The first Philippine gaming console convention titled “GX-Con” was held yesterday, October 7, 2007, at SM Megamall’s Megatrade Hall where participants flocked the not-so-big place with a whopping attendance of approximately 2,000 people.

The said event’s theme was to showcase next generation gaming consoles, particularly the Nintendo Wii, Sony’s PlayStation 3, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Participants in this event may then play some of the games offered by the organizers for free.

According to Bryan Uy, one of the head event organizers, said that he and his team were very happy to have been the ones who organized this first major event in the Philippines.

“Gaming events [in the Philippines] have always been focused on online gaming.” Said Uy. We figured that it would be good to have an event that would highlight console gaming. We always believed that console gamers here belonged to the silent public and we’re happy to see them congregate now. We were right: there are a lot of console fans here in the Philippines.”

True enough. The moment the convention was opened to the public at around 10:20 a.m., The place started to get busy with guests, each visiting booths that caught their interest.

Participants in the event where a marketplace of genres, ranging from companies/communites that offered free game testing to stores that sold anime merchandise and action figure goodies. Noteable companies/communities that participated in the events were: Typhoon Games and Sanrio Digital (Hong Kong based companies) where they featured trailers of their latest games and Hello Kitty animation, The cosplay magazine PSICOM, Otakuzine: a magazine for anime lovers, The communities of Pinoy PSX, Pinoy-N and PinoyXbox: a group of gamers dedicated in playing games on their favored consoles, Lineage II’s Philippine beta testers, GameHopper: an online video game rental store, Toy Kingdom: one of the largest toy store in the Philippines, and Wasabi Toys: the Philippine’s premier hobby store.

The event not only highlighted the free game testing of next-gen consoles but also offered tournaments and cosplay contests as well. One of the things that seasoned the convention was the number of cosplayers that joined the event, almost taking up 1/3 of the whole population.

(I just love the way she joked around before the interview.  Don’t you agree? XD)

We started out covering GX-Con during the morning and tried to gather some news as early as possible. We just had to stop searching for straight news right after we heard someone sing on stage.

The reason? The lead singer had a pure voice and a wonderful stage personality.

Reia, the lead singer of the J-pop inspired band here in the Philippines named Ethereal, was one of first to sing on stage during the event. She happily accepted our invitation to interview her after singing.

Here are some notes to take if you can’t hear the whole interview:

1.) The band already composed two original songs. One of the songs they made will be passed to an indie film and as she said, “hopefully,” it would be the film’s theme song. How cool is that?

2.) They are scheduled for two gigs fans can look forward to:

November 17, 2007 at Makati Jupiter in association with Ongaku Society, a Japanese music community in the Philippines

November 24, 2007 at University of the Philippine’s Bahay ng Alumni

Hong Kong based companies Typhoon Games and Sanrio Digital made their presence known in the Philippine market when we participated in the first Philippine gaming console convention, the GX-Con.

Their booth had some pretty interesting features for their guests.

Typhoon Games featured a nice trailer of Lost Planet, one of the latest games developed by developer titan Capcom. TG was the one responsible in porting the game, originally for the Xbox, to PC.

Sanrio Digital on the other hand, featured a bunch of Hello Kitty 3D animations, where it clearly shown plans in making a Hello Kitty digital animation show.

Their booth also offered job opportunities for talented people who can do outstanding web designs and can do write ups . For more information on this one, go here.

To boost their popularity in the Philippine Market, they had these cool pins as giveaways.

But that’s not everything these guys have to highlight. One of their very own staff won one of the three tournaments the PlayStation 3 has to offer.

Their very own JJ Leonano ranked 1st place in one of the two tournaments PlayStation 3 offered: Virtua Fighter V. He topped the the tournament by defeating 4 of the 16 players that joined the contest and won himself a WWE championship belt, sponsored by Toy Kingdom.

