Armored Core 5 Announced

Armored Core Silent Line Portable. Connectivity with the PSP title could imply either a PSP or PS3 release for 5.

Famitsu hyped up the announcement of a mysterious new mech game for this week's issue. It looks like the identity of that game has been revealed in advance.

From Software held its latest Armored Core tournament in Ikebukuro on the 11th. The focus of the tournament was on Armored Core Silent Line Portable, with eight players who'd won regional tournaments facing off. In the end, Seiyou, who'd won the Tokai regional tournament, beat Little Bear to take the title. Little Bear had actually taken the runner up position in the Tokai tournament.

The event also had a couple of new developments for the series. Armored Core Last Raven Portable, the final entry in the "portable" series of Armored Core PSP ports, saw its playable debut. But the big surprise came at the end of the event as series producer Toshifumi Nabeshima took the stage to announce that Armored Core 5 is in development for release in 2010. While not sharing specifics on the game, he said to expect "a different form of mech action from the series so far."

Those who buy Last Raven Portable will get a campaign code of some form for Armored Core 5, Nabeshima also announced at the event. This seems to imply a release on either PSP or PS3, but Nabeshima did not announce the game's platform.

This is likely the mech game that Famitsu was hyping up last week, so we'll probably get details in this week's issue.

See Famitsu.com for pictures from the tournament.