(Nintendo Inc.) "REDMOND, Wash., January 7, 2002 - Minoru Arakawa, President of Nintendo of America Inc. (NOA) for the past 22 years, today announced his retirement effective immediately. After many months of consideration, Arakawa felt the timing was appropriate to turn the office over to new leadership.

In a separate announcement made in Kyoto, Japan, Nintendo Co. Ltd., the parent company of NOA, announced Mr. Arakawa would be succeeded by Mr. Tatsumi Kimishima.

Mr. Kimishima has been with NCL for the past two years serving most recently as Chief Financial Officer of The Pokemon Company and President of Pokemon U.S.A., Inc. A native of Japan, Mr. Kimishima spent over 25 years with the Sanwa Bank in several management roles including nearly seven years in New York and California. Mr. Kimishima will assume his new responsibilities effective immediately."

Sega has announced Sakura Taisen 4 (Sakura Wars 4) to be released on 3/21 under the Sega Dreamcast. Sakura Taisen 4 will conclude the DC episodes, and will include the original 8 heroines from series part 1 and 2, as well as the new 5 characters from part 3.

The limited edition package will include a "special plate 13 part strap band" - precise details will be given later. The normal packages is priced 6800 Yen, and the limited edition at 8800 Yen. Both editions will be released on the same date, with an extra bonus disk included with the game.

Capcom has opened the official site for their upcoming Playstation 2 Samurai action sequel, Onimusha 2. The site is available in two versions- macromedia Flash based interface, and plain HTML interface.

Onimusha 2 is scheduled for release in 3/7/02, priced 6800 Yen.

Short Comment- The Flash version of the site looks good, but by god, does it require a lot of load time! Almost reminds me of DOA2 for the PS2.. -H. Moriarty

Impress Gamewatch has released high resolution images of Sammy's upcoming hit sequel, Guilty Gear XX. While the game is confirmed to have five buttons in place of four, there has been no explanation to what the fifth button will be utilized for. Guilty Gear XX is currently 30% complete, and is scheduled to be released in Spring.

For the high resolution images, check Impress Gamewatch's section. For previous Guilty Gear XX images, check the Soup Du Jour article from 12/25. [ Article ]


Special thanks to Rid Hershel for the news.
Short Comment- Sue me that it's old news. BTW, is it just me or does GGXX look more pixel detailed than GGX? -H. Moriarty

Korean game news site Ruliweb has released the commercial advertisement for Square's upcoming PS2 re-release, Final Fantasy X International. For the mpeg commercial, check the site's section.

Final Fantasy X is scheduled for release in 1/31, priced 7800 Yen.

Korean game news site Ruliweb has released the commercial advertisement for Sega's upcoming major PS2 release, Virtua Fighter 4.

For the mpeg commercial, check the site's section. Note that the top link is the CM; the bottom link mpeg is not a demo from the PS2 version, but from the arcade version.

Virtua Fighter 4 is scheduled for release in 1/31, priced 6800 Yen.