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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
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Nintendo of Europe issued a warning today, reminding Wii gamers against the dangers of using mod chips in their consoles. Nintendo’s terse warning reminds users that opening the console will void their warranty, potentially damage the console, and are considered illegal in many parts of the world. We’ve seen Nintendo go after resellers of “backup” devices before as well as developers of the flash memory cartridges for their handhelds. This warning, though, goes to end users – possibly the proliferation of chips for the Wii is driving this, or there may be gamers that are trying to get Wii consoles fixed after a US Super Paper Mario bricked their PAL console. At any rate, these warnings will fall on deaf ears in the modding community and will only make more users aware of the technology.
Read More 
| Nintendo Europe
It’s Official: Neo Geo Games Heading to Wii
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Nintendo, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii,
IGN.com announced today, via an interview with SNK Playmore USA President Ben Herman, that indeed, SNK is planning on bringing many of the classic titles for the ill-fated but well-powered Neo Geo console to the Wii’s VC service.
While the interview is scant on details (Herman dodges most of the real questions, like price, release dates, and number of titles), there are some interesting tidbits. For one, Herman says that he expects the VC titles to retail at “just a little above the Super NES price point”. Given that SNES titles are $8.00, and N-64 titles are $10.00, I think it’s a safe bet that thetitles will thus rest somewhere in the $9.00 range. He also notes that SNK has “120 different titles” to choose from. Finally, he discusses the possibility of bringing SNK compilations over to the Wii in disc form and notes that future compilations WILL be utilizing the classic controller (one of the only reasons I didn’t pick up Metal Slug Anthology was its awkward control schemes).
I think I may squeak with delight when I see King of Fighters in a VC update… for now we’ll just have to hold our breath and hope that SNK brings the best of the best to the Wii, hopefully in a timely fashion!
Read More | Wii.Ign.com
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Koei has offered up some new details and images from their new “lifestyle RPG” and exclusive Wii title in Japan. Scheduled for release in that territory this summer, the RPG is quite a departure from the Dynasty Warrior franchise. The RPG’s look is definitely on the cute side; beyond its looks, though, appears to be an interesting gameplay system – the game is completely controlled through just the Wii nunchuck controller. The new screenshots hint somewhat at the background story and environments the player can expect, and show a few in-game combat screens. No mention has been made of a localized release, but this seems like the kind of unique title that might do decently on the Wii in the US.
Read More | GameWatch
Guitar Hero III Wii Bound, Will Feature Online Multiplayer
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Music, Wii, Wireless,
Careful, RedOctane, careful!! Guitar Hero II hasn’t been out for very long, and already you’re talking of Guitar Hero III? You do realize it’s going to get harder to make people buy a new copy of (essentially) the same game with every iteration, don’t you? Now that GH2 is out for the 360 featuring downloadable content lovin’, it’s hard to see why 360 owners would upgrade to a new game.
Still, this announcement is going to be very exciting for Wii owners… that’s right GH3 will be the first game in the series to be available for the Nintendo Wii, and it’ll feature online multiplayer and downloadable music (hopefully to the SD card?) to boot! Wii owners will also be getting a guitar peripheral, though it’ll be interesting to see how it incorporates the Wiimote… will the little remote be used for some sort of motion sensing? For now, your guess is as good as ours, though IGN promises to update this story later today.
Update: Looks like the interview’s already posted! Check out the link here
Read More | Wii.ign.com
Punch Out!!, Virtua Fighter 2, Bonk’s Revenge Hit Virtual Console
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Internet, Nintendo, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii,
Are you ready to rumble??!? Seriously, are you ready to punch, kick and headbutt your way to victory? Well, for the strong amongst you, Nintendo brings you this week’s Wii Virtual Console titles, which includes Punch Out!! (NES), Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis), and Bonk’s Revenge (TG-16), for the punchers, kickers, and headbutters, respectively.
Both Punch Out!! and Bonk’s Revenge bring back fond childhood memories (yes, I was one of THOSE kids that owned a TG-16), so I’ll probably pick them up, but it’ll be interesting to see how these titles have aged. What about the rest of you out in the ether? Anything catch your eye this week? Or are there titles you’ve been waiting for forever that STILL haven’t made it to the ol’ VC?
