Bayonetta Message Board older than one year ago

#xbox360 Japan isn't only The Land of the Rising Sun. It's also The Land of Xbox 360 Indifference. There must be a way to double weekly consoles sales. Turns out, there is. More »

Microsoft is putting on its best marketing face to try and sell some Xbox 360s in Japan, hence a new Xbox 360 Elite bundle -- last week's rumored bundle. The new pack includes a copy of Forza 3 and Bayonetta on top of all the usual trimmings that come with an Xbox 360 Elite -- all for a cool ¥29,800 ($319.48).

It's one of the more unique software bundles we've seen, to tell the truth, but a nice way to entice Japanese gamers. Each title comes from an opposite side of the spectrum: Forza 3 is a diehard racing sim with an emphasis on cool, calculative driving, whereas Bayonetta is a frenetic action game with an emphasis on giant, ambiguous animals and riding motorcycles in space.

The bundle is available to Japanese consumers right now.

[Via Kotaku]

Sega recently posted quite the surprise for its investors: a revised earnings forecast. In an interesting turn of events, Sega has foregone the doom and gloom of having to admit it will likely earn less money during its Q4 2010 forecast -- the period between December 2009 and March 2010 -- for something a bit more on the cheery side: profits!

First, Sega estimates net sales of ¥380 billion ($4.08 billion), a 9.5 percent decline from its previous estimate of ¥420 billion ($4.51 billion) -- wait, we thought we had good news in here? Aha! Here it is: net income.

Sega previously forecast net income of ¥15 billion ($161 million), but has now adjusted that to ¥18 billion ($193 million). This spontaneous spike in cash money is attributed to "improved profit margins in the pachislot and pachinko machine business and amusement machine business." We imagine sales of Bayonetta and Aliens vs Predator also helped.

And in case you're wondering what the difference between net sales and net income is: Net sales accounts for the total profits a company makes based on the products it sells, while net income takes into account net sales and other operating costs, such as licensing fees and taxes.

[Via GameSpot]

#sega But you can't play it. Sorry! More »

#religionweek Whether it be action title Bayonetta, fighting game Guilty Gear or role-playing game Rune Factory, habit-wearing characters have made appearances in video games. Many Japanese games simply use nun accoutrements. But why? More »

#clips I know, we've been trying to restrict April Fool's stuff to a single post, but since this clip - of Bayonetta re-imagined as an 8-bit side-scroller - isn't really a joke or a scam, it's worth a closer look. More »

#clips The gag's played out fifteen seconds into a 47-second clip, but I digress: this is Bayonetta. Being played by...Bayonetta. While Bayonetta watches. More »

#nsfw If you know Godzilla films, no doubt you think this cosplay is amazing. If not, you probably think its...something. More »

#sega Sonic the Hedgehog may be Sega's most recognizable cash cow—those Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games titles are huge—but the successes of Bayonetta, Total War and Football Manager may represent a new wave of Sega franchises. More »

Look, alright, we'll level with you -- we've got a short supply of schweet schwag hanging around Joystiq Prizeland as of late. That should at least partially help to explain last week's absence of a contest. We also kind of felt like you might've been overloaded with games during our holiday giveaways at the end of 2009. What's that? No, you say? Well we suppose that the first few months of 2010 are unusually flush with quality content, so giving away a bit couldn't hurt, right?

We certainly hope a nine foot tall bullet witch will do it for you, because that's what we've got. One lucky winner (chosen at random) takes home Bayonetta on Xbox 360, chosen from the comments below (please leave one and only one) that are left in the next 24 hours. You tell us what you think is the most annoying song you've ever heard used in marketing a game and you may very well win yourself a vidjagame. How about that?!

• Leave a comment telling us what you think is the most annoying song you've ever heard used in marketing a game.
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, due in part to our aversion to snowy owls).
• Limit 1 entry per person per day.
• This entry period ends at 11:31AM ET on Monday, February 8.
• At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one copy of Bayonetta for Xbox 360 ($59.99 ARV).
• For a list of complete rules, click here.

What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

SEGA's sexy title impresses.

