We've got some Rune Factory 3 news today!

In a recent interview with Siliconera.com, Graham Markay (Natsume's VP) talked some about the possibility of a Rune Factory 3 pre-order plushie. Plushies have typically been offered as a pre-order bonus for Harvest Moon & rune Factory games for years. Here's what he had to say:

"You know, I’ve seen the message boards, and people definitely want it. You have the Golden Woolie leading the wave. Is it possible? I’ll have to look into it. We’ve done a lot of these plushies. We have that horse plushie coming out for Harvest Moon [Grand Bazaar].

People do like it. I think if a Golden Woolie is done right, it could look pretty cute. I always want to make sure whatever character we’re doing looks cute or has some sort of value to the consumer. It’s something we’re looking into." Source - Siliconera

Also, the North American box art for the game has been designed, which you can see to the right (click for larger image). It's slightly different than the Japanese version of the box.

So yeah, what would you guys like to see as a Rune Factory 3 pre-order bonus? Think the Golden Woolie is a good idea?

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I hope you're enjoying Grand Bazaar so far! We've been pretty busy playing the game and working on content pages for you, and we would love some help.

As you can see, we don't have too much content up at the moment. We're hoping that will change soon, but we're going to need your help! In line with HMOtaku's "for fans, by fans" mantra we're looking for helpful fans that would like to join the HMOtaku staff as content writers.

So if you'd be interested in writing original content on Grand Bazaar for HMOtaku, we would love to talk with you! And yes, there are perks to it - send us an email at hmocontent@gmail.com for more information! ;)

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Have you picked up your copy yet? :)

Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar officially released today in North America, much to the delight of fans everywhere. We're especially excited here at HMOtaku, and we've even started a release-party thread on the forum! You can join in and talk with everyone about the game's release, your first impressions, tips, or... express how excited you are!

- Click here to go to the thread -

We hope you enjoy Grand Bazaar, and we'd love to know what you think of the game!

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With Grand Bazaar's release just around the corner, why not take some time to listen to the game's music before starting your adventure?

We've officially added a Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar album to the HMOtaku Jukebox. The album contains 9 songs from the game, including the Title and Heart Event songs as well as the 4 seasonal themes.

The game seems to take Harvest Moon in a bit of a new direction, with all new characters, a unique town setting, fun festivals and a brand new way to sell your crops. You'll even be able to invite friends to your farm through wi-fi in multiplayer mode!

Grand Bazaar is hitting stores next Tuesday-Wednesday (August 24th/25th) in North America. Until you can get your copy though, we hope you enjoy listening to the game music in the Jukebox. :)

-Jukebox page-
-Discussion-

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Things just don't seem to be working out between HM64 and the Virtual Console...

The Nintendo Wii's virtual console (VC) allows you to purchase classic video games right onto your Wii system. So far, the only Harvest Moon game to have been made available on the VC is the original "Harvest Moon" for the SNES.

The only other Harvest Moon game eligible to be released for the VC is a fan-favorite, Harvest Moon 64. Many have been anxiously awaiting the game's release on the VC. But in a recent interview with Nerdmentality.com, Natsume VP Graham Markay had some disappointing news:

NM: "We have some huge fans of Harvest Moon 64 on our website, and we are wondering if it will ever come out on Virtual Console?"

GM: "It will not. It will not. And it's not from lack of trying. Unfortunately, the code of the game is not... it's not an easy transfer. It would be really time-consuming and long, and we've looked into it, and we've tried to see if there's any way around certain things, but the conversion to virtual console, it's just... I shouldn't say it's never going to come out, but there's just a really, really, very small chance that it would ever come out. Which is unfortunate because we know that for a lot of dedicated, die-hard fans, that's their favorite."

You can read the full interview here. So what are your thoughts?

Source - Gonintendo

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After receiving over 1800 entries from nearly 500 of you guys, the HMOtaku Summer Sweepstakes 2010 is officially over! Entry into the Sweepstakes closed at midnight last Friday, and we drew the winners shortly after.

Not surprisingly, all 5 winners were among the 40 people that entered 15 or more times! So to see the full list of winners, you can check out the Winners List page.

And if you didn't win this time, don't worry. We're already planning the next HMOtaku Sweepstakes... Rune Factory 3 anyone? :)

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Dying to see a little video preview of Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar? Nintendo Week has it for you!

"Nintendo Week" is a weekly show that Nintendo posts on the Wii's Nintendo Channel. They talk about Nintendo news and preview games that come out on Nintendo systems. This week, they checked out Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar.

If you haven't been following Grand Bazaar too closely, their preview highlights the game's main features for you. If you have been keeping up with Grand Bazaar news, at least you can finally see clips of English gameplay, right? And they review Grand Bazaar first, so you won't have to skip ahead too far!





However, remember that Grand Bazaar is coming out on August 24th, contrary to what they announce in the video.

As for the HMOtaku Summer Sweepstakes 2010, we'll be sending emails out to the winners tomorrow afternoon/evening so be on the lookout for that! :)

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It seems that if Grand Bazaar's release gets pushed back any further it might fall off a cliff. :( The new, and likely final, release date is August 24th.

While no official announcement has been released from Natsume, I have received a response from their customer support team confirming the delay. If you remember a couple weeks ago we announced that Grand Bazaar had gone gold, meaning that the game was finished and ready to be sent to the manufacturer. So it's safe to assume the delay is due to some sort of manufacturing/shipping issue.

This news is of course frustrating for many of us hoping to play the game before summer ends... But to put a smile on your face, here is a video of two random Japanese celebrities playing the new HM game "Twin Villages". :)

http://ext.nicovideo.jp/thumb_watch/1280717870

2 more days left to enter the HMOtaku Summer Sweepstakes!

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