How many kids on your block own a game console? Less than 20% if you live in a third'ish-world country? Over 50% if you're among the more privileged Earthlings? Well then, imagine a whole country where over 95% of kids (fifth-year elementary school kids, to be more precise) have at least one game console of their own. Welcome... to the land of Japan!

This utopic figure came up from a survey released by the National Congress of Parents and Teachers Associations of Japan (PTA), according to Mainichi (here's a backup of the soon-to-disappear report). The survey, called "Attitude Survey on Children and the Media" revealed a 2% increase from last year (when "only" about 93% of kids had a console), and a similar trend was observed among high-schoolers, almost 91% of them enjoying the same playful status.

Genre wise, action games seem to be the most popular ones (30.9%), followed closely by RPGs (28.4%). And, not surprisingly, adult games with sexual content are also played by elementary school kids, even though only 2.5% of them would admit it. There are a few more mobile- and TV-related stats in the report, if you're curious.

As of today, the new president of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS) is Shuhei Yoshida. "Who?!", you might ask for various reasons, and I wouldn't blame you. For various reasons. Luckily, for all of us ignorants who haven't been following Sony's constant leadership changes over the past couple of years up close and personal, they provided us with a quick bio of Yoshida-san, which we're generously copy-pasting below.

"Yoshida joined SCEI in 1993, and was one of the initial members in establishing the PlayStation business. He was appointed Producer of the Product Development Department in April 1996, and joined Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. as Vice President of Product Development in April 2000, where he held various positions in product development, producing many global best selling franchise titles. In February 2007, Yoshida was promoted to Senior Vice President, US Studios, SCE WWS."

Commenting on the appointment, the group's CEO and president Kaz "Riiidge Racer" Hirai said that "SCE WWS will accelerate the software development for the PlayStation 3 and PSP platforms and vigorously expand the gaming market", under the leadership of Yoshida. Yeah, like, ganbatte!


Habemus President!

Not that there was any doubt about it, but the Naruto gaming franchise drags on, with the announcement of Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 for the Nintendo DS (based on the second game in the franchise, Naruto RPG 2: Chidori vs. Rasengan). Like its predecessor, the sequel will be a role-playing game developed by Tomy Corporation and published stateside by D3 Publishing, promising to feature "an all-new original storyline, a huge roster of playable characters, an improved combat system and for the first time, exciting Wi-Fi battles".

The release date is currently set for September 2008, and below are some more details about it, complemented by the first batch of screenshots.

"Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 is set to give players a portable outlet for their inner ninja this fall. A deep, original storyline will allow players to access 30 major characters from the series, from standards such as Naruto and Sakura to unlikely allies like the weapons-based Tenten. The improved and intuitive battle system will make it easy for even the newest fighters to get into the combat, using the DS Touch Screen to unleash devastating melee and jutsu attacks on any opponent foolish enough to get in their way. The new Squad Leader and Ninja Tag systems provide even more squad-building options, while the Wi-Fi multiplayer feature offers aspiring ninja the chance to take on challengers from around the world."

The first gameplay footage from the Gears of War 2 campaign was revealed this week, and for the past couple of days, Microsoft has been shoving more materials down our throat. It may sound like a lot, but in fact it's just a bunch of uber-high-res screenshots issued yesterday, and today they re-released the Gears of War 2 'assault' trailer, but without Cliff Bleszinski's commentary. In case you can't make out anything during the intense non-stop action, here's what the trailer is all about, in CliffyB's own words:

"The Locust are back, and they're meaner than ever. And they brought with them a force that can essentially sink entire cities; and it's not just a little emergence hole, it's an entire city going down at once. So humanity's back is against the wall, and we need to strike back against these guys. So the way that we do that is by taking these trucks called Derricks, and we tow these devices called Grind Lifts into Locust-occupied cities. The COG guys get in the Grind Lifts, they barrel down into the depths of the underground, and they fight back against these bad guys."

Both the trailer and the screenshots below are taken from the same level, called "Assault" (the third chapter), from the first act in the single-player campaign.

All's looking good for next week's public launch, as Funcom and Eidos proclaimed that over 1 million people have signed up for the Age of Conan beta, a figure shadowed only by the 5 million unique visitors tracked on the game's official website during 2008. They even believe this represents "the largest ever beta sign-up figure in the [Western] history of the genre", thought admitedly they're still not sure how these figures will convert into sales and, most importantly, subscriptions. I know plenty of people are going to give it a try, at the very least.

And if that's no clear indication of the game's short-term success, World of Warcraft's population is already starting to take a hit, as half of my betraying guildies will tell you. As far as I can tell, no other MMO has triggered such a large exodus of WoW players, over the past three years since Blizzard launched it. LotR Online came close in 2007, but it was a very, very short-lived distraction. The question is, will Age of Conan last long enough to threaten WoW's undisputed reign?

I still have my doubts.

P.S. We have a new Age of Conan 'femme fatale' trailer added yesterday, in case you didn't notice.

