Akai Katana Shin PAL confirmed!

[-SD-]

Fantastic news. So will they keep the Japanese title, or will it be changed to Red Katana?

[spadgy]

EDIT, Has there been any video footage taken of this event that might show up on the interwebs later?

When me and JDE had to take to the stage at MCM Expo to help demo DDP: Resurrection, JDE spotted some cameras rolling, but truth be told I'm not sure if Gamespot (who hosted the stage at MCM where the AK announcement and DDP:R demos took place) plan to use that footage in anyway on the site.

[Illyrian]

Here are some pictures of DDP Rez, the stand and Spadgy/James play on stage as I was there with them!

Wrong thread, nevermind

[ZengarZombolt]

Hooooly shit.
Best announcement I've heard in a while. I thought this game would never make it outside of japan.

[guldberget]

This is some great news for us XB360 PAL owners. I thought it would come at some point after DDP DFK was announced but this sure happened a lot faster than I would have dreamed to hope for. Great work RSG!

[torisuRSG]

Thanks all!

Region(s) TBC

[Sumez]

Excellent, excellent news. RSG is a first class company!

[dan76]

Nice one RSG.

[elvis]

Excellent news. Will pre-order.

[spadgy]

Nice one RSG.

I knew you'd be happy!

[Sumez]

Too lazy to do the reasearch myself - any word on a release date/window?

[BPzeBanshee]

Since we're talking about it here, has the issue of Akai Katana Arcade mode's 4:3 aspect on a 4:3 monitor being zoomed in too much been fixed yet? If not I'd like to see it fixed for this release for sure. It can't be that hard, since its just a zoom factor one would only have to change the number surely?

@Sumez
You slack prick.

No there hasn't yet. I'm guessing first quarter of 2012.

[spadgy]

Re the release date and more info, I'm badgering the lovely RSG for a press release, but as of yet details are limited.

[MR_Soren]

I'd definitely grab it if it were truly region free, being an owner of a Japanese 360. (It's pretty annoying that not being locked out of NTSC U/C seems to be the only qualification for people to consider it "region free" even when it's still locked out of NTSC J.) Even if it isn't though, it's still a win for a lot of people who didn't have access to the game before.

Well, there is already a Japanese version for you to play. The people getting excited about this probably don't have a Japanese 360 and the subset of that group with US 360s hopes the game won't be locked to Europe-only. I agree that region-free isn't the correct term, but I don't believe a concise phrase for the situation exists.

I'll buy this if it will play on my US console. Asked RSG, and they said it has not yet been determined. Voted for the idea with my DDP:R preorder.

[Necronom]

Re the release date and more info, I'm badgering the lovely RSG for a press release, but as of yet details are limited.

Hmmm, Eurogamer claims it's coming early 2012...which sounds like february/march to me.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... for-europe

[DJ Incompetent]

Poooor torisu. 'Answering so very many "IS IT REGION FREE" requests.

[DrTrouserPlank]

It won't be region-free in the sense that it will play on a J-360. Simply by the virtue of there already being a Japanese release they won't be allowed to have theirs playable on Japanese machines.

Unless there are plans by a different publisher to release Akai katana in the States, I see no reason why RSG wouldn't make it NTSC-U compatible.

[StarCreator]

Well, there is already a Japanese version for you to play. The people getting excited about this probably don't have a Japanese 360 and the subset of that group with US 360s hopes the game won't be locked to Europe-only. I agree that region-free isn't the correct term, but I don't believe a concise phrase for the situation exists.

Please don't misunderstand; even if the game is opened up only to NTSC U/C and not NTSC J, it would still be a lot better than nothing. No one is trying to debate that.

I just don't see why the game should be locked out of NTSC J at all. CAVE's game sales are incredibly front-loaded (to the point that they stop existing in sales number tracking charts by their second or third week of release), so they've already made as much money as they're going to out of the Japanese release. The international releases so far have all come out over a year after the Japanese releases. I'd understand if there wasn't such a long delay, but a year-late international release isn't going to threaten domestic sales with reverse importation, which is the only reason to lock the game out of the region at all. There would be little to no additional cost in enabling the game for NTSC J if CERO makes any sense, since the game would have already passed through the rating board a year prior. And it would only sweeten the deal for RSG, who would certainly see at least a small rise in sales numbers simply by a bit on the disc being flipped.

I already own every last Japanese CAVE 360 release and also purchased Deathsmiles NA despite being unable to play it, and want to support RSG for being the only international publisher still working with CAVE, but paying the additional cost of importing from Europe for a game I can't play is a little too hard to justify on my end.

