Topic: Dragon Ball GT Coming to GBA Video

[WindyMan]

Majesco just doesn't know when to stop.

MAJESCO SECURES EXCLUSIVE 'GAME BOY ADVANCE VIDEO' RIGHTS TO FUNIMATION'S POPULAR 'DRAGON BALL GT®' PROPERTY

Top-Rated Anime Franchise Joins Majesco's Powerful 2004 Lineup

EDISON, N.J., May 20, 2004 – Strengthening a 2004 lineup already bolstered by premium content, Majesco, (OTC: MJSH), a leading publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products, today announced an agreement with FUNimation Productions, Ltd. to publish Game Boy Advance Video products based upon FUNimation's tremendously popular Dragon Ball GT ® franchise.

Under terms of the agreement, Majesco secures the exclusive rights in the United States and Canada to apply its proprietary technology to the top-rated Dragon Ball GT ® animated series.

"We are thrilled to partner with FUNimation to bring the extremely successful Dragon Ball GT ® property to our Game Boy Advance Video lineup," said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco. "Having achieved retail sell-in of more than two million units for our initial offerings, we're confident that such a highly recognizable property as Dragon Ball GT ® will continue that momentum into the back half of the year, and beyond."

"The Dragon Ball GT ® audience is a perfect match with the Game Boy Advance demographic," said Gen Fukunaga, president of FUNimation Productions, Ltd. "With more than 21 million Game Boy Advance owners throughout North America, Majesco's innovative technology will enable us to bring our top-rated animated action series to this extremely large audience."

One of the most popular properties to date, the Dragon Ball franchise has created a new standard for animated action series having achieved sales of more than $3 billion in related merchandising worldwide and over 20 million home videos. Web sites for the Dragon Ball franchise receive more than eight million hits per day, and the term "Dragonball" was a Top 10 search term on the Lycos 50 Daily Report for a total of 200 consecutive weeks. For additional information on Dragon Ball GT ® visit www.dragonballgt.com.

For more information about Majesco's proprietary compression technology as well as its new releases, please visit www.gba-video.com.

[tssf]

I wonder if Majesco will release an Ocean group version for the Canadian audiences. There's a reason we didn't like FUNimation's voices. heh.

[nickmitch]

I told you that these announcements won't stop.

[Ian Sane]

You know just because Majesco sends out all these press releases doesn't mean you have to print every single one.  I think they've greatly taken advantage of their press release priviledges.  If the two people who actually care about this crap have a problem with it they can email Majesco and tell them to group their announcements into less press releases.

[Bartman3010]

After seeing what the GBA Video can do via screen shots...really, there IS no point in getting them. Dont even think about the Game Boy Player, the start up screen is "Not Compatible with GBP"

and te video compression looks like you could've just downloaded it from the internet for less money.

Its that bad...

[bubicus]

There's no reason NOT to publish the press release. It's not like there's dozens of news items posted each day on Planet GameCube. Also, there's nothing wrong with publishing news that promotes the GBA and GameCube. Anyway, the technology is promising. Although the video looks chunky in still shots, it probably doesn't look bad in motion on a small screen. Take a look at still shots from any GBA game. They're all chunky, but the graphics look pretty good when you play. Also, if they can extend the playing time beyond 45 minutes, then the price ($19.99) won't be so bad. If the video cartridges are successful, then that may help parents pick the DS over the PSP, since the DS could play popular videos at half the price of a PSP.

Strange, though. Considering the amount of promotion Nintendo and Majesco have made over GBA Video, I wonder why they haven't gotten Kirby: Right Back at Ya as a title yet.

[Darc Requiem]

Quote
Originally posted by: Bartman3010
After seeing what the GBA Video can do via screen shots...really, there IS no point in getting them. Dont even think about the Game Boy Player, the start up screen is "Not Compatible with GBP"

and te video compression looks like you could've just downloaded it from the internet for less money.

Its that bad...

This is Dragonball GT we are talking about poor video compression can only help with this crapfest. I had forgotten how pathetic this show was until I caught an episode last week. Blech....DB:GT is the Street Fighter: The Movie Game of the Dragonball series, yes it was made but most people wisely pretend it doesn't exist. I'm glad to see Majesco is really pushing this GBA Video thing, I'm honestly not that interested but its nice to see people getting the GBA to do stuff it wasn't intended to do.

