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Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced the winners of the PlayStation Partner Awards 2024 Japan Asia. While the company has also opened worldwide polls for the PS Blog Game of the Year Awards 2024, this award presentation particularly continued the yearly tradition established by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, which would also later expand to the rest of Asia.

One of the awards featured in this presentation is the s' Choice Award, where Japanese and Asian PlayStation Network owners voted for their favorite titles released on PlayStation platforms between October 2023 and September 2024. Five games won the award:

1. Black Myth: Wukong
2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
3. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
4. Rise of the Ronin
5. Stellar Blade

As announced previously in October 2024, this year's edition featured additional PlayStation Generations Awards where s would vote for their most favorite titles from each of the PlayStation consoles released before the PS5 that had also won in previous PlayStation Partner Awards.

• PlayStation Generations Award: Final Fantasy VII
• PlayStation 2 Generations Award: Final Fantasy X
• PlayStation Portable Generations Award: Monster Hunter Portable 3rd
• PlayStation 3 Generations Award: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• PlayStation Vita Generations Award: Persona 4 Golden
• PlayStation 4 Generations Award: Elden Ring

In the same presentation, Sony Interactive Entertainment also gave awards to games based on sales performances on the PlayStation platforms between October 2023 and September 2024. One of which is the Special Award, which it gave to the following two titles for recording success while being developed by a third-party Japanese or Asian studio and published by SIE:

1. Stellar Blade (developed by Shift Up)
2. Rise of the Ronin (developed by Koei Tecmo's Team Ninja)

The company also handed over Partner Awards to seven PlayStation games with notable worldwide sales performances during the same period:

1. Dragon's Dogma 2
2. Honkai: Star Rail
3. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
4. Persona 3 Reload
5. Tekken 8
6. The First Descendant
7. Zenless Zone Zero

In addition, it gave Grand Awards to the top three titles with the highest worldwide sales:

1. Black Myth: Wukong
2. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
3. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

In the 2024 edition, Sony also added an Excellence Award for a game with a consistently significant impact for three straight years. It gave the award to HoYoverse's Genshin Impact, which has been available on the PS4 and PS5 among other platforms. A more recent PS5 bundle featuring the same game also appeared in Japan in July 2024.

The post PlayStation Partner Awards 2024 Winners Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

There’s been a lot of Monster Hunter talk lately, and Udon Entertainment’s release of another Monster Hunter artbook couldn’t be any better-timed. Monster Hunter Illustrations 2 is being published in comic stores and shipping from online retailers today.

Monster Hunter Illustrations 2 focuses largely on the third generation of Monster Hunter games, those being Monster Hunter Tri, Portable 3rd and 3 Ultimate. And yes, since Portable 3rd is being included, it means you’ll get to see artwork of Yakumo Village, which was your home base in that game and absent from the other two.

You can preview a few pages from the artbook below. It costs $39.99. If you want to figure out where to pick it up from, Udon are posting suggestions on their Facebook page.

The post Monster Hunter Illustrations 2 Artbook Details Gen3 Of Monster Hunter appeared first on Siliconera.

Logos. Who really looks at them? Game designers do. Actually, everyone does, and they’re important. They need to be eye-catching and convey the feel of your game. Dengeki sat down with director Kaname Fujioka to chat about Monster Hunter 4 leading up to the game’s launch, and among the topics covered was that of the game’s stylish new logo.

For comparison, here are Monster Hunter 3 and Monster Hunter 4’s logos side-by-side:

Fujiaka says that, in line with the new features introduced in the latest Monster Hunter, such as verticality during fights, he wanted to convey a sense of the changes while staying close to the core of the series.

Up till now, the logos for Monster Hunter games have been “tightly composed,” Fujioka said, but Monster Hunter 4’s “M,” “H” and “4” have been made intentionally larger, creating a larger silhouette presence to provide a sensation of depth on top of the familiar design. “It still feels like Monster Hunter,” said Fujioka, “But there’s still a sense of something new about it.”

