If you've been on the fence about Blue Dragon, then we have some good news for you. According to Dengeki Online (helpfully translated by Siliconera), an international Blue Dragon demo is slated for July 20. Weighing an impressive 1.1GB, the demo will apparently contain a whopping 2 hours of available gameplay. We hope you've grown accustomed to the English voice-overs though, as Japanese will not be an option in the demo. There may be a few different subtitle options, depending on the language settings of your Xbox. Finally, be sure to grab the demo as soon as you can, as it will fly away from Marketplace on August 3rd, giving just over three weeks to save up for the real thing.

[Via Siliconera]

The United States of America's birthday is just around the corner and Xbox.com thought of no better way to celebrate July 4th than by playing ... Japanese games? Well, we don't quite see the correlation here other than a Blue Dragon name tie-in, but we'll go with it. And even though we prefer to celebrate the Fourth of July with explosive fireworks, grilled food and family we just might pop in some Dead Rising, Tenchu Z, Street Fighter or Castlevania come Wednesday.

See Japan, the Xbox 360 loves you so much it's willing to incorporate your gaming culture in a marketing campaign aimed at Americans on their country's birthday. Don't you think you owe the 360 some love now?

It was confirmed during GDC this year that Blue Dragon would be hitting the U.S. sometime this August. We've received official word from Microsoft this morning that the game will ship on August 28. Yes, in just 61 days, U.S. games will finally be able to play Mistwalker's first opus. In celebration of Blue Dragon, Microsoft plans to make a fan site kit available from the official Blue Dragon page on Xbox.com (it's not available right now, despite the press release's protestations to the contrary). Xbox.com will also be hosting a feature article about the game, though it still hasn't gone live as of this posting. For those of you still unfamiliar with the game, we suggest you check out the recent preview from Eurogamer.

Eurogamer got its hands on the English version of Blue Dragon and took the time to write up some impressions. Overall, the gist of the preview is that Blue Dragon tries to recreate classic Japanese role playing game design without reinventing it. As noted by the preview, everything seems as though it was pulled from classic RPGs and made to mesh with modern console aesthetics. The graphics look like old school 2D characters and worlds come to life, the characters are broadly drawn, and the combat is solidly turn-based. About the only concession the game makes to modern game design (or "progress" as Eurogamer calls it) is that battles are not random. In the end, it seems that Blue Dragon was meant as a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a new coat of paint. The only problem, according to Eurogamer, is that such nostalgia may be in limited supply outside of Japan. We'll find out when Blue Dragon hits North America this August.

Microsoft's 360 sales in Japan may be borderline sad and depressing, but at least their ad campaigns are winning awards. Blue Dragon's marketing campaign BIG SHADOW won a coveted Canneslion award for best outdoor advertisement. The BIG SHADOW campaign can be seen here and took place in Japan where they projected people's shadows on a nearby building that morph into Blue Dragon creatures. The campaign also went online featuring a live feed of the fun and interaction with the shadows. It's quite the creative experience and well worth an award. Now only if Microsoft could translate an advertising award into Xbox 360 hardware sales then we think things would be good in Japan.

[Thanks Jonah Falcon, Via Joystiq]

If you've been waiting for a version of Blue Dragon with English subtitles and you happen to live in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, or Singapore, then you are in luck! Siliconera reports that Microsoft has officially released Blue Dragon to Asian territories outside of Japan. This version of Blue Dragon features Japanese or Korean voice acting and both Chinese and English subtitles. Before you start getting your importing hopes up though, we must inform you that the game is region locked, unlike many Asian Xbox 360 games. However, if you just so happen to have a Japanese Xbox 360, more power to you.

The rest of us, unfortunately, will be waiting until the English version's official August release.

[Via Joystiq]

Microsoft has released a version of Blue Dragon with English subtitles ... in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. That's not exactly helpful for US and European Xbox 360 owners who are yearning for the role-playing game from Mistwalker.

According to Siliconera, this release of the game features Japanese and Korean voice acting alongside English and Chinese subtitles. And though you might be thinking of importing the title, we should warn you that it's region locked, requiring a console from the area. We're not quite sure how Microsoft has defined (and subsequently locked) the regions, but Siliconera suggests that a Japanese Xbox 360 would work.

If you can wait, Blue Dragon will arrive in August for the US and September for Europe.

Speaking to Japanese website, Gpara.com, Mistwalker head, Hironobu Sakaguchi, expressed interest in taking the inevitable sequel to Blue Dragon online. Sakaguchi told the website (translated by Eurogamer), "Specifics aren't finalised, but there's a possibility that it will be produced as an online title." Granted, it's possible that something was lost in translation, but it sounds as though Sakaguchi wants to make online functionality central to Blue Dragon 2. Of course, it's just as likely that the online functionality could be limited to simple things like item trading or the Mechat shooting segments. Given the original title's relative success in Japan, adding online functionality could be a good way to get more Japanese gamers on Xbox Live.

