A playable demo for Ninja Gaiden Sigma (or Ninja Gaiden Σ, for you sticklers out there) hit the PlayStation Store late last week, giving PS3 owners a chance to see for themselves just how far the title has come from its two Xbox incarnations. And although the demo is limited to the first level of the game, this isn't just a watered-down sample of things to come - boot it up, and you'll immediately get access to a handful of the game's most badass weapons. That includes the nunchaku, the ... » Read More

Without warning, like the shadowy figures known only through whispers in the night, Ninja Gaiden Sigma has made its presence known on the PlayStation Store. The demo will be available today in the US, one day prior to its Japanese release, alongside a demo for Virtua Tennis.

Also coming out today are trailers for Gauntlet II, The Wheelman, John Woo's Stranglehold and The Godfather. The full version of Ninja Gaiden Sigma is set for a June release (on disc).

**Update**
It is the 27th in Japan, which happens to be the 26 in the states, so by paper it is 1 day gap.
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Tecmo announced today that the release of the highly anticipated Ninja Gaiden Sigma playable demo is available now on the Playstation Network.

"The Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo is a great way for Playstation 3 owners to get a sneak peek at the Team NINJA masterpiece," said Yoh Watanabe, Tecmo's Marketing Manager. "For the first time ever, Ninja Gaiden will be playable exclusively on a PlayStation platform and we're amazed at how incredible Sigma looks and feels. This is the must-have demo for the must-have game."
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A Ninja Gaiden Sigma Special Edition pack that popped up overnight sounds jolly nice, but don't get your hopes up about seeing it in Europe.

Eidos recently signed up the game, and a spokesperson told Eurogamer this afternoon that "there are currently no plans for a Ninja Gaiden Special Edition two-disc box set in the UK".
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Remember playing Ninja Gaiden for the original Xbox? Of course you do. It's the game whose mind-numbing difficulty led you to rip out nearly all the hair on your head. That sort of experience is not so easily forgotten. Well, now we've got a new trailer to show you from the special edition PS3 re-make, Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Among other things, the clip features machine gun-wielding enemies on motorcycles, a rather chubby fellow with an equally large laser cannon and a sexy lady swinging a ... » Read More

Team Ninja's reincarnation of Ninja Gaiden is going to be released with a Gamestop exclusive collector's edition for the PS3.

For $70, you will receive a 2-disc set with special hi-res packaging, a behind the scenes DVD from Team Ninja, and special codes to unlock Ryu and Rachael mission modes.
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Eidos Interactive has been given the responsibility of distributing Tecmo's smokin' Ninja Gaiden Sigma in Euro-PAL territory, reports JeuxFrance. Also Tres joyeux, JeuxFrance mentions that Eidos interactive has been given the responsibility to distribute Sigma in summer 2007, which considerably narrows down the possible launch dates for the territory.
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Speaking to GameInformer , Yosuke Hayashi, the director of Team Ninja's Ninja Gaiden Sigma, claims that he was able to make his batch of PlayStation 3 devkits "smoke."

He explains:

"We've made a couple of devkits smoke, but we haven't had any actually blow up yet.[laughs] As far as using the hardware to its fullest... initially we didn't think that we were going to be able to do as much as we have been able to, which is something good about the PS3, because we weren't necessarily limited to what it says on paper.

As an example,we had originally planned to only include self-shadowing during the cutscenes, but once we actually started coding, we found that we were able to have cutscenes in real time, fully implemented throughout the entire game and while you're in the middle of the action."

He also had a lot to say to people who were complaining about the Sony PS3 being too hard to develop for:

"I think all those developers who are saying, "We don't want to do a PS3 game," or "It's really difficult to do it," should shut up and make their games. If you have time to complain about it, then you should be spending your time working on getting the most from the hardware."
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Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword wasn't the only new Ninja Gaiden game shown at Tecmo's press conference in Tokyo today. Following a live demo session of the DS title, producer Tomonobu Itagaki cleared the stage for Yosuke Hayashi, director of Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PS3.
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Tecmo's PS3 update to the original Ninja Gaiden isn't due out in America and Japan until June, but those wanting a sneak peak will have to wait less than a month. In the latest issue of Japan's Famitsu Weekly, Ninja Gaiden Sigma director Yosuke Hayashi revealed plans to make a playable demo of the game available on the PlayStation Network starting 4/27. The demo will include one specially created chapter that won't be in the final version and will allow players to use a large number of weapons from the start.
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Yosuke Hayashi, director of Ninja Gaiden Sigma which is due out on PS3 later this year, has said that developers claiming that PS3 is hard to develop for is just an "excuse to the consumer." "For us it's not a question of being easy to develop for, that's a relative term," Yosuke told gamepro.com. "When we first got our hands on the hardware it took us a while to get back into the flow of working with Sony, because the way they do things is a little different," he explained. "The developers ... » Read More

