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UK developer Codemasters have set their sights on Japan, announcing a fully localized version of the recently released Race Driver: GRID heading to to Japanese shores this winter. While the game in it's current form already boasts a series of Japanese events complete with a Japanese speaking announcer, Codemasters will be adding more country-specific content and translating all of the text for the release. On top of the localization, copies of the Japanese version of the game will also ship with a full version of Colin McRae: DIRT. The release marks Codemasters debut as a publisher in the country. More »
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Japan has PSP Slim and Lite fever! In its first two weeks on sale, the redesigned portable sold 500,000 units. That's a lot! The total count as of October 3rd is 580,000. Likewise, a lot! The PSP Slim is even outselling the original PSP when it was launched back in 2004. And with Hot Shots Golf Portable 2 hitting the PSP this December, the Slim and Lite juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down. Yup, year's later, the PSP is gaming's comeback kid. More »
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The most respected gaming magazine in Japan has put Halo 3 through its paces, and the verdict is now in. Four reviewers took the game on and Bungie's latest walked away with a score of 10/9/9/9. Relatively huge scores for the game in a country where the Xbox 360 is floundering horribly. Still, I wouldn't look on this as Microsoft's great hope to finally gain ground in the country - after all, Halo 2 got the exact same score when it was released in Japan and the big black box didn't exactly become an overnight sensation. What should be interesting is seeing the U.S. reviews later this week. With numbers that high in Famitsu, I expect to see a whole bunch of perfect scores on this side of the pond, with a few of the smaller sites knocking a few points off just to be different and futz with the GameRankings average. People do love their futzing. More »
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To coincide with their pre-TGS presser, which our very own Ashcraft so nicely liveblogged for you, Microsoft have released the mother of all press releases. It pretty much details their entire Xbox 360 strategy for the coming months, from new games to Xbox Live. How did Castle Shikigami III slip by me? It's going to be one hell of a holiday season in Japan for Xbox 360 owners, and with the lineup they've got planned there just might be a few more KFC-greased 360 controllers sitting by Japanese televisions come Christmas time. Hit the jump for an epic tale of public relations and marketing. More »
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Microsoft announced today that the hugely popular Age of Empires III is getting the expansion treatment, again, with the fall release of Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties. In development at Rise of Nations developer Big Huge Games—as the AoE III team at Ensemble Studios slaves away on Halo Wars—the expansion will provide "new gameplay elements" and a chance to experience unspecified Asian civilizations. More »
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