Late Night Consoling

As an antithesis to the story last week about the Xbox's slow adoption rate in Japan, Microsoft has issued a statement saying that despite the fact that the hardware sales are less than they had projected, software seems to be selling fine, and that Halo has become the system's first million-selling title, with Project Gotham Racing and Dead or Alive 3 as the second and third best-selling titles respectively, at 500,000 and 400,000 units sold. Obviously this is spin doctoring here to distract from the hardware sales, but to Microsoft's credit, it has reached the million-seller mark before Sony did (Onimusha was the first PS2 game to do it, well after the system's launch), and at least the Japanese public seems to be buying Xbox consoles purely for gaming, not as a cheap DVD player as they did with the PS2. Still, Microsoft is still fighting uphill in Japan, and these numbers reflect that. E3 will be a good way of telling how much success they've had with Japanese developers, and if the ones that have already committed to the system will release original, top-tier titles, instead of ports of PS2 games (like Capcom and Konami have chosen to do).

• Here you go Castlevania fans, GameSpot has posted their hands-on impressions of White Night Concerto, complete with gameplay movies. It sounds like there have been a few tweaks to the gameplay, including a bigger jump height for the main character.
• A few people sent this in over the weekend: Gamers.com has an in-depth preview of the great looking new Robotech game for PS2, Xbox and GameCube online, which contains screenshots, a great interview and even a gameplay movie (Gigex required).
• Okay, so the first one's not out here yet...but it's been confirmed: Xenosaga Episode II is in development.
• As that Japanese release date looms ever closer, Square's releasing more and more info from Final Fantasy XI. Head to GameSpot for new info on guilds, chocobos, and PS2.IGN has their own updated preview as well.
• A look at 11 upcoming third-party GameCube titles is up at Xen Gamers tonight. Among the games is BloodRayne, better known as Terminal Reality's sequel to Nocturne (complete with GameCube screenshots).
• Yeah, Microsoft's proud of the million copies of Halo they've sold...but meanwhile Metal Gear Solid has sold a whopping 5 million worldwide.
• Ubi Soft has announced that the upcoming Rayman Arena will retail for all of $19.95. Of course, judging by the quality of the game (at least compared to the last Rayman, anyway) you get what you pay for.
• GameSpot's posted a crapload of new movies from the GameCube Resident Evil. You know, I think I'm going to stop posting these damn things...at this point you could edit them together and just watch someone else play the whole game.