| J a n u a r y 1 7 , 2 0 0 2 |
P L A Y S T A T I O N 2 / P S O N E
- Sony announced a new PlayStation 2 printer called Tapis MPR-505,
which can be used to print game screens directly to printer. Tapis is scheduled for
release in Japan on February 23, for 20000 yen. There are 3 titles which currently support
the Tapis, including America Ouden Ultra Quiz from DigiCube, Marle de Jigsaw from Nippon
Software and Kanon from Nec Interchannel. Several other developers have also announced
support to Tapis, including Idea Factory, Irem Software Engineering, ArtDink, Sun Denshi,
Dazz and Mahou.
- Activision announced a PlayStation 2 and XBox port of the popular PC first
person shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The console versions are
scheduled for a fall release.
- Sega Wave Master has postponed the release date of Roommania #203
for PlayStation 2 from March 21 to sometimes this summer.
- Koei announced that they have sold 1 million units of their PlayStation 2 action
combat game Shin Dynasty Warriors 2 / Dynasty Warriors 3 worldwide.
- Hudson announced that they have sold 500,000 units of their PlayStation 2 party game Momotarou
Dentei X in Japan, since its release in mid-December of last year.
- Here are some images of From Software's Armored Core 3 for
PlayStation 2. The game features a new Comrade Plane Accompaniment System, where comrade
machines will assist you in the combats automatically, you can also give instructions to
the comrade machines. The game will also have over 50 missions in the scenario mode. Up to
4 players can battle over the i.Link cable.
 
Additional Images (14)
- Here are some new PlayStation 2 game preview trailers:
G A M E C U B E
- Nintendo has released a 3 new accessories for GameCube in Japan. First is a GameCube
Rack GCR-1, which allows you to organze your GameCube, GameBoy Advance,
controllers and game software neatly in the all-in-one movable cart. Cube Rack-R
is an aluminum frame rack for GameCube, you can place the controller and game software on
the side of the rack, and the rack is also movable. The last one is a GameCube DVD
Case, for 980 yen, each GameCube DVD case can hold 6 game titles and two Memory
Card 59s.
 
Additional Image: GameCube DVD Case
- Sega announced a new GameCube baseball game called Home Run King,
ported over from Sega's Japanese arcade baseball title Major League Baseball 3.
- Nintendo annoned that they have shipped 1 million copies of Super Smash Bros.
DX for GameCube in Japan, making this the first GameCube title to break 1
million. Nintendo expects the total shipment to reach 1.4 millions.
M U L T I
- Capcom announced the PC version of Dino Crisis 2 and Rockman
X5 in Japan, both titles will support high resolution graphics from 640x480 to
1600x1200. Dino Crisis 2 for PC is scheduled to release on March 1, for 5800 yen; and
Rockman X5 is scheduled to release on February 22, for 4800 yen.
X B O X
- Japan Market Watch mentioned that Microsoft is continuing to negotiate with Square
and Enix to develop for the XBox platform, because they realized the importance to have
the "big-two" RPG makers to develop for the system. However, Enix mentioned that
because the audience target for XBOX is different from the target players of the Dragon
Quest series, so that do not have current plans to develop for XBOX, even if they do,
something different might be put out for the system. On the other hands, Square mentioned
that after considering the future of XBOX, they are not planning to develop for the
platform.
- Microsoft announced that they will be shipping 300,000 units of XBOX at the Japanese
launch on February 22. The initial shipment figure for XBox is somewhat lower than
GameCube's 500,000 units and PlayStation 2's one million units.
- Here are some images of the Limited Edition of XBox, which is scheduled to release at
launch on February 22 for 39800 yen. The Limited Edition of XBox will have
semi-transparent black casing, the XBox logo on the center will be in black and silver,
the package will also include two keychains, one with Bill Gate's signature and one with
the XBox logo.
 
Additional Images: Full Package, XBOX
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