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NPD December Numbers: $3.7 Billion, PS2, DS Dominate
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
December’s NPD final numbers have been released, and the video game industry as a whole did remarkably well, selling over $3.7 billion during the final month of the year. According to a GameDaily report, this puts industry growth year-over-year at 27.8%. In hardware, the biggest seller overall was the Nintendo DS, moving over 1.6 million handhelds. This was followed by Sony’s “last-generation” console, the PS2, which sold an amazing 1.4 million consoles sold.
For the current generation of consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 lead the pack at 1.1 million sold through December, followed by Nintendo’s Wii with 604,200 sold and Sony at 490,700. Supply constraints clearly impacted both Nintendo and Sony for their next generation offerings; Nintendo’s worldwide launch stretched console supply impossibly thin, and production issues kept Sony from pushing as many consoles to market as they would have liked. Microsoft has to be happy with their totals, maintaining their lead in the face of new competition, and the continued success of the PS2 helps take the sting out of Sony’s meager PS3 launch.
On the software side, Microsoft’s Gears of War continued to sell well and moved more than 815 thousand units, and clearly helped drive sales of the Xbox 360. Guitar Hero II was a huge seller for the Playstation 2, and the combined sales of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii and Gamecube moved over one million sold; Zelda for the Wii continued to have a huge attach rate with Wii console buyers, selling 519,200 units against more than 600,000 consoles.
Overall, each of the three console manufacturers has something to brag about for the month of December, and while the relative sales are interesting now, this is just the beginning of the next console war; most analysts are predicting that the holiday season for 2007 will be when consumers will see how the competition really shakes up.
Read More 
| GameDaily
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Nintendo Again Raises Year End Profit Forecasts
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Nintendo last raised its profit forecasts for the fiscal year in October, when it adjusted its estimates upwards based on better than expected sales of the Nintendo DS. Recently, Satoru Iwata hinted that another adjustment might be in the future. Today, Nintendo of Japan again raised its profit forecasts by 20% to 120 billion yen, again based on stronger than expected sales of its DS console. The DS and software just continues to surge in popularity; a report on Bloomberg News indicates that the company now expects to sell roughly 23 million DS consoles for the fiscal year with related software sales of 100 million. While Nintendo did not raise its Wii sales projections, the general belief is that the only reason this was not adjusted upwards is that the company does not believe it can manufacture any more units. Overall, the success of the DS worldwide has been nothing short of amazing, allowing Nintendo to build up a war chest for the console wars.
Read More 
| Bloomberg
Read More | Nintendo News Release (PDF)
Nintendo announced three new titles for the Virtual Console today, including the delayed Dungeon Explorer for the TurboGrafx-16. In addition to the five player multiplayer Gauntlet style Dungeon Explorer, Nintendo also offers Star Soldier for the TurboGrafx and the classic shooter Gradius for the NES. Both TurboGrafx titles sell for 600 Wii points and Gradius will sell for 500 Wii points. The TurboGrafx console struggled in the US, despite some strong software titles; it is good to see these getting more exposure on the Virtual Console.
The full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading Three New Titles Hit Virtual Console
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Cool WiiMote Mod: The Totally Sweet Glowing A Button
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Wii,
Some readers over at MaxConsole have offered up pictures of a pretty sweet-looking mod for Nintendo’s famous Wiimote. Who hasn’t looked at the beautiful, clear A button before and thought “Dang, I bet that thing would look sweet lit up!”. Well, if you did, you were right… click the jump for more pictures of this mod. Hopefully the user will post instructions on the hack sometime soon, or at very least give us some pictures of the increased-lumens Wiimote without the controller glove.
Click to continue reading Cool WiiMote Mod: The Totally Sweet Glowing A Button
Read More | MaxConsole.net
Necro-Nesia Coming to US, With Scary Name
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Nintendo, Rumors, Survival Horror, Third Person Shooters, Wii,
This might go down in history as the worst move by Nintendo, ever. And yes, I’m even including the release of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo has decided to bring their ho-hum survival horror game Necro-Nesia stateside, under the oh-so-scary title Escape from Bug Island. Yes, you read that right Escape from Bug Island. Let it just sink in a bit. Escape from Bug Island.
