Late Night Consoling

After almost two weeks of being on North American retail shelves (theoretically), Wii has launched in Japan. As expected, many store locations drew lines of hundreds of gamers hoping to pick up a system as soon as it became available. According to some online reports, the line at Bic Camera's Yurakucho location reached 1,500; others claim it was more along the lines of 2,000. Most sources seem to indicate that Ninendo followed through with its intention to supply 400,000 units to Japan on day one.

Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo HD, the PlayStation 3 followup to Gran Turismo 4 (PS2), has been a subject of much controversy due to reports of the game making use of a complex--and potentially pricey--microtransaction-based content system. Now, translations of an announcement on Sony's Japanese site and a message from GT designer Kazunori Yamauchi, it seems that Polyphony is shifting focus away from Gran Turismo HD in order to focus on the next full-fledged game in the acclaimed racing franchise, Gran Turismo 5. Instead of receiving a retail release as planned, a demo-sized version of the game will be freely downloadable for Japanese PS3 owners as of December 24, 2006. It will contain ten vehicles and two variations of a track. It does not appear that the game will contain online multiplayer, a feature planned for Gran Turismo 5.

No North American release of Gran Turismo HD has been announced.

This week, Wii's Virtual Console saw three new additions to its lineup, one on Monday and two on Tuesday. Today, Nintendo announced that it will be adopting a more consistent schedule for new Virtual Console releases. As of next week, games will be added to the service every Monday. This coming Monday, December 4, new titles will be made available at 9:00am Pacific time, though it is not clear if that will be the standard time going forward.

Next week's batch of games is comprised of Donkey Kong Jr. (NES [the press release stated Super NES but presumably this is an error], 1-2 players) for 500 Wii Points ($5), Victory Run (TurboGrafx-16, 1 player) for 600 Wii Points ($6), Columns (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players) for 800 Wii Points ($8), and Ristar (Sega Genesis, 1 player) for 800 Wii Points.

Capcom's Xbox 360 sci-fi shooter Lost Planet is set for release in January, typically a slow period for games following the insanity of the holiday rush, but also a period during which quality games can make a strong impact when fewer competitors are coming to shelves. Still, after the success of its previous Xbox 360 exclusive Dead Rising, Capcom doesn't plan to hold back on the marketing for Lost Planet. The company today announced that from December 4 to December 31, 2006, it will be running an aggressive ad campaign centered around a 60-second trailer to be shown on NBC's 3,000 square foot HDTV in Times Square, New York City. During the trailer's four-week run, Capcom expects it to have generated a total of about 40 million impressions. Said Capcom marketing VP Charles Bellfield, "What better way to make an impact than by presenting the game in one of the most recognized and visible spots in the world, during the busiest time of the year."

Lost Planet will be released for Xbox 360 in North America on January 12, 2007. Single-player and multiplayer demos are currently available through Xbox Live Marketplace.

Eurogamer has an interesting feature covering PS3 Linux and what it implies for the PS3 homebrew community (it implies a lot).