This Week In Japanese News: From Monster Hunter To PlayStation Awards

[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 the big shipment numbers for Monster Hunter 3G, the PlayStation Awards winners, and more. Capcom Shipping 420,000 Monster Hunter 3G Units at Launch When Capcom releases the next iteration of its phenomenally popular (in Japan) Monster Hunter series, Monster Hunter 3G for 3DS, next week in Japan, the initial shipment will comprise some 420,000 copies, according to retailer blog Sinobi. Those units will include 300,000 standalone copies of Monster Hunter 3G, 100,000 packed in with the new Expansion Slide Pad (or Circle Pad Pro as it will be called in the West) add-on, and 20,000 bundled with a limited edition White 3DS system. For comparison, the Wii release of Monster Hunter 3 for Wii in August 2009 sold around 540,000 copies in Japan in its first days. Sinobi claims the title was shipped so heavily, though, that retailers quickly slashed its price. 3D Dot Game Heroes Studio Releases Game Engine For PlayStation Vita Silicon Studio, developer of middleware and PS3 action-adventure title 3D Dot Game Heroes, has added support for PS Vita to Orochi, its game engine that feature over 40 development tools and twelve libraries for areas like graphics, physics, and AI. Orochi is designed as an all-in-one solution that allows studios to do quick multiplatform development targeting both PS3 and PS Vita. It's also allows companies to port Windows-based arcade games to PS3, Vita, and Xbox 360. This Year's Full PlayStation Awards Recipient List Honoring the top selling games on its platforms during the November 2010 to October 2011 period, as well as popular titles voted on by gamers, Sony held its annual PlayStation Awards ceremony today. The company gave out Gold Prizes to games that sold 500,000 and up, and Platinum Prizes to those that sold one million and up -- prizes are multiplied according to sales (e.g. 4 million = Quadruple Platinum). The winners include the following:

Sony gives out cash rewards to the development staff behind the games that won the sales-based wards. The Monster Hunter group received ¥40,000 ($51,000), while each of the Gold Prize teams received ¥500,000 ($6,400). [This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]