Previous Monster Hunter logos have used colors to represent themes. For example, the red in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd’s logo was chosen to represent harmony, and the ambience of Japan—or more precisely, the red from Japanese laquerware—also appears in Yukumo Village’s red foliage in that game. In comparison, Fujioka says, Monster Hunter 4’s theme is freedom and a sense of adventure. In the game’s story, this is represented using the flow of the story and the caravan. For the first time in a Monster Hunter title, players aren’t anchored to a single village, as Monster Hunter 4 has multiple villages.

These, too, influenced the game’s logo, along with areas in the game. The first field you see in Monster Hunter 4 is a field of ancient ruins. Even here, you get the feeling of adventure through the immense vastness and openness of the area, in addition to the yellow grass extending into the distance.  This field of yellow and the yellow of the "Village Under the Sun," Barubare, were incorporated into the logo along with an arrow-like sillhouette that gives the impression of release or freedom.

One thing’s for sure—Monster Hunter 4’s final logo certainly looks a whole lot better than the one Capcom showed off two years ago, back when the game was revealed by Nintendo:

The post Why Monster Hunter 4’s New Logo Looks So Badass appeared first on Siliconera.

Capcom has a bunch of Monster Hunter titles and spinoffs on sale via Japan's PlayStation Store. You can pick up Felyne de Puzzle, which is actually a remix of Super Puzzle Fighter with the Feylnes from Monster Hunter Diary. The Felyne simulation game, Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Felyne Village G, and a bundle with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and the Japanese version of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite are discounted too.

Felyne de Puzzle is usually 2,700 yen ($28). Between March 14 and April 1 you can grab it for just 1,990 yen ($21). Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Felyne Village G is 2,990 yen ($31), usually priced at 3,600 yen ($37).

The Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite bundle is 2,990 yen ($31), on sale from 4,590 yen ($48).

The post Super Puzzle Fighter Monster Hunter Remix And Other PSP MonHun Games On Sale appeared first on Siliconera.

Sony have added more games to their UMD port Program, which lets you discounted versions of PSP games you already own. These were announced during their Vita presentation today. You can view the entire list of titles in the video above, but a few of the highlights include the following:

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd

Last Ranker

Mega Man Legends 1 and 2

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Final Fantasy Type-0

The 3rd Birthday

Ys Seven

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

Keep in mind that the UMD port Program is only available to Japanese s.

The post PlayStation Vita UMD port Program Updated With Monster Hunter And More appeared first on Siliconera.

Japanese sales tracker, Media Create, have released a list of the 30 best-selling games in Japan in 2011. The tracking period was January 3rd, 2011 - January 1st, 2012. You can view the complete list of titles below:

A few highlights that could perhaps serve as a basis for discussion:

1. Should Final Fantasy Type-0 have sold better?

2. Should Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy have sold better? The original Dissidia: Final Fantasy had sold close to a million copies by 2009.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is on the best-sellers list. Skyward Sword, however, didn't perform nearly as well.

Data obtained from 4Gamer, Media-Create and Geimin.net.

The post These Were The 30 Best-Selling Games Of 2011 In Japan appeared first on Siliconera.

Period: The week of January 2nd – January 8th (2012)

Top-seller: Mario Kart 7 – 157,188

Nintendo 3DS sales: 240,819 | Total sales: 4,522,961

PlayStation Vita sales: 42,915 | Total sales: 482,901

“Otoshidama” is a Japanese New Year tradition where children receive money from relatives after the new year begins. Last week’s software sales benefitted from this tradition, illustrated by sales of several popular games receiving a boost.

Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Monster Hunter 3G ruled the top 3 spots for the week, with Inazuma Eleven Go coming in at #4 and Warriors Orochi 2 at #5. No new games were released during the week.

There were two Monster Hunter titles on the chart last week: Monster Hunter 3G, which has crossed the 1 million mark, and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP the Best), the budget re-release of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. Given that Portable 3rd is close to 5 million sold by this point (and still selling), there’s going to be a very large potential consumer base in place for Monster Hunter 4 in the long term by the time that game is released.

