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Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, WiiWare all get release dates
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Driving, Hardware, Nintendo, Release Dates, Wii,
Finally, after a long period of silence, Nintendo has finally made release dates public for a few of their more anticipated products: Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, and the WiiWare channel. First up is Mario Kart Wii, which will launch in Japan on April 10th, and Europe the following day on April 11th. No word yet on the US launch date.
The WiiWare channel, which will be a portal to downloading original games to the Wii, will be available on North American Wii units on May 12th. No word on Japan or European launches for WiiWare just yet.
Lastly, Wii Fit, which has been flying off of shelves over in Japan since it’s release back in December, will launch in North America on May 19th. If you are in Europe, Wii Fit will be available in your neck of the woods on April 25th.
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Wii shortages continue, Nintendo partners with GameStop on rain check program
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Wii,
I just got off a press call with Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime where the focus was on the availability of the Wii console. Reggie made it clear that Nintendo never expected the success that Wii has been enjoying since launch, and therefore has remained hard to find despite ramped up production. Nintendo is hoping to help out just a bit with a couple of short-term initiatives.
Sensationalism aside it appears the Xbox 360 is a meltable platform. Thankfully, the above melted carnage was the result of a not-so-bright user keeping their 360 on their stove(!) rather than a result of console cooling gone wrong - but it’s still an image that will send chills down the spine of any gamer worth their salt. Seriously though folks - don’t store your expensive consumer electronics on a stove - unless you are busy Breaking Stuff!
Read More 
| Engadget
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PS3 Finally Gets Rumble…in Spring ‘08
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Accessories, Hardware, PlayStation 3, Sony,
At Sony’s pre-TGS press conference, Kaz Hirai announced that rumble is coming back to the PS3 in a big way, in the form of the new DualShock 3 controller. Gamers have been clamoring for force feedback ever since Sony first unveiled the PS3’s Sixaxis controller sans rumble. We just couldn’t properly enjoy shooting aliens without the little vibration [i]telling[/i] us that we were shooting aliens. At any rate, Sony heard the call and is making amends.
“We have not made any changes to its outward appearance and design, but it does have vibration,” Hirai said. And fear not, motion control fans…the waggle feature isn’t going anywhere. The wizards at Sony have found a way to include both features.
Which brings us to the catch: the DualShock 3 will be available this year, but only in Japan. Everyone else will have to wait until next Spring.
Read More | Eurogamer
Harmonix Co-Founder Answers Questions About Rock Band
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Accessories, Downloadable Content, Features, Hardware, Microsoft, Music, PlayStation 3, Wireless, Xbox 360,
The Official Xbox Magazine’s podcast has an interview this week with Harmonix co-founder and president Alex Rigopulos about their upcoming game Rock Band. In the interview he talks about the game bundles, although light on concrete details he does confirm a band-in-a-box bundle that will include a guitar, drum kit and microphone. However, he goes on to say that the PlayStation 3 version will include a wireless guitar controller while the Xbox 360 version will have to include a wired guitar because Microsoft‘s wireless technology is too expensive to make the bundle reasonably priced. Since the 360 also has only two USB ports, the 360 Rock Band bundle will also be packed with a USB hub.
Rigopulos goes on to discuss the game’s career modes a little, saying there will be both solo career mode that progresses in a linear fashion similar to what Guitar Hero players are used to, but they are also including a less linear band career mode. In this mode you traverse to various venues trying to build up your fan base and in some cases return to previously played locations to maintain your fame there. Also it’s worth noting that the solo career mode will not include a bass career track so your options are vocals, guitar and drums in solo career mode. But Rigopulos did reveal that the finale songs for each career path (and therefore likely the difficulty distinctions throughout) will be different for each instrument, and he even said that at this point the drum finale will be The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
Click to continue reading Harmonix Co-Founder Answers Questions About Rock Band
Read More | KOXM Podcast
Bloomberg: Wii Still Dominant in Japan
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360,
In what has become a regular occurrence, Nintendo’s Wii handily outsold its closest console competition three-to-one in Japan for the month of August. However, it is interesting to note that the gap between the Wii and PS3 has lessened. In June, Nintendo’s console outsold the PS3 six-to-one and four-to-one in June and July, respectively.
Bloomberg reported the final August numbers as follows: Wii at 245,653, PS3 at 81,541, and the Xbox 360 lagging behind at around 11,000. The Wii’s August numbers bring the console to a whopping 3.4 million units sold in that country since its launch last year.
Read More | Next Generation
Lair Playable on PSP Via Remote Play
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Action, Adventure, Hardware, PlayStation 3, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Sony,
A PlayStation 3 and PSP owner has discovered that Liar is playable via the PS3’s Remote Play feature on the PSP. This is the first time a Blu-Ray based game is able to take advantage of the feature and is reportedly quite responsive and playable. It has even been suggested that in light of all the flak Lair has taken over its Sixaxis controls, the use of the PSP’s analog stick is actually preferable.
What’s most curious about the revelation is that it is a revelation at all. This sounds like something Sony would have jumped all over, especially once the disappointing reviews started pouring in.
Read More | PSP Fanboy
Nokia Takes Another Stab at the N-Gage
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Hardware, Portable/Mobile,
Apparently Nokia is nothing if not persistent. This week Nokia plans to introduce a third cell phone to bear the name N-Gage and try yet again to gain some traction with its cell phone/game device hybrid. This time they spent some time with the design firm Ideo to research what consumers wanted in such a device and think they have it right this time. “The graphics problem has been removed. And phones today are always connected and you always carry them with you. Phones are now the perfect device for gaming,” says product manager Tomi Huttula.
