Sega has announced the release of a smaller version of the 16-bit Mega Drive Mini console. The retro console was presented at the Sega Fes 2018 festival, held on April 14 in Tokyo.

One of the oldest strategic series Nobunaga’s Ambition celebrated its 35th anniversary. Over the entire existence of the franchise, over 10 million game copies have been shipped.

Japanese developer and publisher Square Enix announced the opening of the Luminos Production studio. The head of the new division was appointed the project manager of the role-playing game Final Fantasy XV Hajime Tabata (Hajime Tabata).

Square Enix announced a personnel reorganization of the board of directors. The new board includes developers who participated in the creation of a number of flagship tiles of the company.

Japanese mobile publisher Colopl reported a drop in net profit in the first fiscal quarter of 2018 (lasted from October to December 2017). The main reason for the decline was the payment of royalties to Disney Corporation after the release of the puzzle Disney Tsum Tsum Land.

In the first week after the release of the Monster Hunter: World role-playing action, 1.2 million physical copies of the game were bought in Japan. This is 92% of the initial batch of discs sent by the publisher Capcom to stores.

The Japanese role-playing game Persona 5 sold over 2 million copies in a year. This is the best result among all the games in the Persona series, whose total sales amount to 8.9 million copies.

Japanese game designer Tomonobu Itagaki wants to open a game studio in Rome. The author of the fighting game series Dead or Alive announced this at the GameRome game developers convention, Gamereactor reports.

The total number of downloads of the Monster Strike mobile battler by the Japanese Internet company mixi exceeded 40 million shortly after the title was launched in China.

Japanese gaming giant Bandai Namco will allocate additional funds for the development of titles for the Nintendo Switch platform.

Japanese mobile developer GREE has reported on the results of the last quarter. The company’s revenues grew by 45%, but profits fell by 84.2% compared to the same period last year.

Sales of Nintendo’s retro SNES Mini console in Japan in the first four days after the release reached 368.9 thousand copies, the Famitsu edition reports.

Rhythm game The Idolmaster Million Live!: Theater Days (アイドルマスター ミリオンライブ！ シアターデイズ) for iOS from the company Bandai Namco has earned $10 million for 90 days. The game was not released outside Japan.

The Japanese company Bandai Namco has announced its readiness to establish partnerships with developers of mobile games and applications, as well as to acquire them.

Laws against gambling activities of Japanese organized crime hinder the development of the esports competition industry in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The author of Resident Evil 2 and Bayonetta, Hideki Kamiya, called the director of the Nier game series Yoko Taro “the savior of the PlatinumGames studio.”

An 82-year-old Japanese woman has developed and released a mobile game called Hinadan for the App Store.

The Japanese company Mixi reported an increase in sales and profit for the 2nd quarter of this year. The main source of financial income remains the mobile puzzle Monster Strike, released in 2013.

The profit of the Japanese mobile developer GREE for the 2017 fiscal year (ended June 30) fell by 44% to $72.5 million.