In ancient times gamers in North America had to wait a year or two after a system was released in Japan to get their hands on that same system, but Sony has put that paradigm on its head with the PlayStation 4's launch. Instead of releasing its latest console system in Japan first, Sony decided to release it in North America and Europe last year instead, making gamers in its home country wait a full three months.

More details have emerged on what Sega plans to do with Atlus and its parent company, Japan-based Index. Sega acquired the original North American publisher of Tactics Ogre, Disgaea, Steambot Chronicles, Trauma Center, the Persona series, and many other popular Japanese games in September 2013 in a deal that cost the company an estimated $140 million.

Yesterday we reported that Resident Evil and Onimusha composer Mamoru Samuragochi admitted that he hired someone else to create the compositions he took credit for. Today we learn who composed those works and that Samuragochi may not be deaf after all.

Following Nintendo's less-than-stellar fiscal report last month and the company's investor briefing (which laid out plans that not everyone thought were all that clear cut), the company has revealed a 114.2 billion-yen ($1.1 billion) share buyback plan set to launch tomorrow.

Puzzle & Dragons developer GungHo Online expects to rake in around $1.2 billion in revenue this year, and because it keeps its overhead low, it expects to keep about $700 million of that figure after expenses. These numbers are from CEO Kazuki Morishita, who recently spoke with CNN Fortune about the company's runaway hit game and business in general.

He attributes at least some of his company's success to his experience as a Manzai artist and stand-up comedian - believe it or not.

Japanese game developer Idea Factory is altering the content of its upcoming PlayStation Vita card game Monster Monpiece for markets outside of Japan such as Europe and the United States. On hearing the news, some in the community said that Idea Factory was being heavy-handed in changing the game for release in North America.

On Friday Nintendo projected that it would take a $240 million net loss for the fiscal year ending in March on weak holiday sales of its Wii U console and related software, and scaled back its sales projections for its home console and its 3DS hand-held. This morning the company is seeing the effects of that news in its stock price, according to this BBC report.

If you live in Japan you already know that the government taxes games (and other physical goods) with a consumption tax that are imported from outside the country, but that tax will soon be applied to digital purchases as well, according to this Kotaku report.

A Japanese man has been arrested for allegedly forcing his young stepson to play Grand Theft Auto while his mother was not at home. The Kyoto, Japan resident, a 28 year-old male nurse named Maasa Kawabata forced his nine year-old son to play Grand Theft Auto IV for two-to-three weeks, with each gaming session lasting about two or three hours a day. All of this occurred while his mother was outside the home. He also apparently told the boy that he was "stupid," a "moron," and that he should "die" whenever his mother was not around.

This week Japanese publisher Cyber Front announced its dissolution in a simple statement (PDF, Japanese) published on its website (according to a translation by Gamasutra).

Koei Tecmo has introduced spending limits for micro-transactions in its games for those under the age of 20 in Japan. According to Silicon Era, the company will only allow $50 a month to be spent by someone under the age of 15, with the 16-19 year olds being limited to a maximum of $200 a month. No restrictions apply for players 20 years old or older.

Koei Tecmo plans to add these limits in its games in Japan before the year's end. No word on if this policy will be a global one or if it is just specific to Japan.

Capcom announced that the latest title in its Monster Hunter series has helped push the franchise to 28 million units sold to date. In October, Capcom said that the franchise had sold 26 million units total. It also revealed that the latest game in the series - Monster Hunter 4 - had sold four million copies since its release in September. The 3DS game has only been released in Japan. That four million figure included sales of the downloadable version and is up from the three million figure announced in October.

Nintendo of Japan has confirmed via its official web site - as translated by Kotaku - that it has halted production of its last-generation Wii console for Japan. The company said earlier in the month that it would halt production of the console for the region "soon," and the latest update to the site confirms that that time is now.

Softbank and GungHo Online are making a substantial investment in Finnish free-to-play and mobile gaming juggernaut Supercell. The company is selling a 51 percent stake for $1.53 billion to Japan’s SoftBank and game developer GungHo Online Entertainment. The strategic investment will make Supercell a subsidiary of Softbank, with the funds being used to fuel Supercell’s global expansion.

Nintendo revealed that it is finally winding down production of its popular Wii console in Japan. Last year the company said that it had stopped making games for the platform. Speaking to Eurogamer, a Nintendo of Europe representative noted that the company's Japanese parent company will stop making new Wii systems in the near future.

Atlus President and CEO Naoto Hiraoka has penned an open letter to fans, discussing the acquisition by Sega earlier this week, praising and thanking the company's legions of fans for the continual support and encouragement, and apologizing for making them worry about the company's future.

