[Gamasutra rounds up recent reports on the Japanese games industry from local news site Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]
In our latest round-up of Japanese game industry news not previously reported on Gamasutra, we look at a special Kinect bundle for
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, a collaboration between three big publishers, and more.
Namco Bandai Made the Most Money in March
For the second month in a row, Namco Bandai made the most money from its software sales in Japan, easily beating out companies like Nintendo, Sega, and Capcom in March,
according to a report from Enterbrain.
Namco Banda's games like
Mahou Majo Madoka Magica (PSP) and
One Piece: Pirate Warriors,
one of the biggest sellers ever for PlayStation 3, helped the company 36.8 percent of March's software revenues.
Nintendo made up 12.5 percent of last month's sales, while Sega took 10 percent, Capcom took 6.9 percent, and the Pokemon Company took 6.3 percent. Konami, Tecmo Koei, Square Enix, Sony, and others made up the remaining share of revenues.
Steel Battalion Kinect Bundle Announced
Capcom will sell a special Kinect Bundle for
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (pictured), its upcoming mech game developed by From Software. It will include a copy of the game, a code for downloadable content, and a Kinect sensor.
Releasing on June 21, the limited edition bundle is priced at ¥19,800, or $246 -- the same price as the first
Steel Battalion game for Xbox, which game with a large controller that many felt was prohibitively expensive but offered a more immersive experience.
Capcom x Sega x Namco Bandai: Project X Zone First Details
Namco Bandai, Capcom, and Sega have announced their collaborative 3DS game,
Project X Zone, a strategy RPG featuring a huge roster of characters from the three publishers' respective franchises.
Reminiscent of 2005's Japan-only PlayStation 2 strategy RPG
Namco x Capcom, the game features characters from titles like
Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Space Channel 5, Virtua Fighter, Xenosaga, Tekken, and many others.
[This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]