It’s monthly Tech Gian release time again today (February 21st), and that means a whole boatload of movement on the eroge front – and boy does this month bring some big news! Speaking purely for myself, there’s something here to represent just about all of what I personally enjoy in the eroge universe, from the official site launch of a new game from a favorite artist, to the update of a new platform for fully customizable 3D girls, to an official expansion of the greatest story ever told in eroge – abandoning the hyperbole (and my pants, as I seem to have soiled them in the heat of excitement), here’s a look at the latest news from the pixelated lovemaking world:

A month ago when we first reported on the new game from Happoubi Jin we weren’t sure who was behind the new brand “ωstar” (Omega Star) founded to produce it, but the establishment of an official site for the upcoming Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo confirms it to be a new sub-brand of Crossnet, the maker behind Happoubi’s most recent Resort Boin and earlier Boin releases. The official site contains story and character information, a CG gallery, and product specifications, which state the game will be released on May 23rd. I’m looking forward to this one very much. :3

For the past year or so (we first reported on it last February) Hokkaido-based eroge brand Tech Arts (parent company of my beloved G.J?) has been quietly developing a game with the potential to unseat Illusion in their throne of customizable 3D eroticism. The first benchmark that came out last year was quite primitive, but in the intervening time the company has not been idle and what they’re showcasing on the 3D Custom Shoujo site now is pretty amazing. It’s boasting over 3,300 configuration options in a variety of categories, but why not let YouTube do the talking:

The game is still in development with no release date set, but we’ll be looking for more detailed information to emerge in the coming weeks.

By far the most pants-endangering news of the month (for me) comes from the pages of Tech Gian, where it’s revealed that Propeller’s next magnum opus will reunite the creators of Bullet Butlers and Ayakashibito in a game called Chrono Belt, a crossover that brings the characters of the two worlds together in some sort of pan-galactic struggle. Yes, that’s right – MORE BULLET BUTLERS. Ye gods, I think I came again just now. We’ll bring more on this as the information becomes available – rest assured coverage will be very close on this particular item.

In related news, Propeller posted a statement on their official site yesterday announcing that due to the game’s scenario writer Arakawa Takumi quitting the company, they are officially abandoning the development of Haruharo, the game they had all but completed in 2006 but abandoned in favor of working on Bullet Butlers, after which they announced they were resuming work on Haruharo again – but it looks like this might be the final nail in the coffin (or bullet in the butler?) for what was looking to be a fun school-based comedy, and the news that they’re dropping it entirely seems like an enormous amount of wasted effort, but I can’t mourn it too much at this point given the news that MORE BULLET BUTLERS. Did I mention that already? Wow, that was a crazy run-on sentence.

2008/02/23 Update: according to a 2/22 amendment of the post on Propeller’s official site, development of Haruharo has not been abandoned completely – work on the game has been reallocated to another brand of parent company Will (Pulltop would be my guess).

WARNING: ALL PRETENSE OF TASTE ABANDONED BEYOND THIS POINT

Clockup updated yesterday with an official page for their newest dark-themed title, Rinjoku no Shiro Kairai no Ou (Galge.com is also to the rescue with a much less Flash-intensive interface that presents most of the same information, plus some CG). The game features a cast of the most insanely proportioned heroines we’ve seen in awhile courtesy of artist Imanaka Koutarou, including the queen mother Eleise who is about as ridiculous(ly awesome) as they come. No release date on this yet beyond “May 2008″, but a highly anticipated title that I’ll be watching closely.

That’s the sum of the new stuff that really has me excited from the past day or so of eroge news; we’ll be giving the scene a more thorough treatment soon, hopefully sometime before next week’s major releases (Alice Soft’s Choukou Sennin Haruka and Leaf’s To Heart 2 Another Days both come out on the 29th).

Expect regular eroge, eromanga and eroanime coverage to resume with the advent of the new HD site design, now nearing completion!