Level-5, famous for the Professor Layton series, will be opening a development branch in both the United States and Europe. The United States branch should open in Santa Monica later this year around September. We can only imagine how this would improve the Professor Layton series, which is already popular in the west. Perhaps the studio will create a brand new series that appeals to the west and gets imported to Japan instead? We'll have to wait and see.
NIS America announced on Friday in a newsletter that they are offering two lucky groups of fans a chance to attend their annual press event in San Francisco on July 15, 2010. NIS America has mentioned that they may be bring a few industry guests from Japan, typically members who are related to whatever game they are announcing at the event. In this case, our bet will probably be staff members from Gust for the pending release announcement for Ar Tonelico 3. Our guess is that Ar Tonelico 3 will be playable at the event with kiosks set up around, so this a great chance to try the game and give the company your feedback. Talk with the company's representatives, mingle with members of the media, and of course chow down on the free food ans drinks! You can enter the contest here.
Check out our reports about the past NIS America press events here and here.
The iPhone has been successful in application (app) sales since the App Store launched in 2008. With over 200,000 apps available for purchase or download, more than 30,000 apps are games. The increasing popularity of the iPhone has caught the Japanese game industry’s attention, and within the last year, began porting or developing games for the iPhone. We have decided to feature various games developed by Japanese companies in an ongoing multipart segment.
We received an invitation to NIS America's press event today mentioning announcements for new unnamed titles as well as special industry guest appearances. NIS America also slipped in an extra image of 2 characters silhouetted behind curtains who resemble Ar Tonelico 3's Saki and Finnel.
There also seem to be 2 characters next to them pixelated, though we can't make heads or tails where it's from. We've included the image inside, see for yourself. Let us know what you think. We'll keep up updated on any new announcements.
Rolling with the momentum that fighting games have gained these past two years, Shoryuken has just unveiled a teaser trailer for the fighting game that many thought would never come, Marvel vs Capcom 3. So far, no gameplay details have been released yet, but the end of the trailer shows a clip of Ryu in the same graphical style of the recently released Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars, perhaps pointing to the same engine being used or a slight upgrade of it for either the PS3 of Xbox 360. The trailer features Ryu, Morrigan, Chris Redfield, Wolverine, Iron-Man, and The Hulk, solidfying them as selectable characters.
Update: full press release from Capcom included.
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