Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa isn’t fundamentally opposed to generative AI, but there is one job he has no intention of handing over to it: writing his stories.
A Japanese train station has undergone a full *Street Fighter 6* transformation, covering everything from staircases and waiting rooms to restroom signs with characters from Capcom’s fighting game.
McDonald’s Japan has recruited The IdolM@ster’s Chihaya Kisaragi for its latest Tsukimi Burger campaign, putting the 765 Production idol front and center in a new animated web commercial and definitely proving to be a combination many didn’t expect.
Japanese convenience store chain Lawson is putting generative AI in charge of coming up with new food ideas, resulting in some appropriately strange combinations, such as a lemon tart flavored with pickles.
Microsoft has filed a patent application for a system that could interrupt games with advertisements after boss fights, quests, cutscenes and multiplayer rounds, effectively giving players blocks of gameplay time in exchange for watching ads and serving as the next big step for companies to milk as much cash out of…
Sonic the Hedgehog may be one of Sega’s most recognizable franchises today, but Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka says there was once a point when Sega higher-ups wanted to cancel the series entirely.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation will introduce an optional auto-leveling feature for players who would rather stick to the main story than spend time actually playing the game and earning their progress.
Azur Lane players have discovered an unusual bug with Golden Hind’s newest skin that can cause her clothing to disappear entirely – and sadly, Yostar has already confirmed a fix. The bug affects Golden Hind’s new outfit, “The Pale Phantom’s Smile” (微笑む怪談の金鹿様), which was introduced with the game’s September 17 update.
Former Valve writer Chet Faliszek believes the games industry’s obsession with increasingly enormous development teams may be creating more problems than it solves (as most consumers have already realized), arguing that bigger teams don’t necessarily make better games.
Light novel author Yomi Hirasaka, best known as the creator of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, has retired from the light novel industry — and unlike many departures that come after burnout or health problems, Hirasaka says his reason is considerably simpler: he achieved financial independence and retired early.
Used bookstores across Japan are reportedly being flooded with unusually large and seemingly automated orders for specialized books, leading some in the industry to suspect they are being purchased for generative AI training — while an investigation separately uncovered records showing more than 50 tons of Japanese…
Japan has reached a rather extraordinary longevity milestone, as the number of people living in the country who are at least 100 years old has surpassed 100,000 for the first time — and nearly nine out of every ten of them are women.