[Gamasutra rounds up recent reports on the Japanese games industry from local news site Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]
In our latest round-up of Japanese game industry news not previously reported on Gamasutra, we look at patching support for Nintendo 3DS, CyberConnect2's CEO running through the Paris Marathon while dressed as Naruto (pictured), and more.
Nintendo will introduce the ability to patch games for 3DS games with a new firmware update releasing for its latest portable system on April 25. The update will allow users to download fixes for games afflicted with bugs, such as Mario Kart 7, Kingdom Hearts 3D, and New Love Plus.
The update also adds a long-requested feature, folders, that will enable 3DS owners to better organize their portable's apps and games. This new firmware offers eShop game/app discovery improvements, too, offering recommendations to consumers on games they might like on 3DS's download service.
CyberConnect 2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama previously pledged to run France's annual Paris Marathon as part of a promotional tour for his company's Naruto games, and to celebrate Namco Bandai shipping more than 10 million copies of games from the series around the world.
Matsuyama intended to complete the 42 km (26-mile) marathon while dressed as anime/manga character Naruto. Despite help from local cosplayers also dressed as Naruto series characters, though, he only made it to 22 km (13.7 miles) before exiting the race due to leg pain.
You can watch a video of Matsuyama completing over 1000 push-ups, performing more than 1600s sit-ups, and going down a slide at a kid's playground to prepare for the marathon in this Japanese blog post at CyberConnect 2's site.
Sony has announced Nasne, an evolution of its popular Japan-only PlayStation 3 Torne accessory, except it's a standalone device instead of a peripheral. The 500 GB hard drive system records and streams video content to various Sony products, including PS3, PS Vita, VAIO PCs, Sony Tablets, and Xperia smartphones.
Along with its extra features, Nasne has a higher price: ¥16,980 ($209), compared to Torne's ¥9,980 ($123). Sony will release the device on July 19 in Japan. It hasn't yet announced any plans to release Nasne outside of Japan.
[This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]
