QJ is NOT vaporware. Of course, I'm not talking about this site - the closest we get to vapor is when we're manning our shifts over at the smoking area. I'm talking about Q Entertainment's enigmatic Wii title of the same awesome name - QJ. After supposedly going MIA for nearly six months after the announcement, QJ the game is back with an update, letting us all know it won't go the way of Duke Nukem Forever.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Lumines, Rez fame) just loves our news blog so much that he's decided to name his upcoming game after our site! (Or... not.) Whatever the case, Atari's recent press conference had former Sony bigwig Phil Harrison handle the proceedings. Some of the biggest news they've announced in the event involves Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest rhythm game and the upcoming Ghostbusters multi-platform title's release window.

Video gaming minds from the East and the West have recently joined forces to deliver to us some interesting action titles in the near future. Electronic Arts signed a partnership with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games during its Bay Area showcase event, revealing a few new projects in the works for the new studio, EA Partners. Find out more in our full article.

Gamers based in Japan have a lot to be happy about. It seems Harmonix has announced that it has teamed up with Q Entertainment and Rev to develop a localized version of Rock Band (Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii) for the region. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

Game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi comes into view again for the day, along with some interesting thoughts he's got for Lumines, Rez, and Space Channel 5. During a recent interview with GameInformer's Billy Berghammer, he (Tetsuya) was quizzed about the possibility of making Lumines III.

Tetsuya explained that for the game, they (Q Entertainment) would have to come up with a fresh game design, and that the its sounds and visuals would have to be "gorgeous."

Tetsuya didn't give any specifics regarding what platform Lumines III would most probably land on, although he hinted that if it were to hit the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, they would have to upgrade the game's effects and sound. He did point out that handhelds like the PSP and DS provided for portability.

Moving on, Tetsuya was also quizzed about the possibility of remakes for Rez, and Space Channel 5. While Tetsuya states that he's only started thinking about a Rez sequel, he did say he was interested in making a new Space Channel 5 game, for the motion-sensitive Wii console to boot. Here reads his answer when asked about Ulala making a comeback by 2008:

Maybe I should send her [Ulala] an e-mail—"Please answer sometime!" It would be really good timing to make a Space Channel 5 sequel, in general. I think the Wii would be a really good fit, with the special controls. The audience is wider, too. I think casual players would like it, too.

Space Channel 5's dance rhythm action with the Wiimote? Heck, why not? And while this interview doesn't appear to confirm if any of these possibilities are in the works, it appears that Tetsuya is very open to recreating his older classics. We'll get back to you guys if we can get some confirmations.

This year's GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo and Conference, a three-day affair that showcases the latest in games, hobbies, and electronic entertainment, will be kicking off tomorrow in Perth (that's in Australia, by the way). The expo part will last the whole three days, while the conference will be held on March 30 and 31.

The featured speaker for the GO3 conference is Hideo Kojima, the man behind the Metal Gear series. Kojima's session is scheduled for March 31 at 2:30 in the afternoon and will focus on the correlations between the evolution of technology and changes in game design.

Other speakers include Suda 51 of Grasshopper Manufacture and Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Epic Games' Rod Ferguson will also be on hand to talk about Gears of War and how Epic handles launching a new videogame franchise. You can check out a full list of speakers as well as the schedule by clicking on the "read" link below.

1UP only touched on a couple of rumors in EGM's signature Quartermann rumor column. GameFront.de picked up on the rest (really, what Gamefront didn't mention, 1UP did, and vice-versa), so now we can flesh out the rest of the rumor mill and call it an EGM Month. Unless GameFront overlooked something as well. Drum roll, please:

• "Namco Bandai makes a PS3-Actionspiel with KOS-MOS (from Xenosaga)"

Curious, much curious. At the least it seems we may now have a PS3 game set in the Xenosaga universe. On the other hand it, if memory serves, also seems to follow a precedent set by *ahem* Tekken's Nina Williams in Death by Degrees (also by then-Namco). Xenosaga fans here pray that this action title, if it is in the works, will live up to the legacy of its RPG forebears.

