The news contained in the title seems pretty likely as GameStop, famous American chain of game-shops, "has forecast" that Blue Dragon will hit the American market on the next 5th of June.

In fact, the new and first Mistwalker game, already available in Japan (since the beginning of December), has been inserted in the catalogue near the said date, which is also very near to the one of Bioshock, another exclusive and eagerly awaited title for the Xbox 360.

As usual, Microsoft has not commented the rumour saying that currently the game has no decided date.

It seems we'll have to wait...
» Read More 

In their latest edition, the Japanese games magazine Famitsu mentiones that the first additional downloadable content for Blue Dragon will be available in January. This has been told by Mistwalker's Kensuke Tanaka.

More details about the content are currently unknown, it is also unclear if the content will be available for free. So we'll just have to wait for that.
» Read More 

The PS3 and Wii have been posting some impressive numbers lately. According to figures from Media Create Co. Ltd, Sales of both the PS3 and Wii consoles in Japan jumped during the second week of December thanks to greater supplies of the consoles from their respective manufacturers.

The Wii was the best-selling console for the week with 108,237 units. Sony's PS3 came in second with 70,942 units and Microsoft's Xbox 360 came in third at 17,168 units. With the exception of the launch weeks, these are the best weekly figures posted by the new PS3 and Wii consoles yet.

While the Xbox 60 is still lagging behind the hometown consoles, the sheer power of Blue Dragon bumped up sales of the Microsoft console, with current sales being well above those recorded in November. Over the week spanning December 4 to 10, over 35,000 Xbox 360 consoles were sold
» Read More 

Since yesterday another high-anticipated game has hit the Japanese stores; Lost Planet. Today the first salesfigures have been revealed, saying that the game sold a little more than 20.000 copies on the first day.

Although it is absolutely no bad result for a first day, it just seems that Microsoft can't do anything good in the Japanese eyes. Despite games such as DOAX2, Blue Dragon and Lost Planet being released in the same month, sales figures are still below average.
» Read More 

The new M-Create numbers are in for the week of December 4th - 10th. The Xbox360 reached a new record in the land of the rising sun, moving a 'wh0pping' (at least for Microsoft) 35343 units! If I didn't make any errors this brings the total amount of 360s sold since launch to ~213k (vs. already ~238k PS3s) in Japan.

Blue Dragon itself ended on the 4th place in the Japanese software ranking with 80348 copies of the game (released on dec 7th) sold in 4 days.

While selling over 35k units in 1 weeks is a real nice performance for the 360 over there (Microsoft usually sells only a few 1000s a week), it's still a pale figure compared to Wii's 85439 units and PS3's 50171 units ... both probably limited by available stock.
» Read More 

The second Console Monster podcast is now online for your listening pleasure. In this episode, James, Barrie and Steve discuss everything from the new Halo 3 Commercial and our very own beta competition, the new Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive, Xbox 360 vs Wii vs PS3, Blue Dragon and much much more.
» Read More 

Blue Dragon is Microsoft's attempt to truly break into the Japanese console market. The Blue Dragon launch can be billed the REAL Xbox 360 launch day in Japan; at least, Microsoft hopes it is.

According to a confusing machine translation from GameSpot China, the Xbox 360 sold either 27,000 or 70,000 units to accommodate the release of Blue Dragon. If 70,000 is the correct number, an additional 43,000 units of Blue Dragon sold (which is the bulk of the Japanese owners who previously purchased an Xbox 360). In either case, this is certainly a nice boost for Microsoft.

If the 70,000 is the correct version of the translation, it would certainly be odd to see the Xbox 360 sitting at a solid #3 on Japan's weekly sales chart. Microsoft hopes to sell 200,000 copies of Blue Dragon in Japan, which means Microsoft hopes to have around 200,000 Xbox 360 units in Japanese households. While not impressive from the standpoint of, say, the DS -- Nintendo sells that many in two weeks -- Microsoft should enjoy the sales boost and the publicity that goes along with it.
» Read More 

Microsoft hasn't done a lot of things right in the eyes of the Japanese. Winning over one of the largest gaming markets in the world has been a muddy uphill struggle for the software giant, but that hasn't stopped MS from putting forth a lot of effort in trying. Well, Microsoft's hard work has finally paid off in the form of Blue Dragon, one of the few highly acclaimed games for the Xbox 360 in Japan.

In a press release issued recently by Microsoft's PR agency, it was announced that Blue Dragon has taken some affinity with Japanese consumers and the Japanese media, alike. Kick-starting the launch of Blue Dragon at one of the largest retail outlets in Japan, the Yodobashi Camera Akiba, more than 200 gamers were on hand awaiting the release of the highly anticipated Xbox 360 RPG, Blue Dragon.