[bcass]

Yeah, as an NTSC-J console owner, and with the NTSC-J game being so Japanese-langauge heavy, it would be really great to see the PAL release being playable on NTSC-J machines.

[Deca]

Really hoping this sees regionless or dual region treatment as DFK has. Regardless this is very cool news!

[MR_Soren]

I just don't see why the game should be locked out of NTSC J at all. CAVE's game sales are incredibly front-loaded (to the point that they stop existing in sales number tracking charts by their second or third week of release), so they've already made as much money as they're going to out of the Japanese release.

Games generally don't have two publishers in the same region, and the game was already published in Japan. Sure, sales are very front-loaded, but not all of them. Stores still stock the games months and sometimes years later, but they eventually do sell out. People are still buying them.

Play-Asia still has the game in stock for $82. A completely region-free version that could be imported for $45 would certainly hurt Play-Asia and other retailers who are stuck with $82 JPN-only copies.

Generally speaking, I don't think region locking should exist at all, but, unfortunately, it does. Price protection is it's primary purpose, and this is one of the scenarios it exists for.

[Elixir]

Play-Asia still has the game in stock for $82. A completely region-free version that could be imported for $45 would certainly hurt Play-Asia and other retailers who are stuck with $82 JPN-only copies.

What are these "other retailers" you speak of? And is that in Japan?

More importantly, Play-Asia are based in Hong Kong, and don't import European versions. Considering they buy games in batches from Japan, often in amounts of 10-20 based on popularity, they're not losing out on anything.

[Daigohji]

This is great news that I didn't see coming. It's impressive to see the commitment RSG are ploughing into bringing Cave games over to Europe. I'm looking forward to DFK, but this moreso. Any Cave game getting a Western release is good, but I prefer new IPs over sequels.

[Himself]

Beautiful. And if I can play it on my 'merican Xbox like DDP, I'll pre-order ASAP. Wahoo!

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I think Cave would rather have those with J360s buy the originals since they are the publishers, rather than risk losing a sale near full RRP to PAL which they dont publish and is priced at a lower RRP and will be half that in 6 months time

[torisuRSG]

I think it is very unlikely the game will work on Japanese consoles.

[Sumez]

I think it's obvious from a business perspective that there's one publisher for the game in Japan, and that's Cave. Incidentally they're also in control of the European release, so it goes without saying they aren't interested in making it available on Japanese consoles, thus creating competition for themselves. (even if it's minor)
I don't agree with this practice, but I think it's totally obvious why a company CEO would make this descision. If only to simplify things legally.

If there had been a North American publisher for DFK, and RSG had still gone with opening the disc for the NTSC-U region, they'd probably have gotten into all sorts of trouble.

[torisuRSG]

I think Cave would rather have those with J360s buy the originals since they are the publishers, rather than risk losing a sale near full RRP to PAL which they dont publish and is priced at a lower RRP and will be half that in 6 months time

It seems worth noting that region-locking is not just down to the licensor and licensee but also the platform holder - in fact, it is ultimately the platform holder's decision.

[torisuRSG]

I think it's obvious from a business perspective that there's one publisher for the game in Japan, and that's Cave. Incidentally they're also in control of the European release, so it goes without saying they aren't interested in making it available on Japanese consoles, thus creating competition for themselves. (even if it's minor)
I don't agree with this practice, but I think it's totally obvious why a company CEO would make this descision. If only to simply things legally.

If there had been a North American publisher for DFK, and RSG had still gone with opening the disc for the NTSC-U region, they'd probably have gotten into all sorts of trouble.

This also is a good point.

[MR_Soren]

Play-Asia still has the game in stock for $82. A completely region-free version that could be imported for $45 would certainly hurt Play-Asia and other retailers who are stuck with $82 JPN-only copies.

What are these "other retailers" you speak of? And is that in Japan?

I'm sure Play Asia is not the only retailer in the world that has Akai Katana Shin in stock right now. The location is irrelevant.

More importantly, Play-Asia are based in Hong Kong, and don't import European versions. Considering they buy games in batches from Japan, often in amounts of 10-20 based on popularity, they're not losing out on anything.

Play Asia sells Asian games to people all over the world. If a fully region-free version of AKS existed for $40, it would be difficult for Play-Asia to sell JPN-only copies for $80. People would shop elsewhere.

CAVE would be rather silly to hurt themselves and their retailers by allowing a licensed out product to compete directly.