GTA IV Banned? Ministry Of Information moves against Videogames

Around an hour ago, at 2 PM today, two inspectors from the Ministry of Information raided a "Euphoria" shop in Seef Mall and confiscated all Grand Theft Auto IV titles, Both PS3 & Xbox 360.
Two men, wearing traditional dress, came in, identified themselves to the man behind the counter, took his CPR and started writing down his details in an official inspection form. They also wrote down what they took (Around 4 or 5 titles of GTA IV for PS3 and the same for X360). They gave the receipt to the man and walked out with the titles in a plastic bag.
Now this does not necessary mean that GTA IV is banned in Bahrain, but it means at least that someone (individual or the ministry it self) complained about the title and the ministry is looking into it.
Given the nature of the title and the notion that games are (still) for kids, I expect the title to be banned very soon.
The title was banned for some time in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Saudi gamers have always came here to get their GTA fix. it seems that will continue no more.
I am appalled at this movement especially since other types of media (Video, Audio) are not dealt in this manner. I do agree there are some questionable materials in the game, however, I would suggest that age ratings are enforced as they should be rather than simply banning the thing altogether.
This blog will keep an eye out on the matter.

Ninja Gaiden

The images of Xbox 360's Ninja Gaiden are looking mighty sweet!

Winning Eleven 11 is near!

The Winning Eleven series is extremely popular the world over and in the GCC more specifically. Heck, in Saudi they even rent out Playstations in coffee shops so you can play the thing with your mates.

the 10th incarnation was released on the PS2 last year. The 11th release (which sounds confusing yet cool) is coming out on BOTH the X360 and PS3.
This will be amazing, no reviews needed. It's just updated and improved more of the same. You can see some of the new additions in the pictures below
If something is gonna increase PS3's sales in the Middle East, this will be it.

"Bio Shock" is reaping praise

Bio Shock has been causing Tsunami sized waves for the X360 fans. It has extremely detailed visuals and attained very high marks already.
1Up gave them a 10/10, Games radar: 10, Eurogamer: 10, Game informer: 10, IGN: 9.7, Game spy: 10.
Essentially it is a first person shooter. But it seems to be done remarkably well. The X360 becomes more Solid everyday. Look at the trailer and tell me what you think. You play the man that tries to kill the little girls. I know, sick but novel notion.

PS3 prices drop in Bahrain

Sony fought back with a global plan, it seems, to cut the prices. Today we saw ads for new reduced prices for PS3s in Bahrain.

Just a couple of months ago, it debuted to the tune of BD 270 ($715) for a bare bones system. Games were priced BD 30 ($80) at least.

We now see three bundles on display.

The first two has one game attached: Eithr "Resistance: Fall of man" or "Moto storm" and a controller.

System + one game now costs BD 229 ($606).

Another third bundle includes both mentioned games for BD 260 ($687) but for 2 controllers rather than one. Compared to the initial offering price, this is a pretty sweet deal. This deal could have set you back BD 360 ($952) at least had you got it at launch.

Similarly, I just heard this morning that PS3 prices in Malysia reached about BD 180 ($476). This is of course great news. Sony is doing exactly the suggestions I previously wrote in my March next gen forcast. They seems to be on the brink of a reform which can very much be very successful. If these moves could get retail customers intrested again, this will pull back the cautious 3rd party developers to the Sony side again.

In the mean time, Nintendo has NO Middle east representation nor official releases. And the choice of games are leaving hard cores hungry. Can't belive it, but This round Sony 1 / Nintendo 0.

The X360 is enjoying the Middle East presence of Microsoft and got price cuts and more distribution as well. Although it is still not the house hold name the Playstation is here.

Any way, It will be intresting to watch the public's reaction to the price cut.

Nextgen Sales: A closer look

Total sales figures will not give me the clear picture I need to forecast this war. Sadly the nexgenwars.com tracker does not give you that detail. Fortunately, videogame charts do! Lets see..

XBOX360
Sold 9.66 mil according to vg and 10.84 according to ngw. Lets see the figures; The bulk of the sales is in the US (almost 6 mil). Hmm.., expected as much. 3.4 mil is in the other region which includes Europe, Middle East and Australia. However Japan sold 380K ONLY?
That's not even close to half a million! From 10 million systems, The Japanese bought less than half a million?
No wonder it lacks Japanese 3rd party developers. Microsoft still finds this place tough huh? They are trying though, so this could change. But I really think the Japanese sales figures must rise in order to gain momentum.