That’s one scary title - if you’re trying to scare people away from buying the game. Frankly, I think Nintendo would see better sales of this game if they’d even decided to call it Don’t Buy This Game: EXTREME. This game had better start finding a way to get some good press before its May 15 release date. As of right now, the gameplay, the graphics, and the title just don’t seem to be cutting it.
Read More | GoNintendo
Treasure Talks Next Generation Gaming
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Retro, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
1up recently talked with Treasure, creators of the famed Radiant Silvergun and Gunstar Heroes, about their future development plans for next generation consoles. Treasure is working hard on their Xbox 360 shooter, which should feature 3D graphics with classic 2D-style gameplay. The company confirmed that the game is being developed by the same team that created Ikaruga, but is shying away from calling the game a Radiant Silvergun sequel, which puts into doubts recent rumors of a true sequel. Treasure also talked about their upcoming releases for the Virtual Console, and potentially some releases for the Xbox Live Arcade. The company also seemed excited about possibly developing for the Wii specifically; a future release seems more likely than not. Unfortunately for PS3 fans, however, Treasure doesn’t believe they will have the resources to work with the Playstation 3 for some time. Overall, the interview is an interesting look at a developer approaching the next generation consoles with current graphics but a somewhat retro design esthetic.
Read More | 1up
Tingle RPG Heads To Europe
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games,
Gaming site Cubed³ is reporting that the quirky Tingle RPG will be heading to Europe in 2007. The odd game received a decent amount of success in Japan, and the game’s unique gameplay may make it a title worth checking out. One assumes that the title will be localized to something a bit less of a mouthful than Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rose-Colored Rupee Land; on the other hand, that may be part of its charm. At least with a European release, gamers will be able to import the title if the game never makes its way to the United States.
Read More | Cubed3
Nintendo’s Wario Ware: Smooth Moves will ship in the United States on January 15th. The game has already been released in Japan and supports game play for up to 12 players. Siliconera now has a video showing off this play mode. Gamers will switch off using the remote to play mini-games; those that fail are eliminated until one player is left standing. The video shows off a bunch of the mini-games offered in the title, as well as a couple of the new games that take advantage of the combination of the nunchuk and the Wiimote. Siliconera also reviews some of the other game play modes in the game, and it sounds like the game will be an excellent addition to the Wii party game library next month.
Read More | Siliconera
Club Nintendo Japan Members Offered New Premiums
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Club Nintendo members in Japan with enough points qualify for one of two limited time offer premiums that put the freebies in other territories to shame. Club members that have accumulated over 400 points can choose either a battery cover for their Wii remote customized with an image of their Mii or a limited edition DS game Tingle’s Balloon Fight. Either offering is much better than anything Nintendo of America has offered its site members; loud complaining or petitioning Nintendo might help, but such premiums are highly unlikely for the United States.
Read More | Club Nintendo Japan
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Coming Soon in 2D
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Adventure, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Rumors,
Say what you will about Nintendo fans, they (we?) are certainly a persistent bunch. For your consideration we present the work of Daniel Barras, a.k.a. TheRealMethuselah, a fanboy who’s been working on a 2D translation of the N-64 masterpiece The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. After 3 years, and an obviously huge number of hours of lost productivity, Daniel will be releasing a beta of his work. The game, which probably infringes on just about every patent Nintendo holds, features the entire N-64 game translated into the 2.5-D style used by A Link to the Past for the SNES and Four Swords Adventure for the Gamecube/GBA.
We just can’t wait to get our paws on this one and see how close it is to completion. If the gameplay is anywhere near as good as the screenshots, we should be in for a treat.
Read More | SomethingAwful.com