After surviving harrowing losses of ¥22.8 billion (nearly $254.8 million) during its fiscal year 2009, Sega Sammy Holdings (parent company to Sega, which you've probably sussed out) has managed to revive its faltering bottom line. According to the company's latest financial report, Sega Sammy brought in a net income of ¥16.9 billion ($189.5 million) during the first nine months of its fiscal 2010 (April-December 2009).

This income came in spite of the fact that Sega's total game sales had dropped 13 percent from the same 9-month period the previous fiscal year -- however, thanks to the company's massive restructuring last February, operating income skyrocketed to ¥28.8 billion (about $323 million), which more than softened the blow. The company's highest-selling title was, alarmingly, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, with 5.6 million units sold (and probably counting). Bayonetta, which was only available in Japan (released October 29) during the period covered by the report, came in a distant second with 1.1 million units sold.

It looks like the company's managed to recover from an extremely painful fiscal 2009 -- but at what cost?

If you've been playing Bayonetta on PS3, there's a chance you've been making sandwiches just as often as you've been vanquishing virtual angels. We admire your productivity during the loading screens, but perhaps it's time to accept the aid of Sega and Platinum Games. The developer has confirmed the worldwide availability of a title update that allows the game to be installed to the hard drive. All you have to do is boot up your game and you'll be prompted to download the update. Of course, you've also been known to make sandwiches during installations, so ... well, they must be really delicious at this point. That's a win, no matter what.

Cut those load times with hard disk install.

Sega of Japan announced that it will release an update for the PS3 version of Bayonetta tomorrow, which adds an "Install" item to the game's main menu. The patch, first tentatively announced in November, is intended to cut down the long load times that have perturbed Bayonetta's PS3 players. This doesn't mean the game has now achieved total parity with the Xbox version -- there are still other visual issues, like frame rate, in Sega's PlayStation port -- but at least Sega has now taken one step towards improving the experience on PS3. The update has currently been announced only in Japan only, but the release date just happens to fall on a Thursday, when the PlayStation Store updates worldwide, so we wouldn't be shocked to see it arrive here tomorrow as well. [Thanks, Copland]

Speaking to Game Informer, Platinum Games' Hideki Kamiya discussed the possibility of a sequel to Bayonetta. Kamiya noted that the Bayonetta team has "love" for the game, saying, "I don't see anything wrong with Bayonetta 2." (If you're reading this, Mr. Kamiya, neither do we.) He elaborated that he'd like to approach a sequel "from a different angle, in the form of a spin-off." Game Informer goes on to speculate that a sequel could star Bayonetta's rival, Jeanne. Honestly, we don't care who stars in the sequel. As long as the action is just as solid as it is in the first game, it really doesn't matter. As long as someone is kicking ass in a stylish, intuitive way, we're sold.

Stroke me, Jubileus.

Bayonetta basks in glory in this trailer full of praise.

This dark witch is so irresistible, she's worth a second look.

Buxom beauty busts onto the scene with a baby and a brilliant beginning in this official Bayonetta launch trailer.

Bayonetta struts her stuff on multiple consoles, but which one brings the most heat?

We were unbelievers at the beginning of this new Bayonetta ad (after the break), in which Mega64's Rocco Botte insisted that he could emulate -- nay -- top any of the titular action star's moves. But he's definitely shooting bullets with his feet and he promises repeatedly that his hair is a demon, so now whose face has got egg on it? That's right: Ours. ... Hey, he wouldn't lie about his hair being a demon, would he? No, of course not. Who would lie about that? We're probably just being paranoid.

The first thing you should know about Bayonetta is that the story is entirely unimportant. It makes no sense. At all. Period. There's something about two warring clans, one of witches and one of sages (Light vs. Dark -- yada yada yada). There's a "journalist" who inexplicably carries a grappling hook; an ancient god that's being resurrected; and, at one point, there's even a dance-off. Now, forget about all of that. You'll be skipping through it on your second playthrough anyway. And that's really the point. If you like action games in the vein of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, you'll probably start your second playthrough of Bayonetta exactly when I did: immediately after the first.

Get ready for a season with the witch.

Does Bayonetta amount to flash, or is there more to this witch than her absurd proportions?

Traverse the treacherous terrain and solving clever puzzles is also among the agenda of Bayonetta.

Bayonetta struts her stuff against a plethora of enemies in her debut outing!

PlatinumGames chats about the upcoming launch of Bayonetta.