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Rumor: Blockbuster To Start Renting DS Games
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Rumors,
Given that the little-two-screened-handheld that could has been topping the sales charts these days, I don’t see why Blockbuster hadn’t thought of this earlier… if current rumors prove true, then the video-rental mega-chain will start renting DS games in the near future. The rental price is rumored to be $4.99 for a week, which isn’t a terrible deal compared with services like Gamefly. Of course, if their DS selection ends up being anything like what I’ve seen for their other console selections, Blockbuster might not be your best bet for getting the latest, hottest games.
Blockbuster stopped renting GBA carts years ago, due to problems with renters removing the chips inside the cartridges and replacing them with less desirable games. However, this seems like something that should be easy enough to test these days (and charge to the credit card of the offender!).
Read More 
| Play-Nintendo.com
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Nintendo Developing 45 Wii Games, 79 DS Titles(!!?)
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Rumors, Wii,
According to a report on Bloomberg that’s getting a lot of attention, Nintendo is working on at least 45 titles for the Wii (we’re assuming first-party?), and 79 titles for the DS. That’s a number that sounds pretty darn exciting.
Still, other than that, the report is VERY short on details. For instance, are these titles that are slated for release, or are they along the lines of tech demos and test concepts? Are they first-party titles, or does the count include properties being developed by second-party firms, under the auspices of Nintendo? When will these games be released… is this the one-year outlook for Nintendo first-party titles, or are they looking further ahead? And most importantly of all, why the heck hasn’t Nintendo announced some titles and/or concepts for these games in order to drum up a little excitement?
You’ll excuse us if we don’t get too excited just yet… after all, I was pretty excited after hearing about Sadness, and look what that’s gotten me.
Read More | Bloomberg.com
Microsoft’s Xbox Quarter: Losses Shrink, So Does Revenue
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Xbox 360,
Yesterday, Microsoft reported their quarterly results for the period ending March 31, 2007. Overall, the results were good for the company, moving to record profits based largely on getting Vista and the latest version of Office out the door. Still, for gamers, one thing has stood out – while losses in the Entertainment and Devices Division shrunk, so did revenues.
Dean Takahashi at Mercury News describes this reduction in sales as a “disturbing trend.” Since Microsoft doesn’t break out revenues by subgroup in the Entertainment division, it’s really hard to understand where this leaves the Xbox 360. Comparing March totals, Xbox 360 sales were down around 30% year-over-year, but this reflects a time period where Microsoft was still pretty much in the initial honeymoon phase of the console launch. Microsoft notoriously had supply problems during the first few months, but by March had seemed to catch up with demand, so the company was probably still dealing with early adopters.
More interesting is Takahashi’s dissection of the company’s ongoing losses with the Xbox 360. Even with cost reductions in hardware and having a really strong tie rate, the company is still losing money per console. With the estimated figures in the article, this projects to $53 lost per console. We can’t really know what the financials behind the Xbox 360 are, but project this to Sony, where their tie rate is much lower and the console hardware cost is much higher, or Nintendo, who claims to make a profit on each console sold, regardless of software sold later.
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| Microsoft’s Q3 Results
Read More | Mercury News
Nintendo Acquires Monolith Soft From Bandai
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Namco, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Wii,
It looks like Nintendo is moving to grow support for more traditional Japanese RPGs – while having the new Dragon Quest XI appear on the DS is a pretty big coup, and Square has been supporting Nintendo with Final Fantasy remakes and side stories, it would be nice to see more diversity on Nintendo’s platforms. It was announced today and reported by IGN that the company has moved to acquire an 80% stake in Monolith Soft, developers of the popular Xenosaga and Baiten Kaitos. Bandai Namco will still hold a 16% stake in the company. This move would effectively seem to make the company an exclusive developer for the Wii and DS, but no new game announcements were made at the time of the news release.
Read More | IGN
Kutaragi To Retire In June
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 3,
Shakeups just seem to keep coming at Sony Computer Entertainment, as today it was announced that Ken Kutaragi, current Chairman will be retiring from his position effective June 19, 2007. Sony’s press release indicates that Kutaragi will become Honorary Chairman of SCEI, but it is hard to see this move as anything but related to the inability of the PlayStation 3 to live up to Sony’s expectations. Kutaragi, known generally as the father of the PlayStation, has left an indelible mark on the industry, allowing Sony to become a major force – while Sony’s been hit by a lot of bad press about the PlayStation 3, one can still admire the hardware powering the console. Kaz Hirai has been named as Kutaragi’s successor. Overall, this seems to be part of a larger reorganization at Sony, and time will tell if these moves help the company turn around sales of their new console.
