Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

99 Nights dated in Japan

Retailers point to January launch.

Ninety-Nine Nights, or N3, the fantastical hackandslash Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment is developing for Xbox 360 with Phantagram, has been dated in Japan - it's set to go on sale from January 12th according to retailers.

Xbox 360 goes on sale in Japan on December 10th. Unlike the American and European markets, the Japanese are getting one system including the 20GB hard disk by default.

Speaking at its pre-Tokyo Game Show conference, Microsoft had said that it planned to have around seven games on sale from day one with six more following in January, so Ninety-Nine Nights' release date shouldn't really be classed as a slip (or we'll stab you).

The game's already been playable at TGS, and Mizuguchi-san's previously spoken about how happy he is with development. Other games hopefully on their way during the Japanese launch window include Ridge Racer 6, Dead or Alive 4, Frame City Killer, (eM)-eNCHANT-arM, Tetris: The Grandmaster Ace and Everyparty (the party game directed by Yoshiki Okamoto's Game Republic studio).

Microsoft had yet to officially confirm the game's release date at the time of publication.