Playing catch-up with some Blizzard news while patching WoW to version 2.4.2, I noticed something everyone else must have known about since two days ago: BlizzCon 2008 was announced this week, "now with 50% more hall space for your convention-going enjoyment". This will be the third edition of Blizzard's gaming convention, and for those interested in attending, the venue and dates are Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, on October 10-11. Tickets will go on sale in the next few weeks, priced at $100 per person.

"BlizzCon will offer a wide variety of activities to help all attendees get the most out of the two-day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:

- Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment releases
- Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
- Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
- Areas and activities devoted to licensed products such as the World of Warcraft - Trading Card Game
- Costume, machinima, and character sound-alike contests with great prizes
- Commemorative merchandise based on the Blizzard Entertainment franchises
- A silent auction
- More exciting activities to be announced"

The press release isn't hinting at any new game announcements during the event, but you never know...

The Japanese have found a rather interesting use for two obsolete air traffic control radars, which had previously been used at the Osaka International Airport. Instead of trashing them, they installed them in a nearby park - built on an artificial hill, go figure - and are now using the radars as gaming platforms of sorts.

Nothing fancy, though, just a simulator game for children, "in which they can control landing planes following guidance on a screen", Mainichi writes today (here's a backup of that page, since their stories have a habit of going M.I.A. real fast). Had it been put to proper use - and by "proper" I mean "hardcore" - this would've surely qualified as the most advanced and realistic flight control simulator.

The only issue that remains is mass-producing real radars for common gamers (who wouldn't want one in their backyard?), not to mention the questioning appeal of a flight control sim. As if flight sims weren't unpopular enough.

The salesmen from Sony Computer Entertainment are over-pleased with themselves, for their impressive achievement of having shipped over 50 million games from the Gran Turismo "racing and car-life simulator" franchise. And because they obviously did all the hard work themselves, they're barely mentioning the series' developing studio - Polyphony Digital - just once in their pompous communique.

The series began in late 1997, so the 50 million shipments, spread over a 10 years (and 4 months) timeframe, would average to nearly 5 million Gran Turismo games shipped every year; and presumably a very solid percentage of that sold, too. It would be interesting to see a similar figure from EA's Need for Speed franchise. Wanna bet which one would come on top?

For old times' sake, here's a list of all the Gran Turismo games and "prologues" released over the years:

Gran Turismo - December 23, 1997
Gran Turismo 2 - December 11, 1999
Gran Turismo 3 A-spec - April 28, 2001
Gran Turismo Concept 2001 TOKYO - January 1, 2002
Gran Turismo 4 Prologue - December 4, 2003
Gran Turismo 4 - December 28, 2004
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - December 13, 2007

Oh, and a big-big personal thanks from Gran Turismo producer Kazunori Yamauchi, to all the fans out there. I've only been one for a year or so (since the NFS series is going nowhere fast), and I don't have a single shred of regret for switching over to Sony's team.

"I would really like to thank all the fans who have supported the Gran Turismo series over the years, for all their passion and love of the game. We’d like to continue making every effort to create cutting edge, high quality games, so that we don’t disappoint anyone’s expectations."

Yep, it's official. The Suzumiya Haruhi Wii game that was announced last year - along with that PS2 game and a PSP game, both released back in winter - will be a dancing game, and it could come out later this year. Shock and awe.

A random Japanese blog posted a couple of Famitsu scans showing images from the game - see them here and here - and based on them, Sankaku Complex has a brief description of what it will play like.

"The latest Haruhi game for the Wii will be a dancing game, involving timing Haruhi and company's dancing with the Wiimote. (...) there will be a story mode advanced by skilful dancing, a free mode in which you can freely choose costumes, music and stage, and the dancing will be accomplished with three characters, so Kyon is unlikely to feature with Haruhi, Nagato and Mikuru on hand. Apparently, there will also be a version packaged with a figure."

Moar Haruhi dancing? In 3D? With booze? Hell yeah!

Five years ago, this title alone would have been enough to make me hop around like crazy in excitement. Now, I couldn't give a rat's ass anymore. Not because the announcement was innevitable, nor because I've become a grumpy gamer. But simply because my rusty computer may never run Doom 4 at a decent frame-rate. If it will be a PC title at all...

Ok, so this is the part where the "real" news begins, normally. Except that there's not much left to say, other than "production has begun on Doom 4", as id bluntly puts it. Sure, they have more filler text in their announcement, but they don't give any estimate release date, no target platforms, no nothing. Just a tiny, subtle hint:

"DOOM is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth", said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software" (ed. - our bolding)

Bring Doom back to Earth, eh? Well, why not. It's not like it matters if we're shooting demons on Earth, Mars, or some other planet, as long as we're locked inside dark buildings most of the time. Damn, I really hope they'll shed more light on Doom 4, literally, and bring back the bloody colorful massacres from the early days of Doom and Doom II.