News

Courtesy Gamespot
http://www.gamespot.com/gamecub....21.html

Capcom, one of the top video game developers, suffered 19.5 billion yen ($163 million) in losses in 2002.  This happened because many of their games which they expected to be big sellers fell short of what they expected.  For example, three of their main sellers combined to sell 760,000 less copies than they expected.  This accounts for much of the loss, which was explained by the president, that the market was moving in a different direction than their titles.  Capcom's loss caused them to shelve 18 of their games that were in development, which is a huge hit to the company.

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It's interesting to think about other reasons why things fell so flat for the company in 2002.  The American economy, at least, was suffering for much of the year, but it seems to easy to blame it on that when there are many markets around the world that are buying the games.  It would also be nice to know if any other companies had losses to their sales to see if the video game market is in a slump right now.  I think market confidence needs to be up before people will start buying more.  I can safely say that I only got two video games last year, Wild ARMs 3 and Suikoden 3, and neither of those are Capcom titles.  If Capcom wants to get back into the market, they'll probably need to start developing different types of games, and maybe that's the aim in the cancellation of so many games.  What does everyone else think?

The CoN has expanded to fit a third game to its gallery!

After months of hard work, the Final Fantasy 5 section of the CoN has finally been opened.  All members and visitors are now welcome to learn more about the game that was only recently released in the United States in the Final Fantasy Anthology collection.  Enjoy new layouts by Kame and Hikaroo, hopefully with more to come.

We at the CoN hope everyone enjoys the new section after putting so much work and time into getting all the info down and right -- and there's even more coming.  Stay tuned for a walkthrough of the game, and visit the brand new FFV forum, just opened today.

The first FF5 CoNQuiz will be available on 1 March.

From http://www.rpgamer.com/...

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q1-2003/021203b.html

Hey, I know for a fact that we have at least one forumgoer from Australia, so this is valid.    Australians will now have the opportunity to pick up a Playstation 2 unless they previously imported one, and there's a specific little package available that will give them a free game upon purchase.  The most notable of the five available games is Square's recent release, Kingdom Hearts.

I think that a package like this is going to attract many Australians to the deal and will just help to broaden Square and Sony's hold on the video game market.  Though Gamecube and XBox are putting up a fight, Sony is still the leader in the market and hey, getting another continent will only add to the mix.  When their first taste is of a certain company, in this case possibly Square, they may just follow that company and its games for quite awhile.  I know the first RPGs I played were all from Square and I followed the company for quite awhile before discovering some third party companies, so this is a good, smart move by the companies.

From http://www.rpgamer.com/

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q1-2003/021103a.html

The Lufia series from the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Color is going to release another edition, this time on the Game Boy Advance.  It's called Lufia: The Ruins of Lore, and it actually brings back some aspects of Lufia 2.  In Lufia 2, there was a military nation, Gratze, that played a minor role in the game -- the biggest thing to note was that they were completely cut off from all other nations and were actually secretly plotting world domination (because, y'know, it's just something you can plot very easily).  

The Ruins of Lore picks up with a character inside Gratze that is rising the ranks, somewhat like Golbez did in FF4 to control the city of Baron.  In fact, the more I look at this story, the more it looks like FF4.  Ragule, the character from Gratze, is trying to awaken a very powerful beast, just as Golbez was trying to awaken the path to the moon.  A group tries to stop Ragule by locating magical stones (crystals, anyone?) that tell the location of the beast.

So if you're interested in playing an FF4 clone on the GBA, check out Lufia: The Ruins of Lore.  If you're not, you still might want to pick it up, because Lufia has yet to disappoint.

Square recently unveiled another character in the upcoming sequel to their PS2 hit.  The character is "Nuji" who leads a group whose primary purpose is to go against the teachings of Yevon.  He looks a bit similar to Auron from FFX, but according to Magic Box and Square, Nuji is warm-hearted.  So so much for an Auron clone.  Just imagine Auron with weird, long blonde hair and you've got Nuji.  Link courtesy Magic Box.

http://mb.vgdirectory.com/game012003c.htm

In other FFX-2 news, according to R51, Christina Aguilera is now set to star in it.

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ffx-2/ffx-2art.html

Courtesy RPGamer...

Screenshots from the Playstation port of FF1 and FF2 are now available from Square, and boy do they look good.  I was skeptical about the games with only hearing about the games, but now that images showing amazing CGI and a complete revamp in graphics and even a bit of storyline are here, I've changed my mind and wouldn't mind playing through these games at all.  Anyone that was unsure of the game should definitely check these out and see if they change your opinion, and anyone that wanted to get the games the moment they heard about them will only want to get them more.

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ffo/ffo.html