In a surprising turn of events, Japan is completely sold out of Xbox 360 hardware. Microsoft's Japanese branch revealed the news today, issuing an apology to customers and promising that the next hardware shipment would arrive in September.

The Xbox hardware has traditionally experienced low sales in Japan, but sales were apparently sparked by the recent Japanese debut of Namco Bandai's Xbox 360 exclusive Tales of Vesperia. The action-RPG is due out in North America next week.

"Currently, the Xbox 360 is sold out, and retailers are unable to restock their supply," reads the official Microsoft statement, as translated by Kotaku.

"This is a result of our own sales targets being exceeded by the actual customer sales," the company continued. "We deeply apologize for this inconvenience to our customers, retailers and business partners...We truly thank you for your patronage hereafter."

A similar sales boost accompanied the Xbox 360-exclusive release of Namco Bandai's Ace Combat 6 last year, though that spike did not lead to hardware shortages.

Publisher Namco Bandai has passed in six new gameplay videos from the Xbox 360-exclusive RPG Tales of Vesperia, showing off various elements of gameplay including combat and world exploration.

The game is scheduled for an August release in North America, with a playable demo slated to arrive on the Xbox Live Marketplace at the end of this month. Shackvideo users can use the HD Stream.

Don't forget to check out the other five gameplay videos at Shackvideo.

Adding to the heap of Xbox 360 RPG coverage today, Namco Bandai announced that its Xbox 360-exclusive RPG Tales of Vesperia would touch down in North America this coming August.

The company also noted that a free demo of the game will be available via the Xbox Live Marketplace before the end of June, granting curious gamers a look at the action RPG a short time prior to the general release.

Vesperia marks the latest installment of Namco Bandai's long-running Tales franchise, kicked off in 1995 with the Japan-only Tales of Phantasia on the Super Famicom. Tales of Vesperia is said to incorporate a variety of tweaks and updates to the series' traditional action-based combat system.

Fresh from its 2008 Editor's Day, publisher Namco Bandai has issued a smattering of screenshots and artwork from many of its upcoming titles, including Warhammer: Battle March (PC, X360), Tales of Vesperia (X360), Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS3) and more.

If available, more information can be found by clicking on a game's name. Be sure to scope out the full post for all the goods, as there is so much media we couldn't possibly put it all on our front page.

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Warhammer: Battle March (PC, X360) - September 2008 ... Read more

Following the title's official announcement yesterday, Namco Bandai has released new screenshots of its colorful upcoming action RPG Tales of Vesperia (X360).

The new title sports enhancements and tweaks to the series' traditional action-based RPG combat, as well as a revised visual style which takes advantage of the Xbox 360 hardware.

Tales of Vesperia is due out alongside Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for the Nintendo Wii later this year.

Namco Bandai will be bringing the two latest entries in its renowned Tales role-playing series to North America, the company has announced.

Both Tales of Vesperia (X360) and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Wii) will arrive later this year. Dawn of the New World acts as the sequel to the first Tales of Symphonia, which originally released on GameCube, while Vesperia sports a revised look for the action-RPG series.

The two titles sport enhancements and tweaks to the franchises' traditional action-based combat, with Dawn of the New World featuring the Pokemon-like ability to capture, train and evolve over 200 monsters for battle.

"The Tales series is one of our most successful and well-regarded franchises, and we're celebrating its 10th anniversary in a big way with two new games that redefine role-playing on the Xbox 360 and Wii," said Namco Bandai marketing director Todd Thorson.