Recently, I caught up with a marketing distributor that works with various visual novel publishers, to get a better feel for the state of the eroge market in Japan.

Marketing means everything as far as today’s game market is concerned. For better or for worse, no matter how good or bad your game is, chances are it’ll sell if you put the right kind of marketing behind it.…

Star Ocean may not be Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, but it is an established Square Enix franchise. Microsoft seems content about that and are giving Star Ocean: The Last Hope a big marketing push.   Causeway Bay is one of Hong Kong’s busiest and most crowded shopping districts. Before metro passengers hit the stores [...]

Thanks to the Japanese Trademark database we’re clued into another Shining Force game from Sega. Shining Force Cross was registered on December 10 along with the pictured logo.   In addition to registering a possible video game title Sega trademarked two related website names: shiningforcecross.net and sfc.net. Being this protective is quite unusual unless Sega [...]

Square Enix wants to make sure Japan, well at least Tokyo, is aware of Dissidia: Final Fantasy’s release. For a limited time daily commuters passing through Shinjuku Station get a tour through the history of Final Fantasy. These posters are a part of a massive ad campaign where all the heroes/villain combinations span the walls [...]

You may perceive your Nintendo DS as a handheld system where you can hop online and play Mario Kart DS against the world, but Nintendo has a slightly different outlook on what the DS is. During Nintendo’s 67th Financial Results Briefing, Satoru Iwata (president of Nintendo) mentioned the Nintendo DS "should not be considered simply [...]

How can a commercial be so bad that it makes you want a game less after watching it? Observe.   [youtube]w0Q3cPK8iio[/youtube] Let’s say you managed to get past the horrible IKEA-esque set design, the fake wig, the even more fake actors and the horrible CG elements. Why is it I still have to watch commercials [...]