It's almost too late. During the Famicom (NES) era, Japanese video games comprised 70 percent of all video games. And currently, it's like 15 or 20 percent, isn't it? Now, Western games are more advanced. For games like GTAIV, those guys are spending something like 5 or 10 years to make them. Even if we thought about catching up with them now, they'd still be making progress. But, not necessarily giving up, it's just not possible to catch up in a single lifetime.

Man, that Okamoto, talk about a downer. Chin up, Japan, chin up.

「日本はもうゲーム先進国ではない」 [IT Media via 痛いニュース] [Pic]

Game Republic honcho, Street Fighter creator and general wild-man Yoshiki Okamoto talks about his team's work on Genji: Days of the Blade. He tells game site Kikizo that work on the title had begun before Sony had even announced the PS3 specs. The title was originally slotted as a PS2 title. What about that rumble-for-motion-sensing swicheroo? Okamoto says:

Obviously you lose something without the rumble... The game design was not thought out with the Sixaxis in mind. Yes we did lose something but we probably gained a lot more.

But, what exactly? Brian Ashcraft

Okamoto Talks Genji [Kikizo]

But even that wasn't so bad when you compare it to the fact that I didn't know what to do next, and I wasn't finding anything because there was nothing to find. So it was back to GameFAQs' board, but this time there was no solution. Just confirmation that there was supposed to be an item for me to pick up, but due to a glitch in the game it disappears after a certain point. And of course, I'd been diligent and saved my game, meaning I was completely screwed. I'd have to start the game over.

Genji's Game-Killing Bug [Wired Blogs]

Here it is, kids, two days worth of PlayStation 3 sales data courtesy of Media Create. It tells a very sad story, not only for publishers, but for anyone looking to get their hands on PS3 hardware in Japan.

Total Hardware Sales: 81,639 PlayStation 3 60 GB: 45,774 PlayStation 3 20 GB: 35,865

Ridge Racer 7: 21,654
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight: 21,309
Resistance: Fall of Man: 13,545
Genji: Days of the Blade: 8,766
Sega Golf Club: 1,410

That's a total of 66,684 games sold alongside 81,639 consoles. Meaning at least 14,955 people did not buy any games with their PS3 unit. Who could possibly be happy about this?

I hate to keep being the bearer of bad PS3 news. It certainly does me no favors, as I'd really, really like to get one this Friday, along with a couple games and enjoy the hell out of it as I did with the previous two Sony consoles, but intense global greed is making it very difficult. I'm thinking about going into a coma until this whole next-gen launch farce blows over. Who's with me? Michael McWhertor

The notoriously picky Japanese game mag Famitsu has filed its reviews for PS3 launch titles. The scale is 1-10, and most fall in the arch nemesis IGN 7-9 range (though, Famitsu is willing to dip below that). Here's the round-up, plus the mag's comments:

• Miyazato Golf Club: 7, 7, 7, 7
• Good temp. Can't accurately determine where your shot will fall. Doesn't really look next-gen.
• Genji 2: Days of the Blade: 7, 7, 7, 8
• 
  Bad camera, but looks great. Challenging for noobs. Good controls and good amount of content.
• Resistance: Fall of Man: 9, 8, 8, 8
• 
  Standard FPS gameplay. Excellent netplay. Very high standard of next-gen.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire: 8, 8, 8, 8
• 
  Superb Mobile Suits models. Great textures. Systems are problematic. Tons of options and unlockables. Opinions on this title are divided, apparently.
• Ridge Racer 7: 9, 9, 9, 9
• 
  Total satisfaction. Loads of content. High quality graphics and sound.

Looks like RR7 and Resistance are the must gets, which I'll be picking up here in Japan. Yous? Brian Ashcraft

Famitsu Scores Launch Games [QJ.Net]

Since I don't know if I'll be paying for any downloadable content from the PlayStation Network, nor if I'll have the means to use my 60GB of storage for clown porn, I wasn't sure what benefit I'd get from dropping the extra hundred bones on the big boy PlayStation 3. However, MTV's eagle-eyed Stephen Totilo spotted the menu option "INSTALL" during his hands-on time with Sony's Genji: Days of the Blade, which takes advantage of the standard, reliable hard drive on all units.

