There's also her half-sister, Ayane.

Figure maker Kotobukiya has another Dead or Alive figurine to add to the heap. This ¥7,800 ($85) figure will be out April 2010. You can buy it!

Ayane (Dead or Alive 4) (PVC Figure) Kotobukiya Dead or Alive 4 [Hobby Search via Tomopop]

At final tally, DOA: Dead or Alive eeked out a mere US $260,713 at the box office during its opening weekend. And during its second weekend, it puttered out $21,029. Peanuts! For those keeping score, that means the film plummeted 92 percent since last weekend. Only 98 theaters continued showing it for a second week, and the movie earned $214 per screen. Wow. I'd really love to talk to the people who saw DOA in theaters. They must be special people.

The $21 million dollar flick has grossed $6.16 million worldwide so far. North American DVD release is scheduled for September 4th. Why didn't the studio cut and their loses and release this straight-to-DVD? Damn, pride is sure expensive. Brian Ashcraft

Box Office Earnings [Box Office Mojo via 1Up]

For the three readers who actually care, the Dead or Alive move DOA is supposedly getting a theatrical release. Last we heard, the game was slated for a straight-to-DVD release. Over at movie site Ain't It Cool News, they're saying:

Seems the movie is headed for a June 15 release, despite persistent rumors that it's been banished straight-to-video. In an amusing example of fetishistic synchronicity, DOA will open opposite NANCY DREW.

If true, smart money's on Nancy Drew kicking ass and taking names. Brian Ashcraft

DOA In Theaters [Ain't It Cool News via The Last Boss]

Bad boob physics must scream books. Last month, the world was graced with Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 Best Shot, pages of full-color gravity defying pics. And this month, we get not one, but two DoA tenth anniversary books: Side A: Love! Kasumi and Side B: Kiss! Gals. Can't wait for what literary marvels next month holds. Until then, jubblies after the jump. Brian Ashcraft

DoA Anniversary Porn Picture Book [Moeyo!]

The jubblies aren't the only thing different about Dead or Alive the movie and Dead or Alive the game. The actors don't really look like their in-game counterparts. Here's a handy chart for Japanese otaku. Let's see, actress Jaime Pressly is Tina Armstrong. Holly Valance plays Christie Allen. Sarah Carter is Helena Doulgas. And Kane Kosugi appears as Ryu Hayabusa.

Okay. That's not funny.

But if you knew that picture of Kane Kosugi was from Century 21 ads he did, then it would be HILARIOUS. Brian Ashcraft

DoA Movie Explained To Otaku [AkibaOS]

Suuure ya do! Here's a Dead or Alive 3 ad for the original Xbox. An oldie no doubt, but a goodie. Brian Ashcraft

Classic DoA 3 Ad [VGB]

Fair warning: Here's a Google video of the whole straight-to-video Dead or Alive film. Game site Destructoid has posted it, and now we will — Not really to share (we aren't that sick), but to see how long it takes before some lawyer tells us to take it down. It's already been up at Google for a month, so we doubt that anyone gives a flip. And to everyone involved in making this motion picture, we accept your apology. Sorta. Brian Ashcraft

The Whole DoA Movie [D-toid, Thanks Scazza!]

Ass-pinchin', booze-hound Tomonobu Itagaki sits down with 1Up and talks up a good interview. He discusses last year's console launches and is very open about Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, which was met with a frosty reception. Standout Itagaki quote:

In our house, my daughter was playing DOAX2 almost exclusively, playing volleyball and playing Kokoro and getting all her swimsuits. But as soon as the Wii came to the house she's been playing Tennis. And she plays tennis in real life, she can return a serve from an adult, so I've just been seeing her playing tennis a lot.

Is it because this is coming from Itagaki that this remark seems so dirty? Must be! Brian Ashcraft

Big Itagaki Interview [1Up]

I'm off to hug my Kasumi pillow and cry myself to sleep over this horrible news. Michael McWhertor

DOA: Dead or Alive at IMDB

Siliconera points out that a veritable jubbly avalanche is happening on 360 recently, including the already-released Rumble Roses XX, the upcoming DOA Xtreme 2, and cowboy hat stripper zombie massacre Onechanbara X.

For me, the question is not so much "why" (duh), but more a curiosity concerning the aesthetics of the games. I refer mostly to DOA, where aside from hair color and minor facial differences, every girl looks exactly the same. The homogeny is worse than in most anime, even. I'm puzzled because it seems like the game would sell better and appeal to a wider base if there was some variation in the girls.

Skin color, height, measurements...variety is the spice of porn.

Another thing that I found curious was the insane boob jiggle being accompanied by rock-solid, yet fairly broad butts. Even the girls on the swings in the eight-minute trailer experienced zero change in ass shape. What gives? A little bounce in the booty is something the whole family can enjoy. No bounce, no play. And with an entire minigame devoted to butts, it seems even more amiss.

On the other hand, perhaps the very Barbie quality of the girls is what keeps them from being uncanny, and thus insures their appeal. All I know is that I'm not buying any beach bunny game without butt bounce. Eliza Gauger

Bikini babes a dime a dozen on the Xbox 360 [Siliconera]

(Well, not those. Those are actually okay. It's the other ones we're talking about.)

At TGS, when Microsoft showed the Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, there was actually a collective groan. Not at how silly the trailer was (it was pretty silly), but just at how long it was. Regardless, Tecmo's Team Ninja didn't disappoint fans. They've pretty much made the game people who owned the first one would want. While most of the official screens show somewhat conservative outfits, costume crazy site Costume GET! has a smattering of upcoming skimpy NSFW in-game bikinis, including one made of a string of pearls! Silly, indeed. Brian Ashcraft

NSFW Bikini Pics Here [Costume GET!]

