Arcades

Capcom has significantly revised its earnings outlook for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, based on better than expected performances across a number of its business units. The company now expects net sales for the six months ending September 30 to total 28 billion yen (£231 million), up from its May 6 outlook of 26 billion yen (£214 million), and net profits of 800 million yen (£6.6 million), 300 per cent higher than previously forecast. Explaining the revisions, the company said its Mobile Contents business “is performing well mainly because of the popularity of Smurfs' Village”, its Consumer Online Games business “has benefited from strong sales of Monster Hunter Frontier Online and other titles”, and its Arcade Operations unit “is performing well because operations have resumed at all locations that were closed after the Great East Japan Earthquake, sales at existing arcades have recovered, and the impact of the electricity shortage was not as severe as expected”. The company didn’t make any changes to its full fiscal year forecast “because the economic outlook is becoming increasingly uncertain and market conditions are changing rapidly”.

This is the first footage of Arc System Works' Persona fighting game, Persona 4 The Ultimate In Mayonaka Arena, and it's shaping up nicely. Given Arc's recent past it's little surprise that Arena bears more than a passing resemblance to its anime-themed fighter BlazBlue, an accessible and welcoming game that deserved a wider audience. Here's hoping the more recognisable Persona cast gives Arena a leg up when it's released in arcades next spring, and consoles next summer.

Atlus has put development duties into the capable hands of Arc System Works, an appropriate choice given its pedigree of anime-styled fighting games such as Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. Set two months after Persona 4, The Ultimate will feature characters from that game as well as Persona 3. It's due in Japanese arcades next spring, and on PS3 and Xbox 360 next summer.

It's been a while since Atlus has said much about its plans for the Persona series, but with Team Persona's work on Catherine complete things are becoming a little clearer. Persona 4 is to be remade for PlayStation Vita under the name Persona 4 The Golden, with extra features including a new character and more voice acting, and "basic preparations" for development of Persona 5 have been completed. Most surprising is the announcement of Persona 4 The Ultimate, a 2D fighting game set two months after Persona 4 and developed by Guilty Gear and BlazBlue studio Arc System Works. The game, which will feature characters from Personas 3 and 4, will hit arcades next spring, with Xbox 360 and PS3 versions to follow in the summer.

At this week's Siggraph computer graphics festival in Vancouver an animation award was given to Namco Bandai for the opening movie to the upcoming Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The sequel to the PlayStation 2 launch title was originally set for release in Japanese arcades this summer, but was postponed following the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March and is now due this autumn. Namco Bandai is yet to confirm a console release, though Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue will form part of the PS3-exclusive Tekken Hybrid collection that is due before the year is out.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Gigi Pritker have optioned the movie rights to the 1978 arcade game. Quite what form the eventual film will take is anyone's guess, but we're assuming it starts off pretty slowly and gradually picks up the pace ahead of a frantic conclusion. Di Bonaventura, who has previous in adapting 80s pop culture icons having produced GI Joe and Transformers, has also picked up the movie rights to Asteroids.