Continued strong sales of Portable 3rd and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, along with Nintendo DS games such as One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 and Magician’s Quest: The Stylish Wizard, show that there’s still a fairly lucrative market on cheaper, older platforms like the DS and PSP, provided you have a game with wide enough appeal. In fact, the PSP outsold the PlayStation Vita once again this week, with 71,000 devices sold.

The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media-Create and Geimin.net.

The post This Week In Sales: Monsters, Monsters Everywhere! appeared first on Siliconera.

Tsutaya is one of Japan's major media retailers with walls of CDs, DVDs, and video games to buy. Their stores are also a place to trade in and pick up used games for a discount. Think of them like a Sam Goody and a place to kill time while you're waiting for the 5AM train if you're in Shibuya.

Final Fantasy Type-0 is Tsutaya's best selling game of 2011 beating out multi-million seller Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. Final Fantasy XIII-2 which came out just a few weeks ago is number three and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Professional, the only DS game in the top 20, is number four. Check below for the full list and top ten sellers at Tsutaya for each platform.

Overall Best Sellers

1.) Final Fantasy Type-0 (PSP)
2.) Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP)
3.) Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)
4.) Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Professional (DS)
5.) Tales of Xillia (PS3)
6.) Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (PS3)
7.) Monster Hunter Tri G (3DS)
8.) Dynasty Warriors 7 (PS3)
9.) Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3)
10.) Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
11.) Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
12.) Dissidia 012[duodecim]: Final Fantasy (PSP)
13.) Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary (Wii)
14.) The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
15.) Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii)
16.) Samurai Warriors 3Z (PS3)
17.) The 2nd Super Robot Taisen Z (PSP)
18.) Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver. (PS3)
19.) Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. (PS3)
20.) Dark Souls (PS3)

PlayStation 3
1.) Final Fantasy XIII-2
2.) Tales of Xillia
3.) Pro Evolution Soccer 2012
4.) Dynasty Warriors 7
5.) Yakuza: Dead Souls
6.) Samurai Warriors 3Z
7.) Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver.
8.) Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs.
9.) Dark Souls
10.) PowerPros Baseball 2011

Wii
1.) Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary
2.) Rhythm Heaven Fever
3.) Kirby's Return to Dreamland
4.) Just Dance Wii
5.) Donkey Kong Returns
6.) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
7.) The Last Story
8.) Inazuma Eleven Strikers
9.) Wii Party
10.) Mario Kart Wii

PSP
1.) Final Fantasy Type-0
2.) Monster Hunter Portable 3rd
3.) Dissidia 012[duodecim]: Final Fantasy
4.) The 2nd Super Robot Taisen Z
5.) Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity
6.) SD Gundam Generation World
7.) Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3
8.) PowerPros Baseball 2011
9.) The Little Battlers
10.) Taiko no Tatsujin DX

Nintendo 3DS
1.) Monster Hunter Tri G
2.) Super Mario 3D Land
3.) Mario Kart 7
4.) The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time 3D
5.) Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle
6.) One Piece Unlimited Cruise Special
7.) Pokémon Rumble Blast
8.) Tales of the Abyss
9.) Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
10.) Samurai Warriors Chronicles

Nintendo DS
1.) Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Professional
2.) Ace Attorney Investigations 2
3.) Ni no Kuni
4.) Kirby Mass Attack
5.) One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 New World
6.) Pokémon Black
7.) Magician's Quest: The Apprentice's Home
8.) Pokémon White
9.) Inazuma Eleven 3: Challenge the World - The Ogre
10.) Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2

Xbox 360
1.) Gears of War 3
2.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Subtitled Version)
3.) Catherine
4.) Battlefield 3
5.) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
6.) Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
7.) Final Fantasy XIII Ultimate Hits International
8.) Dead Island
9.) Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
10.) Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

The post Japanese Mega Retailer Tsutaya’s Best Selling Game Is… appeared first on Siliconera.

