korea posts(Subscribe to this feed)

Though it might lose some of its magic without the full chair-and-tinted-window-equipped arcade cabinet, we're still pretty pumped about the possibility of getting our hands on a port of Sega's classic flight combat sim, After Burner. According to the OFLC and the Korean Game Rating Board, it's only a matter of time before our wish is fulfilled -- GamerBytes recently noticed that both groups have rated Sega's After Burner Climax for home console distribution.

According to the Korean board, the rating was applied for by Sony, leading some to believe the title's planned launch platform is the PSN. However, considering the multi-platform release of Outrun Online Arcade, we wouldn't be surprised if Sega decided to share the aerial dogfighting love with the 360 as well. We've contacted the hedgehog-loving developer to find out exactly what its plans are for the title.

Sony took some time to promote the PS3 and PSP at Korea's first annual Invitational World Sand Sculpting Championship. We're impressed by how the sand PS3 simply towers over these Asian girls. As we ponder the incredible manpower used to create these massive sand recreations, we can't help but think to ourselves ...

There's a Invitational World Sand Sculpting Championship???

In North America, the only way to get the Lilac PSP is in a bundle with Hannah Montana, an offer promoted by the infamous "OMG Lilac PSP" ad. In Korea, you still have to buy a bundle to get it, but the game included is ... Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. The presence of a large portrait of Ivy on the top of the box suggests that the lilac PSP is intended to match Ivy's costume. Either that or Hannah Montana is confirmed as a playable character in Soul Calibur.

It's interesting that Sony Computer Entertainment Korea doesn't seem to be operating under the notion that the Lilac system is just for "girlz." The Soul Calibur PSP Lilac Purple Pack will be out August 28 for 285,000 won ($231).

No, really. Nintendo of Korea has posted a release date for Twilight Princess: August 27, 2009. Let us never, ever complain about a localization delay again. Unless, of course, you're reading this from South Korea, in which case, we feel for you. Actually, we can't. We have no idea what it feels like to wait for a Zelda game knowing everyone else can and did scoop up the game and already beat it, and probably lent it to friends to beat, and then traded it in ... only to buy it back ... to hack their Wiis and maybe beat again, and then sold it off -- for good ... years ago. No, that level of agony -- *shudder* -- is unknown to our fragile beings.

[Via GoNintendo]

Three new PSP bundles are bound for Korea, two containing the popular fighting title, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. The Tekken bundle is available in with either a white or black system along with the game and a 4GB memory stick. The third bundle, called the DMB Pack, includes a South Korea-specific (Read: Not import friendly) TV tuner and 32MB memory stick and the unit. Wait, a 32MB memory stick? Is that still a thing? Each bundle is priced at 278,000₩ ($218 US).

Oh, and as you would have guessed by the headline of this story, Sony is using a giant PSP with a teaspoon of sexuality to promote the bundles. Makes sense to us!

Epic Games has opened a new subsidiary in Seoul, Korea, with plans to provide licensing services and support resources to development teams using its Unreal Engine. Epic Games Korea will be led by Ray Park, formerly the business and strategy development manager for Microsoft's in-game advertising company, Massive, Inc.

While Epic Games has provided its Unreal Engine to teams in the territory for over five years, Park states the opening of a Korean subsidiary signifies Epic's "desire to collaborate more closely with the [local] game development community." Jay Wilbur, Epic Games' vice president of business development, noted Epic Games Korea would serve as "a hub for Unreal Engine access, knowledge and support in the Korean marketplace."

Rumors of developer Silicon Knights moving to Korea in search of the support it claims to have never received from Epic Games could not be confirmed ... because we made it up for the sake of a bad joke.

Remember Katamari Damacy Online? Yeah, neither do we. A refresher: Katamari Online is a PC iteration of the weird and addicting franchise being published by WindySoft for Korea. First revealed two years ago, 4gamer.net has new details about the game (translated courtesy of andriasang.com). New artwork has been unveiled for the game, featuring two new characters, Mint and Mellow. A new map, Seoul, has been revealed as well. As one might expect, the map features some of Seoul's landmarks.

The story revolves around the King of All Cosmos creating a black hole during a picnic. Naturally, it's the player's job to create a katamari big enough to plug the hole. While not exactly the same, the plot sounds an awful lot like the one used in Beautiful Katamari. It might seem like a small matter but, really, what is a Katamari game without an excellent plot to back it up?

The game is set to have plenty of new modes and features, including a new House system, which we now know allows players to create their own islands using the items collected on their katamaris. The site also mentions the game's Pet system, though no new details have been revealed just yet.