On hand at the Yodobashi retail store to unveil the launch of Blue Dragon, was renown model (and gamer) Yoko Horiuchi. She happens to be a fan of the game's artist, Akira Toriyama. Being the first of a two-part epic tale specific for the Xbox 360, Blue Dragon was designed by Square-Enix's Hironobu Sakaguchi. The game follows a young boy as he journeys through a sizable adventure as he masters his "Dragon Shadow". Though it's released in Japan, American gamers need not envy their Eastern gaming counter-parts. The North-American release of Blue Dragon is scheduled to hit retailer shelves sometime in 2007.
» Read More 

Yesterday Blue Dragon came into the Japanese stores and on the first day the game sold more than 40.000 copies in Japan.

There was also a Blue Dragon Xbox 360 Premium Pack which included the game and a faceplate. Official sales figures are expected after the weekend.
» Read More 

Photos of gamers standing in line to buy the XBox 360 Blue Dragon bundle. It's like having two launch days instead of one.
» Read More 

A look at the packaging, and some early impressions.

The Xbox brand's biggest Japanese title ever is about to hit Japanese retail in a little over 12 hours from the time of this story's publication. But seeing as how Blue Dragon has been in my top five most wanted list since its announcement, I decided to head out to a secret shop located in some secret location in the heart of the Tokyo wilderness. At this gamers' haven, games are unofficially sold one or two days in advance of their official release. IGN's Anoop Gantayat walked -- no, skipped -- home with a copy of the Xbox 360's first big-name Japanese RPG.
» Read More 

Japanese retail sources currently say Microsoft has aimed at selling 200.000 Blue Dragon copies in Japan. This is remarkable, because the Xbox 360 itself hasn't even sold that many times yet.

But Blue Dragon should be the start of the big Xbox 360 success in Japan. The game will be in Japanese stores tomorrow.
» Read More 

Japanese gamers can start counting down until the release of Blue Dragon on december 7th. Mistwalker today opened a special countdown website for unpatient that want to check every minute how long they will have to wait. Will Blue Dragon finally make the Xbox 360 successful in Japan? Only two days until we know, and counting...
» Read More 

You have more chance selling your left lung in Japan than an Xbox 360 at the minute, Microsofts next-gen console simply will not move, but the 360's fortunes maybe about to change if Famitsu magazine are anything to go by...
» Read More 

Look at it however you will ¿ an answer to the Playstation 3's biggest exclusive, Final Fantasy, the title that Microsoft need to break Japan or even the first multi-disk Xbox 360 game, Blue Dragon is undoubtedly very important to Microsoft's Xbox 360. But just how much can it the title change the next-gen of gaming?
» Read More 

With a little more than 1 week to go, Microsoft must be really excited about the Japanese launch of Blue Dragon. Can it permanently push the Xbox 360 sales forward? The first review by the a Japanese gamemagazine is hopeful, giving the game three times a 9 and one 10. (they rate with four different people)
» Read More 

A new edition of the popular Japanese magazine Famitsu has hit the stores, and of course it contains some new reviews. They are actually very optimistic about DOA Xtreme 2 (9,9,8,9), which received average rates in Europe and US.

Also Lost Planet does really well (9,9,8,8) and they reviewed some other games as well, check it out. Nope, no Blue Dragon yet =(
» Read More 

Thought being 3rd place was already incredible news for an Xbox 360 game in Japan? Think Again.

Continuing its firm walk to the first place, Blue Dragon has just climbed up one more position leaving behind Wii's Zelda, PS3's Metal Gear Solid 4 and most recently the almighty (multiplatform?) Resident Evil 5 aka. Biohazard 5.
» Read More 

Microsoft's stubborn approach to HD-DVD games might settle those not willing to splash out on another peripheral just to play games, but that shouldn't mean that the games that spill onto more than one DVD shouldn't also appear on HD-DVD, surely?

Mistwalker's much anticipated Blue Dragon comes on 3, and whilst that obviously won't mean lots of swapping (come on, surely it's split into three acts or something) it's still a call for a large media solution...
» Read More 

Speaking with renowned Japanese publication Famitsu, Mistwalker's Hironubo Sakaguchi has confirmed that development on a sequel to the upcoming Xbox 360 RPG, Blue Dragon, is already underway. He also used the article to confirm development on another title, called Cry On - an action RPG to be released in the second half of 2007.
» Read More