We recently got in touch with Christian Svensson, Senior Vice President at Capcom USA, to discuss some of the company’s major games in 2012. Naturally, we also asked about the Monster Hunter series. The last game in the series released in the West was Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii, published in 2009.  Since then, Japan has seen two major Monster Hunter titles: Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on the PSP and PlayStation 3, and Monster Hunter 3G on the 3DS, which is slated for release in Japan this week.

“First of all, let me start this by saying that I am an avid Monster Hunter player,” Svensson replied, when Siliconera asked about the key to Monster Hunter’s future growth outside Japan.

“It’s such a rewarding series and our most recent Western outing, Monster Hunter Tri on Wii was a huge step forward for the franchise, in large part because it’s much more accessible. It had a more gradual difficulty ramp than the PSP predecessors and for a second stick aided camera use greatly. While the PSP titles have immense amounts of content (more than Tri), they have been more difficult get into than Tri with a much steeper difficulty curve which I think artificially truncated the expansion of the brand here.”

In addition to its accessibility, Capcom recognize that Monster Hunter Tri’s online system was an important factor in its success as well. “The other major thing that Tri brought to the table which the PSP titles have not, is a proper online multiplayer implementation,” Svensson continues. “Monster Hunter at its heart is a cooperative multiplayer game and for our market, online play is essential. The adhoc-only approach for the US market is, more often than not, too large of a barrier to find mass acceptance.”

By "adhoc," Svensson is referring to Monster Hunter's local wireless multiplayer feature in Japan, which bolstered the series' popularity. Monster Hunter has always been a multiplayer game at heart. While the original Monster Hunter on PlayStation 2 allowed players to play together online, it required a PS2 Ethernet adapter. Since the PSP is capable of communicating with other PSPs in the vicinity wirelessly, the PSP games allow players to gather around and play together as a group anywhere. Through this, Monster Hunter meetups became common in Japan, which is one of the reasons for the series' immense success in the region.

Monster Hunter Tri brought online play back to the series and the Wii's built in Wi-Fi adapter made it more accessible for players to meet fellow hunters on the Internet. While an online subscription fee similar to MMOs was charged in Japan, this wasn't the case in North America and Europe. Additionally, the overseas versions of the game were also upgraded to Nintendo's Wii Speak peripheral, which allowed for voice chat between players.

“I think that looking forward there are ways to greatly improve the accessibility and the online feature set," Svensson shares. "As an example of improved accessibility, the Japan-only Monster Hunter Tri G [Ed note: we call it 3G] on 3DS adds an optional lock-on camera for new players. It doesn’t change the way veteran players will play, but it adds an easier option for new comers.”

So, what about Monster Hunter’s future outside Japan?  The blockades preventing an overseas release of Portable 3rd have been well-documented. Capcom have not yet confirmed Monster Hunter 3G for an overseas release, but Svensson has assured several times on Capcom’s forums that we can expect to see more Monster Hunter games localized in the future.

“All of that said, the Monster Hunter brand will grow,” Svensson believes. “Every subsequent outing of the title has found a larger audience than its predecessors in North America. We know the games are incredibly engaging and generate a ionate audience that while smaller the West, that audience is more vocal and ionate than just about any other brand we have (including Street Fighter or Resident Evil). I have no doubt that someday, its prominence in the West will rival our other brands.”

The post What Makes Monster Hunter Click In The West appeared first on Siliconera.

The winners of the annual PlayStation awards are in and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd was presented with an honor made just for Capcom's PSP game. Sony gave the title a quadruple platinum prize for exceeding four million units. While critical acclaim is the focus of many award shows, the PlayStation Awards are tied to game sales.

Games that sold over 500,000 units in Japan, but under a million received a gold award. Final Fantasy Type-0, Gran Turismo 5, Dynasty Warriors 7, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Version, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011, and Tales of Xillia won this prize.

Sony also selected five top selling able games for the PlayStation Store prize. Japan bought Dissidia 012[duodecim] Prologus, Crazy Taxi, Elemental Monster Online Card Game, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Dreamy Theater 2nd, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition.

The 's Choice prize isn't tied to sales. These ten games were selected by PlayStation fans and in no particular order the winning titles are: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Blue, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Gran Turismo 5, Dynasty Warriors 7, Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, Tales of Xillia, Dark Souls, Catherine, and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd.