Sega has confirmed that it has taken over the operations of Index Corporation, the Japanese parent company of video game publisher Atlus. Index filed for "Civil Rehabilitation" (the Japanese version of bankruptcy) in June of this year, after suffering heavy debts. Sega has acquired the company and Atlus, and has formed a new subsidiary to take over operations of the company, called Sega Dream Corporation (the name is tentative and will likely change at a later date).

During the same press conference where it revealed a lighter and thinner PS Vita and the new PS Vita TV micro console, Sony delivered some bad news to Japanese consumers: the PlayStation 4 will launch much later in Japan than anywhere else in the world.

During a press conference this morning in Japan, Sony announced a new micro-console called the PlayStation Vita TV. The 6.5cm by 10.5cm micro-console utilizes the PS Vita chipset and its system software, and supports the Dualshock  3 controller. The device allows 1,300 PS Vita, PSP, and classic PlayStation One games to be played on a television screen. The PS Vita TV will also support movies services, eBooks, and the PlayStation Plus service. Some PS4 games will be playable via Remote Play as well.

Halo designer David Ellis thinks the Hideo Kojima-approved "sexy" design for the Metal Gear Sold 5 Quiet is "ridiculous," and says that the industry is full of what he calls "man babies." Earlier in the week Kojima said that he had directed designer Yoji Shinkawa to make the sniper character Quiet more "erotic" so that more people would cosplay her during the Tokyo Game Show later this month. Today during a press conference Q&A, Kojima told Polygon that he meant to say "sexy."

Apparently a Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain character is getting redesigned to be more "erotic" according what game director Hideo Kojima wrote in a series of tweets today. This, he believes, will make the character more appealing for cosplay.

The Kickstarter campaign for Project Phoenix, an indie Japanese role-playing game being developed by Creative Intelligence Arts for PC, is a smashing success. In less than 24 hours the project has been fully funded and has doubled the amount of money it was seeking. As of this writing (that money ticker is climbing faster than we can keep track of it), the project has raised $268,841 from 4,168 backers with 28 more days to go.

Sega is one of twenty companies interested in buying out Atlus from Japanese parent company Index Holdings, according to a Blomberg Japan report (by way of CVG). Index Holdings purchased Atlus in 2006, but last month was forced to file for bankruptcy in the Tokyo District Court for over millions of dollars in debts it faced.

An erotic Japanese game that utilizes a phallic-shaped controller device now has Oculus Rift support to boot. The game is called Custom Maid 3D and it lets players create a maid that you can then commit various sexual acts on using a "Ju-C Air Support" controller. The controller is like a PlayStation Move controller that is also an interactive sexual aid for men. You get the general idea of what this game is really all about...

NIS America has added some new characters to its educational iOS puzzle game, Character Chowdown. The in-game content, which will cost you roughly $0.99 a pop, includes characters from the popular Disgaea series such as Laharl, Prinny, Mao, and Flonne. Other downloadable content includes the Hiragana pack and seven different Kanji packs.

Nintendo, Square Enix and a number of other Japanese game makers have won a major victory in a long-running battle against two distributors of R4 devices. The devices are used to store and play unlicensed (pirated) versions of games for Nintendo's many hand-held devices.

Nintendo announced that Club Nintendo, its member rewards site in Japan, has been hacked. The security breach was discovered when Nintendo noticed a large number of access errors on July 2. This prompted Nintendo to conduct a deeper investigation. Looking further into the issue, Nintendo found 23,000 instances of unauthorized log-ins (with 15 million attempts) between June 9 and July 4 on Japan's Club Nintendo site. The security breach does not apply to Club Nintendo sites in other countries, according to Nintendo.

Publisher Atlus has an uncertain future today as its parent company in Japan, Index, wrestles with what seems like an insurmountable amount of debt. According to a CNet Japan report, Index has filed for civil rehabilitation proceedings as it faces bankruptcy. The company owes an estimated ¥24.5 billion - roughly $224 million - in debt and its current president Ochiai Yoshimi has hinted that he will resign soon.

The parent company of Atlas is being investigated in Japan for "shady practices," according to this Kotaku report. In Japan "Atlus" is just a brand on paper and not a real company anymore because the Japanese company was dissolved and delisted from the stock market a few years ago after it became a wholly owned subsidiary of a company called Index.

Kotaku reports that the same sex relationships enjoyed by male characters in the Japanese game Tomodachi Collection: New Life have been patched out. Last week it came to light that male characters in the cutesy Japanese life sim for the 3DS could have relationships with each other. Nintendo promised a patch but many had hoped that the game would patch those same kinds of relationships for females into the game.