This is not news. This is a warning. Dead or Alive posters have been hitting movie theaters. Nowhere is safe. Not even Taiwan! The movie opens next month in the U.S. Is anyone actually going to see this? Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Flickr] Thanks, Chef!

According to Hollywood, that upcoming Dead or Alive film adaptation deserves only one thing: a sequel. Not only that, there's a Castlevania movie on the horizon. More movie adaptations for gamers to dread!

The DOA picture is being helmed by director Corey Yuen, who's directed and produced a bunch of movies in Hong Kong. He even co-directed the French production The Transporter. As a fight choreographer, he's worked on some pretty big films like Lethal Weapon 4, X-Men and Romeo Must Die. It's not the action scenes that everyone is worried about, but all the crap in between.

And that hammy dialogue in the DOA film trailer? That's courtesy of some big-time Hollywood writers, such as Adam Gross (Bill Nye, the Science Guy TV series writer), his brother or husband Seth Gross (also a Bill Nye writer) and J.F. Lawton (the genius that wrote Pretty Woman). Anyone that wrote dialogue good enough for Richard Gere is good enough for me. Now, I definitely must watch this film!

Lawton is currently working on Deathrace 3000, a movie about an ultraviolent car race that's set in 2020. It's a remake of the Stallone/David Carridine flick. It's being directed by Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson.

Like Uwe Boll but better and without the desire to hurt people, Anderson has made a deal to direct the Castlevania movie. The film's producer said the movie will be "a whole new spin to Castlevania." Swell, that and another DOA film. Just what we needed. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [1Up]

Some number-cruncher graphed out how all the big video game series have performed in Japan. Any trends? They all seem to be doing worse. Much worse. Granted, the graphs don't include up-to-date info like Final Fantasy XII or New Super Mario Bros., but franchises don't seem like sure-fire cash cows anymore. The bottom of the graph lists the game titles, while the left notes the sale figures in the ten thousands. Fascinatingly gloomy stuff. What about you in the peanut gallery, do you still care about sequels and franchises?

More graphs after the jump. Brian Ashcraft

*Biohazard is called Resident Evil in the US. The graph written all in Japanese is the Super Mario Bros. series.

More Graphs Here, Including Hardware [Yoru Iro Library]

The Nintendo announcement brought not only hate, but conspiracy theories that Nintendo was just testing the waters or simply punking us.

On the positive Wii side, the wii-mote version of Madden from EA looks like it will take full advantage of the motion sensing abilities of Nintendo's wee console. Will the Madden crowd go for it?

One last bit of news from the Wii front was Sega's announcement that the popular Super Monkey Ball franchise would hit the console soon, under the name Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Expect more at E3, including a launch date.

In non-Nintendo news, Xbox Live subscribers will have something else to look forward to: E3 coverage. Microsoft's Peter Moore said that his company will "bring E3 home to Xbox Live members as best we can, all the videos and the news as quickly as possible". Neat!

James Wagner Au's look at the "Power Elite" of Second Life wraps up with his top five e-A-listers, so if you missed part one, check them both out now. Also check out Au's latest controversial Preview Ho column, profiling Ubisoft's sketchy marketing tactics and PC Gamer's questionable preview stylings.

Puzzle fans were glad to hear that Tetsuya Mizuguchi and company were bringing Lumines Plus, Lumines II, Every Extend Extra and Meteos Disney Edition to North American consoles and portables, courtesy of Buena Vista Games.

Finally, do yourself a favor and check out the pulled-from-the-depths Dead or Alive movie trailer then spend your earmarked DOA: The Movie dollars on something else.

All of them are as real as a three-dollar bill, but neat nonetheless. The very British British Gaming Blog points to a Photobucket Account that has a hodge-podge of faux PSP game boxes and UMDs. There are even a couple how-I-did-it images. Back in the day, that's what we used to call "bragging."

Full Story Here [British Gaming Blog]

Mario quickly realizes he's been wasting all these years on Peach.

Scroll Down [Jyouhouya]

Over the weekend a controversy popped up surrounding 1Up's Dead or Alive 4 strategy guide and its similarities with a strategy guide put together by fan site DoA Central.

Some allege that 1Up's Richard Li lifted lots of material, just reordering or slightly rewording it, from DoA Central, while others argue that the similarities exist simply because both are dealing with a known set of facts. While getting to the bottom of the issue is of the utmost importance, the thing I found most disturbing was Che Chou's response to the allegation on the Gaming-Age Forums.

Okay, well.

I'm not exactly sure what our strategy guide writer Richard Li's methodology was when he wrote the DOA4 feature but I know for a fact that it wasn't straight "plagiarism." Maybe his research started at the fansite level (where he might have found a list of moves folks were discussing a lot), but I sat with him for a week and a half while he went through every character and tried to discover move properties and effectiveness in actual matches. And he took a ton of notes. And he also got pretty good at the game as a result.

Did he look at DOA Central? Probably. Did he straight lift VirtuaPai's strat? Fuck no.

As for the forumites on DOAC... their reaction to my DOA4 score is totally expected... isn't it?

In later posts Che goes on to question the veracity of the claim because it's coming from a "fansite."

I'm a little surprised by this reaction. First, just because the allegation comes from a particular place doesn't mean it should be looked into. Second, are you looking into it? Judging by that response, 1Up isn't and seems to think it's OK to lean on other people's research without giving credit. There's no such thing as a little bit of plagiarism.

I'm hoping that a formal review of the writer's work is under way, not because I believe or don't believe the claims, but because that's how you maintain a publication's integrity.

EGW/1Up Steals the Blood and Sweat of hardcore gamers? [GAF, thanks James]