Darc Requiem

[ruby_onix]

Quote
You know just because Majesco sends out all these press releases doesn't mean you have to print every single one.

If nobody bothers to read these stories, then it can't negatively (or positively for that matter) affect PGC. So there's really no downside to posting this news, as long as Steve or whoever's posting it still feels like posting it.

Personally I feel the "we've made so many announcements that people are getting bored of them" approach to press releases makes Majesco's GBA Video series seem bigger than if they just lumped more announcements into fewer press releases.

Quote
Dont even think about the Game Boy Player, the start up screen is "Not Compatible with GBP"

That's pretty surprising. I don't see why they wouldn't work with the GBP. The GBP is a perfect GBA. Actually, I do see one reason. If it worked on a TV, it would probably interfere with somebody's "home video" distribution rights.

That means the technical term for GBA Video = "Crippleware"

[UncleBob]

Despite what anyone may think/tell you, the GBA Video thingee will likely sell *VERY* well...

Let's look at a similar technology - the "Video Now" player and discs HASBRO.  This player plays small discs - called "PVDs".  They are *only* in black and white (or, as HASBRO says, "16 shades of greyscale") and hold about "30 mins" (one 30 min TV show, minus commericals) of video.  They typically sell for around $8 or more (Some three packs sell for $15 and up) and have content similar to that of these GBA Videos (SpongeBob, Fairly Odd Parents, etc..)  The cheaper player (with a pretty small screen - 1.7 by 1.3 inches) runs about $50.  These PVDs can *only* play on the Video Now player and the Video Now player can *only* play these PVDs...

And while I have no real numbers, working in retail, I can say we sold a *lot* of these at Christmas time - players and videos.

Now, compare the player to the GBA - the GBA can play these videos, a large selection of games, MP3s (with the MP3 player), all in color and on a screen that's more than twice the size of the Video Now player.  The low end GBA does cost around $30 more, but I can't really see why *any* parent in their right mind would pick the Video Now player over the GBA (unless they really dislike video games - in which case, these parents probably wouldn't be buying this kind of stuff anyway.)  Plus, when HASBRO stops supporting the Video Now, it'll be pretty useless, since there will be no more videos coming out for it.  The GBA, however, will have plenty of use when Majesto stops making these GBA Videos.  *PLUS* how many kiddies already have a GBA vs those who have a Video Now player?

Now compare the "PVDs" to the GBA Videos.  PVDs currently hold a bit more content for the price (a 3-Disc pack of Sponge Bob has 6 episodes for about $15 or more) than the GBA Video (4 episodes for about $20), however the GBA video is in color (and later will hold more video).  Also, the PVDs are discs and suffer the same fate as many discs do around small children - espically those on the go...  where as GBA Carts can get ran over by a mag truck and probably still work.

Trust me...  These will sell well.

Which is great for the Nintendo market - who cares where they get the money from as long as they get it.

I kinda want to see what these look like on the Game Boy Player though...

[UncleBob]

Quote
Originally posted by: ruby_onix

Quote
Dont even think about the Game Boy Player, the start up screen is "Not Compatible with GBP"

That's pretty surprising. I don't see why they wouldn't work with the GBP. The GBP is a perfect GBA. Actually, I do see one reason. If it worked on a TV, it would probably interfere with somebody's "home video" distribution rights.

That means the technical term for GBA Video = "Crippleware"

This sounds plausable... I just assumed it wasn't reccomended because it'd probably look pretty crappy because of the compression and such...  I could just see an angry parent made because they thought they'd get high quality video for their kid's Game Boy Player...

[Nephilim]

I know these will sell, I remember downloading the matrix trailer on gba format 2 years ago
people saying "why wont this go away, stop posting these on pgc" is just silly

Draonball GT DVD old eps can be picked up for 20aussie now here, no way a cartiage could beat that. So I cant see this coming to Australia

[Oldskool]

Maybe this can be done with the after-DS GB, if it has optical disks, but who wants to do it with cartridges? That have less memory and grainier FMV. C'mon, this is lame.

[Infernal Monkey]

All Majesco need to do now is pack-in a free DBGT toy or "EXCLUSIVE HYPER SHINY RARE BATTLE LEVEL MILLION" trading card with each copy of the cartoon cart thingo, and they'll be rolling in money. ROLLING.