Wii
Sold 6 mil according to vg, 5.21 mil according to ngw.
The Wii sales are more or less even in all regions. Almost 2 mil in Japan, 2.3 in USA & 1.68 elsewhere. Its close to a 2 million average across markets. That tells me that unlike the X360 above, All markets are embracing the Wii. Also, the close sales numbers suggest that supply is constant through out the markets (ie: no shortage in one place and surplus in another). The Wii sales growth is the fastest of the three. This even distribution should attract developers from all regions, I expect good diversity in games should this trend continues.

PS3
Sold 2.67 according to vg, 1.77 according to ngw. ...
....
Wait a minute! That's one heck of an error margin! The difference in figures cannot be almost one million units! I know the X360 figures are off by as many but percentage wise, the error margin is huge for the PS3 figures.
Moving on, we will use the vg figures here of course for now. PS3's biggest market is the USA. 1.32 mil. Japan has only 0.83 mil and everyone else bough about 0.52 mil.
That makes sense. The PS3 enjoyed immense demand at launch in the US. Other parts of the world are slow, exactly as the reports from UK, Europe & Australia say (It is still not available in the Middle East despite Sony treating it a part of Europe). The 830k units in Japan is way too little. I understand the Japanese developer's concern now.

What to make of this?
The Xbox 360 is a solid contender. Proven everywhere, except in Japan where no foreign system was successful before. Still, that simply says that their system works but needs Japanese 3rd party support. The Japanese 3rd parties are not endorsing the Xbox360 fully yet as they expect a Japanese system to reign, and are looking at PS3, which continues to disappoint most, leading to slower Japan sales, making the 3rd parties wait until the fog clears (or MGS or FF get released).
The Wii seems comfortable. I expect it to receive proper support in the near future. Its comfortable for the fact that it can coexist with either PS3 or X360. Either it will be the system of choice (for the big budget games), or, if the title goes to Sony or MS, Wii can easily transform into the casual gamer / family game machine which will compliment any gamer.
So:

• Microsoft must focus on the Japanese market now. RPGs. RPGs. And they should steal more exclusives from Sony, like DMC & Ace Combat, and try to make exclusive PS3 games not exclusive which will tip the market to their favour. Oh, and release cute special edition consoles like they did with Blue Dragon. The Japanese will eat it up!
  
• Sony needs to prove to 3rd parties that it still owns the market. They should lower and unify the prices worldwide (or make them closer) and release bundled systems with a big name game. They cannot lower the price now without risking watering down the brand as it will be like admitting it's not gaining sales because it's too expensive. Still, I'd rather they do this + the big budget exclusive + a strong Internet support that at least match or come close to XBLive.
  
• Wii is under alot of demand, shortages will occur. Nintendo needs to address this asap. Once they do, they must immediately release a big budget name (like Mario Galaxy) and offer bundled packages (imagine Wii + Mario + wii sports or wii play). The market will be theirs if they do this. Especially if it happens before MS or Sony do what I suggested above.

Conclusion: War ain't over folks. Some are leading the race, some trailing, but it ain't over yet.

Blue Dragon's Videos

Here are some videos for the game, and remember; all graphics are real-time X360 graphics.
Trailer:


Real time gameplay:

You are attacked by "Blue Dragon"

Just as I expected.
Mistwalker (the game developer started by RPG Master Hironobu Sakaguchi) have released "Blue Dragon" on the Xbox 360, and its causing a riot.
Microsoft needed a strong RPG in order to get into the Japanese Market, without that market, the Xbox will lack the 3rd Party support of Japanese developers which will repeat the first Xbox scenario.

So Microsoft made an agreement with Mistwalker, and released Blue Dragon.
Do you know who is the team behind it?

1. Hironobu Sakaguchi: God father of the Final Fantasy Series.
2. Akira Toriyama: Character Designer for Dragon Ball Z & Dragon Quest series.
3. Noubu Umatsu: Is the music composer who worked on all Final Fantasy titles.

So you see ladies and Gentle gamers, Mistwalker is the new Square.

Apparently, Microsoft's plan... worked, as famitsu Magazine reports:

"over 180 people were lined up in front of the Yodobashi
Camera store in Akihabara, Japan, waiting to purchase Mistwalker's Xbox 360 RPG
Blue Dragon. 40 TV stations and newspaper reporters were present before the game
went on sale at 9AM. Microsoft has shipped 200,000 copies of the game."

So, I see the Japanese are eating it up. Famitsu also gave this game a 37/40 score (four reviewers scoring out of ten: 9/9/9/10), and if you know Famitsu magazine, they have a very hard quality standard.

I predicted that the X360 will not succeed unless they succeed with Mistwalker in a previous post. and it looks like my predictions will come true.