Reported by Japanese journal site Mainichi Interactive, Square has confirmed on the 18th that a number of "Final Fantasy XI" packages have been shipped with useless registration codes.

Each retail copy of "Final Fantasy XI" comes packaged with a unique user registration code, required when signing up for the online services. Consumers who picked up a package with a disfunctional registration code will not be able to receive any of Square's PlayOnline services, which includes playing Final Fantasy XI itself.

Square also confirmed that there are cases in which the registration code will become useless if the registration process halts, due to a server failure or a connection error.

Quoted by Square, issues regarding registration codes will be "handled case by case, since [we] cannot find the cause [of the problem], and there are times when it may be due to typing errors".

In related news, Square now has a toll-free hotline for user support on issues regarding Final Fantasy XI. The number is (0120) 540-882.

Short Comment- Things must really be tense at Square. As one customer wrote about his experience-- he waited on Square's support hotline for a long time, only to be surprised by a crying support center girl on the other side of the phone when he finally got through. - "Madman" Henry Moriarty

Special thanks to Namae No Nai Heya for the News.

Online Japanese game retailer Chadran, has revealed that the upcoming NeoGeo release by be Evoga and Noise Factory- "The Rage of the Dragons", has already been scheduled for home ROM release in September 26, retail priced 39,800 Yen.

For details and media of the game itself, check Evoga's official site.

Japanese Online videogame TV show "Jamnet" has presented an instructional play of "The Rage of the Dragons" by Noise factory staffs. An interview to an intellectual properties division staff of Playmore is presented in the show as well.

For the full 27 minute show(52MB) or only the interview(8MB), check the site's Windows Media Format footages.

Special thanks to Gen and Sha-V for the News.

Short Comment- Nothing new in ther interview though, so I didn't write on it. If a 52 Mb footage is too much a DL, stop the download at around 26 megs or so- the footage is in the first half of the show. - "Madman" Henry Moriarty

Korean game news site Ruliweb, has released 12 footages of Soul Calibur 2 from the beta testing of the game in Korea. Photos of the beta testing area are available as well.

The use of a download tool such as Reget is suggested by Ruliweb, since their server runs with a user limit. For the medias, check the site's sections.

Short Comment- Wow, that's a pretty unique arcade machine set-up. - "Madman" Henry Moriarty

(Reuters, Quoted)
"HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong diva Faye Wong has won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling female singer of Cantonese pop music.

According to the Web site guinnessworldrecords.com, Wong had sold 9.7 million copies of her 20 albums by March 2000 and is one of the first women to dominate Hong Kong's recording industry.

Her album "Lovers & Strangers," released in September 1999, has sold more than 800,000 copies so far and was a number one seller in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

The Guinness accolade is unique for the Beijing-born, native Mandarin speaker, who only learned the southern Chinese dialect of Cantonese after settling in Hong Kong in the late 1980s.

The 32-year-old single mother released her first CD in 1989 and was named the most popular female singer in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan by music Channel V in January.

She boasts at least 100 dedicated Web sites, thousands of fans in Chinese-speaking communities all over the world and a long list of awards under her belt."

Nice. The limited edition of Sega's "GunGrave" is going to come with a figure of the main character "Beyond the Grave", which is 11cm tall (about 4 inches). It's from Kaiyoudou, so you know that the quality will be good. Check out the game's official site for a larger image of the figure [ Here ].

- Henry A. Moriarty