“I just got lucky” Leonano said. “I have been playing fighting games since the Street Fighter II era and I think that’s the reason why I feel really comfortable with fighting games, even if I just played them for the first time. As long as I know what the punch and kick buttons are, bring em on!” Leonano added while laughing.

The other tournaments held in the convention were Need 4 Speed Carbon, Halo 3, Dead or Alive, NBA Live 2007, Wii boxing and Tennis, Cooking Mama and Pokemon Battle Revolution.

Typhoon Games, a game developing and publishing company, and Sanrio Digital, a dedicated company in marketing Sanrio, are partners of Outblaze Ltd., a company that specializes in digital messaging services.

Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry 3 were two of the games that were ported from PlayStation 2 to the PC by Typhoon Games. We were really surprised when these two decided to visit us during the convention.

(My looks are what kills.  Not my gun)

Ada Wong, played by one of the Phillipine’s best cosplayer ms. J.T. Lim, said she had a hard time picking out who to cosplay because there aren’t a lot of asian characters that would fit her asian features.  That’s until her friends unlocked Ada’s storyline in Resident Evil 4.  She played it, loved it, and decided that Ada is for her.

Veteran cosplayer ms. Lim said that she started cosplaying since 2003.   

Whoa! Look at this guy! We didn’t expect to see “the” Dante of Devil May Cry in our table! He sure did told me what he wanted and I have no intentions of breaking my promise! XD

(Dante: You better make me look good on your reviews!)

Here are more of the good cosplayers in the event:

Freya from Valkryie Profile

Tifa Lockhart of Final Fantasy VII

Sorry, I just had to post another picture of her. XD

Ling Xiaoyu of Tekken

Asuka Kazuma also from Tekken

Naruto’s group &  Bleach’s Ichigo with their…umm…Stage manager. 

Gambit, Iron Man, B.B. Hood, Viewtiful Joe, Ayame, Jin, Stryder Hiryu, and Dante

Fate/Stay Night’s Archer

World of Warcraft’s Arthas and Fate/Stay Night’s Lancer

Wasabi Toys, seller of authentic hobby items via their store and the Internet, brought their merchandise in the event and shocked many visitors with the wide variety of stuff their booth has to offer.

Patrick Sy, owner of the store, shared his thoughts on what he thinks about the event and some things about his business:

“Im not really sure how many people will attend the event.” Sy said. “The gaming community inside the hall is mixed and I’ll definitely look forward to the outcome of this event.”

His success in selling hobby merchandise is really something. Just recently, he has to move his store into somewhere bigger because he needed the space for his items.

According to Sy, the craze of collecting figures is growing at this age. He believes that part of the reason of the store’s success is that he maintains a good personal relationship with his customers as well as with his suppliers.

For those interested in looking at his superb items, check out the Wasabi Toys website. Their store delivers locally and internationally.

Pinoy-N, a group of gamers dedicated in playing consoles and handhelds made by Nintendo, joined the first gaming convention in the Philippines and had their guests experience the wonderful game mechanics of the Nintendo Wii.

Diobrando, a member of the community, giddily told us how Pinoy-N started.

“…what happened was there are a bunch of people who love Nintendo consoles and realized that they had little exposure here in the Philippines. From there, we decided to market the Wii as a family friendly console, same as to how Nintendo markets the Wii. One of our goals also is to make non-gamers as gamers by taking advantage of Wii’s unique game play experience.”

When asked to follow up on his statement where he said that the Nintendo Wii has a low popularity in the Philippines despite it’s global achievements, Diobrando replied:

“Well, we have to consider that there’s a lot of people who still doesn’t know the potential of the Nintendo wii and many still go with the PlayStation 3. Perhaps most of the people are still used in the PlayStation era, where they grew up with the PlayStaion 1 and 2, whereas the Nintendo era died down during the late ’90s.”

Pinoy-N is an active gaming community that already participated in many events like this one. As long as an event would be beneficial to their community and they have the chance to market Nintendo to the public, expect to see Pinoy-N there.

