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Kotaku reports that as of approximately an hour and twenty minutes ago, Tecmo will be taken over by Square Enix. The deal is expected to provide financial relief to Tecmo, whose supposed Blockbuster title of the summer, Ninja Gaiden 2, was anything but. Making matters worse, the company is currently being sued by most of Team Ninja including Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of the flagship Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises.

Square Enix, meanwhile, will benefit from an increased North American presence beyond the traditional 14 year-old girls and nerds of all ages that make up Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts’ target audience, in addition to an expanded portfolio of non-RPG games. Final Fantasy Xtreme Beach Volleyball anyone?

[Kotaku]

It seems Acer never heard of the Phantom Console and its thinking of joining the console race. Acer’s senior vice president, James T. Wong, stated that Acer is considering entering the Vide Game market with what he called a console based on “open standards”. He further said:

“If you look at most of the other game machines that are out there right now — Nintendo’s, the Xbox — they are ‘closed’ and proprietary systems,”

Well that’s all good and fair Acer but we already have an “open” platform, its called the PC, you’ve been making those for years! And I somehow doubt a standard-spec PC is going to fly with the PC gaming crowd.

[Betanews]

Bandai has recently announced that they are partnering up with Amazon to deliver digital content through their recently launched Unbox service. Unbox allows you to buy or rent digital media which you can download and, if rented, watch it as many times as you want on a 24 hour period within 30 days of your purchase.

Bandai hasn’t gone the rental way and its selling episodes at $3.99 USD each and they have also set season package prices where you can get a complete season for $40 or less. Those are some pretty sweet deals right there, seasons are usually priced about the $50 line.

Currently 15 titles have been announced for released of which 11 are known and only the first six currently available: Outlaw Star, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Infinite Ryvius and Escaflowne, Eureka Seven, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Witch Hunter Robin, My-HiME and SD Gundam Force.

Sadly this is strictly for US citizens, the rest of the world will just have to keep downloading fansubs. Which they will surely delete after the series is licensed, right kids?

[ANN]

Thats what Japan’s tourist spots might look in the future. The Japanese government is not blind to the fact that many tourists flock to Japan driven by otaku lust, wallets bursting with money soon to be spent on cheap electronics, DVDs, Mangas and used panties. That is why the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transportation is inviting foreign tourist to a 2008 event in Kyoto described as a “Manga Summit”. They are also promoting tours of Akihabara and other such places. How long before they make historical reenactments of historical battles like Gamera VS. Godzilla, or at least a giant crab battle.

[ANN]

Yankee Group, a Boston based research firm believes (based on funky magic) that the PS3 will enjoy the biggest market share by 2011. With 44% of the market share, followed by the Xbox with 40% and the Wii with 16%. Oh, wait, it gets better. The company also believes that less units will be sold in total this gen compared to last. Why? Because 44% of the market will be held at gunpoint to spend $600 on a console.

I’m sure this guys mean serious business, but are they even paying attention to preliminary market response? Where they at E3? I’m sorry, I’m sure the PS3 will be an awesome machine, but putting the Wii at 16% just doesn’t quite add up (well, mathematically it does). Something tells me this guys predicted the PSP would be the hottest thing since sliced bread. Who’d want a portable with two screens anyway?

[Next Generation]

Yoichi Wada, Square-Enix president, might be getting delusions of grandeur for his company.In a recent interview with Nikkei Business Online, Wada said that Square-Enix might be looking into producing hardware. After pointing out that the most successful consumer products of this times are the iPod and the Nintendo DS he said the following.

The strategy behind Nintendo and the iPod, to create a new environment based on hardware, is completely valid. But this is impossible if you dont have experience making hardware.

This is one of the reasons Square Enix will collaborate with Taito, a company that produces physical hardware. In our talks with Taito, ideas for an actual physical product have come up. In any case, we will be releasing some ‘thing’.

Its interesting to note that Taito has experience with arcades but not with handhelds, which, given Wada’s remarks, seem to be whats on their minds.

Read more!Square-Enix wants to make consoles?

A lawsuit was filed in a Texas court by Anascape LTD, a texan company that claims Nintendo and Microsoft breached an itty bitty number of controller related patents.

If you thought the Immersion vs Sony deal got ugly wait until you see this one! Lets see.

• Patent #5999084 - “Variable conductance sensor”
• Patent #6102802 - “Game controller with analog pressure sensor”
• Patent #6135886 - “Variable conductance sensor with elastomeric dome cap”
• Patent #6208271 - “Remote controller with analog button”
• Patent #6222535 - “Image controller with sheet connected sensors”
• Patent #6343991 - “Game control with analog pressure sensor”
• Patent #6344791 - “Variable sensor with tactile feedback”
• Patent #6347997 - “Analog controls housed with electronic displays”
• Patent #6351205 - “Variable conductance sensor”
• Patent #6400303 - “Remote controller with analog pressure sensor”
• Patent #6563415 - “Analog sensor with snap through tactile feedback”
• Patent #6906700 - “3D controller with vibration”

Doesn’t seem like much? Try typing them! Thats 12 patents they are suing for, shit, I guess if you shoot a man 12 times you are bound to hit once huh? Unless you are a storm trooper, that is. I’m surprised they didn’t just patented “VIDAEO GAMEZ CONTROLLA, ALL OF DEM!!11″. I think Anascape’s message is pretty clear here: “Give us money, bitches!”.

