OXCGN:

"It was officially the first SF IV tournament for the Australian games media. But what started as a casual drinking and gaming PR night, quickly became a hell of a lot more serious as everyone revealed their inner World Warrior when THQ revealed some serious loot for the cream of the Aussie gaming media...

THQ and Mango had turned Sun Studios into a World Warrior's wet dream. Street Fighter paraphernalia plastered on the walls, a cute cosplaying Chun Li, anime playing on one wall, SFIV on another at about 10ft high. Even the biggest fan of Ken had to admit at that size, he is most definitely on steroids."

Full report after the jump:
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Kotaku writes:

A $300 tournament edition fightstick on the gray market? Screw that. Reader Rotundo made one for himself and another for his friends out of $40 in spare parts and two shoeboxes. Oh, and one's wireless.

He picked up a couple of Happ joysticks and 14 buttons for $35, then set about taking apart some Xbox controllers to wire the sucker up. Most people make their homebrew sticks out of wood, but Rotundo had neither "spare wood" nor "any decent tools to cut said wood." Looking around, he settled on two Nike shoeboxes, which he says can take a beating.
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The Jace Hall Show is back for a second season and today you can catch up with Episode 2, which just went live. Show host Jace attends Capcom's Street Fighter IV launch party, discovers that game pads aren't the best for fighting games, and pays a visit to Arcade-in-a-Box for a custom designed arcade stick.
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GameSpot writes: "More than a decade passed between the arcade release of Street Fighter III and February's debut of Street Fighter IV. Over that span, the 2D fighting genre that the Street Fighter franchise defined in the '90s fell by the wayside, a niche within a niche kept alive by a handful of companies. So when Capcom announced that it was returning to the Street Fighter franchise for a fourth full installment--and that the series would jump into the world of 3D--there was an understandable amount of concern among fans."
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A posting at the Street Fighter IV official blog reveals that the game's Championship Mode update is almost ready to go. The update will also include a second mode that has something to do with replays.
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In the latest issues of Famitsu, they reported survey results of gamers' satisfaction levels on recent releases and consoles. There were five possible responses to each game/console: very satisfied, satisfied, indifferent, unsatisfied and very unsatisfied. Each game and console is then assigned a satisfaction score out of 5 accordingly.

Here are the results (arranged in descending order in terms of satisfaction score):

Games:

Demon's Souls (PS3): 4.7/5, Very Satisfied: 82.4%
Yakuza 3 (PS3): 4.6/5, Very Satisfied: 66.6%
Street Fighter IV (PS3,360): 4.2/5, Very Satisfied: 41.4%
Star Ocean IV (360): 4.0/5, Very Satisfied: 37.6%

Consoles
360: 4.2/5, Very Satisfied: 23.8%
PSP: 3.8/5, Very Satisfied: 17.1%
PS3: 3.6/5, Very Satisfied: 16.6%
NDS: 3.4/5, Very Satisfied: 19.1%
Wii: 3.2/5, Very Satisfied: 8.2%
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Ve3tro writes: "The Classic Costume Pack for Street Fighter IV is now available for download from XBLA Marketplace. The pack contains new costumes for characters Guile, Blanka, Dhalsim, Gen and Fei Long.

PS3 fans will be able to download the costume pack next Thursday, March 26th.

The packs will cost 320 MPs and £3.99 respectively."
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Leigh Alexander from Gamasutra writes:

"Microsoft is celebrating a 53 percent year-over-year spike in Xbox 360 sales following the release of February's NPD results, which saw sales of the console hit 391,000 units.

The company says Xbox 360's "record-setting" sales pace is largely due to its lower price and value proposition, plus its software library. Comparing Metacritic scores, the company says 135 Xbox 360 games score 80 or higher, versus 94 for rival PlayStation 3."
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Capcom has revealed that a new shipment of the specialty controllers and arcade sticks for Street Fighter IV will be available soon, some coming as soon as the end of this month and the end of April.
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BeefJack writes, "Soon after Street Fighter IV's release reports came in that arcade sticks were virtually sold out all over the country including sticks specifically created for the game and other brands not specifically marketed for the game...

