In an interview conducted by Softbank publishing, Sega's Co-COO (Co- Chief Operating Officer) Tetsu Kayama has revealed that Sega is currently in progress to create an amusement/arcade game in partnership with Square.

While details have not yet been mentioned, Kayama quotes;

"It's still in its planning stage, but we're working with Square on an AM project. It'll be something incredible, that can only be played at the arcades."

The interview can be read in Softbank publishing's Dreamcast magazine, dated 2/23/01. (Note: Softbank's "Dreamcast Magazine" is not that of the American magazine, published by Imagine Media.)

According to the The Japan Industrial Journal, Square has announced to restart its guidebook publishings, related to the Final Fantasy series.

The guidebook to Square's Final Fantasy IX; "Online Ultimania", was released for free on the world wide web to strengthen the value and establishment of Square's online business.

However,Game guidebooks, selling a few million in copies for popular titles such as the Final Fantasy series, are a major source of income for game companies. Guidebooks also strengthen the sales of game titles themselves, acting as a source of advertisement and information. Square analyses that one of the reasons to Final Fantasy IX failing to sell over 3 million copies was due to the lack of information regarding the game.

Beginning from Final Fantasy X, guidebooks will be released again in published form.

In an interview by Softbank publishing, Sega's Co-COO (Co- Chief Operating Officer) Tetsu Kayama has Quoted that the Playstation2 version of Sakura Wars will not be a Dreamcast port, and that an estimated two fan-service Sakua Wars titles will be released for the Dreamcast. Quoted by Kayama;

"...The PS2 version of Sakura Wars will not be "Sakura Wars4". It's nothing in that direction. It isn't concrete, but there are ideas for a gaiden(side story) to Sakura Wars 3 -it won't be something stupid like a port of Sakura wars 1 and 2. There's a lot of ideas, such as an Director's cut version of Sakura Wars(1) with the edited two chapters included. As the Saturn's sold 700,000, there is an aim this time for 1 million to be sold."

"If there is to be a fan service for Sega fans, this time we will be having Overworks to create about 2 Sakura Wars titles for the Dreamcast. This is promised."

Square has announced that its company CEO Tomoyuki Takechi, representative Vice President Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Company director Naoji Hiramatsu, will be resigning their positions as of today- 2/8/01.

Capcom has opend their official page for their upcoming Playstation 2 game- "Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Part 5".

According to Bloomberg Japan, Sega CEO Isao Okawa has released all personal stocks of 4 companies within the CSK group ,as a part of the 85 Billion Yen of assets to be donated to Sega. The 4 companies are Sega(1.9 million stocks- 3.27 billion yen), CSK(3.65 million stocks- 890 million yen), Nextcom(2.8 million stocks- 2.14 billion yen), and ASCII(1.129 million stocks- 74 million Yen).

Okawa -the founder of Sega's parent company CSK, will lose authority as the top stockholder over CSK, and as the second to top stockholder over Sega, Nextcom and ASCII.

Together with the stocks, the authority which Okawa possessed will now be passed on to Sega itself; Sega will now hold 5.89% of CSK's share (previously under 1%), 35.02% of Nextcom's share (previously 1.32%), and 12.35% of ASCII's share (previously 9.34%).

Sega comments to have no intention to sell the stocks donated by Okawa any time soon, and will begin on considering what actions to make with them.

Square has announced their next CD music release; "POTION -Relaxing with Final Fantasy".

Sega has announced their next gal-game release; "Love Hina -Smile again". "Love Hina -Smile again" will be the first game on the DreamCast to be sold only as limited edition sets.

Originally a manga in the weekly "Shounen Magazine" (Koudansha publishing), this will be the second release of Love Hina as an Adventure game for the Sega DreamCast. Likewise to the previous game, "Love Hina -Smile again" features all the characters from the manga, and an original character for the game; Mizuho Fujisawa.

All copies of the game will include the following set of goods;
Neckpiece (Neckpiece, 3 mascot figures)
Lunch set (Luncheon mat, chopsticks, chopstick rest)
Onsen set (Bath towel, Bath bowl)

"Love Hina -Smile again" is scheduled for release on 3/29, priced 8,800 Yen.

