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Dead or Alive 5 grabs fifth round of costumes on XBLM, PSN today
The Dead or Alive 5 outfitters remain unrelentingly diligent, with the game's fifth round of costumes out today on Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. The China Pack, Formal Wear, and Special 3 sets are now available on XBLM for 400 MSP each, or bundled together for 1040 MSP. On the PS Store the individual sets are priced $4.99, and the all-in-one bundle $12.99.DOA5's male characters actually get a decent look-in this time. Three of the lads get their Chinese fighting gear on, meanwhile Eliot is dressed as a bartender, Bass as a mafia dude, and Zack as a cross between C-3PO and an alien clubber. Of course, it wouldn't be Dead or Alive without a few eyebrow-raisers. If you're planning to peruse the gallery below, brace your eyes for Christie in "black leather bondage gear." %Gallery-171930%
Those Dead or Alive 5 swimsuits are available for purchase now
We're sure there's a subset of the gaming population who didn't pre-order Dead or Alive 5 from GameStop or Amazon, only to burst into tears when they later realized that the swimsuit costumes were exclusive to those retailers. This one's for you.The following Dead or Alive 5 swimsuit packs are now available for $3 or 240 MS Points via PSN and XBLM: Angels (white suits for Kasumi, Hitomi and Leifang), Devils (black for Ayane, Christie and Tina) and DOATEC Divas (bunny ears for Kokoro, Lisa and Helena).For $5 (360 MS Points) grab the Player's Swimwear Pack 1 with bikini'd out Kasumi, Kokoro, Helena and Sarah; Pack 2 with Hitomi, Leifang, Mila and Pai charm; or Pack 3 for Ayane, Christie, Tina and Lisa. The Player's Swimwear Set includes all three Swimwear Packs for $13 (1040 MS Points).Dry those tears. It'd be a shame to get these swimsuits wet.
Dead or Alive 5 gets its third wave of downloadable outfits today
Right on cue, Dead or Alive 5's third round of costumes arrive today. The three new sets are already downloadable on Xbox Live Marketplace, and should be up on PSN today too. Each set is priced at 400 MSP/$4.99, with the full 3-in-1 pack going for 1040 MSP/$12.99.As you can see from the screenshots below, there's a 'Gym' set, a 'Uniform' set, and a second 'Special' set. Although it looks like someone's stolen Mila's bunny get-up and just left the ears.In more attired news, Tecmo Koei say DoA5 shipped 580,000 copies in its first month.%Gallery-169671%
Dead or Alive 5 ships 580,000 copies worldwide in first month
Tecmo Koei shipped out 580,000 copies of Dead or Alive 5 in the game's first month of release. The company revealed the figure yesterday in its second quarter financial report. While it reads a little unclear through Google Translate, given the timing and the nature of the report these are likely shipment rather than sales figures.While shipment figures aren't always great indicators of sales, 580,000 in one month compares reasonably to the 700,000 copies Dead or Alive 4 shipped worldwide in its first two months.Tecmo also revealed a year-on-year improvement of 26.0% for operating income in the first half of its fiscal year, up to ¥897 million ($11.3 million). The company's revenue improved by 0.7% up to ¥13,724 million ($172.7 million).Meanwhile, the game's third wave of downloadable outfits hits Japan today. Tecmo hasn't yet revealed when they'll be available here - revealed being very much the operating word.
Dead or Alive 5's third set of costumes hits PSN in Japan October 30
Rounds of Dead or Alive 5 costume packs are apparently rolling out every two weeks, after a PlayStation Japan update revealed the third set is coming to that country's PSN on October 30. There's no mention of what costumes are being included, or of them coming to PSN in other regions on the same date.The initial free costume pack dropped worldwide on October 2, then a slew of packs arrived two days ago, two weeks after the first pack. We'd say logic takes us to another round of costume packs for North America's XBLM and PSN on October 30, but we know better than to apply rational thinking to a Dead or Alive game.