Sayeth Steve:

Also unexpected was a feature in "Genji" to install the game, committing 4GB of data from the game's Blu-Ray disc to the PS3's hard drive — a three-minute one-time-only procedure available from the game's start menu that a Sony rep said cuts down in-game load times from about 15 seconds to four seconds. That's something Sony can offer, given that both versions of its console include a hard drive — 20GB and 60GB, respectively.

Nice! Advantage Sony. Anything that lets me waste less of my life watching "Loading" screens, I'm all for it. Michael McWhertor

PlayStation 3 Preview: Gamers Get A Test Drive, Luda's Left Out [MTV.com (really really sucks)]

Genji: Days of the Blade was the last game I had a chance to get my hands on, thanks to the aborted evening of gaming. I was literally in the middle of an attack when a Sony PR guy came up, turned off the console and told me I HAD to go downstairs to eat and see the "surprise."

I, and just about everyone else, had already figured out that the surprise was Ludacris, so I was a bit grumbly as I made my way away from the game, despite their false promises that we could all return later on to play more.

I did get enough time with the game to get at least a decent sense of what it was all about. The graphics, while quite nice, weren't as stylistic as I had hoped and the same could be said for the special move animations, but the game is still quite pretty.

Fighting is accomplished through a series of button pushes and your character can swap weapons on the fly. Build up enough power and you can go into a special mode that lets you dish out a series of punishing special attacks to however many unsuspecting enemies happen to be standing around at the time.

In this mode, your character dances through a near void of falling flower petals and strange symbols, while you have to match button pushes that flash on the screen. The more you match the more enemies you get to cut down in a series of slightly interesting special attacks.

While I found the game intriguing, I really didn't get to spend enough time with it to tell if it's something that is truly going to captivate my interest.

As with Lair, I felt that the developers really didn't put in enough over the top, highly-stylized attacks. Maybe I've just come to expect that, but it really helps add sizzle to a perhaps otherwise mundane title.

I was also a little disappointed that Genji features so much magic. It would have been nice to see the developers take a more realistic, less magical approach to the game. But perhaps that title is coming another day.
Brian Crecente

Those brilliant NeoGaffers managed to figure out the codes over on the Playstation 3's viral marketing site. Once you figure out what the symbols mean you can use them to spell out a list of words and unlock a bunch of freebies like soundtracks, wallpapers and tons o videos. British Gaming Blog was kind enough to upload and host videos for Lair, Genji, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man and Warhawk over on their site.

It looks like there's some new stuff there. Man, I can't wait to get my hands on Lair. Brian Crecente

PS3 Website Hacked {British Gaming]

The "Massive Damage" meme? Old. Uttered by the producer of Genji 2 at Sony's E3 train wreck of a presser, it's officially no longer funny. (It still makes us giggle, but whatever.) The quote has haunted that producer and ultimately has resulted in him not giving any more interviews, apparently. We wonder if he even leaves the house.

None of this, however, stops Nintendo from pointing and laughing. Kotakuite No Bullet was looking around the Clubhouse Games website and found a pictochat pic which read:

i love Wii

shake the soda for massive damage

Let's play darts

And this is not the first time the DS kicked sand in Sony's face. 'Tis a shame, because Genji is actually pretty good. It's so good that we will buy it and promise not to say "Massive Damage" and let out hearty bellows while playing it. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Touch Generations]

We didn't exactly go nuts for Genji at E3 2005, but came away a bit more positive after spending more time with the title at the Sony press reception party. The graphical and lighting upgrades are starting to make the game much more visually appealing. The backgrounds and environments glow with high dynamic range lighting, illuminating the cherry blossoms, making the ass-kicking much more serene.

We didn't actually get to fight any giant crabs, but the variety of the character swithching kept us interested long enough to walk away happy.

While Genji: Days of the Blade may not stand out amongst some of the other PlayStation 3 titles on display, it still looks like a solid hack and slash action title. We'll keep a close eye on it, as we're on the fence about how it will ultimately turn out.

If you're looking for the company line, check out what one of the devs had to say. It's funny ha-ha.Michael McWhertor

It's too bad that Genji is actually pretty good, because this is the worst pitch we've ever heard and hope that this clip does not do massive damage to the game's sales. Brian Ashcraft