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Nintendo Flys High On Wii, DS Sales
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Nintendo today reported its nine-month financials for the fiscal year; sales for the nine month period are up 73%, with a profit increase of 43%, according to an Associated Press report. Gross sales grew from 412 billion yen to 713 billion yen ($5.9 billion) for this year; profit grew to 132 billion yen ($1.1 billion) from 92.2 billion the previous year. Nintendo sold 3.19 million Wii consoles worldwide, and said that they shipped 4 million, leaving roughly 800,000 units in distribution channels. The company’s decision to avoid costly air freight probably hindered their distribution efforts. Nintendo also estimated that the Wii strap recall would cost the company approximately 1 billion yen, about $8 million. Nintendo also announced that they had sold 18.9 million DS handhelds worldwide, and in a related press release Nintendo of America announced that they have shipped 10 million handhelds in “the Americas.”
Read More 
| BusinessWeek
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The Most Ruined Game Franchises Ever
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: CAPCOM, Eidos, Retro, SEGA,
Games Radar has a really interesting and insightful piece about the games that, in their words “had it, and lost it”. Just think Tomb Raider, and you’ve got the idea - these are the games that were fresh, original, and fun, until their producers started hastily making hundreds of sequels and ruining the franchise.
This is a great read, and somebody who obviously knows their games. I shed a little tear for each of the titles on this list.
Read More | GamesRadar.com
Sony Announces European PS3 Launch Date, Price
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced that the Playstation 3 will be available across Europe on March 23rd. Sony expects to have one million PS3 consoles available for the initial launch. Only 60 GB configurations will be shipped to Europe initially, for Euro 599 or GBP 425. At current exchange rates, this puts the UK price point at approximately 840 US dollars and the Euro price point translates to about $780. The pricing of the Playstation 3 has roughly a 50% price premium over the Xbox 360 Premium configurations in Europe, about the same in the US. The delay in Europe does give Sony the advantage of a fuller launch line-up; assuming that there are no further delays, this means that titles that missed the US launch will be available during the launch window in Europe, including games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Motorstorm It was also announced that the downloadable HD port of Tekken: Dark Resurrection will be available, a title that has not yet seen a release in the US. Hopefully the delay for Europe will mean that Sony’s launch goes much smoother than it did for other territories. Given the low bar the console set in the US and Japan, though, it seems that Sony has nowhere to go but up.
Sony’s full press release continues after the jump.
Click to continue reading Sony Announces European PS3 Launch Date, Price
Sony Update Fixes Backward Compatibility Glitch
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3,
When Sony released the 1.50 Firmware update in Japan, most of the reaction on the Internet was muted; after all, the upgrade seemed to add support for touchless payment methods and Korean input text via keyboard. However, mentioned almost as a side note, was an update for backward compatibility for PS1 and PS2 games. However, now that the firmware update has dropped for US customers, the compatibility patch now seems to be one of the larger parts of the update. One of the biggest complaints about the Playstation 3 backward compatibility functionality has been graphical glitches in PS1 and PS2 games, particularly when using the advanced connection options of the PS3. The 1.50 update largely fixes these issues, making backward compatibility that much easier to enjoy. There are still some game-specific issues lingering, but PS3 gamers can now play a large majority of their PS2 games glitch-free. The patch gives hope that Sony is listening to the concerns of gamers and that future fixes may yet take care of the remaining issues with the console.
Read More | 1up
Wii News Channel, Mario Kart 64 Launch Soon
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Retro, SEGA, Wii,
Nintendo outlined their upcoming releases for the first quarter via press release today. While the first-party Wii-original list is spare, consisting only of Wii Play with a bundled remote launching February 14th, next week will see the release of Mario Kart 64 for the Virtual Console, bringing one of the best entries in that franchise to the Wii. In addition, Nintendo will finally be making the Wii News Channel available on January 27th; hopefully the News Channel will be more fully realized than the Weather Channel. Third-party releases will see SSX Blur coming, which has been getting some decent early buzz. Others include The Godfather: Blackhand Edition and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07; it will be interesting to see how EA handles the Wii remote in its upcoming titles.
The full press release continues after the jump.
Click to continue reading Wii News Channel, Mario Kart 64 Launch Soon
2.4 Million Join Burning Crusade
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Internet, MMORPG, PC,
Blizzard Entertainment has broken PC sales records by selling over 2.4 million copies during the first 24 hours of availability of their expansion World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. According to their press release, the company sold over 1.2 million copies in North America and 1.1 million copies in Europe, and over 1.7 million users logged in the first day. The press release did not state how many of those people wound up queued for their game servers, or how much productivity is dipping during the week of the game’s release. Blizzard assures gamers that have not yet purchased the expansion that more copies are shipping daily; while GameStop and EBGames made an insightful decision to just order enough copies to cover pre-orders, local Fry’s Electronics stores reportedly have stacks of the game available for purchase.
The full press release continues after the jump.
Click to continue reading 2.4 Million Join Burning Crusade
20 GB PS3s Get Discounted In Japan
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
It looks like 20GB PS3s have gotten temporary price reductions from some Japanese retailers; Kotaku has pointed out a post on the Akiba blogs showing some retail chains in the country reducing the price of the 20GB model by 10,000 Yen, around $80. We know PS3 sales have hit somewhat of a lull recently, so stores may be aggressively reducing price to reduce stock levels. Continued price reductions can not be sustained without support from Sony; if sales continue to languish, Sony might have to reduce the price of the 20GB system even further.
Read More | Kotaku
Zelda: A Link To The Past Hits Virtual Console
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Retro, Role Playing Games, Wii,
Wii owners in North America should now be able to download the classic Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past via Nintendo’s online store for the virtual console. The title sells for the standard 800 point level set for Super Nintendo games on the service. Link To The Past is one of the high points of the franchise and the gameplay holds up well after all these years; 800 points for this is a bargain.
Read More | Nintendo Gal
Xbox 360 Controller Tilt Mod
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
Enterprising gamer Adam Thole hacked together a tilt sensor for the Xbox 360 controller. The modification essentially replaces the functionality of one of the analog sticks on the Xbox 360; this allows existing games to use the tilt functionality. Thole has also published a video of the controller in use. The functionality doesn’t look bad, and might give an idea of how such control might be integrated into games.
Read More | Adam Thole
Guitar Hero PC Clone Works With Wiimote?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Internet, Mods/Hacks, Music, Party Games, PC, Rumors, Trailers, Wii,
As the only next-gen console that isn’t getting some Guitar Hero, it’s good to see the user community hacking away at the possibility of playing Hero-like games with the Wiimote. “Tiger” over at the RhythmGamer has posted some videos of himself playing Frets on Fire (a freeware Guitar Hero clone for the PC) using a combination of the GlovePIE Wiimote drivers and some scripts he wrote specifically for the program.
We’re not going to vouch for the authenticity of this necessarily, but these videos look pretty good. Put the Wiimote in a shell that would make it easier to reach the 1 and 2 buttons, and you may have a fully functional solution. Is anyone from Harmonix or RedOctane out there watching this?
Rest of the videos included after the jump…
Click to continue reading Guitar Hero PC Clone Works With Wiimote?
Read More | Rhythmgamer.com
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