New for 2011 is a World Game prize, an award selected by s for games developed overseas. Three titles earned the inaugural World Game award: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and LittleBigPlanet 2.

The post Monster Hunter Portable 3rd Walks Away With Quadruple Platinum PlayStation Award appeared first on Siliconera.

Let's say you have Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and a friend has the same game installed on PlayStation Vita. Can you play together? The answer is yes. PlayStation Vita can play able PSP games and communicate with PSP for ad-hoc play.

While it isn't as prevalent in the West, ad-hoc games are quite popular in Japan especially with respect to the multiplayer hunting genre. And if you like the Vita's OLED screen you can play a digital copy of God Eater Burst on it and be the envy of your Aragami hunting group. Also a plus for Lord of Apocalypse, which Square Enix announced for PSP and PlayStation Vita.

The post PlayStation Vita And PSP Know How To Talk To Each Other In Ad-Hoc Mode appeared first on Siliconera.

Period: The week of Aug 22nd – Aug 28th (2011)

Top-seller: Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver. – 287,829

Nintendo 3DS sales: 60,781 | Total sales: 1,672,785

Ports and updated re-releases are the sales stories of the week. Last week saw the release of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver., a PlayStation 3 port of the PSP game, in Japan. Portable 3rd HD Ver. sold 287,829 units in its first week on shelves and topped the software sales chart for the week.

Following it at #2 was Black Rock Shooter: The Game with 105,277 copies sold. At #3 was Mobile Suit Gundam: New Gihren’s Ambition at 75,611 sold.

Several other spots on the software sales chart were littered with new releases as well. Durarara!! 3way Standoff: Alley, an updated version of the original PSP visual novel adventure, also made its debut last week, as did updated ports of Samurai Warriors 3 and Dynasty Warriors 7.

The complete top-20 chart for last week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media-Create and Geimin.net.

The post This Week In Sales: Monster Hunter Portable 3rd Roars Again appeared first on Siliconera.

Up until now, the game’s only been available on UMD, but on July 28th, Capcom will put Monster Hunter Portable 3rd up as a PlayStation Network in Japan. The digital version will cost 4,800 yen to (around $61.00).

You’ll need a nice, large memory stick if you don’t want to have to wipe your other games clean -- Portable 3rd will take up 1,095MB of space. In addition to that, it appears you’ll need another 20MB of free space as well.

The post Monster Hunter Portable 3rd Finally Going Up On Japanese PlayStation Network appeared first on Siliconera.

This August, Capcom are holding a Monster Hunter Portable 3rd event at Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan. Part of the collaboration with Universal, they revealed, will be to create locations and monsters from the game in real life. Amongst these will be a full-scaled 1:1 model of the rare Silver Rathalos.

More monsters will be revealed in the coming weeks, such as Jinouga, Doboruberuku, Tigrex Subspecies and so on. Meanwhile, Studio 8 will contain a replica of the Spa House and Yukumo Village itself, from Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, along with replicas of weapons and armour.

And yes, there will be Monster Hunter-themed food as well. The event, titled “The Real Monster,” will kick off on August 2nd, and will last for almost an entire month, all the way to September 30th.

The post Universal Studios Monster Hunter Event To Have Full Scaled Monsters And Village appeared first on Siliconera.

Earlier this year, Capcom announced that they were cancelling 2011’s annual Monster Hunter Festa event, scheduled to be held in six regions around Japan, in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake. Had it gone ahead, the event would have been held in Tokyo, Nagoya, Sapporo, Osaka and Sendai.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any Monster Hunter events this year, though. This August, Capcom are holding an event for the series at Universal Studios in Japan. The website for the event reads “Universal Studios x Monster Hunter Portable 3rd”.

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver. is supposed to release this summer in Japan. There’s little reason to believe it won’t be part of this event in some form.

The post Capcom To Hold A Monster Hunter Event At Universal Studios In Japan appeared first on Siliconera.