American gamers will finally get their shot at Blue Dragon in August.

[Via Joystiq]

The sequel to the Xbox 360 Japanese RPG Blue Dragon may include online play. Speaking to Japanese website Gpara.com (translated by Eurogamer), Mistwalker producer Hironobu Sakaguchi said that they are in talks with Microsoft about developing a sequel and that, "specifics aren't finalised, but there's a possibility that it will be produced as an online title."

To what extent Sakaguchi is considering integrating online play is unknown; it could be anywhere from online trading to a full-blown MMO. It is pretty much assured Microsoft, with a minimal-at-best library of RPGs for the Xbox 360, will greenlight a sequel to the one title that has so far proven to be successful in Japan.

Blue Dragon will be arriving in North America August 15 and Europe in September.

A CVG report asserts that the Xbox 360's role-playing space opera, Mass Effect, has been "delayed" until the horrifyingly distant month of September. Of course, having never had an official release date to begin with, it seems exceedingly impatient to consider the game delayed just as its first potential release window is revealed. Though there have been hints pointing towards a May or June release, September would be the first month Microsoft and BioWare have openly committed to -- if indeed the report is wholly accurate.

We'd prefer a month that was sooner (like April), but it seems the utterly blinding level of light bouncing off all the shiny spaceships, futuristic weapons and revoltingly moist aliens in the game just isn't enough for BioWare to stop polishing. The only worrying aspect of such a September release is that it would be awfully close to the August arrival of Hironobu Sakaguchi's Blue Dragon. Having access to both time-consuming RPGs within 30 days could prove socially, economically and hygienically disastrous for fans of the genre.

Curiously, when asked for comment on the September date (which could specifically be for Europe), the Mass Effect publisher only offered, "Microsoft has not announced a release date for Mass Effect."

Update: "We have not made any official announcements regarding release timing for Mass Effect," adds Microsoft. "At this time, any information about the game's release date is purely rumor and speculation."

Joystiq contacted CVG for clarification. We were politely informed that the information originated from a Microsoft employee and that it has yet to be "officially" announced. In other words, we're waiting on that official announcement letting us know we have to wait until September for the game -- point being, we're waiting.

Having already released extra downloadable difficulty settings, Mistwalker and Microsoft have announced plans to release a random dungeon generator for Blue Dragon on April 27. The downloadable content is available in Japan only (no surprise, seeing as the full game is only available in Japan) and, according to a translation by Siliconera, will cost 300 MS points (¥444, US $3.75).

The value of the random dungeon generator is tantamount to its construction, and we don't know how well Mistwalker implemented the feature. For all we know, a faulty algorithm may lead to an entire wing of the dungeon being blocked off by an impassable Sarlacc Pit! Blue Dragon will be available August 15 in North America and September in Europe.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Today, Microsoft announced a sparkly new piece of Blue Dragon downloadable content that will be available for Japanese Xbox 360 gamers April 27th. For 300 Microsoft points (444 yen) you too can get your very own Random Dungeon Creator. That is if you live in Japan and have a copy of Blue Dragon. And excuse us if this is common knowledge, but what in the world is a Random Dungeon Creator? Does it create post-modern dungeons in a random fashion to explore and wander about? Seriously, a Random Dungeon Creator ... it just sounds silly to us.

PSP Fanboy offers the latest and greatest movie and game trailers, formatted for the PSP in this new weekly feature. Check it out every Saturday. PSP owners can download files wirelessly via m.pspfanboy.com.

Instructions: Save all movie and thumbnail files to the VIDEO folder. These high resolution 480x272 videos require firmware 3.30 or above. (Note: OE custom firmware will also play these videos.)


The following videos are featured after the break: Blue Dragon, Gene Simmons - Guitar Hero II Tournament, God of War II: Mythology, Guitar Hero II [360]

Speaking to Gamasutra, Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, says that Microsoft is "very realistic" about its prospects in Japan. Kim notes that Microsoft's approach was never to "win" Japan, but rather to do better than the original Xbox. Part of this strategy, of course, means recruiting Japanese talent like Hironobu Sakaguchi, who is creating both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey for the console. Kim says the importance of Japan is motivated by more than financial numbers, but also by the amount of talent in the Japanese development community. Titles like Dead Rising and Lost Planet, says Kim, are illustrating to Japanese developers that Japanese titles can be financially successful in the west. Finally, Kim asserts that Microsoft's aims in Japan remain "realistic," and while Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey will be moderately successful in Japan, they will be successful in the west as well.