The event will take place on January 7, at Planet Hollywood. All the game's new characters will be playable, the catch being you need to apply for a ticket and that you need to be 18+ to get in.

Full details for those interested below.

Super Street Fighter IV Las Vegas Fight Club! [Capcom]

Oh fine, go ahead and scoff. It's a squid with a mouth on its head. Certainly doesn't sound like a very efficient killing machine. I guess it has to grab the player and toss it into the air like popcorn, catching them in its mouth as he or she drops. I hope the3se akrid have a voice, so we can hear it saying "Wait...do over" every time you bounce off its face.

Lost Planet 2 Akrid Profile: Defolma [Capcom Unity]

Answering a question on Capcom's "alliances" with overseas developers, Tsujimoto echoes comments made a few weeks back by Resident Evil producer Jun Takeuchi (not to mention reminding us of his own personal scars), by essentially saying that it's hard, hard work joining forces with an international studio.

"Our experience with Bionic Commando has demonstrated the difficulty of outsourcing the development of new title to overseas companies", he said. "Nevertheless, we cannot develop a sufficient number of titles without using the resources of these companies. This is why we plan to continue using these alliances."

"We are considering ways to separate the roles of activities in Japan and overseas. We plan to develop new titles primarily in Japan. Overseas companies may be used mostly to develop titles for existing game series with well-established characters and universal themes. Overseas companies will also handle certain parts and/or lineups of such games."

So the West is a sequel farm for Capcom IP. And just like that, Capcom's decade-long program of reaching out to international developers in order to increase their global market share misses the point entirely.

In theory, you could outfit yourself head-to-toe in a Shadaloo uniform, as there are caps, beanies, shirts, jackets and even jeans on offer. Most of it tasteful, much even stylish (barring the "German nightclub" vest, anyways).The stuff is up for pre-order now, and should be out early next year.

Shadaloo Psycho Brigade by Triumvir (Pre-Order) [Triumvir]

A forecast revisions document reveals that all four titles will be pushed back to the company's 2010 fiscal year (staring in April, ending March 31, 2011) and spread out over all four quarters of the year. The document lists the reasons for the delays as follows.

・Avoid competing with the major titles that other companies plan to introduce
in the 4th quarter
・Preserve the value of Capcom's titles and maximize sales volume
・Expand the lineup of titles in the next fiscal year and afterward

No concrete release dates are listed in the document, but tipster Rory says "This corroborates rumors spread about Super Street Fighter 4's new release date of April 1st being confirmed in this week's Famitsu, due out Thursday."

Sound logic, sure. But sound business practice? We'll see.

Thanks for the tip, Rory!

Capcom USA posted this video yesterday, featuring a live-action model wearing a close approximation of Juri's outfit during a 2010 lineup reveal earlier this year. Hopefully this poor model's awkward stint on stage will dissuade any amateur cosplayers with less appropriate body shapes from trying this one at home. Then again, a less professional cosplayer would have been much better at posing for the cameras. and likely cheaper.

Official Super SFIV Juri Cosplay [Capcom Unity]

In a marketing move for the main title, Capcom will be releasing Dark Void: Zero, an 8-bit interpretation of the game similar to the recent Mega Man 9 "demake".

It'll hit the DSi Shop in January, and should cost 500 Points.

Dark Void Zero: First Look and Hands-On [GameSpot]

Update: But it is and it isn't. Way back in September, a longtime Shoryuken forums contributor posted the names of the new characters before Capcom announced any of them. All turned out to be right. Three that have yet to be announced will return from Street Fighter III: Ibuki, Makoto and Dudley.

That forum post was subsequently removed, but the semi-common knowledge of these three, anyway, remains. Subsequent loose chatter on Street Fighter boards said the fourth guy is Hakan, an Arab grappler.

That brings the total of new characters to 10, six announced, so one wonders what the point is of Capcom dragging this out any further.

Anyway, that image above is EventHubs' screengrab of the Famitsu demo and analysis of the character select screen. Four are left blank. The remaining new characters, bosses and others are all identified.

SSF4 Character Select Screen, More Screen Shots [EventHubs via Joystiq]

Capcom's Seth Killian provides a commentary of the new sites over on Capcom-Unity, pointing out that you can fight during an eclipse and knock over wildlife in Africa, or rumble in the lab during a total meltdown. Be sure to see the full-size versions and check out all the background characters and features.

Super Street Fighter IV is due out in the spring.

Once again, the full gallery is here, so be sure to check out all the new shots.

Desperate Escape, due out on March 3rd for the Xbox 360 and March 4th for the PlayStation 3, sees Jill Valentine, recently recovered from mind control and looking fine, escaping the Tricell facility with the help of Agent Josh Stone, who is also looking fine if you're into that sort of thing. The pair must fight through hordes of biological weapons in order to make it to the final confrontation between Chris, Sheva, and Wesker.

