More Japanese X360 support
New from Konami, Tecmo, etc.
Following large scale revelations about Sony's next-generation software support at last week's PlayStation Meeting 2005 in Japan, Microsoft's own Xbox Summit has come and gone and with it brought news of several key publishers' previously unknown support for the console.
The event - the first major Xbox 360 press event since E3 in May - saw the likes of Taito, Konami, Bandai, Genki, From Software and Namco get behind Microsoft's new format with titles geared towards the Japanese and in some cases world market.
According to reports, Taito announced a game called World Airforce, followed by Konami's announcement of Pro Yakyu Spirits (a baseball simulator series), with Genki showing off a real-time video of Tokyo Extreme Racer and From Software showcasing a new RPG called Enchant, first details of which actually aired in Famitsu around the time of the Xbox 360 E3 conference.
Bandai also got in on the act with news of a first-person shooter set in the Gundam universe, reports add, as well as the slightly less explicit pledge of a new game that will be accompanied by an anime series. It'll be exclusive to the new Xbox, whatever it is.
Meanwhile Tecmo, no strangers to Xbox 360 support, said that it had a total of five Team Ninja titles on the way to Xbox 360, although none was confirmed as Ninja Gaiden 2, with speculation now mounting that that series may appear on multiple platforms. The titles mentioned for X360 were Dead or Alive 4 (launch title), Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (an expanded multi-sport sequel to the Xbox's Xtreme Beach Volleyball), Dead or Alive: Code Cronus, a new "secret game" and a new action title called Project Progressive. Details on the latter pairing - actually the latter pairing of pairings - were sadly not forthcoming.
Finally, there was news from Namco that's destined to excite. As well as a quick glimpse of Frame City Killer, brilliantly abbreviated and also shown at E3, there was news of Love Football, which is said to be a realistic footy title released to coincide with next year's World Cup (in June then), and, if you weren't already excited, the prospect of Ridge Racer 6. Whether that's exclusive or not is hard to say, but we don't find it hard, given Ridge Racer's previous association with every single Sony console launch, to suggest that it might not be. What we do know is that it will feature online play and downloads. We look forward to it with frothing mouths.