Tales of Vesperia

And shows off more crazy merchandise.

More Tales titles coming this generation.

No plans to make Western-orientated games.

Microsoft paid for western Xbox 360 exclusivity of Tales of Vesperia – or did it?

Microsoft paid Namco Bandai to keep Tales of Vesperia a Western Xbox 360 exclusive.

The PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia has made a significant splash in the Japanese chart this week, selling nearly a quarter of a million copies (216,593) according to Media Create data.

A former developer for Vampire Rain has explained that making an Xbox 360 exclusive is an easy way to fund a project for PS3.

Fight Night Round 4 has become the first boxing game to top the UK All-Formats chart upon release. Perhaps it will now go to America and never be heard of again.

In a genre obsessed with world-threatening crises, Tales of Vesperia's initial focus on a local emergency is refreshing. It's the fantasy equivalent of a burst water main: a magical fountain whose powering gem-stone has been stolen, causing water to flood the lower district of Zaphias, the medium-sized city in which your character resides.

Yuri is on the far side of adolescence, one of the more prominent young men from this, the poor side of town, and he leaps at the chance to help out his people. After all, the soldiers whose job it is to protect and serve Zaphias have no interest in the plumbing problems of the underclass, particularly when there's an aristocracy to pander to. In time, the theft of the gem turns out to be a small cog in a greater plot machination, but the game never forgets its small-scale, neighbourhood beginnings.

That said, it would be untrue to claim Tales of Vesperia's themes stray too far from the deep narrative furrows along which most JRPGs tread (although it takes a few hours for that global crisis to step out from behind the dramatic curtain), or to imply that its scale is anything but grand. But it'd be equally unfair to chastise the game for cliché. It may do little to reinvent its series' template, as, in contrast to Square-Enix, Namco is happy for its flagship RPG series to stick to its long-established form, but the execution fizzes with creativity. The solid, dependable framework allows the developer to concentrate its efforts on crafting a witty, engaging script, characters with depth and intrigue, and a world of detail and some nuance, which it does.

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Namco Bandai has promised to steep the freshly-announced PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia in plenty of new content.

Namco Bandai plans to bring new Tales of games to PS3, Wii and PSP.

Atari has announced plans to bring Namco Bandai's Xbox 360-exclusive Tales of Vesperia to Europe in June.

Xbox 360 outsold PlayStation 3 in Japan by more than two to one in the week ending 10th August, according Ascii Media Works and Media Create.

AFP reports the AMW figures as 28,116 Xbox 360s sold and 10,705 PS3s, although it notes that both systems lagged behind Wii, which accounted for 41,044 sales.

Meanwhile, Media-Create's latest stats also point to a 360 mini-victory - quoting 24,962 Xbox 360 sales and 9,673 of PS3, with the Wii surging ahead by their estimation too.

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A global release schedule has been announced for Tales of Vesperia, the RPG being developed excusively for Xbox 360 by Namco.

As reported by Videogaming247, the game will launch in Japan on August 7th priced at JPY 7800 (GBP 37 / EUR 47).

A hardware bundle will be available for JPY 37,800 (GBP 180 / EUR 227). This will include the game, a Premium Xbox 360 unit and an unconfirmed bonus item.

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