The release coincides with the release of Costume Pack 2, which we showed you earlier. Josh Stone, along with Heavy Metal Chris and Business Suit Sheva will be playable in Mercenaries mode, leaving just three of the eight new characters still to be revealed.

And don't forget, all of this DLC will be part of the Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, due to be released on March 9th.

These two new costumes are a bit more reserved than the little red riding hood and warrior costumes Capcom previously revealed, though I'm still not buying Chris as some sort of post-apocalyptic bad ass. Sheva, on the other hand, pulls off the businesswoman look with charm and grace. All she needs is a long jacket and her fingernails will shine like justice.

While Mega Man games can be notoriously hard, Mega Man 10 will have an all new Easy Mode.

Yes, Capcom Mobile and Discovery Communications have teamed up to bring Cash Cab to the iPhone. Players take a simulated taxi ride, answering increasingly difficult questions on their way to their destination, with three strikes getting you kicked out of the backseat, hopefully in a nice neighborhood. The game features pictures of the actual show's host, comedian turned cab driver Ben Bailey, heightening the sensation of playing a game set inside a taxi.

Seriously, this show has been running for four years now, and has won an Emmy award, and despite my scorn, whenever I catch a glimpse of it while sifting through my channels I have to sit and watch, and god help me if there's a marathon on. I can't explain it. Maybe I'm waiting for someone to get knifed.

Cash Cab is now on sale in the iTunes App Store for $4.99.

As disclosed in the latest issue of Famitsu, the game will be appearing not only on Nintendo's WiiWare service, but on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network as well.

Surprise!

Well, in addition to the E-Tank energy drink , they also got a sweet t-shirt and commemorative box. Plus they were served buy a guy in a short-order getup, complete with paper hat.

Capcom-Unity says the first fan they served had been waiting in line since 10 a.m. More than 200 boxes were given away. Did any of you get one? What did this stuff taste like? Or did you even drink it?

More pics through the link.

A Little Rain Can't Stop Mega Man! [Capcom-Unity]

"There are IP clearances and rights we no longer have (particularly pertaining to voicework/soundtrack I believe) so our IP management group has told us it can't be re-released," Svensson said. "I'm sorry as it's one of the ones I really wanted to see be put back up.

"So if you still have that PS1 Rival Schools disc in your collection, it's unfortunately going to be the only way that gets played for the forseeable future."

This does not apply only to the PSN, but all platforms, it seems. Bummer.

No Rival Schools on PSN now, no Rival Schools on PSN ever [Dtoid]

We've only known about Capcom's retro-riffic Mega Man 10 since Nintendo Power revealed the WiiWare title on Wednesday, introducing the world to the glory of Sheep Man, Rock's latest robot nemesis. Two days is forever on the internet, which is why sites like DeviantArt and Pixiv are being flooded with images of this wooly new foe. I for one am just glad that most of the images only have Mega Man hugging Sheep Man. They've all shown tremendous restraint and deserve cookies.

Head over to DeviantArt and the Japanese site Pixiv to see more lovely Sheep Man creations.

And no, I will not apologize for that headline.

Sheep Man Fan-Art Surfaces [Protodude's Rockman Corner via Capcom]

The EA chart was shown at an investor's conference, designed to appeal to people who EA hopes will think positively of the company's stock, which is labeled as ERTS. So they show off unusual stats, as you can see above, such as the number of games delayed or not delayed. That sends the message that: You can trust our company to deliver on its promises when we say we will.

That's sort of interesting, but how about this idea that EA puts out the most good games? The chart you see above was created by EA and pulls from Metacritic, the aggregator site that pulls review scores mostly from gaming outlets that publish review scores (i.e not Kotaku). EA had gone into the site and counted up the games released between January 1 and November 30, 2009 that scored an 80 average or more. The evidence points to EA not only improving quality year over year — I haven't met a gamer who would deny that — and now leading in quality — which is more controversial.

Shall we check that?

The Beatles: Rock Band (92)
Dragon Age: Origins (91)
FIFA 10 (91)
Left 4 Dead 2 (90)
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (89)
Skate 2 (89)
NHL 10 (88)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (88)
Fight Night Round 4 (87)
Boom Blox Bash Party (86)
The Sims 3 (86)
Madden NFL 10 (85)
Tetris (85)
Battlefield 1943 (84)
Need for Speed Shift (84)
Brutal Legend (83)
NCAA Football 10 (83)
Dead Space Extraction (82)
Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure (82)
Mirror's Edge PC (81)
The Sims 3 World Adventures (81)
EA Sports Active (81)
EA Sports More Active Workouts (81)
Left 4 Dead Crash Course (80)
NBA Live 10 (81)

I can see why EA didn't count some of the above 25 in its chart. In fact, I can get to their 19 easily. Let's knock out six listings: 1) Mirror's Edge PC, because it's a port of a 2008 game 2) Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box (compilation of an '08 game), 3) The Sims 3 World Adventures and 4) EA Sports More Active Workouts (which both expand and somewhat require ownership of their earlier edition or edition's peripherals), 5) Left 4 Dead Crash Course DLC and... Well, 6) could go one of two ways. We could not count Rock Band, which EA distributes but doesn't publish, or we could not count the PSP Minis release of Tetris.

