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As listed in the most recent issue of Japanese mag Famitsu (and translated by Andriasang), Platinum Games’ fourth effort for Sega, Vanquish, is headed to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this winter. The game’s director, the acclaimed Shinji Mikami, spoke with the Japanese mag recently and divulged information that wasn’t easily gleamed from the debut trailer.

Apparently, Atsushi Inaba (ex-CEO of Clover Studios) will be serving as producer on what Mikami calls a “shooter that places importance on the good tempo and feeling of rhythm you get from playing an action game.” The game’s said to be set in a near future where US/Russian Cold War relations have resulted in a standoff and, instead of a traditional biotic life form war, Vanquish sees the main character battling robots while dressed in lightweight amor. “There are lots of games where you shoot and kill people, so this time we wanted to try and see how we could convey the good feeling of shooting robots.” Truer words, Mr. Mikami. Truer words.

Allegedly the game is around 80 percent done at this point, with only “annoying” work left to (enemy and ally AI are among the few tasks left). Will we see Vanquish on North American shores this winter as well? We’re unfortunately not sure just yet, but with the game “developed with overseas markets in its sights,” we have to imagine Platinum Games would like its latest title to land in our trigger-happy hands as soon as possible.

Shinji Mikami’s Vanquish headed to 360, PS3; Winter release date for Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another round of evidence suggesting that Sony will call its ball-and-stick thingamabob “PlayStation Arc“: A Japanese trademark for the name has been spotted by Siliconera. The “Arc” name has seen rumored since the beginning of the year — and has been dropped by execs like THQ boss Brian Farrell.

Regardless of how you feel about the name, we think we can all agree it’s a step up from the informative but decidedly boring “Sony Motion Controller.” So, on to the GDC panel then?

‘PlayStation Arc’ trademarked in Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It would be, like, totally glamorous and exciting to be a programmer for a game company in Japan, right? Maybe not so much. According to anonymous responders on Japanese super-forum 2ch (as translated by CNNGo), salaries for game programmers are far below what you’d expect for a tech job in one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in.

“¥130,000 [$1,457] for 256 hours of work a month,” one poster reports. “¥160,000 [$1,793] and I am ready to die,” another laments. “I can’t even afford the ‘recruit suit’ I’ll need for interviewing for another job.” How do you live in Tokyo on that kind of scratch? “¥180,000 [$2,017] a month, no bonus, and only thanks to the company dorm can I afford to live in Tokyo,” one responder explains.

It seems that game development is considerably less prestigious than other fields. “I’m 27, live in Tokyo, working for a major company, and make ¥680,000 [$7,622] a month, with a separate yearly bonus,” one anonymous poster boasts. “But it isn’t in the game industry. Ha!” The moral of this story is this: Don’t work for a game company in Japan.

Rumor: Japanese game programmers report low salaries originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s your daily dose of Japan envy, as Famitsu reveals a set of pretty sweet pre-order bonuses for Kojima’s upcoming PSP game, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The first item is a jigsaw puzzle appropriately called “Love & Piece,” while the other pun-tastic item is the plastic “Peace Water” bottle — an aluminum water bottle/comically large key chain that kinda looks like a grenade. Some days you go through the rain and some days you want to drink from an appropriately-themed liquid transportation device, right?

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is set to debut in Japan on April 29, while US gamers will be forced to wait until May 25.

[Thanks, Finton]

MGS: Peace Walker Japanese pre-order items are the best originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s your daily dose of Japan envy, as Famitsu reveals a set of pretty sweet pre-order bonuses for Kojima’s upcoming PSP game, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The first item is a jigsaw puzzle appropriately called “Love & Piece,” while the other pun-tastic item is the plastic “Peace Water” bottle — an aluminum water bottle/comically large key chain that kinda looks like a grenade. Some days you go through the rain and some days you want to drink from an appropriately-themed liquid transportation device, right?

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is set to debut in Japan on April 29, while US gamers will be forced to wait until May 25.

[Thanks, Finton]

MGS: Peace Walker Japanese pre-order items are the best originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you’ve played all of the Metal Gear Solid games, you can draw the SSBB Snake stage from memory, and you’ve watched the G4 Icons special on Hideo Kojima so often you can lip sync along with it. But can you really be a Kojima superfan if you don’t know that meetings make his stomach hurt, or that he’s been feeling a little under the weather lately? We didn’t think so. Fortunately, there is a way to know all of the things you probably shouldn’t about the rock star game designer: He’s now on Twitter.

At least we think it’s him — our Japanese isn’t the best, but a Google translation of the page appears to verify it’s Kojima (he’s been tweeting his lunch and the view outside of his office window). So, even though Twitter has yet to approve “Kojima_Hideo” as a “verified account,” we’re geeking out over the tweets anyway. We were at first surprised to see that he’s been watching Olympic curling, but then we thought about his games, and it just makes so much sense.

Alert! Hideo Kojima joins Twitter originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re the sort who’s still got “Visit the Tokyo Game Show” dangling off your bucket list, you’ve got less than seven months to mow lawns, wash cars and help old Ms. McCallister down the block file down her callouses to save up the cash for the trip. According the event’s official site, this year’s edition of the trade show is slated for Sept. 16 – 19.

Of course, why waste your time on Ms. McCallister’s delicate condition when you could enjoy the whole show from the comfort of your computer monitor at popular internet website Joysitq.com? We’re going to be washing plenty of cars to pay our way there, why don’t you sit this one out?

Tokyo Game Show 2010 slated for Sept. 16 – 19 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Capcom has terrible luck with handheld Mega Man compilations. Remember how a collection of the Game Boy Mega Man games was supposed to be released alongside the GameCube/PS2 Mega Man Anniversary Collection? Remember when that actually happened? (No, because it didn’t.) Now the Japanese website for the DS Mega Man Zero Collection reveals that the game’s April 22 release date in that region has been delayed to an unspecified date.

We’ve put in an inquiry with Capcom about whether this affects the “early summer” release date for North America. But if the company doesn’t know when it’ll release the game in Japan, the other dates would pretty much have to be up in the air as well.

[Via Protodude's Rockman Corner]

Mega Man Zero Collection delayed in Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a good chance that many of you were going to play through Yakuza 3 without messing with the hostess club segments or the Answer x Answer arcade quiz game. Now, it’s a certainty.

“The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so,” a Sega rep told IGN. “The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn’t make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn’t resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club).”

You may have gone on a karaoke date with Rina in the demo. In the original game, you meet her in a hostess club, and have to buy her gifts and learn about her in conversations. Now, we suppose, she’ll just randomly call you like she did in the demo. Somehow, the dating won’t be affected, as the Sega rep assured IGN that “the story experience was the same as the Japanese version.”

Who can blame Sega for cutting some of the more culturally Japanese elements from this role-playing game about modern Japanese culture? After all, it must have been in a rush to release on the same day as Final Fantasy XIII.

Yakuza 3 loses hostess clubs, quiz game in Western release originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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