Release This: Wii Dragon Quest To Make Strong Japanese Debut

Gamasutra's regular round-up of worldwide video game releases, "Release This!", takes a look at every game title we know to be shipping to stores this week, in an exclusively compiled list. New releases continue to trickle out few and far between in the U.S. and Europe this week, with Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception leading interest in the United States, while the UK prepares for Mario Party 8 and Elite Beat Agents. Japan features a much more robust lineup in comparison, with titles like Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou and Pop'n Music 14 Fever bound to meet with an enthusiastic reception. The following list covers all of the game software we know to be available -- across all platforms and regions -- for the week ending July 14th, 2007. Games Released in the United States:

Square Enix's budget-priced shooter Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception leads in gamer awareness and purchase intent in what looks to be the slowest week of new releases the United States has seen in quite some time. The Silpheed series -- which originated on PCs and the Sega CD with the Game Arts-developed Silpheed and continued on the PS2 with Treasure's Silpheed: The Lost Planet -- has traditionally met with mediocre review scores and moderate sales numbers, but in a week where competition is slim, Arc of Deception takes top honors in IGN's Mindshare results. Also ranking high in this week's findings are the PC MMORPG Sword of the New World: Granado Espada and Atlus's Riviera: The Promised Land, a PSP remake of a Game Boy Advance RPG that saw U.S. release a scant two years ago. Games Released in Europe:

Mario Party 8 and Elite Beat Agents headline as the biggest titles to hit the UK in yet another slow release week. Though much of this week's list has already seen release elsewhere in the world, European gamers will enjoy the PC port of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 several days in advance of its U.S. debut, while PlayStation 2 owners have a European-exclusive title based upon the classic animated film An American Tail to look forward to. Games Released in Japan:

Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou has achieved impressive preorder sales over the last several months at Amazon.co.jp, and stands likely to debut as the week's best-selling Nintendo Wii title. Current demand indicates that Swords could potentially become the week's best-selling Japanese title across all platforms, though competition from the recent Nintendo DS hits Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! and Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei could prove to be tough to overcome. A number of other Japanese releases are generating their share of anticipation as well. The Nintendo-published Ganbaru Watashi no Kakei Diary currently ranks just behind Dragon Quest Swords in weekly preorder sales, while importers will likely be interested in the Mega Man ZX sequel Rockman ZX Advent and the latest entry in Konami's Bemani series of rhythm-based titles, Pop'n Music 14 Fever. [About IGN GamerMetrics: IGN GamerMetrics is an interactive tool designed to report the real-time behavior and interests of visitors to IGN Entertainment's network of gaming enthusiast web sites. Using data collected from IGN's readers, GamerMetrics shows the levels of consumer awareness, engagement, and purchase intent in every video game title released in the U.S. market.]