Read More | Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.
Sony Announces PlayStation Eye For PS3
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Sony today announced their next generation camera peripheral for the PlayStation 3. The new camera has lost the EyeToy moniker and will be known simply as the PlayStation Eye. While the new camera isn’t supporting HD resolutions like previously speculated, the Eye does have an upgraded resolution, supporting 320x240 at up to 120 frames per second and 640x480 at up to 60 frames per second. Optical quality should be vastly better, allowing clearer operation in low light as well as supporting dual zoom settings. Audio also has not been left behind in the update – a new noise-reduction array of four microphones sits atop the Eye, allowing for positional 4-channel audio and voice tracking in the new device. Altogether these improvements should vastly enhance the EyeToy experience. New games like the Eye of Judgement collectible card game will utilize the PlayStation Eye to insert real-time 3-D graphics over the images of the cards the player has. Sony’s semi-official ThreeSpeech blog has a Q&A with more information from Sony, and Famitsu has some screen shots showing the interaction between the PlayStation Eye and the real-world cards from Eye of Judgement, and Sony’s full press release continues below.
Read More | Eye of Judgement at Famitsu
Click to continue reading Sony Announces PlayStation Eye For PS3
Read More | Three Speech
Nintendo Has Record Year on DS, Wii Sales
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Nintendo just announced their financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, and the numbers are huge. Revenues are up 90% to 996.5 billion yen, over $8 billion US. Profits are also up, nearly 150% to 226 billion yen, nearly $2 billion in profit.
Nintendo moved over 23 million DS handhelds, just an insane number, along with 5.84 million Wii consoles. The Wii number seems to be short of Nintendo’s projections of 6 million units—this would seem to point to a genuine supply constraint on Nintendo’s part. Some analysts had suspected that Nintendo was holding back shipments of the Wii because Nintendo had “made their numbers” but Nintendo’s results would seem to indicate that this was not the case.
Nintendo’s projections have them selling 14 million Wii consoles in the upcoming fiscal year, and 22 million DS handhelds. 22 million would seem to be a conservative estimate, given their strong sales from the previous year. 14 million Wii consoles moved, though, would seem to indicate a fairly decent ramp up in Wii production in order to meet their targets. Overall, though, the console that both Sony and Microsoft dismissed seems to be poised to challenge for the lead in worldwide sales.
Nintendo’s full press release continues below
Click to continue reading Nintendo Has Record Year on DS, Wii Sales
Hot Shots Golf Goes Online
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, PlayStation 3, Sports,
Famitsu today revealed new details for the upcoming release of the latest Minna No Golf game for the PlayStation 3. Known as Hot Shots Golf in the US, the series looks like it is going online in a big way. The online mode will be free and will include game lobbies that can hold up to 50 people, with up to 8 able to play per hole. Apparently, each player’s avatar will also be visible on each hole and players will be able to taunt and distract other players to try and disrupt their shots. The game is scheduled to ship in Japan this summer, but a US release date has not been announced. Famitsu also has more screenshots available on their site, and the courses are looking good.
Read More | Famitsu
Rumor: 80GB PS3 Boxed Already?
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Rumors,
The rumors of an 80GB PlayStation 3 continue on, this time with a reported shot of the new console “in the wild” appearing at Kotaku. The shot apparently shows a Canadian box of the new model, featuring an 80GB hard drive and a new model number, 98004. The existence of a potential new 80GB model first surfaced in FCC filing documents from Sony in March. Sony was quick to deny the rumors, stating that the filings meant nothing in terms of announced product. However, comments from Sony to financial reporters later would indicate that they were in fact investigating a console with a larger hard drive. While this shot, which could definitely have been altered, is not a strong confirmation of the new hardware, the FCC filings, comments from executives, the removal of the 20GB model all would seem to point to Sony readying a new “high end” model and a shift downwards of the 60GB version.
Read More | Kotaku
Being A Halo 3 Extra
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Bungie, Culture, First Person Shooters,
Chris Anderson, Editor-in-chief at Wired Magazine, and GeekDad recently got a chance to record some of the voices for some of the “extras” in Halo 3. The GeekDad blog has full details, including a short video with Marty O’Donnell, audio director for Halo 3, but one can also get a glimpse at a couple of redacted script segments for the game. Of course, nothing major is revealed in the scripts, but there Commander Keyes and the Flood both get a quick mention. While the multiplayer aspects of Halo 3 have been getting a lot of attention, the storyline for the third game has been held very close to the vest by Bungie. With the cliffhanger ending of Halo 2, Bungie would seem to have a bunch of storylines to resolve if the upcoming game is to complete the trilogy.
Read More | GeekDad
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