As previewed a while back, the next toy from Armored Core V looks like it will actually get released. However, it’s going to be sold via Bandai’s premium online shop and normally this means it will be only available in Japan. That said, From Software have mentioned via Facebook that there are plans to release this toy abroad. In any case, the pre-orders start today and it will be released in February of next year. In addition, it’s also a bit more expensive than the last toy (at 7,350 yen) but this may mean it includes the Over Weapon parts too. As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know.

Whilst the the title of this post may sound a little dull, this is actually quite interesting in a broader sense. In short Gundam Battle Operation has been downloaded lots with a 75% attachment rate in terms of purchases and made around 700 million yen (roughly 9 million US Dollars) since release. This is good right?

Well, no. Not really. To put it into perspective in terms of sales, an average PSP game can make more than double than this. The really scary insight though was that the money made has more than enough paid for the game’s development. This is a PS3 game we’re talking about here and one that was developed for a few years. Basically, Japanese developers get paid like utter shit in order for this to make a profit.

The other slightly bizarre thing we found out was that Masahiko Tokushima, of former Team White Dingo fame, was and is somehow involved with Battle Operation (apparently as a “director”). We’re not sure how much he had to do with the game’s development but he may have been rolled out purely to appease the fanbase (as his name alone garners a lot of respect when it comes to Gundam games in Japan). After the dissolution of Team White Dingo a few years back, he may have been relegated to a more managerial role at BEC so that may help to explain his presence.

A rather brilliant trailer for E.X. Troopers has surfaced at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Brilliant in the fact it actually shows some vital suit combat. In short, November is too bloody far away. There’s also news of a pretty cool Monster Hunter crossover (shown above). Something we always felt Lost Planet 2 really tried to do was merge the whole Monster Hunter setup into Lost Planet, so this nod to that is pretty cool. The new trailer is shown below and don’t forget you can pre-order the game here.

Following on from the Naked Jehuty announcement, it now also seems that a Revoltech of the Ardjet orbital frame (shown above) will also be released at some point in the future. It’s a slightly strange choice for a figure, as Ardjet is a rather minor antagonist and lacks the same kind of fan fervour generated by Vic Viper. In any case, it seems that Konami are keen to pump these Zone of the Enders toys out to help promote the HD versions released in October.

Shown on Hideo Kojima’s Twitter account (as well as on Konami’s own Tumblr), we now have the inevitable Revoltech of Naked Jehuty. This being the final form of the orbital frame as seen at the end of Anubis (as shown below). This particular toy is a prototype that will be shown at the forthcoming Tokyo Game Show, so no news yet on a release date or price. As with all the Revoltech Jehuty toys, this is the one we’ve been waiting for and the sculpt and paint job look excellent.

We now finally have a nice artbook for Armored Core V on the way. Released at the end of this week, it comes in at 224 A4 pages and only costs 2,940 yen. Considering that the game has a pretty interesting mecha design background it will be great to finally have a decent collection of the game’s concept artwork. If you’re interested in picking one up, then you can buy it here.

If you were wondering why the Western PR for E.X. Troopers hadn’t kicked off yet, well that’s because Capcom aren’t planning on release the game outside of Japan. So whilst we will be getting the decidedly meh Lost Planet 3, the only way gamers will be able to play E.X. Troopers is by importing it. This is something we will be doing at the end of November. If you plan on doing likewise, then you can buy the game here. Regardless, this news is just wholly depressing and reinforces our opinion that publishers are gutless bell ends.

With the Zone of the Enders HD Collection set for release next month, Konami are beginning to start their endgame PR push. Part of this is the release of the HD version of Anubis’ opening (linked below). This is the exact same opening that was on the 2003 PS2 game, so they’ve basically re-done the exact same game capture footage from the new HD version. Whilst that may sound trivial, it’s really very not. That aside, it did make us feel that this generation hasn’t really done very much when a game from 2003, that we didn’t overly enjoy in the first place, made us feel excited just from its opening movie.

Following on from Macross Last Frontier, Bandai decided to fund yet another mini-game for the suitably epic Macross Do You Remember Love BluRay release. Entitled My Boyfriend is a Pilot 2012, the game covers the events in the film and takes Artdink’s PS3 tech forward a bit further. What follows is our hands-on impressions with the new game.

Our good friends at HobbyLink Japan have sent us the Play Arts Kai Sam Gideon from the suitably brilliant game Vanquish. Whilst we have talked about the game on the site before we haven’t reviewed it, as it’s not really a full on mecha title. However, its mecha heritage in terms of the design is pretty interesting. In addition, we’ve also included some game footage at the end of the review.