On the other hand, what these fans would really like is the series' continuation in the PS3.

• "Every Extend Extra and Rez appear for Xbox Live Arcade."

And it seems the migration/cross-pollination continues, following in the footsteps of Lumines (Lumines Live! on XBLA). But this is considerably believable, given the Q Entertainment precedent.

• "A mysteriöser Publisher co-operates with Food Network."

Is someone gearing up to take Cooking Mama on? Unless, of course, the "mysterious publisher" is Taito or Majesco, in which case it could be a promotion for Cooking Mama. Or an Iron Chef game, perhaps? (And if this is true, does this make Bobby Flay a playable character?)

• "A new Need For Speed appears in the autumn, whereby it concerns a simulation."

Would we expect anything less from Electronic Arts?

• "Warhawk is offered only as Downloa - oops, sorry. 1UP, Rumor Reporter and IGN got it earlier.
  

After Electronic Arts got its hands on it, it would be so easy to think so. Funny thing is, this bold online console gaming experiment called microtransactions could have been a good idea - DON'T HIT ME YET, I said "could," and even I have my doubts it could ever be, okay? Then EA got its hands on it, ran it in Marketplace and, frankly, they botched it.

For example: Madden NFL 07 tutorial vids? Haven't you guys heard of GameFAQs and YouTube? Then 200 MS points to max out a Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 golfer? What's this, pay-per-GameShark? After that, pay to unlock The Godfather uber-guns, then PAY for the in-game money to buy them? What's this, the offer we can't refuse? And latest of all, NFS Carbon unlocks at a price? It's highway robbery, we tell you, highway robbery!

And when you have Xbox Live community shepherd TriXie "crying rape", and Major Nelson becoming very worried about it, you know it's over for microtransactions, man. At least as far as we're concerned, and not the publishers. Don't forget: Carbon also comes out on the PS3 and Wii, which will have their own online portals. OMG, is EA going to do this same thing to those consoles' players too?

The original intent of microtransactions was to give gamers the power of choice. Something like iTunes, where you can choose which songs of an artist's complete itinerary you'd like to keep. If you don't like a specific feature or extra of a game, why do you have to pay for it when you don't have to ask for it in the first place?

This mentality runs into a brick wall that dates back to the pre-online console days. We're used to seeing our games in one complete package. Expansion packs were just that: expansions that did nothing to detract from the original game. For the money we pay for a "full game", we rightfully expected a full game, and not what in effect is a demo at 1,200 MS points (example: Lumines Live! Fun, but sadly not complete).

We used to be optimistic that microtransactions could mean bright things ahead. Now, we're not so sure. Read up on this writer's "Theory of how to make micro work" in the full article. Don't worry - he's not being paid per click. He's being paid a low, flat rate.


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Rumor or not? The popular shooter game for the Playstation 2, Rez, is rumored to be added to the list of upcoming game titles for the Nintendo Wii. We think that it may be possible, as an interview with Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi conducted at the recent E3 confirmed that he is considering making a sequel for some of his Sega-published rhythm franchises. " I'm currently seriously considering it. It's always there. I'm always thinking about it. [Grinning] Also Space Channel 5," was Mizuguchi's response when asked about the plans for Rez.

As for plans regarding Nintendo's next console, "Nintendo Wii is very interesting, a very special controller, a very original style. Too special, maybe, if you want to make the game not only Wii, but for other platforms, because you want to give the game the best chance. I'm really interested in the style, though ".

Just as a bit of history, the title was first developed under the codename K-Project. Rez is an on-rails shooter game similar to Panzer Dragoon that was released by Sega in 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and developed by SEGA's United Game Artists division. It was conceptualized and produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi and was originally released on the Sega Dreamcast but only for the Japanese and European markets. It was critically acclaimed but it did not get much commercial attention in the US, partly due to its very esoteric gameplay experience.