[The inquirer]

In an interview with the UK’s Guardian, Phil Harrison commented on all things PS3. From price to development kits, he says its all ready for the PS3 to launch, be a success and stop world hunger. The PS3 final Dev kits are at last in developer’s hands and they even have Blu-ray players now!But certain comments from other personalities listen within the interview plaint a bleaker picture for the PS3.

According to the interviewer, some inside contacts report that developers both within and outside of Sony are “scared of the wrath of Phil Harrison”, and whatever that means, it cant be good. Others comment that they do see the PS3 coming out on top in this console war but “only because it has Blu-ray”. Cool, but judging on past experience, Sony’s chosen key for success might just be Ridge Racer!

[Guardian]

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Eidos is considering weather to take legal action against Ozura Mobile for breach of copyright. The reason being Lava Kroft, a mobile game developed by Ozura. The game features “a new age woman who has an exceptional thirst for discovering some of the most intriguing and mystical treasures in the world“. Yep, that sounds like Lara Croft all right!

Read more!Lara Croft gets ripped off, and this time its not for porn!

Is E3 dead? That was the hot topic this weekend! We where busy having a disco dance-off but we emerged victorious and now we have to play catchup with the news. For those of you who don’t know what the hell happened here’s the low down:

Next-gen.biz posted news that a supposed insider gave them.
This source claimed E3 was to be canceled due to major expositors pulling out support.
Everyone waited in creepy suspense for official word from ESA on the future of E3.
ESA calmed the outraged public by announcing that E3 would cease being the huge show-floor event and would become a much more ‘intimate’ event.
This new event is to be called E3Expo (brought to you by the department of redundancy dept.)

So here’s my opinion on all of this.

Read more!E3, you where too good to be true!

In accordance to Nintendo’s tradition of cryptic comments they recently included the following in a game release schedule (with no mention of the Wii):

Perhaps the secret to the launch information for Wii is somehow encoded in the text of this news item.

If thats not a PR stunt for the internet then I’ve lost my touch. And John Scalzo of Gaming Target took them seriously, he sat down and tried to crack the secret. Here’s what he came up with.

The fourth quarter begins on October 1. Now look at the list. At least one game is released every Monday in the fourth quarter except for the following dates: October 2, November 20 and November 27.

November 27 is after Black Friday, so it’s out. November 20 is after the launch of the PS3, so that’s out too. That leaves us with October 2.

The Wii will launch on October 2, you read it here first.

Well this now competes with those November theories out there.

[Gaming Target]

As its customary Nintendo isn’t on the speaker list for the TGS and of course Nintendo isn’t an exhibitor there. Nintendo’s always been quite distanced from TGS and this year is no exception. So what venue will Nintendo use to reveal the last few details of the Wii?

Falafelkid seems to think a SpaceWorld is in order for this year. Keep in mind Nintendo hasn’t organized a SpaceWorld for some years now but lately Nintendo hasn’t been the same as in previews years. Then there’s the Leipzig German Games Convention but its much more plausible that Nintendo chooses its own turf for this. Japan’s been a little neglected actually.

[Wii: Definitive Speculation]

This one’s for the ladies (and guys of the rainbowy persuasion). FaithNaked over at The Girl Gamer has been working for the past week or so on a list of the ‘Top Ten Hottest Guys in the Video Game Industry’. And so the list is finally done today. Its nice when girl gamers do something for themselves in this often testosterone driven industry. I sure hope FaithNaked makes this list into a yearly thing, Ive already shown this to a couple of friends and squealing was the #1 response.

Above you can see Tomonobu Itagaki, DOA creator, who sits at number 4 of the list with this little comment:

With his rock star look and attitude, Tomonobu is a

totally hottie and a gentleman, as he still refuses to make his DOA girls naked in his games. How sweet is that…

Good thing that gave him good points with the ladies because most guys are still pretty frustrated over that.

[The Girl Gamer]

Cartoon Network, my accomplice in getting bad grades back in elementary school, has announced its dipping its hands on the MMO waters. According to the information released the game is still two years away plus any delays that might come along the way. The game will be developed by the people behind Seal Online which hints at the game’s style both graphical and gameplay-wise.

In fact the information states that the game will be released with an “East meets west” style. Do expect it to be anime heavy. The game will be similar to Silkroad in that it will be free to play but extra/new content that ‘enhances’ the gameplay will be for purchase. Frankly this is the best model to peddle your wares to little kids who’s demands are often driven by light envy. Like taking candy from a baby.

Keep your eyes on this, it could get big.

[1up]

Sony just might be able to make good on their promise of 2 million units at launch. Chinese newspaper Commercial Times has reported that Asustek, the company in charge of manufacturing the PS3, has already begun production and shipping the console to Sony. The production seems to be well underway and at a very healthy rate. Asustek received 200,000 components this month will receive one million in September. These numbers not only support Sony’s promise but also dismiss, or at least mitigate, reports of unfinished component design and really low yields on the Cell.

C’mon Sony, this is the first piece of good news for you in a while, weather you deliver or not, the audience is listening.

[DigitalBattle]