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Thanks to GamePro for their article discussing the Japanese Government's announcement that they plan to conduct a 10-year research study on the effects of video games upon children. According to the article, "The study will record their basic lifestyle patterns, including how much TV they watch and how many games they play, and the ministry will gauge their mental health and emotional personality through neural scans and questionnaires sent to their parents." Games in Japan are being implicated in "reduced brain-wave activity" and as a possible trigger in a Nagasaki kidnap/murder, so careful analysis is planned to see if game players really end up "...shunning social activity and losing one's temper easily."

Thanks to GamePro for covering the news that Natsume have picked up the U.S. distribution rights for the Japanese PlayStation 2 RPG adventure Chu-lip. According to the article about this 'unique' title, "As a young boy who's just moved into the town of Tsurukame, you must build up your street cred in a quest to impress the woman of your dreams - the thing is, and the story behind this is a little complicated, you must do this by kissing as many of the town's inhabitants as possible." The aim of this very bizarre game is apparently to "work out the daily schedule of each townsperson (or towns-creature), and what he or she wants from you in exchange for a kiss."

Thanks to Gamers.com for their report discussing the newly revealed synergy between F-Zero's home and arcade versions (here's an alternate article at GamePro.) According to the article, "..customized racers are freely interchangeable between the arcade and console versions of the game. Just save a custom racer to the GameCube memory card with either game, and you can transport it from one game to the other." As well as this, "..winning a race in the arcade game can unlock.. ships or tracks as a special bonus - save that data to a GC memory card and you can play an otherwise unavailable ship or course in the home game." You'll also get a special magnetic License Card for high scores in the arcade version, in this interesting attempt at providing incentive for players to return to arcades.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a GamePro article discussing Nintendo's public attitude to online gaming, even as it extends to the GameCube successor. According to Nintendo's senior VP George Harrison, "[Online gaming] is a consideration. We're looking into it for the next iteration of the GameCube. We just don't believe consumers are ready for it. Right now, no one's paying for subscriptions. The real test comes when you have to start coughing up $15 per month." However, analyst Michael Goodman doesn't concur: "The game console isn't just a game console anymore. It's evolving into a home entertainment system. Nintendo has refused to acknowledge that and it's hurt them."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a GamePro report discussing GameShark cheat provider Fire International's touting of itself as "the first source of cheats for PS2 online title SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, effectively encouraging gamers to ruin online gameplay for fair SOCOM players." According to Fire's European press release, the cheat "..enables unlimited ammunition and now boasts cheat codes for no recoil, rapid fire, unlimited grenades and a code which allows the player to steal their opponent's ammunition!" This brings to Europe a problem that is already rampant in the States, but which Sony claim they will fix for November's SOCOM 2, which should "..solve these issues and also feature the ability to ban cheaters from online play."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the IGN Xbox preview of Bioware's Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, the Xbox RPG that's now a couple of weeks away from release (and has a PC version shipping in October.) The article suggests that "..serious pen-and-paper role playing fans will appreciate all of the stat-heavy terminology deep within the game's menu system but run-of-the-mill Star Wars fans will still get a kick out of all of the Greedos, wookies and laser blasts going on", and according to another preview at GamePro, this title from the renowned PC RPG creators has a "..battle system [which] is perhaps KOTOR's most singular achievement - it looks like it belongs in an action RPG, but it's actually turn-based and not far removed from the Baldur's Gate fight engine."

Thanks to GamePro for their report discussing the Sega Japan development team researching a next-gen horror title in the exotic environs of Carbondale, Illinois. The original report from the Southern Illinoisan mentions that the Sega team are "..documenting Carbondale from every conceivable angle" for this unannounced alien-invasion horror title, which, according to Sega producer Cord Smith, is "..being built from the ground up for the U.S. market, [and] will be one of the biggest Sega titles of next year." But this unexplored environment is evidently most educative for the Japanese developers, as Cord says: "It's a challenge for them to see even the most mundane details. What does a normal U.S. bathroom look like? What does a family room look like? How do people watch TV? How do people decorate?"

