It is estimated to bring in about 40 billion yen. My goodness, how many zeros are there!?

According to the city, 9,600 jobs will be created for security, maintenance, and other operations at the site. More details about the exhibit’s duration and related events will be announced at the end of March.

I like to see the Gundam one day myself.. ^^

Source: ANN

Priced at $4999. Willing to fork out that amount of price for a Golden PS3?

Source: Kotaku

With that many employees get laid off, EA claimed that in return they can save $100 million annually. However, it is not just employees that are being “sacrificed”. Additionally, EA had to scrap (not sure temporarily or permanently) a dozen games. It has not been confirmed which games had been affected, but I’m sure the more anticipated ones like Crysis 2 are probably safe.

Despite The Sims 3’s release in June and Madden NFL 10 in August, EA is still making a loss. Well to be honest, not many games published by EA has caught my attention really, or has made me want to buy the games. Maybe they should work on publishing titles that will actually sell, instead of going for new intellectual properties like Mirror’s Edge or Dragon Age: Origins. Oh do not get me wrong though, both of those games are decent, however they are also new titles and so not many people may take notice of it.

Let’s take for example Modern Warfare 2 (I’m sorry for people who are sick of hearing this title, but it IS the big thing now >.<). The main thing that is helping the game’s upcoming sales record is thanks to the fact that it is part of the Call of Duty franchise. This is because the franchise is well-known and therefore any new addition to it will be noticed. I’m not saying it is all thanks to the franchise name though, because I’m sure that Activision and Infinity Ward’s names will also play a part in the sales.

That is just my take on EA’s situation now. Please feel free to post your opinion on this =).

Square Enix is responsible for Saki and Fullmetal Alchemist by the way.

Speaking in an interview given at the recent “CoFesta” (Japan International Contents Festival), he replied:

The best sellers in the US were Full Metal Alchemist and Naruto, but these only sold a tenth to a twentieth of what they sold in Japan.

I think the main reasons are as follows:

1. Fewer copies are printed and those that are get sold at a much higher price, from $8.99 to $12.99.

2. Children don’t get as much money, their allowances are just smaller.

3. The other reason is location. If you live in Tokyo there will be 3 bookshops nearby, which you can easily cycle to. In the US there aren’t any, they can only buy on a weekly trip to the mall. Even if anime is highly popular, they just don’t visit the stores to buy manga often.

He focused on distribution issues which resulted in the lower sales of manga overseas, compared to Japan. Clearly he forgot to state that Western tastes are different? :D

Publishers such as Shueisha, Kodansha, Shogakukan and Kadokawa are setting up a digital platform on the PSP for distributing manga.

In Japan the prices are cheap and there are many stores, so I don’t think it will catch on.

But in the US, the prices will be reasonable and there are no stores, so I think maybe customers will like it.

Readers located in the US, will you buy the digital copies of the manga if you have the means to? The only reason I can think of as to why manga isn’t selling well overseas is – It takes ages for translation of the manga to be completed, and by the time they are completed, Japan might be volumes ahead while the US release is still stuck at Volume 1 ><.

Personally I prefer a manga in my hands – reading it by flipping page by page. I can’t imagine myself reading a manga and using my mouse to scroll to the next page ><.

Image Source: [1] Source: SankakuComplex [NSFW]

According to a report from Eurogamer, at least four retailers in the region are asking less than the £224 suggested retail price. Amazon UK, HMV, Game and Play are playing with the PSPgo’s built-in wiggle room pricing, asking £199 for the portable. Is that a reaction to slow sales?

I agree that the PSPgo is priced somewhat expensive, the plus side is the availability of memory storage on the PSP – 16GB, compared to your normal PSP Phat or Slim which requires you to purchase a mem stick on purchase.

A price of 199 pounds is definitely a good price – The price of 199 pounds should be equivalent to a purchase of a normal PSP-2000 in stores here(with memory stick). Who will not buy the cheaper PSPgo? XD For now I’m happy with my current PSP. Do you have a PSP?

Source: Kotaku

The price cut will take place in US and Japan. In the US, the price cut will take effect from 27 September, 2009. The console will be selling at a new retail price of $200.

In Japan, the reduction will kick in on October 1, with the console dropping from 25,000 yen to 20,000 yen.

While I do not keep myself updated with Nintendo products, Kotaku stated that this is the first time Nintendo officially reduced the price of the console in the market since it’s launch in 2006. Does anyone believe that Nintendo is doing this because they realised that their rivals have reduced the price of their game consoles in the market? ;)

Source: Kotaku

Now it’s possible with a Helicopter ride, or the new Narita Express Train! Fuji TV compares the two different rides as seen in the video below:

The helicopter flight takes 30 minutes and has nice leather seats with interior decoration by Hermes. A one-way ticket costs 75,000 yen (but a special launch price of 57,000 yen will be in effect until the end of this year).

The new Narita Express NEX E259 trains begin service on October 1st. The trip between Tokyo and the airport takes about an hour, but it will be a far cheaper ride than the helicopter. It will also be equipped with electrical outlets and locks for luggage.

The helicopter ride is freaking expensive, but it’s not everyday you get to ride in a helicopter! Did you get to ride in a helicopter before?

Source: Japan Probe

According to the report of Japan Video Software Association (JVA), the total sales of the anime DVD and Blu-ray in the first half of fiscal year 2009 increased by 2.3% compared to those of the last year.

Blu-ray sales definitely increase a lot this year. Could be due to the fact that anime releases are getting more extra episodes – to urge fans to buy the originals. Hopefully with the launch of PS3 Slim, and seeing that the PS3 sales are doing well in Japan, blu-ray will dominate the market! XD. So, maybe the sales of Anime Blu-rays will increase since the PS3 and Blu-rays are complements =P.

Source: MAL, Image Source: [1]

After browsing through, here are some cool deals (PRICES IN USD):

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Mikuru Asahina Maid Ver. 1/8 Scale PVC Figure [Alter] : $39.99
• To Heart2 AnotherDays Nanako Nekomimi Swimsuits Figure : $59.99
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Yoko Space Type 1/8 Figure : $44.99
  
• Death Note: Nendoroid Ryuk Shinigami Figure : $19.99
• Familiar of Zero: Louise Uniform 1/8 Scale Figure : $59.99
• Gurren Lagann Guren-hen Yoko 1/6 PVC Figure : $69.99
• Shuraki: [Trinity BOX 01] Mishiro Akatsuki 1/8 PVC Figure : $39.99
• Shuraki: [Trinity BOX-02] Ryu Meifen 1/8 Scale PVC Figure : $39.99

I have no idea how shipping is worked out at the moment for domestic customers, and international customers. As I know the prices of the figurines in stores here, the prices look reasonable. Do hop on over to Toylet to check out the other sale items available!

Promotion ends this September 19, 2009.

The statue has a weight of 4 kilograms(wow!) and is 30cm tall.

Out Spring 2010, yours for 81,900 yen. You can buy around 9-10 1/8 scale figurines with the money.. The cost of this statue is definitely huge, even though it’s a miniature model T_T. I wonder what it is made of? That it could actually weigh up to 4 kg?

Source: Yahoo