Due to overwhelming popularity, SNK has announced to change the special bonuses included in the online pre-order versions of "Super Real Mahjong Premium Collection". The changes have been made due to the pre-orders exceeding the stock of bonuses scheduled for distribution to reserved customers. The changes will go as follows:

For Game + Game machine (NGP color) reservations before 2/2/01 8PM JST:
Mousepad + Phone card set + 5 set Mini book

For Game only reservations before 2/2/01 8PM JST:
5 set mini book

For Both Game only and Game + Machine reservations before 2/2/01 8PM JST:
Mousepad

Capcom has announced their next release for the popular "BioHazard" series- BioHazard Fire Zone.

BioHazard Fire Zone is created in collaboration of Capcom and Namco. The game will be an arcade release, featuring gun shooting throughout a freely moveable 3D field.

BioHazard Fire Zone will be on public beta testing on 2/3 - 2/4, at Capcom Plaza, Tokyo, Japan.

Softbank owned online news site ZDNet News, reports Sega to have "layed off a small number of jobs at its US headquarters".

According to ZDNet, Sega's Spokesman Charles Bellfield did not make clear as to how many workers were cut, but that there remain about 125 employees remaining in hire. The jobs cut were marketing and quality assurance workers, tied to the Dreamcast console.

Sega has released image of characters to be in Virtua Fighter 4. Images of three characters- Akira, Lau and Pai have been released, with Lau and Pai both having changes in their costumes.

Virtua Fighter 4 will make its debut in the AOU show on 2/24/01. Although it has been made clear that a demo movie which will include the playing screen of the game will be shown, Sega has not announced the game to be actually playable at the show.

Virtua Fighter 4 is scheduled for release on Dreamcast and Playstation 2, with first release in Arcades -Naomi 2.

Sega of Japan has announced to lower prices of the Dreamcast, from the current 19,900 Yen to 9,900 Yen. The change in 10,000 Yen will be effective from 3/1/01, due to Sega having the same number of Dreamcast consoles in stock for the next fisical year, as the number sold for this fisical year.

"Guilty Gear X" -the recent game released for the Arcades & Dreamcast by Sammy and Arc System Works, will have an original section under a magazine by SoftBank publishing. The section, titled "Guilty Gear Xtacy", will be published not in Softbank's weekly "Dreamcast Magazine", but their other magazine; "The Playstation".

"Guilty Gear Extacy" will be written with full cooperation of Guilty Gear X's producer/illustrator Daisuke Ishiwatari. The monthly section is planned to provide "a dream collaboration project" between fans and the producer. The section will also include fresh drawn illustrations by Ishiwatari as well.

Quoted from Guilty Gear Xtacy- "This is the ultimate in a section for fans, with its final purpose to port Guilty Gear X to the Playstation 2".

"Guilty Gear Xtacy" will start its section in "The Playstation", beginning 2/2/01.


In related news to publishing, Guilty Gear X's novel has been released in 1/22/01. Published by Enterbrain Co, Guilty Gear X's novel features storyline written by Norimitsu Kaihou and illustrations drawn by Daisuke Ishiwatari. Guilty Gear X's novel is currently on sale, ISBN#: 4-7577-0276-0, priced 640 Yen.

Sega has opened a site named Sonic Cafe. Sonic Cafe, a site compatible to NTT's web service I-mode, is designed for viewing under portable/cellular phones. By becoming a member of the site and paying a monthly fee, members can play games on their portable phone. The game programs are fully assembled with Java(currently 10KBytes max), providing smooth graphics and sound.

Multiple number of companies also have in plan to provide games for the I-mode as well, with Namco and Hudson soft already releasing games such as ports of their hit games "Pac-Man" and "Star Soldier".

As stated in the previous article "SCEI and NTT to deliver Playstation < > I-Mode services worldwide", NTT will also be porting their I-mode services in partnership with SCEI, for use in North America, and other countries.

Today - 1/31/01 -6:30 PM Tokyo, Japan: In the Toshou Stock Exchange, Sega's Vice President Hideki Satou and special advisor Tetsu Kayama announced Sega's decision to discontinue the production of their home console "DreamCast (DC)".

In 1/29, SCEI and Major communications group NTT Docomo have announced plans to deliver their collaborated network service to nations abroad.

Sega has officially changed the project name VF-X to VF-4.
No details have been given to VF-4 as of yet.

