On February 21st, NIS America (NISA) held their annual Press Reunion event in San Francisco. For NIS themselves, 2013 marks two important milestones for the company: NIS will be celebrating their twentieth anniversary come July while one of their flagship series, Disgaea will be celebrating its tenth anniversary. Of course, not to be overshadowed by Sony's PlayStation 4 announcement from the previous day, NIS President Souhei Niikawa was on hand at the event to not only pledge support for the system but to also mention that NIS has begun to develop for it as well.

One part scavenger hunt and one part 'choose your own adventure' narrative, Real Escape Game is real-life activity where groups of people are given an objective, follow and decipher clues, and work together to 'escape' from a threat. With having staged two previous events with much success, the group behind Real Escape Game planned something special for the J-Pop Summit Festival in San Francisco, especially since San Francisco is home to Viz Media, Inc., home of the popular series Neon Genesis Evangelion.

In an era when home gaming and online play dominate, the arcade is definitely suffering. Among them is Arcade Infinity, or AI, one of the premiere arcades in Southern California that specializes in importing the most update games and keeping them in tip-top shape. Originally slated to close for good this past Saturday, AI hosted a final farewell party. Due to several generous parties, however, AI was saved and the farewell became a celebration instead.

On December 10th Lucasfilm held a special screening in San Francisco, CA at the Lucasfilm campus in order to introduce a new villain to the Star Wars: Clone Wars TV series, Savage Opress. Three episodes were shown back to back with no interruptions, much like the original Clone Wars movie. This special screening was free to any fans that were able to obtain the limited number of tickets. Surprisingly, an assortment of Star Wars personality were present at the screening including Dave Filoni, Supervising Director of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series and Daniel Logan, the young actor who played Boba Fett in Episode II and the Clone Wars.