Seems to be used mainly for prequels: Street Fighter Zero, Resident Evil (Biohazard) Zero, Samurai Shodown (Spirits) Zero etc.
Zero comes before one, and is therefore a prequel to the original game in a series. I don't think it's that special of meaning.
I'll third the prequel meaning. When used in a title by a Japanese speaker, "Zero" roughly translates to "Prequel." That said, titling a game "Resident Evil Prequel" sounds pretty daft in English, so doing a literal translation (rather than a meaningful one) to "Resident Evil Zero" sounds better for marketing reasons. -hl718
Yup. Mostly used for prequels (as stated by many), the alternative is the whole pun deal; Where Zero (ゼロ) can be Rei (零), but Rei may also be Rei (霊) or Rei (怜) (or some other junk, I bet. Those were however the only ones I had in mind at the moment.)
Rei can also means "nothing" (for those that don't understand Japanese even less than me, which isn't hard) so I would imagine the Japanese prefer "zero" to avoid any implications that the game is either worth or meaning "nothing"
I was going to put up the "last" version of my website and wanted a good name for it, so I was thinking JapanGamesZero.....thinking that it would mean the final version...looks like I was completely wrong....heh.
If I saw a site like that, I would assume that you were focused on selling retro titles and didn't deal with any current stuff. While it might not be a good name for the current site, it could be a good name for a specific portion of it if you wanted to create a mini-store. -hl718
Just happened to run across this auction soon after reading your post...shows the kanji that you're talking about.