VF-4 is scheduled to premire in the AOU show scheduled for 2/24/01.

According to the press release of Square's meeting held in 1/22/01, Square will be using their own, customized language - PML, for Play Online contents.

PML which stands for PlayOnline Markup Language, will have higher processing abilities than the standard HTML language used for the WWW. This will allow faster viewing of contents, "like flipping through a comic" according to Square.

Likewise, Square will be releasing the PlayOnline Viewer and Navigator to be used for its viewing. E-mail and chat will also be supported by the program(s).

In 1/29, Bloomberg Japan has conducted an exclusive interview to Nintendo's CEO, Hiroshi Yamauchi. The following are a number of points which have been made clear from the interview.

Square has announced two versions of Final Fantasy X to be retailed, and lists some titles of the upcoming 23 line-ups.

According to the press release of Square's meeting held in 1/22/01, Square will be projecting a full scale promotion in 2002, named "Final Fantasy Year".

"Final Fantasy Year" will be a collation of numerous promotions, in order to create a synergy of the brand name "Final Fantasy", and the numerous media to be released during the period, including the online service "Final Fantasy XI" and "Final Fantasy -the movie".

No details have been released as to what "Final Fantasy Year" will be consisted of, but industrial tie-ups has been announced as one of the methods of promotion.

Coca-Cola corporation has been announced as one of the companies to tie-up with Square for Final Fantasy XI, likewise to Final Fantasy VII - IX. Cola-Cola co. will also be tying up with Square on Final Fantasy X as well.

Whether Final Fantasy Year will be projected only to Japan or worldwide, is not known.

Mcdonalds has announced to release stand-alone Video Game Kiosks "McMagination" in a number of their restaurants, allowing children to "play the latest video games via an in-store computer system".

The game kiosks are created between Mcdonalds and Compaq, based on Compaq's Deskpro PC featuring a 700MHZ Pentium III, 128M SDRAM, 9GB Ultrawide SCSI, and ATI Rage Pro. The monitor is a 17 inch S710 model, also by Compaq. In addition, Nintendo will provide hardware for the McMagination- namely, the Nintendo 64. The kiosk will feature the shape of Mcdonalds character such as Ronald Mcdonald and Grimace.

Mcdonalds aims the McMagination for children ages 4-7(kids), and 8-15(teenagers). For "kids", the McMagination are designed to suit their height, and for "teenagers", the games feature more "grown-up" graphics, controllers and monitors to suit their height.

McMagination games are scheduled to be updated every 6 weeks.

Square has announced the theme song title of Final Fantasy X to be "Suteki da ne" in Japanese. The phrase, translated to English, means "It's wonderful".

For information and song samples of FFX's theme song vocalist RIKKI, check the official site.

Sega of Japan has released an official statement through its public relations. The following is its translation.

Sega has released a list of 26 games scheduled to be released for the Dreamcast after this fiscal year.

Included in their list are ; The House Of The Dead 3, Shin Space Channel 5, Shemmue 2,and Crazy Taxi 2, and a number of other popular titles.

Namco has opened its official site of the popular "Tales Of" series (Tales of Eternia, Tales of Fantasia, etc).

TalesWeb.com -the promotional site, features a number of interactive sections such as a chatroom featuring its game characters, make-you-online manga, and personality checking.

Membership to use the site's features is free.
Tamesweb.com is scheduled to be opened for a limited time until March.

According to the Nikkei news, Sega has decided today to discontinue the manufacture of Dreamcast consoles after March. Sega plans to cut down on red ink by discontinuing the production of home consoles which has been creating deficit, and restructure as a company based on software development.

In the Business strategy meeting for analysts today (1/22/01), Square has announced their next line-up in the Final Fantasy series; Final Fantasy XII (12), to already have begun in production. Also announced were a number of other line-ups for next-generation machines.

Capcom has released more detail on their upcoming game, Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Part 5. The news was released in the magazine which the series is published in; the Shounen Jump magazine.

Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Part 5 will not be a fighter game as the previous Jojo Part 3 was, but a 3D action game for the Playstation 2.
No release date or price has yeet been scheduled.

Jojo's Bizzare Adventure is currently running its 6th chapter in the Weekly Shounen Jump; Shuueisha publishing.