Japan's largest indie game show BitSummit will hold an online event due to the coronavirus pandemic

Many events are currently being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. BitSummit, Japan's largest indie game show, is one of them. So they will hold an online event "BitSummit Gaiden" from June 27th to 28th.

BitSummit is Japan's largest indie game festival held in Kyoto every year. Their purpose is to "show Japanese interesting indie games to foreign countries" and was launched in the latter half of 2012. The initial number of visitors was small, about 200, but in 2018 the number of visitors exceeded 11,000 and grew into a huge event.
They planned to hold it again in May this year, but postponed it due to a coronavirus pandemic. So they are holding BitSummit Gaiden, an online showcase of games from developers who couldn't attend the event.
These are the contents of the event.

-Live streaming via BitSummit official Twitch channel
-Virtual developers booths where you can interact with developers on Discord
-Live streaming by influencers
-Demo play of selected games sponsored by BitSummit

Information about special guest speakers, influencers, and sponsors will be announced on the BitSummit website, Twitter, and Facebook soon. In addition, a charity related to the coronavirus pandemic is planned.

Japanese mobile game superstar Nameko is back with power-ups

Nameko is a veteran Japanese mobile game character. Many games and character goods have been released since his/her first mobile game Mushroom Garden(Nameko Saibai Kit : なめこ栽培キット) was released in June 2011. True, his/her recent popularity has settled down, but he/she continues to update. Mushroom Garden Deluxe Kiwami, the latest mobile game from the Nameko series, has been released today. Download is free(iOS/Android).

This is a renewal version of Mushroom Garden Deluxe released in 2012, which is more playable and more powerful. The high quality game screen, the addition of new Namekos, allows you to harvest more than 700 Namekos. Also, new background music and new features have been added.

Unfortunately, the English version has not been released yet, but since the Nameko series up to now is available in multiple languages including English, probably this will also be released in English.
Even so, this series is really fatal. The first game was released three months after The Great East Japan Earthquake and the latest release of the series was released during the coronavirus pandemic. Nameko is a Japanese time-killing companion.

The postponed movie Black Widow will participate in the VR Creative Festival

Currently, movie theaters throughout Japan are temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and many new movies have been postponed. Black Widow is one of them. It was to be screened this spring, but it was postponed until November. Until then Until, how should they appeal to movie fans? Therefore, Japanese cinema company TOHO Cinemas decided to exhibit it at Virtual Market 4, the world's largest VR creative festival.

Virtual Market is a creative festival in the VR world sponsored by Japanese VR startup HIKKY. 43 companies and 1400 general creators are exhibiting, and various virtual goods made by them are on sale. It's like a real trade show, but because it's a virtual world, the venues are ornately decorated. It's the 4th time this time, and last time there were 710,000 visitors.

TOHO Cinemas will exhibit a booth that recreates their Roppongi Hills theater at this event. They will show the Black Widow trailer and provide free wallpaper images of limited edition, US poster wallpaper images, and US poster images of Marvel Studios movies so far.
In addition, a popular voice actor who is the main cast of the Internet movie show will appear there as an avatar and interact with the visitors.

Virtual Market 4 will be held on VRChat from April 29 to May 10. Please check this URL for how to participate.

https://www.v-market.work/v4/access

World's first VTuber Kizuna AI has her own management company

Activ8, a startup that produces and manages virtual artists, announced that they will spin-off their popular virtual artist Kizuna AI. By doing so, they hope to boost her momentum and tackle even greater challenges.

Kizuna AI is the world's first virtual YouTuber. She opened her YouTube channel "AIChannel" in 2016 and started her activities. Fans of this channel have now surpassed 2.7 million. Since 2018, she has also started working as a singer, releasing songs and appearing at festivals.

riginally she was one of the VTubers belonging to Activ8, but her popularity now extends beyond Japan to all over the world. So, they decided to spin off the Project A.I. team, which has been in charge of her production, to make it independent.

On the other hand, they are aiming to create opportunities for virtual artists by further strengthening the xR content business including Spectacle, a VR live show system that will be released in the future.

Japanese VTuber Productions will expand into the English-speaking world

Japanese virtual performer startup COVER holds an audition to choose VTuber that can play active part in the English-speaking world in their VTuber production hololive production. With this, they aim for VTuber production that can gain popularity in the global market.

The hololive production is home to a large number of virtual performers who use their system to post videos and perform live streaming.

English version of their official Twitter account
https://twitter.com/hololive_En

The application condition for this audition is that you are an English speaker, over 18 years old, and regardless of gender. If you adopted, you can get cute avatars designed by popular illustrators. In addition, the gadgets needed for your performer activities are also supported.

The audition details page is here.
https://en.hololive.tv/audition