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TGS Aftermath, E3 Precursor Gust's newest addition in the Atelier series has received a release date of June 21st in Japan. Atelier Lilie, which is the third installment in a series that has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan, will retail for 6800 yen ($55.10 USD). For those of you who missed the first two games, Marie & Elie no Atelier will be re-released on the Dreamcast on May 31st for 7800 yen ($63.21 USD). The ports will have a few new features to seperate them from their PlayStation counterparts, such as high-res graphics, new anime sequences, and new characters and items. About 400 PlayStation 2 and PC titles will be exhibited from 53 developers at Game Software Exhibition 2001: TV Game Kingdom in June at the Tokyo Dome. Companies will include ArtDink, Idea Factory, Atlus, Enix, EA Square, Gust, Capcom, Koei, Konami, Square, Sony, Sony Music Entertainment, Tecmo, Namco, Jaleco, From Software, Microsoft, and Top Japan Software. Square will once again be demonstrating Final Fantasy X and Bill Gates will be giving yet another keynote at this show. Let's hope that he gets more of a response this time than at Spring TGS. Remember Bill, silence isn't necessarily golden. Enix of Japan has re-evaluated their achievement forecast for last period, which ended on March 2001. Their sales decreased to 45.2 billion yen (about $366,332,656.13 USD), while their ordinary profit dropped to 20.1 billion yen (about $162,840,399.05 USD)and net profit has been forecast to reach 10.1 billion yen (about $81,821,794.12 USD). The decrease in profit has been caused by the delay of Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Mysterious Key of Martha: Iru's Adventure, which had been delayed from a March 20th release to April 12th. Don't count Enix out yet though, as Dragon Quest VII had sold 4.06 million copies total as of the end of March, making it the best selling Playstation game worldwide...and it hasn't even been released outside Japan yet! From Software's EverGrace II has received a release date of June 28th in Japan. The sequel will retail for 6800 yen ($55.10 USD). Panther Software, a Japanese developer, has announced an action RPG, Metal Dungeon, as their main Xbox title. The game is set to release this fall in Japan. The gameplay involves your character wandering underground after a world war. In this future, biomechanical monsters threaten human kind, and it's your job to stop them. More information on Metal Dungeon should be released in the coming months. After being announced and then practically dropping off the face of the earth, SCEI's ICO has been confirmed for a summer release in Japan. Little is still known about the PlayStation 2 game, though more is scheduled to be released later this month. Kadokawa/ESP have formally delayed their PlayStation 2 RPG, Abarenbou Princess. The title was originally supposed to release this spring, but has been pushed back till October. The game promises to sport entirely 3D characters and environments.
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