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out GamePro's article describing former Capcom boss Yoshiki Okamoto's plans to found a new game development company. You may know Okamoto as "..the designer of Time Pilot, Gyruss (both for Konami), 1942, Final Fight, Street Fighter II, and many other classic Capcom arcade and home titles", and more recently as the producer of the Resident Evil series. According to GamePro, "..his departure from his employer of 19 years was seen by analysts as acceptance of responsibility for disappointing sales for the Resident Evil series", which had dipped since Capcom's single-minded decision to opt for GameCube exclusivity in 2001.

Thanks to GamePro for posting an article discussing the fact that Microsoft may try to keep the Xbox alive in Japan by flooding the market in less territory-suitable, but already in-development Western titles such as Conker, Voodoo Vince, and Counter-Strike. According to the article, a Japanese retail chain "..claims that Microsoft is planning to release overseas titles in Japan without bothering to localize them for the local market - in other words, they'll release the original English version with a Japanese manual attached." The article suggests this is a sign that Microsoft may forget about the mass-market in Japan, and will be "..dropping its large-scale strategy [until Xbox 2], and concentrating on the 400,000 or so hardcore fans it's managed to scrape together over the past 16 months."

Thanks to GamePro for posting an interview with the producer of the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai fighting games. The original DBZ:Budokai was a surprisingly large hit outside Japan, and with the sequel, in development at Dimps for release by the end of 2003, the sheer amount of characters is an issue - "..adding the characters that debuted in the Buu saga to all the fighters we already had in the last game results in a huge number of characters.. getting all these characters into the game in the limited time we have is probably the hardest part of this project." Oh, and when the producer is asked what the developers of DBZ:Budokai 2 really want, he gets honest: "..they want their own Hyperbolic Time Chamber, or they want Senzu beans to pep them up when they're tired, or they want to go home, or they want a girlfriend..."

Thanks to GamePro for running a new article discussing the recently announced guest list for the Classic Gaming Expo, to be held in Las Vegas on August 9th-10th. Honored guests include Franz Lanzinger (the designer of Crystal Castles), Warren Davis (the creator of Q*Bert), and Howard Scott Warshaw of Yars' Revenge (and E.T.!) fame, alongside more than 40 other classic gaming heroes, plus retro bleep soundtracks from the Micromusic crew. The Intellivision TV Game system we covered a few days ago will also be making its US debut at CGExpo.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a GamePro report claiming that Acclaim Entertainment is dropping support for the Gamecube. The article quotes UK trade magazine MCV's interview with new Acclaim CEO Rod Cousens, who says "Why should we develop for platforms that don't deliver profits for us? We will still support the PS2 and Xbox, but Nintendo? No, not in the foreseeable future." Reportedly, this won't be true for the handful of in-development GameCube conversions at the troubled publisher, but these harsh words seem to imply that further Burnout sequels, amongst others, will not be coming to GameCube. Update: 06/23 22:08 GMT by S : Planet GameCube got an official comment from the publisher which says "Acclaim will now evaluate each title and decide which system(s) it best fits", but it's clear the CEO is still very down on GameCube.

Thanks to GamePro.com for their article discussing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's recent comments on the Xbox, as given to an investment-related business conference in Washington. In particular, Ballmer "..admitted that the Xbox is 'having trouble' in Japan but expressed confidence that the system's fortunes would turn around by the time its successor, the so-called Xbox 2, is launched in the year 2006." There was also an opportunity to ask about the often-rumored Microsoft buyout of Sega, and Ballmer was fairly confident that it remains a rumor: "'There are no plans for that,' the Kyodo news service quoted him as saying at the conference. 'I don't think that will happen.'"

