14 DAY TRIAL // What we know:
Binary Domain is a third-person squad-based shooter that is being published by SEGA and developed by the newly formed Yakuza Studio, which is actually headed by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the man behind the successful, long-running Japanese open world action game.
The game takes place in the Tokyo of 2080 with the main hero, a cop, set to do battle with waves of robots who seem set to replace humanity.
Binary Domain seems to adhere pretty close to the third-person squad-based shooter formula, except for the fact that it throws quite a bit of role playing into the mix, allowing gamers to chat with teammates during the actual battles, with the choice of dialog influencing the fighting abilities of the whole team and delivering consequences for the future of the story.
Gamers waiting for something new in the world of third-person shooters can look for Binary Domain in stores on February 16, 2012, on the Japanese market, February 23, 2012, in Australia, February 24 in Europe and February 28 in North America.
The game will be offered on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 and there are no current plans for a PC port.
Why it matters: The developers at the Yakuza Studio have been quite explicit about the fact that Binary Domain is a game explicitly designed to appeal to the Western market, probably as part of a wider plan from SEGA to expand its business in the same way that Square Enix has done during 2011.
Yakuza has been known for its careful recreation of Tokyo, but it will be interesting to see whether a Western audience will be eager to explore it while taking out waves of robots with squad mates.
The full Incoming 2012 series of articles can be read on Softpedia right here.