
Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto has provoked the ire of Japanese gamers by complaining that it is their inability to stomach the challenge of difficult action games which has led to the genre’s decline in Japan, even as challenge-loving American gamers happily lap them up.
Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jun 15, 2012 16:16 JST
- Tags: Comparison, Controllers, Interviews, Nintendo, Plagiarism, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360

Nintendo’s CEO has been saying the PS4 and Xbox 720 are no competition for the Wii U – because consumers won’t be able to tell the difference anyway.
Read the rest of this entry »

Efforts to compare the power of Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U to the practically obsolete PS3 and Xbox 360 have finally yielded results – and those hoping for the Wii U to at least beat – if not exceed – the capabilities of the lowly PS3 have been gravely disappointed.
Read the rest of this entry »


Dragon Quest X Online has been unveiled, though the news that it is apparently both an MMORPG and developed by Square Enix has prompted a great deal of scepticism.
Read the rest of this entry »

Nintendo’s newly announced “Wii U” console is already the subject of controversy – the company has admitted using footage from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of games in its promotional material, and when confronted over the swindle they lamely point to their discrete “all gameplay images are intended only as illustrations” disclaimer.
Read the rest of this entry »


Nintendo has announced the successor to the Wii, dubbed the “Wii U” and due in 2012 – this time the gimmick is a large screen in the controller, together with some much upgraded hardware.
Read the rest of this entry »

Nintendo has announced the announcement of a previously unannounced successor console to its hugely successful but now largely moribund Wii.
Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Feb 12, 2011 22:11 JST
- Tags: Namco Bandai, Ports, PS3, Rankings, RPG, Square Enix, Tales Series, Wii, Xbox 360

Ranking the best selling Japanese RPGs of the current generation of consoles provides evidence of some less than inspiring trends in gameplay and production values, amongst what is often considered the Japanese gaming industry’s flagship genre.
Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jan 19, 2011 21:34 JST
- Tags: DS, Famitsu, Microsoft, Nintendo, PS3, PSP, Rankings, Sony, Statistics, Wii, Xbox 360

Famitsu’s ranking of Japan’s top 100 best selling games of 2010 has found its way online, and seems to reveal the Japanese gaming market has devolved into a staid mixture of endless RPG franchises and Mario games…
Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jan 13, 2011 19:14 JST
- Tags: Bizarre, Copyright, Crime, Hyogo, Kobe, Police, PS3, Tourism, Wii

Japanese gamers apparently face arrest if they lend their games to friends – police recently executed a search warrant based on the unauthorised lending of 5 games, charging the lender with copyright infringement.
Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jan 10, 2011 15:18 JST
- Tags: Comparison, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC Gaming, Ports, PS3, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

PlayStation 3 fanatics are crowing over the fact that 2011 appears all but devoid of exclusives for lesser platforms.
Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Dec 27, 2010 06:03 JST
- Tags: Dragon Quest, DS, Monster Hunter, Nintendo, PSP, Rankings, RPG, Sony, Wii

A ranking of Japan’s best selling games of 2010 not only proves a major embarrassment to Sony, with not a single title on the PS3 making the list, but also manages to raise some depressing questions about the tastes of the Japanese gaming public…
Read the rest of this entry »