Thanks to Gamepro for posting an in-depth interview with the man behind the Game Boy Advance SP, Kenichi Sugino. Interestingly, he mentions that seeing the Afterburner third-party backlight for the GBA "..reminded us of exactly how many users really wanted to see some kind of light in their Game Boy Advances. It was an impetus for us to devote the time to figuring out how to finally just do it." Also, asked about Sony's new PSP handheld, he offers: "As I mentioned before, a portable system isn't about features as much as it is about balance - the balance between capability and price."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamepro article announcing Gamecube remakes of classic HudsonSoft games, including Bonk's Adventure (BC Kid) and Adventure Island. According to the article, "Bonk and Adventure Island are the latest in Hudson's new Japan-only GC budget library. The series is set to debut in Japan on July 10 with the release of two games: Star Soldier and Cubic Lode Runner." Sadly, there's no news on US release dates yet.

Thanks to Gamepro, we have a new interview with Namco's Isao Nakamura, producer of the latest in the Ridge Racer series, R:Racing Evolution. The interview discusses how Nakamura has "..changed the power slide oriented gameplay of RR to a more realistic feel", and also mentions that there are licensed cars and off-road rally tracks in the game. This is a move sure to set up even more comparisons with the Gran Turismo series, although this is tricky so far, since Gran Turismo 4 was playable at E3, and R:Racing Evolution was only shown in rolling demo form.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a slew of end-of-year financial results from Japanese games companies. Read on for info on Square's excellent and Enix's disappointing results, and find out quite how Konami managed to lose 230 million dollars this year... Perhaps the most surprising results were Konami's loss of 28 billion yen (230 million dollars) for the year, but this was because of the devaluation of a fitness club business (Konami Sports) purchased in 2001 - sales were up 12 percent elsewhere, with Yu-Gi-Oh a high point.

Looking elsewhere, Namco's results were good, with a net profit of 4 billion yen (33 million dollars), partly due to a surprise hit for Taiko No Tatsujin, a drumming game that comes complete with a Japanese taiko drum controller, which has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan.

As for SquareEnix, they reported largely separate financial results for the two halves of the company, due to the recent merger, but Enix had a sharp fall in profits, whereas Square's were a record high. Enix's relatively poor results were blamed on disappointing sales of Star Ocean:Till The End Of Time, which is yet to launch in the US, but was nevertheless expected to do better in Japan, where it's sold a very respectable 500,000 but has already dropped out of the Top 30.

Finally, in a followup to our earlier story, Nintendo's profits came out, and were indeed hit by the sales slowdown and a strong yen, but still managed to reach a group net profit of some 67.3 billion yen (560 million dollars).

acehole writes "Doom III, id's latest and greatest in the realm of first-person shooters, may be coming out as an Xbox exclusive... if Microsoft has its way." This story is very brief, has no real evidence, and should be treated as entirely speculative. I'd be sad if Doom 3 required me to use the X-Box's controller. It's just not right without a mouse!

kikta writes "Well, after our previous speculation about what Sega would do after they got out of the hardware biz, it appears we have our answer. CNN is reporting that they will be producing motherboards to port the Xbox to the arcade. GamePro also weighed in on the announcement."

kikta writes "Well, after our previous speculation about what Sega would do after they got out of the hardware biz, it appears we have our answer. CNN is reporting that they will be producing motherboards to port the Xbox to the arcade. GamePro also weighed in on the announcement."

Amigori writes "Gamepro has this article about the upcoming Indrema console. Its a basic article, but it does a decent job of explaining the system in an easy to read way." Talks about how they are expecting hackers to take apart the box (unlike the ZapStation: I asked about this at ALS and was told that they are doing stupid things like encrypting their file system, despite the fact that it is super cool and runs Linux and screams "Hack me Hack me!" and hackers would just love to rip that thing apart and make it better. The next generation of Linux devices is going to be interesting: the ones you can hack (Tivo and Indrema) and the ones you can't (may they see the light)

Amigori writes "Gamepro has this article about the upcoming Indrema console. Its a basic article, but it does a decent job of explaining the system in an easy to read way." Talks about how they are expecting hackers to take apart the box (unlike the ZapStation: I asked about this at ALS and was told that they are doing stupid things like encrypting their file system, despite the fact that it is super cool and runs Linux and screams "Hack me Hack me!" and hackers would just love to rip that thing apart and make it better. The next generation of Linux devices is going to be interesting: the ones you can hack (Tivo and Indrema) and the ones you can't (may they see the light)