More for the Xbox 360 in Japan @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on April 06, 2006

News: MS fights for Japan with a press event that looks at the 360's future in Japan.

Microsoft held a press event in Japan today to announce some news games that should hit the sleek silver system sometime in the future.

GameSpot reported on the event and here's a rundown of what our friends across the Pacific will see soon:

An unnamed RPG from Tri-Ace, the developers of Star Ocean and Radiata Stories. US Release Likelihood: I'd say 60%. We Americans love our Star Ocean

Next, Square-Enix and Game Arts revealed Project Sylph, a FPS spin-off of the Silpheed series. US Release Likelihood: 50% After all, its an FPS.

Namco Bandai was up third and they revealed that "arcade perfect" recerations of Galaga and Pac-Man are coming to the Live Arcade. How perfect are they? Well, Namco reps said that old arcade strategies from the 80s would still work. US Release Likelihood: 100%. Come on, its Pac-Man and Galaga, this is a no brainer.

The Bandai side of Namco Bandai then announced one of those "giant robot" games the Japanese are so fond of called Zegapain XOR. That was followed by the announcement of another entry in the Monopoly meets Magic Culdcept series, Culdcept Saga. I loved Culdcept for the PS2 and would kill to see this come stateside, but I doubt it. US Release Likelihood: Zegapain XOR (20%), Culdcept Saga (25%). Never heard of Zegapain and Culdcept PS2 sold poorly.

Namco Bandai closed out their section of the event with a look at a new Gundam game, this one a First Person Shooter. Namco Bandai showed a Gundam game at the Xbox Summit last year, there's no word if this is the same game or not. US Release Likelihood: 50%. Again, its an FPS.

The last developer to get up on stage was Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy and the founder of Mistwalker. Sakaguchi laid out his company's trio of 360 RPGs: Blue Dragon in 2006, Lost Odyssey in 2007 and Cry On after that. US Release Likelihood: 95%. The father of Final Fantasy is behind these. Another no-brainer.

The event closed with a demonstration of Ninety Nine Nights, which has already been announced for an American release.

We'll have more on all of these titles (and hopefully have some American release dates) soon.

source: GameSpot