Read More | Wii.Nintendo.com
Weekend Deals Roundup - Hooray for Last-Gen!
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hot Deals, PlayStation 2, PSP, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Everybody may be talking about this “next-gen” newfangledness, but there’s still some great games to be found for consoles that are older than a year. If you’re looking for some new games to tide you over until Lair or Metroid Prime 3 or GTA IV hits (whatever floats your boat!), then these may help out.
KB Toys is offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal for a variety of PSP titles. Walmart is offering a variety of bundle deals (2 for $20, 3 for $25, or 2 for $30) on select games for the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. And for those of you looking for some next-gen games, we’ve also recently seen THAW for Xbox 360 at $19.99, and even Super Paper Mario for Wii, $44.99 at Amazon.
Enjoy the deals! Just try to leave a bit of money in your bank account to pay taxes with…
Wii Internet Channel Finally Ready
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, Nintendo, Wii,
Those Wii owners with WiiConnect24 enabled probably woke to find their Wii slots glowing blue, their consoles fresh with a notification from Nintendo that the final version of the Wii Internet Channel was now ready. For those without the WiiConnect24 service enabled, the full browser is just a system update and a visit to the Wii Shop channel away. Those that have been playing with the Beta version will notice a few new things about the final version. A better manual zoom option has been added, for somewhat better navigation and readability. Users can now toggle or disable the toolbar that has haunted the bottom of the screen, so videos can take up more of the screen and the Flash-based gaming experience should be improved. Along those lines, general performance of the browser seems to be improved; some of the YouTube videos that used to give the browser problems seem to stream and zoom a lot more smoothly now. The browser still isn’t perfect – a lot of the rich media experiences on the web still aren’t supported, but for free this is an excellent option. The browser won’t be free forever, though – after June 30th the price jumps to 500 Wii Points. At $5.00, this is still a decent bargain for an alternative browsing option to a PC.
Nintendo’s full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading Wii Internet Channel Finally Ready
Circuit City: “Get Paper Mario Today or Get $20”
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hot Deals, Internet, Nintendo, Release Dates, Wii,
I’ll be very interested to see if Circuit City actually plans on honoring this bargain (and will probably make the trip to my local Circuit City myself!). In their weekly circular, they note the release date (today) of Super Paper Mario with the accompanying text:
guaranteed (3) in store 2pm or get a $20 gift card**
Where, with a little additional sleuthing we see that (3) means “Offer valid this week only for select video game New Releases on the advertised release day from 2pm until close of business. In-store only” and ** means “Gift card good for future purchases only. Terms and conditions are applied to gift cards”
Doesn’t sound like a bait and switch to us! So if we’ve got this right, as soon as Circuit City sells out of Super Paper Mario today, anyone who expresses interest in the title can get $20 toward a future purchase? Not bad… not bad at all. Hopefully this title will sell as well as its expected to and we’ll all be $20 richer at the end of the day. If not, I at least plan on picking up a copy… I imagine it’ll be a win-win situation for a lot of other Wii owners out there.
Read More | Circuit City Weekly Ad via Joystiq.com
Galaga, Alex Kidd, Bravoman Hit Virtual Console
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii,
This week’s Virtual Console releases aren’t stellar, but are still a decent collection of retro games that may entertain, at least for a while. Gamers can pick up Galaga for the NES, a decent but not spectacular port of the arcade game for 500 points. The original arcade version is available on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace, so that might be the better option for those with both consoles. Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle for the Genesis is also available for 800 points; the sequel to the original Alex Kidd for the Sega Master System is an average platformer with some gameplay quirks that set it slightly apart from others in the genre. Finally, Bravoman is a side-scrolling beat-em-up style game, more known for its unusual humor that for any gameplay excellence. At 600 points, though, it might be worth a look. Overall, a middling week for the Virtual Console and hopefully A-list titles will return soon.
Nintendo’s full press release continues after the jump.
Click to continue reading Galaga, Alex Kidd, Bravoman Hit Virtual Console
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