Round-Up: Bandai Boosts Overseas Sales, Advent Rising Contest

- Bandai announced their intention to increase its American sales following the upcoming merger with Namco, in Yomiuri Shinbun interview with Bandai president Takeo Takasu. The company aims to increase its current overseas sales from 18 percent of its income to 50 percent, and it does plan to use Namco's library of game characters as a major selling point for new toy lines, both in Japan and in America, where it is experimenting with coin-operated gashapon toy vending machines. "After our merger, we will become a company that the world has never seen before. We will deal with anything from games, toys, [anime] movies, stationeries, to amusement facilities," said Takasu. - Majesco has begun a contest for its new Advent Rising game, where users who play the Xbox title can win $1,000,000. Contestants must log in through the game's Xbox Live links to download an "easter egg" in the shape of an A, which is hidden somewhere in the game. The first player to find it, aided by clues given through the game's website, is the week's winner. The first contest is already underway, with no winner announced as of yet. More details are available at the official Advent Rising site. - Also updated today: product news including Seagate's new compact hard drive to be used in the Xbox 360, as well as the latest Gamasutra jobs, including positions from Concrete Games, Datascope Recruitment, Irrational Games, Perpetual Entertainment, Shiny Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Stainless Steel Studios.