Late Night Consoling

Atlus USA today announced that it has acquired the rights to bring the next game in Atlus' long running Shin Megami Tensei franchise, Persona 3, to North American PlayStation 2 owners. The news is likely to be welcome for fans of the Persona series, as it has been over six years since the release of the previous installment on the original PlayStation. Persona 3 tells the story of a high school student who, after being attacked by a mysterious Shadow, gains access to his demonic Persona creature. "Persona 3 is the most exciting, challenging, and ambitious title in the SMT series to date!" said project lead Yu Namba. "While still faithful to its roots, it takes the series in a bold new direction with the implementation of the Social Link system, where your relationship with not just party members but also a huge cast of characters is critical to your success! Tired of endless random battles and character leveling? Then, focus on your Social Links instead... How you play the game is up to you!" Persona 3 features music composition by Shoji Meguro, who previously worked on the Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga entries in the franchise.

The game has already been released in Japan. Atlus recently announced that it would be releasing an update of the game, containing the original Persona 3 plus a significant amount of new content, in Japan. It is not clear if that game, entitled Persona 3 Fes, will be the basis for the North American release.

Atlus plans to release Persona 3 for PlayStation 2 in June 2007.

Hudson today sent out an email update containing various news and details of recent and upcoming Hudson releases, and included in the bulletin was word that the TurboGrafx-16 turn-based strategy game Military Madness is coming soon to Wii's Virtual Console. Hudson's official page for the game actually states that it is "now available," suggesting that the game is part of the next Virtual Console update, coming Monday, December 18.

If you've ever played any games in the Advance Wars or Heroes of Might & Magic series, you know how fun a turn-based strategy game can be. What you might not know is that the grandpappy of them all, Military Madness, is now available for the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console! As soon as you start up the first map, titled "Revolt", you'll know that you're in for a challenge as well as a whole bunch of fun. The game is likely to run the standard TurboGrafx-16 price of 600 Wii Points ($6).

Earlier this year, Sega announced that it would be delivering ten Sega Genesis games to Virtual Console in 2006. Eight of those have already been released, but now the company has put a list of its 2006 VC releases on its official site, revealing when the two remaining titles are coming. Sci-fi action game Space Harrier II is coming next Monday, December 18, while classic funk-laden co-op adventure Toe Jam & Earl will grace Virtual Console on Christmas Day, December 25. Each game will almost certainly go for the standard Genesis price of 800 Wii Points ($8).

Gears of War was easily one of the most anticipated Xbox 360 titles to date, and has been one of the system's best reviewed games following its release, so it is no surprise that Epic Games' third person shooter has already become Xbox 360's highest seller. Publisher Microsoft announced today that, since the game's so-called "Emergence Day" on November 7, Gears of War has sold over 2 million copies worldwide, 1 million of which have been in United States. "We've always held high hopes for 'Gears of War,' but we never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response from critics and gamers all over the world," said Epic president Michael Capps. "I can't describe how stoked our team is right now. Our fans can absolutely count on Epic to keep delivering new gameplay through Xbox Live."

Soon after its release, Gears of War dethroned Halo 2 as the current most-played Xbox Live game, and now some 1 million unique users have logged on to play online. That's a lot of people who will be downloading the game's upcoming free content.