Pinoy PSX, an active group of individuals that are dedicated in playing games on their favorite console: The PlayStation 3, joined GX-Con yesterday by having a cool gimmick on their table: they brought their very own PS3 console and a big plasma tv, letting their guests enjoy the latest games available to the fullest.

Mike Meano, one of admins of their group, told us a little bit about their community.

“Pinoy PSX, a community of PlayStation afficionados, was not really formed from scratched. Most memebers were originally from the Pinoy Xbox community site. As of now, we also have members hailing from Singapore, New York and Canada.”

This was not the first time Pinoy PSX participated in this kind of event. In the past, they held a PSP event in the World Trade Center, attended the Comic Convention also at Megamall’s Megatrade hall, and even partnered with an amusement center named Powerstation where they sponsored an NBA Live and Tekken tournaments.

When asked to comment what PS3’s stand is here in the Philippines, Mike said:

“Well, the PS3’s most likely the main hub contesting over the Xbox 360. And because of piracy, some people are choosing the Xbox. But since xbox also has some downfalls like overheating, some people are still loyal to the PlayStation.”

There are games today that are appreciated only because of their outward appearance and almost always, as long as the game has good graphics and nice gameplay, the game is already appreciated as good, even if the story is poorly written.

Not for long, my colleagues.

The Writers Guild of America, led by the guild’s New Media Caucus, has announced that it’s going to be giving away their first Videogame Writing Award next year in their Writers Guild Awards on February 9 to encourage good script writing in videogames.

“Videogames are written and many are written very well.” said Writers Guild of America, West president Patric M. Verrone. “By recognizing the skill and craft of videogame writing, the Writers Guilds intend to raise the profile of these writers so that they can get WGA contracts and benefits for this work. We aim, we shoot, we score.”

“Writers are finally being recognized and valued in the videogame industry.” said WGAW New Media Caucus member Jay Lender. “Both artistically and financially, videogames matter - and videogame writers matter to the WGA.”

To learn more about this new award the WGA plans to give, go here.

W-h J: Well it’s about time the writers get some more spotlight in the video game industry. After all, scriptwriters are the backbone of a good game. Imagine playing a game full of bad grammars and incoherent storyline: You get Zerowing.

All your base are belong to us!

(Sources: Gamespot, Writers Guild of America)

By White-haired Journalist

Last August, Nintendo announced that it would be releasing a Crimson and Onyx colored versions of their DS. However, the catch is you have to buy it as a bundle for $149.99 with the Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day game.

Scratch that thought.

Today, Nintendo offically anounced that the two new DS handhelds can be purchased as is without paying the additional $20 for the Brain Age 2 game. The new handhelds will carry the standard price of $129.99.

W-h J: That’s a good thing. It’s never a good idea to sell a bundle to people unless the company is really sure all its consumers want it. After all, what Nintendo is selling here are skins for the handhelds.

Tom: Cool! A new DS color! How much is that?
Nintendo: You have to buy this game too.
Tom: Mom, I want a PSP instead!

XD

(Source: GameSpot)

Console sales may favor Nintendo Wii around the globe but it seems that their bullets aren’t gonna last till the Holidays.

According to Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Amie in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, he admitted that catering to everyone wanting a Wii console this holiday is impossible.

“We have been sold out worldwide since we launched.” Fils-Amie said. “Every time we put more into the marketplace, we sell more, which says that we are not even close to understanding where the threshold is between supply and demand…Our inventory is lasting a day.”

He added: “We’re working very hard to make sure that consumers are satisfied this holiday, but I can’t guarantee that we’re going to meet demand. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record we won’t.”

Fils-Amie said that the issue of the Wii having a limited stock was not because of the company’s ability to produce. The reason behind it is the game of economics, impeding the supply.

W-h J: Well, lots of consoles without enough games would indeed be disastrous. So give us more games then Nintendo! More! more! more! XD

Imagine if the ratio of Wii and its games would be 50,000-to-1. Yikes!

(Source: GameSpot)