After showing considerable interest in conquering Asia, Electronic Arts has been noticeably mum of late regarding its plans for the region, lurking like a rogue in the shadows, as if waiting to club the market on the back of the head with a fat bag of cash. Now EA has admitted as much, with EA Asia's vice president Chris Thompson telling Reuters that the company looks for the region to comprise some 15 to 20 percent of its total business by 2012. Compare this to the meager 5 percent of EA's wallet it's responsible for today.

Key to this expected growth is the Asian market's love affair with playing games online. According to Thompson, while online gaming represents a respectable 10-15 percent of the company's Asian footprint today, "five years from now, that the online portion of our business could be representing somewhere plus or minus around 60 pct of our business." Mama always said if you're gonna set a goal, make it lofty, though with Hellgate: London finding some rare success in Korea and Warhammer Online waiting in the wings, maybe there's method to EA's infatuation with Asia after all.

Microsoft has dropped the price of its Xbox 360 in four Asian markets: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan (via Bloomberg). According to Microsoft executive Jeff Bell, price reductions in Europe caused sales of the hardware there to almost double.

Here are the price drops reported by region:

• Hong Kong: An 11 percent drop
• Singapore: A 20 percent drop to S$499 (US $366)
• South Korea: A 5.1 percent to 369,000 won (US $369)
• Taiwan: A 17 percent drop to NT$10,360 (US $340)

According to a Microsoft spokesperson in Taipei, the Hong Kong and Taiwan price drops will come today. The Singapore and South Korea price drop confirmations came from separate emails with no confirmation as to the effective date.

Take-Two Interactive Software has announced a new initiative that will see it expand into the "rapidly growing" Asia Pacific region. To this end, the Grand Theft Auto publisher has secured the services of one Mr. Hubert Larenaudie, who will assume the position of President for Asia and set up an office in a ridiculously tall Singapore building. Larenaudie previously acted as President of Asia Online for pushy Take-Two wooer, EA, and before that, held a similar role at Vivendi Universal Games.

Take-Two notes that its "top priorities" in the region include the expansion of Asia Pacific distribution, the establishment of a greater presence in Japan and the creation of a "meaningful online game operation, especially in China and Korea." Might we suggest WOGTA (World of Grand Theft Auto) and ShockCraft?

We've known for a while now that Nintendo was planning to bring the Wii to PC-gaming mecca South Korea some time this year, but recent word has it that the system may be hitting the country's shores sooner than later. The Korea Times is reporting that Nintendo and Activision recently registered two Wii games each with Korea's Game Rating Board. The paper speculates this move means Nintendo Korea is looking to launch by Children's Day on May 5, a popular gift-giving holiday in the country. Though there's no official announcement from Nintendo, we can't think of a better holiday to launch for a system known for kid-friendly games like Super Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil 4.

Japanese publisher Daletto, owned by Capcom and Games Arena, have announced (via IGN) Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation. The PC title will have you control your characters completely via the mouse: sliding left and right moves the character, slide up jumps and left- and right-clicks give different attacks. Special moves, as you may guess, come via making combinations of slides and clicks. There will be community features based around fighting online.

What also makes the game unique and bizarre (aside from the random cat in the above picture - perhaps it's omnipotent) is the ability to interchange body parts on your character. The game is reportedly about fighting Revoltech toys, which is a line of actual toys planned to be sold alongside the game. As IGN predicts, you could have the head and torso of Chun-Li, the arms of Zangief and the legs of Ryu (the gender identity issues are plentiful).

The game is expected to go into beta February or March, with full service coming in April. No word on a version for non-Japanese gamers.

Famitsu has published (via 1UP) the first part of its reader's choice awards looking back at the year in Japanese gaming. A number of gamers and retailers were given a questionnaire by the magazine, and this week's issue debuted the initial results.

The major winner is Nintendo, who topped the developer lists for both gamers and stores, the hardware lists (DS for retailers, the Wii for gamers), industry figures (Miyamoto), and even won the category for what kanji character represents 2007 best? (Readers picked "Nin," the first character of Nintendo's Japanese name.)

Capcom (thanks in no small part to the Monster Hunter series), Sony and Level 5 (Professor Layton) also placed high on the lists, and Mistwalker founder Hironobu Sakaguchi tied with Miyamoto on the stores' list of which industry figure put in the best showing. Conspicuously absent from the list? Microsoft. Okay, we're not that surprised.

Dear Japanese consumers,

Here is a television commercial for our upcoming Nintendo Wii title NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. We know the reviews haven't hailed it as the Second Coming of Sega just yet, but we're hopeful Rip Van Winkle will visit each and every one of those critics tonight and send them off to a happy place. But let's move on from those nasty reviewers, shall we?

If we can put aside pesky written words for a minute, we'd like to show you a commercial for the new game that is sure to grab your attention. It's bright, colorful and full of tangible happiness. We even have our staple J-Pop soundtrack blasting in the background! But if that won't convince you to buy the game -- and how could it not?! -- we'd also like to let you know that you can get the most adorable NiGHTS toy with the game, which is sure to remind you of even the best years for the franchise.

Video embedded after the break. Hugs and Kisses,

Sega

Gaze upon the latest bundle for Japanese PlayStation 3 gamers. The Devil May Cry 4 40GB PS3 bundle comes in either black or white and includes a copy of Devil May Cry 4 (obviously) and a Blu-ray of bonus content. It will retail for 47,800 yen (approx. US $422), which is about 7,800 yen (US $69) more than the standalone 40GB model.