This lack of arcade sticks may in fact be the reason why Street Fighter IV hasn't sold more copies..."
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Gavin "Halfleft" writes:

"You might recall lately that some rather popular Capcom games have generated a lot of buzz. As is normal we are being bombarded with marketing and merchandise amongst which is the 'gamer card'. Essentially a debit card with a Capcom character on it, it is bound to attract some hapless fans who just want to look at Ryu's chiselled jaw each time they make a purchase. Now that the custom card is available, it seems that this card is for people who hate being able to afford things as it is packed with fees and charges."
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Renowned UK artist Dave White has produced a one-off ink drawing to celebrate the launch of Street Fighter IV. Valued between £7,000 and £10,000, it also happens to be the most valuable piece of original videogame art ever!

White, whose previous work includes commissions for Nike and Coca Cola, sketched a 5ft x 4f rendition of Ryu. The sketch was inspired by his love for Street Fighter and videogaming culture in general.
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Ve3tro writes: "Its the turn of Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken and Dan to get a makeover with the release of the Shoryuken costume pack on Xbox Live MarketPlace today and next Thursday March 12th on the European PlayStation Store.

The packs will cost 320 MPs and £3.99 respectively."
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411mania gives a rundown on this week's game releases. Highlights include Phantasy Star Portable, The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match, and Sukashishipanman DS: Shokotak Koto Nakagawa Shouko Produce!

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Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
With Phantasy Star Portable, Sega basically took Phantasy Star Universe, fixed a lot of the problems people had with it, tweaked it to be more single-player friendly, and added more story elements. Some of those who hated PSU are actually saying that they like this version of the game. I find that hard to believe, but it's possible. If anything, this will at least give us something to do while waiting for Phantasy Star Zero.

Here is what you can expect from PSP:

- New story missions that take place between the original Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus
In Phantasy Star Portable you will team up with a Cast named Vivienne as she investigates recent terrorist attacks on the colony as well as animal outbreaks on the surface of some of the planets. Space adventure and mayhem follow. I thought that PSU's story was ok; it wasn't groundbreaking or very memorable but it was still decent. So, if Sega was able to craft a story that is at least on par with the first game's, these missions could be worth plaything through at least once.

- Local as well as online play (with the help of a PS3 or your PC)
As expected, you can play with three other friends locally using the PSP's ad hoc mode. Those wishing to play over the Internet have two options - one that requires a PS3 and another that requires a computer. To use your PS3 you have to download the Ad-Hoc Party application from the Japanese PSN store and do a little tinkering. You can find instructions on how to do this at the PSO-World forums here. If you want to use your PC there's XLink Kai. Note that these two options work for the Japanese and English dem...
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BeefJack writes, "It has not yet been proven that playing Guitar Hero can turn you into a rock god. Nor has it been proven that playing Singstar can turn you into a pop idol. However, if you wanted to become an Olympic gold medalist, what game would you choose to play? Beijing 2008 perhaps?

Not according to Great Britain's Tyrone Robinson, European Championship Taekwondo bronze medalist."
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Playstation Blog writes:
What's up Home-boys and Home-girls?

We have some über-cool events scheduled for this week that we want to hip you all to. First, we are holding a live Q&A session with John Diamonon and Seth Killian from Capcom today, March 4th. This chat will focus on all things related to Street Fighter IV and will give a few lucky attendees the chance to win a more intimate follow-up Q&A (complete with an SFIV tips and tricks tutorial) in a private clubhouse at a later date.
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Each review copy of Street Fighter IV sent to journalists was accompanied by a glossy training manual with bios, artwork, and moves lists for each character. Now you can get your hands on it, too.
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Capcom previously revealed plans to boost Street Fighter IV's multiplayer mode with a huge free Championship mode expansion shortly after launch but, despite the game having been out for over a week, there's still no ETA on the patch's release.

The new patch, as previously reported, is expected to expand the multiplayer portion of the game with an enhanced Tournament matchmaking system, a new points ranking system and the ability to record, play back and upload fight replays.

Sounds great, but don't hold your breath because Capcom was still unable to give CVG an estimated release for it this morning.
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David Sirlin, lead designer on Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, responded to an IncGamers request for comment regarding his recent Street Fighter IV posts - which caused more than a little controversy.
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Looks like all you Warhawk fans are getting what you wanted. Sony is hosting a game launching event for Warhawk tomorrow. Not only that, they're having cool new Street Fighter 4 items available for purchase.
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