The Nintendo Direct presentation from Nintendo of Japan brought news of Mario Tennis Open for 3DS, the latest entry in, you know, that series of games about Mario playing tennis. We learned that the sports game will feature online play and Mii customization — and, most importantly, that it’ll be available May 24

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Mario Tennis Open served to Japan May 24, Europe May 25 [update: North America on May 20]

Hearing about the greatest news ever yesterday got us waxing nostalgic on the history of Dragon Ball games. Sure, they’re a fairly common occurrence nowadays, what with the series being a household name for more than a decade and everything, but there was once a time in the mid 1990s where the western world was so ignorant of Goku and friends that his games didn’t even get released. Well, except for one: Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout was released for the PlayStation in 1997, a year after the series had debuted on American syndicated network television and a year before it would become the dominant force on Cartoon Network’s Toonami programing block.

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Japanese hardware sales, February 6 – 12: Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout edition

In an entirely unsurprising turn of events, a listing for “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2″ reportedly popped up on Amazon France this week. GameBlog.fr spotted the listing and grabbed a screenshot (seen above) before it was allegedly pulled, which has resulted in a bit of a kerfuffle between Activision’s French arm and the site

Link:
Report: ‘Black Ops 2′ listing spotted on Amazon France

The PlayStation Vita isn’t even fully available worldwide yet, and Japan’s Nikkei newspaper is already reporting its demise. Specifically, an anonymous source from the Japanese game industry told the paper that Japanese companies are abandoning their Vita projects in favor of developing for the 3DS. It’s true that the 3DS has been routinely outselling the Vita in Japan (as has the aging PSP), but Sony’s VP of Worldwide Studios Scott Rohde isn’t buying into the panic

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Rumor: Japanese Vita devs jumping ship, Sony responds

GAME Watch is reporting that THQ will shut down its Japanese publishing operation on February 29. The article notes that it is as yet undetermined who will provide ongoing support for existing THQ titles, and whether the company has found a new publishing partner for the region. This puts the status of upcoming games including Darksiders 2 into question.

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Report: THQ shutting down Japanese office

We’ve had assurances of The Last Guardian’s continued existence, but in the absence of empirical proof, we could always use one more. 1UP received a rather authoritative one from Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida at DICE, who said he’s “been seeing it.” Yoshida reports that, after leaving Sony and becoming a contractor, producer Fumito Ueda continues working on the game as normal. His departure was “an arrangement so he could focus on the creative side,” Yoshida said

Link:
Yoshida: The Last Guardian still happening, but progress ’slow’

Enjoy a sample of tiny mayhem in the latest trailer for Retro City Rampage , a game we hope developer Vblank is going to stop working on soon (for the sake of his own sanity). Then at the end, note that the developer teases some “BIG NEWS” to be announced February 20

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Retro City Rampage trailer teases ‘big news’

Dust 514 will support the use of USB keyboards and mice. That’s good news for EVE Online players looking to expand the wealth of their galactic empire by partaking in some mercenarial dirty work on the PS3 shooter. Whether using a keyboard and mouse will provide a mechanical edge over players using a controller remains to be seen, but we feel like the type of input method used isn’t as crucial when you’re being bombarded from orbit by planet-sized gunships .

Link:
Dust 514 supports mouse/keyboard and controller

EA’s studio in Vancouver, home to EA Canada and Black Box , was hit with layoffs while the studio goes through a “transformation.” Apparently it’s a lot of transforming, since variants of “transform” show up a lot in the following statement about the transformational studio.

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EA in Vancouver sees ’small number’ of layoffs

If you’re just dying to get your hot little hands on a PlayStation Vita , you may want to hit up your local GameStop. Keep in mind that said unit will be securely bolted down, because it’s a demo unit, of course! The retailer has announced that it now has demo units at over 3,300 of it’s locations, allowing customers to try out several games, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss , Little Deviants , Modnation Racers: Road Trip , WipeOut: 2048 and more.

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Playable Vita demo units now at Gamestop