This is a hefty amount of 80+ games. If we average the full 25, we get this: EA's average 80+ metascore is 85.20. Let's not count six games. We'll include Rock Band but not Tetris. Then we get 85.95. It goes down only to 85.58 if I use Tetris and not Rock Band.

[UPDATE: I originally used the 360 Dragon Age metascore of 86 but have since updated the math above using its PC score of 91. Seemed only fair given PC was its lead platform. I've gone through this post and updated all listings to reflect the highest score given to any PC or console version of these games.]

Let's see if EA counted its competitors correctly.

Modern Warfare 2 (94)
Guitar Hero 5 (89)
Guitar Hero: Metallica (86)
DJ Hero (87)

A little math shows that: Activsion's average 80+ metascore is 89. Better than EA's, but it's only four games, and really, if you want to do a fair comparison of publisher quality, you'd have to do an average of all their games. Also notable is that there was a wide disparity between some versions. I used the highest Guitar Hero score, which was an 89 on the Wii. The game averaged an 85 on the Xbox 360.

Assassin's Creed II (92)
Might and Magic Clash of Heroes (86 *Game was released in December)
Dawn of Discovery (82)

More math: Ubisoft's average 80+ metascore is 86.67 with Might and Magic. It is another publisher with just one 90+ game.

Dawn of War II (85)
Red Faction Guerilla (85)
UFC Undisputed (84)
WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 (82)
Rocket Riot (80)

Result: THQ's average 80+ metascore is 83.2. They had no 90+ games.

GTA Chinatown Wars (93)
GTA IV: The Lost and Damned (90)
GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (89)
Borderlands (84)
NBA 2K10 (83)
Beaterator (80)
The Bigs 2 (80)

I do Take Two no favors for the average here by including The Bigs 2, but I did just make them look better by counting it in the overall tally, right? Anyway, Take Two's average 80+ metascore is 85.57. And look! They have two games with a 90 or above.

Metroid Prime Trilogy (91)
Mario and Luigi Bowser's Inside Story (90)
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (87)
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (87)
Punch-Out (86)
New Play Control Pikmin (84)
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (84)
Art Style Digidrive (83)
Art Style Pictobits (83)
Rhythm Heaven (83)
Pokemon Platinum (83)
Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (82)
Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon (81)
Art Style Box Life (80)
Wii Sports Resort (80)
Wii Fit Plus (80)

You could load up this one with caveats, noting that the Metroid and Pikmin games aren't new, but let's include them. Nintendo's average 80+ metascore is 84 even. Credit them with a pair of games at 90 or above.

Uncharted 2 (96)
God of War Collection (92)
Killzone 2 (91)
MLB 09 The Show (90)
Wipeout HD Fury (89)
LittleBigPlanet PSP(88)
PixelJunk Shooter (87 *Game released in December)
Flower (87)
PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (86)
Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (86)
infamous (85)
Patapon 2 (81)
Resistance Retribution (81)
Buzz! Quiz World (80)
Zen Pinball (80)

Let me average that up for you. Sony's average 80+ metascore is 86.6. Not shabby at all. Plus, the company can boast four 90+ games, albeit one of them a compilation of PS2 hits.

Forza Motorsport 3 (92)
Shadow Complex (88)
Trials HD (86)
Splosion Man (84)
Halo 3 ODST (83)
Halo Wars (82)

Let's crunch that. Microsoft's 80+ metascore average is 85.83.

EA didn't tally the top scorers for Capcom, Sega and Warner Brothers. All had a batch of stellar games, so I figured I'd do the work.

Street Fighter IV (93)
Resident Evil 5 (85)
Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (82)
Monster Hunter Fredom Unite (81)

Capcom's average 80+ metascore is 85.25.

Empire Total War (90)
Football Manager 2010 (88)
MadWorld (81)

Sega's average 80+ metascore is 86.3

Batman Arkham Asylum (92)
Scribblenauts (80)

Warner's average 80+ metascore is 86. They've got a 90+ as well.'

It's no surprise that EA's chart accurately showed that the publisher had the most well-reviewed games, though, thanks to Kotaku, you can now see what those games were. This breakdown shows a couple of other things:

1) While EA had the most games that received 80+ scores, its average score for such titles settled between its two most prolific game-publishing competitors. It beat Nintendo but was beaten by Sony.

2) It's clear that no matter how many well-reviewed games a publisher has, getting an 80-89 score is far easier than getting a 90+. That seems to be the big equalizer among these top publishers. No one makes lots of those and few make more than a couple.

So which company made the most good video games in 2009? Probably the one you like the most. But if you want to try using numbers to back it up in 2009, I think you have to go with EA for quantity or Sony for 90+ excellence and a higher average score from its 80+ titles.