Dead or Alive 5's new costume packs include fiend Hayabusa, cat ears, 'bartender britches'
The latest slew of DLC costume packs for Dead or Alive 5 includes one awesome thing (above), some normal-lookin' street clothes and then a whole bunch of stuff we'd be embarrassed to describe in public."Kitty Pack," as you might suspect, includes cat ears and corset-ish catsuits for Christie, Helena, Tina and Lisa. The "What a Character" pack adds two maid outfits for Hitomi and Mila that are more of the "Octoberfest Bar maid" variety than the "French House maid" type you might expect, a slinky gown and mask for Lisa, and "bartender britches" for Rig.Lastly, the "Special Set" gives Kasumi and Leifang access to their traditional overalls and panda-bear outfits, respectively, in addition to "fiend" Hayabusa and an even slinkier evening gown for Lisa. Each pack is available now for $4.99/400 MSP, and all three can be purchased together via the "Round 2 Costumes - Full Set" pack, which at the moment is only available on the 360 for 1040 MSP. PlayStation 3 owners looking for a sweet costume discount will have to wait until next week, when the Full Set becomes available for $12.99.%Gallery-168484%
Final Dead or Alive 5 dev diary says thanks
Putting the words "touchy-feely" and "Dead or Alive 5" together in the same sentence is generally something we try and avoid, but under the circumstances it seemed appropriate. Allow Team Ninja's final dev diary entry to thank you personally for supporting Dead or Alive, whether you did or not.
Dead or Alive 5's first costume pack free on XBLM now, PSN later today
Dead or Alive 5 gets its first downloadable content today and it's free, with the First Time costume pack now available for nada on Xbox Live Marketplace and coming to PlayStation Network for zilch later today. The DLC sees new character Mila garb herself in Tina's red and black number from the first Dead or Alive, while Kokoro, Zack, Bayman, Helena, Christie, Gen Fu, Akira, Sara, Pai, and Tina herself receive an alternative costume too.Dead or Alive 5 came out last week, and Ludwig gave it four out of five stars in his review. He described the game as an "energetic revitalization of the series, lecherous reputation and all." Whichever side of that these costumes fall under, you can't argue with free*.*you probably can but we're not going to.%Gallery-167269%
Fans requested bigger breasts in Dead or Alive 5
Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi said earlier in the year that for Dead or Alive 5, the team was "trying to focus on the real women that surround us" and "being realistic" in the character designs for the new game.This may have been inspired by response from Tecmo's operations outside of Japan, according to a Gamasutra interview with DOA5 director Yohei Shimbori. "We were getting feedback from the overseas offices to tone down the sexuality -- to tone down the sexiness of the game, and of the characters," he said. However, feedback from fans after playing the early demo told Team Ninja a different story."We actually got a lot of feedback from people who were playing it, saying, 'We want bigger breasts. Make the characters more like that,'" Shimbori revealed. "That was kind of surprising." Given suggestions to tone down the sexuality, and suggestions to increase the hypnotic, lava lamp-like motion taking place inside 90 percent of the game's shirts, which would you choose?If you were Team Ninja, that is.
Dead or Alive 5 review: Begrudge match
Evaluating the plot in Dead or Alive 5 is ultimately a waste of words. Oh, you can make a qualitative judgment – observe that it somehow manages to be a train wreck, a plane wreck and a car crash all in one. It's like watching all combustible vehicles on Earth hurtle into each other at a singular point of stupidity, and then burning in the consequent fireball of awkward, unintentional comedy.But we survive, insulated by apathy. What matters is that Dead or Alive 5 is an excellent fighting game.%Gallery-166480%
Dead or Alive 5 uses an online pass
We were going to tie the news of a Dead or Alive 5 online pass into the series' storyline – possibly something about a ticket to Zack Island or a fee payable to DOATEC for entry into the tournament – but we realized we'd rather not get into DOA storyline discussion unless it was absolutely necessary.Like so many modern games, Dead or Alive 5 uses an online pass, required for access to online multiplayer and leaderboards. If you buy it new, it comes in the box, but if you get a used copy (and how did you find a used copy of DOA5 today?) you can download the pass for ten bucks.%Gallery-166480%
Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi on appealing to everyone with Dead or Alive 5
We caught up with Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi during the Tokyo Game Show for a quick chat about Dead or Alive 5 and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, the studio's upcoming collaboration with Keiji Inafune's Comcept.This interview is split into two parts. The first, dealing with Dead or Alive 5, can be seen above. The second part concerns Yaiba and Mr. Inafune. Keep an eye out for part two later today, because we just happened to run into someone very closely involved with Yaiba's development (and Soul Sacrifice ... and Mega Man).
Begin your training with Dead or Alive 5's launch trailer
There are only 22 seconds of painful dialogue to endure before the exciting fights start in this Dead or Alive 5 clip. We expect there'll be a bit more in the full game, but there are also fights inside moving subway cars. And fights into which moving subway cars intrude.