What makes this bundle interesting is that DMC4 is not an exclusive title. We're going to assume Sony struck some exclusive deal for bundling the game, although we'd love to see Microsoft unveil a DMC4 Xbox 360 bundle. It might actually help their hardware sales to confuse Japanese consumers thinking they just picked up a PS3. Devil May Cry 4 is due out January 31, 2008, in Japan and February 5 in North America.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Already finding critical and commercial success with Persona 3 on a noticeably last-gen console, it looks like developer Atlus doesn't see any reason to jump ship for the sequel. An article at Bloomberg Japan (via Siliconera) listing upcoming Atlus titles has Persona 4 coming next fiscal year for the PlayStation 2. (Note: image above from Persona 3.)

The word doesn't come directly from Atlus, so there could be a typo or miscommunication (major news outlets are prone to mistakes every now and then). The platform, however, would not be surprising given the company's comfort with developing for the PS2 and Sony's continued success with the now value-priced system. As Siliconera notes, the timing of Persona 4's release could make it a tie-in with Persona -trinity soul-, an anime series due out next year.

While American gamers still have some more time to wait before making themselves into contorted, balance-challenged fools, Japanese Wii owners can now pick up a copy of Wii Fit and stretch their way to reportedly fitter lifestyles (although deviance has been proven to work).

The game's official street date isn't until tomorrow, but that isn't stopping a handful of prominent online retailers from already accepting orders (that surely won't arrive until after tomorrow). U.S. gamers who don't feel like dealing with the hassle of importing will have to wait until early 2008 for their copy of Wii Fit.

[Via Engadget, Wii News]

Read - Buy at Play-Asia
Read - Buy at Amazon Japan
Read - Buy at Success-HK

EverQuest developer Sony Online Entertainment is seeking a summer home in India. Speaking at a conference in Mumbai, India (via Next-Gen), SOE VP of international operations Dave Christensen said that they are seeking local partners to help find creative talent and "chip in" towards founding a studio.

"We need to have Indian content for our games and we are looking for local partners," said Christensen. SOE announced in August plans to develop an MMO based on Ramayan 3392 A.D., itself based upon an Indian epic. While an Indian-based studio sounds like a perfect fit for the MMO, no announcements were made regarding what projects the India study will be working on.

SOE has already claimed land, with flags in tow, in Taiwan, Austin, Texas and Seattle Washington.

[Via Massively]

Quick, grab your loved ones and head to that bomb shelter you built in the backyard just for such an occasion. (Apartment dwellers, find a local church or Wal-Mart and get nestled in.) Sony's PlayStation 3, after seeing its ego deflated a few weeks back when the Xbox 360 trumped it, has leapfrogged into third place for last week's hardware sales in Japan, dropping Wii to a meager fourth place by a margin of approximately 21,000 units (55,924 vs. 34,546).

In its acceptance speech, Sony thanked the newly-released 40GB model and assured the attending audience that upon arrival the Four Horseman will no doubt hail the PS3 as their console of choice.

But wait! Perhaps we spoke to hastily about this being a sign of imminent apocalypse. The Xbox 360 has moved back to its normal slot, between the PS2 and Game Boy Micro. "Phew," you say as you wipe the sweat from your brow, "that was a close one." Those with an ever-vigilant and watchful eye should look out for the following scenario:

• PlayStation 3 beating Wii
• Xbox 360 beating PS3 (and therefore, by chain rule transitive property, the Wii as well)
• Nintendo DS in any position other than first

We have averted crisis thrice before today's scare, although the occurrences have happened more frequently as of late. We'll have more information later today.

[Image credit: roland]

Although we still have a little less than two weeks to go until Super Mario Galaxy arrives in the US (and not much more for Europe), Japan got its taste of the game today. Was their mass hysteria, long lines and rabid fans skipping school and work to be the first to own a copy of the latest Plumber Platformer? Not exactly, according to anecdotal evidence from Siliconera.

Visiting Akihabara, arguably the mecca for video games in Tokyo, the folks at the site found no such hysteria or long lines, noting instead that most people waiting in queues were there for Xbox 360 games (no, really!) and pachinko machines.

We're still wagering, as does Siliconera, that Super Mario Galaxy will be a massive hit for Nintendo in all territories, and that plenty of people reserved the title and are planning to pick it up after school or work today. However, Mario's presences just doesn't seem to cite as much rabid enthusiasm as a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. It'll be interesting to see how US and Europe handle the Mario Galaxy launches on November 12 and 16, respectively.

On the same day he decreed the Wii's price will not be lowered, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced plans to bring its money-printing home console to China and South Korea next year, following this year's supposed holiday season console shortage.

"We suffer a global shortage of the Wii," said Iwata in a news conference (via Reuters). "Our responsibility now is to deliver as many consoles as we can to existing markets ... But next year, I think we can bring the Wii (to China)."

Though China received the Nintendo DS in a timely manner, South Korea didn't get an official launch of the portable until January of this year.

[Via Engadget]

Industry stalwart Electronic Arts is looking to land a partner in Japan, and who can blame them, what with the region's love of natural beauty and delicious cannibalism. According to a new Financial Times report, the company is entertaining the prospect of partnering with or even acquiring an existing Japanese company, no doubt in order to further EA's well known plans for world domination.

The report quoted EA Asia president Jon Niermann, who during an interview at this week's Tokyo Game Show referred to Japan as a "strategic priority" for the company, which already owns a 15 percent stake in Chinese MMO firm The9. Earlier this year the company also invested in South Korean developer Neowiz, establishing the publishing powerhouse as the studio's second largest shareholder.

Says the report, the region will still likely play only a minor role in EA's global plans, though Niermann was quick to point out the potential benefit of tapping into established talent in the area, noting that "EA offers a great global distribution opportunity in terms of taking Japanese products to other parts of the world and in turn there are certainly companies that are much better at local development than we've ramped up to be."

[Via Gamasutra]