We have to hand it to Justin Wong -- he put up a good fight. Defeating all American contestants in a three-round, GameStop-sponsored Street Fighter IV tournament over the course of the past two months, the NY-based Street Fighter enthusiast can walk tall knowing he took down the best of what America had to offer. What we didn't know when this tournament was announced, however, was that a brief "international title championship" would take place immediately following the battle's end.

After toppling Korea's Poongko, as well as Japan's Iyo, Wong (playing as Rufus) was left to compete with Japan's other entry, Daigo. Daigo apparently swept Wong using Ryu four to zero. Though Wong may not have walked away with the title of "international champion," he did likely need a truck for the Street Fighter IV arcade machine he won and, ya know, that enormous trophy he's holding.

[Image Credit: kineda]

The Wonder Girls are rather popular in Korea, and it looks like Sony is leveraging their celebrity to promote the PS3. The music video for "Now" has the girls seductively turning on the PS3 and wildly moving their bodies to control Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. (Maybe they're using SIXAXIS controls?) The music is a little unbearable, and the video is almost absurd, but it's fun to see PS3 break into other forms of media.

[Thanks, James!]

Korean professional gamer Jae Ho "Moon" Jang has signed a three-year, $486,500 contract to play with WeMade FOX in the Korean gaming leagues. His manager is working on introducing more quality players as there "aren't many first-class players in Korea." Um, if you're, like, really good at Warcraft/StarCraft ... now's the time to start learning Korean.

Best part: Jang isn't even the highest paid professional Korean player, just the highest paid Warcraft player. Top billing goes to his WeMade FOX teammate, Yoon Yeoi "NaDa" Lee, who signed a contract for $521,250 to play StarCraft back in 2007. Wow.

[Via VG247]

Siliconera reports that MBC Game, a Korean television station, is adding a show dedicated to Halo Wars to its lineup. That might sound strange, but the network already airs several programs dedicated to video games. The decision to add Halo Wars to the lineup was probably fairly simple, as the network's StarCraft program is its most popular, according to Siliconera. Details about the show are sparse -- the MBC Game website shows up as malicious on Google, no thanks -- but we assume from the images posted on Siliconera that people will actually play the game on the program.

Televised Brute rushes? Count us in.

A preview of what's on the way for the rest of the world: four months after 3.4, Nintendo has sent out Wii System Menu version 3.5 in Korea. The specific feature changes are as yet unknown, but in terms of security updates, it includes IOS254 code, which, like IOS9, blocks the use of the PatchMii program (a custom update manager tool).

The new menu apparently adds some kind of updates to the Shop Channel, and adds a "Region Select Channel," which the Wiibrew wiki suggests is nowhere near as exciting as it sounds. Until we find out for certain that this somehow blocks new installations of the Homebrew Channel, or removes existing ones, we're going to refrain from panicking. And even in that case, we don't mind waiting a week or so for someone to fix it.

"A lot of our elementary school children have Nintendo [DS]. Why can't our companies develop products like that?" These were the words of South Korean president Lee Myung-bak during his visit to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. Lee wants to bolster the Korean game industry to rival the success of Nintendo, but local game companies agree that stagnant software support in Korea won't see that happening anytime soon.

It's for that very same reason that GamePark Holdings' GP2X (a Korean-made handheld system which relies on homebrew) isn't exactly flying off the shelves. Without any sort of big-name software like Mario or Zelda included, Mr. Lee's dream won't come true. This is a sentiment shared by Korean developers in every sector – from mobile gaming to internet-based and PC software. If the Korean government could find a way of supporting the software industry better, helping out developers like Pentavision and NCsoft, then maybe Korea might get the ball rolling.

[Via Game Daily]

The Wii has had a tough time in Korea, but the same cannot be said of the DS. The little handheld that could has sold over 2 million units in the region since it launched little over a year ago -- a surprise considering the company only passed the 1 million milestone last month. Keep it up, Koreans. You have excellent taste!

[Via Go Nintendo]

Source - Telecoms Korea (subscription required)

In making up for the lack of full localization efforts, pre-orderers of the Korean version of Dissidia: Final Fantasy will be getting nifty calendars to prop up on their study or work desks. The free calendars feature character portraits drawn by Tetsuya Nomura, as well as Chaos/Cosmos artwork done by Yoshitaka Amano.

As Siliconera points out, these calendars will be slightly obsolete by the time North America gets Dissidia in mid-2009. Hopefully Square Enix has some other bonus material planned for North American gamers.