Dead or Alive 5 downloadable on PSN day and date with retail release
After showing the launch trailer for Dead or Alive 5 at its Tokyo Game Show event, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi revealed that the game will be available as a download on the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Store. The downloadable version will be available day and date with the retail version on September 25. A downloadable version is also headed to the Xbox 360, and will be available three months after launch.
Dead or Alive 5 says hi to Virtua Fighter's Pai
Virtua Fighter's Akira and Sarah Bryant aren't the only two Sega stars joining Dead or Alive 5. Plucky, pig-tailed pugilist Pai Chan has also been confirmed today.Pai was rumored to be a playable character back in March, when some hackers dissected the Dead or Alive 5 demo and found alternate costume data for 25 fighters in total. Famitsu has images of Pai throwing down against old-timer Gen Fu in some dojo that we imagine rests atop a mountain in China somewhere – that's how these things usually go, right?
Dead or Alive 5's Mila has good concentration skills [Update: Now with dev diary]
Mila, a diner waitress and MMA fighter, is the second new character in Dead or Alive 5's roster (the other being Rig). Maybe it's her enthusiasm to fight Bass Armstrong's daughter, but Mila does a great job of concentrating on beating up Tina in this trailer. You'd think she'd be distracted by a level of urban disaster that makes I Am Alive look like a flickering lamppost, but maybe her dual occupation lifestyle helps her to multitask.We hope to find out on September 25, when the game comes out on Xbox 360 and PS3.Update: In the meantime, jump past the break to take a look at Team Ninja's internal development process in the third episode of its Dead or Alive 5 developer diary series.
Behind the scenes of DOA5's character development, Virtua Fighter involvement
The latest Dead or Alive 5 developer diary focuses design challenges, specifically the importance of redesigning Kasumi and implementing Virtua Fighter characters. Sega provided the key animations for Sarah and Akira, which Team Ninja had to adjust in order to fit them into the DOA framework.
Dead or Alive 5 to feature Facebook integration, online training mode
Posting to social media sites about watching beautiful women beat the tar out of each other may not be the best idea, unless you're doing so via Dead or Alive 5's newly announced Facebook integration.The feature's implementation hasn't been explicitly demonstrated as of yet, but it will somehow allow players to "rock bragging rights by posting titles and sharing fighting records with friends on Facebook," according to a press release from Tecmo Koei. A network-enabled training mode, dubbed "Online Dojo," was also announced, though the mode's specific features were not specified beyond the fact that it is a training mode that will work online.Meanwhile, Lisa and Helena were revealed as returning playable fighters, as if there were any doubt, and their match footage can be seen above.
DOA5 lead: Japanese view of women in games 'not going to change'
The Dead or Alive franchise is notorious for its blatant emphasis on sexy female fighters in tiny, physics-defying outfits – in the western world, at least. In Japan, this form of female representation is "common sense," Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi tells MCV."With the representation of female characters in the Dead or Alive franchise, we've always wanted to make the girls look as attractive as possible, and that's something that's not going to change for us at all," Hayashi says. "We are a Japanese developer, and we're making the female characters with our common sense and our creative sense. When you take that to countries outside of Japan, it tends to be very misinterpreted in some cases, people considering it sexist or derogatory, etc."In February, Hayashi said Team Ninja would attempt to shift focus in Dead or Alive 5 away from sex and violence, heading instead in "a direction that contains emotional experiences that can move players." It's entirely possible that Hayashi was pandering to western sensibilities with that statement, but it's also possible he plans to combine deep, emotional experiences with sex-infused character models. There's nothing immoral in making beautiful things, as Hayashi sees it."For us, within our culture, we're showing women like that, and we're trying to make them look attractive," he says. "We can't help if other cultures in other countries around the globe think that it's a bad representation. Within our nationality and within our national borders, we obviously have morals that we create our female characters from, but within our Japanese sensibilities, we've made those characters the way they are and we're not going to stop doing that."
Dead or Alive 5 adds Brad Wong and Eliot to the roster
Despite being featured in Team Ninja's relationship graph, Brad Wong and Eliot were never officially confirmed for Dead or Alive 5 – that is, until now. Tecmo announced the pair as the latest additions to Dead or Alive 5's roster today at Gamescom.In addition to giving us a glimpse at Eliot and Brad Wong, Team Ninja has also sent out some images of a new stage, a small house in China. While the fight starts in this house, the gallery below shows its wooden walls are hardly enough to keep the greatest combatants confined.%Gallery-162516%
