Those Japanese Cross Over Games

                    Dead or Alive 5 is coming out on Sepetember, 25th, 2012. As a fan of both fighting game and dead or alive series, I am super excited about it. So, I watched some gameplay videos in advance, and I found out that not only there are new stages and more polish, there are some so-called new characters from Virtual Fighters 5. At that moment, I was shock and a little bit upset as I never saw that coming. Dead or Alive series has been a great success with its fancy fictional characters and story. For Dead or Alive 4, it has sold 1.2 millions copy world wide and receives score of 9/10 on IGN, saying "DOA4 is a move in the right direction for the series" (http://bit.ly/OffDBi). As DOA 5 is coming right around the corner, is DOA5 still on the right direction with characters from another game of other company?

                    Well, it is hard to predict what Tecmo is planning to do with their games, rather they are running out of ideas or just have to publish another game this year for the sake of it. However, crossover games like these actually happens quite often in Japan. First party crossover games happen a lot in a big company like Ninteno. Super Smash Bros is surely one of the representatives. However, third party crossover game is rapidly increasing these years. From what I can remember, there are Street Figther X Tekken and Pokemon Conquest both from 2012. There are way more third party games and here is a list of it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_crossovers_in_video_games). If you go through the list, most of the games are made in Japan. At this point, I think, why aren't there third party crossover games like that in other regions. Is the Japanese game industry really going down? But even if it is, would this type of games count as a way to support each other? 

                    Whether cross over game is profitable, creative, or not, it is good to see game companies make and combine games together rather than just competitors. I personally think it creates a good and positive atmosphere in the industry. This actually could apply to Game Development Workshop in my enrolled program too. Although some people might upset about the new team system in GDW, it is good to meet new people and share ideas. Nonetheless, we all want to learn how to make good games of our own, why not try some crossover? I am definitely getting Dead or Alive 5 when it comes out!