star Universe for the 360. TFLO was
being done by someone else. What an ugly tale of woe that was... IIRC
Factor 5 got caught taking some of the money Microsoft was giving them
for TFLO development and funneling it into a PS2 game. When Microsoft
found out they pulled the plug. :^(

TFLO looked so amazing too...

- Jordan

belpowerslave

Heheheh

You think? I'd assume they'd go with regular Xbox...but man, if it did
go to 360, and they didn't just port the PS2 version, it'd look great.

TFLO was

Wow, yeah that is something else. I can't believe Factor 5 would do
something like that, they'd always seemed like decent enough guys.

Indeed it did...

Bel

doug jacobs

360's going to get a "Tales of..." title? Now that's worth buying a 360
for!

eiji hayashi

if MS wants a Tales game. They'll have to pay for it, and pay big.
Tales games typically sell 1/2 a million copies or more in Japan. There
are barely 100K 360s at last count.You can do the math on how much
money NAMCO is loosing. PSU I wouldn't be surprised as it's already got a PC version.

Winning Eleven is obvious, that series hasn't been exclusive since 6


don't you just love speculation? especially when you're in such a pit
like MS is in in Japan and there's nowhere to go but up the
speculations just take on a life of it's own. If NAMCO were to announce
PS3 exclusive Tales game there would be collective yawn among all the
video game community as that is almost given, but when you've got
nothing, everything is exciting.

eiji hayashi

Which Gundam game? is it the next Seed versus game? if so I'm really
looking forward to that game. The previous OMNI vs ZAFT is one of the
greatest co-op fighters this gen in my opinion.

anyways my understanding is Tokyo isn't a great arcade area. You need
to go to Osaka for that.