Yosuke Hayashi director of Ninja Gaiden Sigma stated that those developers who perpetuate the PS3 is too hard to develop for are just using it as a poor quality excuse. Hayashi also states that if one team can do a good job, then others can follow suit too.
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There's an extra hour of sunshine in our day: Japan's resident badboy developer Tecmo has released new Ninja Gaiden Sigma screens - we can think of much, much worse ways to start the ... » Read More

This summer, PlayStation 3 owners will be able to see for themselves what Xbox fans have been raving about all these years, as Ninja Gaiden Sigma - a faster, prettier remake of hyperactive slashfest Ninja Gaiden - leaps onto Sony's new console. In addition to getting some hands-on time with the game, we've also had an opportunity to sit down with the game's producer, Yosuke Hayashi (along with associate producer and translator Andrew Szymanski), to find out a little more about what lies in ... » Read More

Kotaku.com

Tecmo are upset that you all think the upcoming Ninja Gaiden Sigma on PS3 is "just a port". Like, inconsolable. "It's not just a port!" their PR guy said.

n their defence, they're citing 3 new chapters, all-new textures, models, enemies and animations, 60 FPS and the ability to load the entire game onto your HDD to get it loading faster. Oh, and Rachel..
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Ninja Gaiden Sigma is an upcoming Playstation 3 remake of the original Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox. Despite being a re-make, Sigma is set to offer a host of new features and improvements that should make it a worthy purchase even for owners of the original.

In the latest issue of Playstation Magazine (the April edition) there is a massive 10-page preview of the game which reveals a surplus of new details and tidbits about the upcoming release (including information about the new playable character, graphics improvements and more!)
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Playstation Fanboy reports: "The latest PlayStation Magazine fell into my lap yesterday (well, my mailbox) and I perused it briefly. Seems there was some news on Ninja Gaiden Sigma and since we try to keep up with that game here, I'll post what appears important from the article.

Resolution is slated at 720p at a constant 60fps.
The SIXAXIS will be used to quickly summon up some Ninpou magic (that might actually be annoying... I hold the controller wonky, you see)
Normally, there would be about 16 chapters in the game... Sigma is floating on 19.
Finally, you get the option of storing the entire game (or parts of the game) directly onto the PS3 -- which would be great. Or you can do the whole disc-inserting thing. Whichever."
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The latest issue of PSM (April 2007) has a nice 10-page preview (and a featured cover ) on Ninja Gaiden Sigma with their own hands on experience with the game.

* Unspecified amount of original content for Sigma
* EVERYTHING was redone for Sigma: backgrounds, enemies, characters, animations, textures, etc. * Game will make use of the SIXAXIS in one way by helping to power up Ninpo magic while casting it
* Sigma will be 19 Chapters long, 3 more Chapters than the previous 2 versions
* A lot of the new stuff is when you are going to be playing as Rachel
* Will run at a constant 60 FPS with full self-shadowing and in 720p
* 3 ways to play - off the disk, off a partial install, or off a full install (for those who plan to play for long periods and don't want to worry about loads times. They wanted to give the gamer a choice on the matter)
* New difficulty level above the previous ones
* Still talking to Sony about what the possibilites are for downloadable content
* Karma ranking system/online leaderboards will be intact * Karma ranking/leaderboards will be improved upon by letting you view the results for a player's run through for specific chapters and how many times they died, etc.
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The Japanese powerhouse developer is famed worldwide for the Dead Or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series. But it looks like the studio could be branching out in a new direction completely. In an exclusive interview with head honcho Tomonobu Itagaki, the Team Ninja boss revealed that the firm's new game will be like no type of game Itagaki has ever worked on ... » Read More

With the battle between Microsoft and Sony in the next-generation stakes beginning to heat up, trivial aspects such as 720p or 1080p are increasingly being employed by the hardware giants in an attempt to get one up over each other.

In a lengthy interview with 1UP, Team Ninja's Yohsuke Hayashi Director on the forthcoming Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PlayStation3 waded in on the debate over games being displayed at 1080p, suggesting that the "higher definition" resolution is perhaps just a little too much for even the PS3.

Confirming that Ninja Gaiden Sigma will run at 720p, Hayashi claimed: "Well, this game is going to support 720p, and that is because we have determined that this is optimal resolution to get the best quality images out of the PS3."
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