Most curious perhaps is the decision to stick with the name N-Gage, which at this point carries some pretty negative baggage. The idea of a cell phone that plays half decent games isn’t particularly bad on the face of it but the Finland-based company learned the hard way in 2003 that gamers, who are likely to be the early adopters and initial market for such a device, won’t jump on board just because an idea has potential but lacks proper execution. There’s no reason to stick with the brand name when it has already failed twice.
Still, Nokia seems undaunted by past disappointments and is focusing this time around on the multiplayer features and streamlining the experience to be more attractive to casual gamers. Also Nokia isn’t focusing on a single model this time around but will offer N-Gage games on a few of its Series 60 smartphones, presumably as a trial run, before gradually expanding to all Series 60 models. The prices have yet to be announced, but more details should be available later in the week.
Read More | New York Times via Game | Life
Apparently That Xbox 360 Red Light of Doom Problem Hasn’t Been Fixed
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Features, Hardware, Microsoft, Xbox 360,
The image you see above isn’t some generic image we grabbed off the net - it’s my personal Xbox 360. I know what you might be thinking - another one? Yeah, another one - but there is a bit more to this story. This Xbox 360 you see above has been used for all of 20 minutes. You see, about three weeks ago my old box 360 crashed and was giving me the three Red Lights of Doom. I sent it in for repair, and today I finally got a replacement. This actually is a replacement - they didn’t fix the one I sent in, they just sent me a new one. This one happened to have been manufactured on 8/15/2007. Anyway, I got it in the mail, hooked everything up, went through the Dashboard configuration, and started playing a demo. Fatal Intertia. We got tired of that after about ten minutes, and decided to boot up the demo of Stranglehold. We got through the opening sequence when everything froze. Fair enough. I had to manually turn the Xbox 360 off because it wouldn’t even respond to the guide button. I turned it back on, and was presented with yes another Three Red Ring Circus.
Now, if that isn’t enough, this flies right in the face of something that Peter Moore told Engadget and Joystiq back at E3 - in mid-July:
I think that there is a lot of confusion with the consumer in exactly how this issue has been remedied. Not just with the extension of the warranty but with the hardware. Exactly what has had to go on to fix the problems that people have been having?
I’m not sure that the consumer needs to understand the complex technical fixes that we need to do for the multiple different problems that come together to create the three flashing red lights. I think the ability for us, all the consumer cares about is my console going to be ok? And if it isn’tm are they going to fix it and take care of it immediately? And if I [already] paid them to fix it, will I get my money back? And the answer is yes to those questions.
But are you guaranteeing or insuring that the systems that are rolling off the assembly lines now and the systems that will be returned to consumers will be fixed properly this time. It won’t be a situation where there are multiple replacements.
Yeah. I mean, nothing is perfect, guys. And the other two hardware companies have their problems as well. I can’t guarantee everyone in the world that we go fix one thing and then something else [won’t] happen. No I’d be stupid to make that guarantee. But I feel very, very good about the quality of hardware now. You guys know this, every day in the factories where we are building these and where we are learning more about it. Sony’s very good at it, Nintendo is very good at it, and we’re very good at it. You’re constantly tweaking, moving parts around, you’re renegotiating with suppliers because your goal is to continuously raise the quality of the box, and bring the price down. Because you have to get your costs down to be able to move your pricing to the level you want. If your costs never came down, then price would never change.
So yes, you can’t guarantee that something won’t go wrong - we get that. But at the very least, Microsoft, you should be able to guarantee that if something like this does happen, that you have some sort of expedited method for dealing with it so that your consumers who spend hundreds of dollars on your hardware aren’t sitting without it for 8-12 weeks because of your hardware problems. Also, I think it is a fair expectation that if you said everything would change in mid-July, that a console manufactured a month later would be clear of these issues.
UPDATE: As always, there are trolls who are claiming that this story must be made up, because a console manufactured over two weeks ago could in no way make the 8 hour plane trip from where it was made all the way over to here in Seattle in that timeframe. I must be some sort of Sony or Nintendo fanboy, just making up the story - they want images to prove I’m not lying. I grabbed a couple of shots of the back of the console, which you can check out after the break.
Click to continue reading Apparently That Xbox 360 Red Light of Doom Problem Hasn’t Been Fixed
65 Nanometer Microprocessors Coming to an Xbox 360 Near You
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Hardware, Microsoft, Xbox 360,
Dean Takahashi has a write-up regarding the upcoming 65nm microprocessors reportedly shipping on new Xbox 360 units. The more efficient processors are included on the new Falcon boards that are included standard in all units going forward. Of course, Microsoft still needs to sell its existing stock of 90nm chip systems and as a result is being, shall we say, coy about the new processors and their availability.
Also of note is that these new Falcon boards curiously do not include replacement 65nm ATI graphics processors, which some have speculated are at least partially responsible for the frequently discussed Red Rings of Death issue that Microsoft recently took steps to correct. Takahashi remarks that he expected the 65nm chips—both processor and graphics—to have appeared long before now but speculates that the problems with the 90nm boxes may have pulled Microsoft’s engineers away from the efficiency shift to concentrate on damage control.
The crux of the report is that buying a new Xbox 360 right now is probably not the wisest consumer decision, at least until someone determines how to effectively differentiate between the chip sizes from the outer boxes. Once the last of the 90nm systems have been liquidated from stock all 360s sold will include HDMI and the more efficient chips, which many believe (or perhaps hope) will be more reliable than 360s have historically been. The moral of the story then is for those considering an Xbox purchase to wait for a few months for the holiday buyers to clear out the older stock, something Microsoft hopes you won’t do which is why they remain so elusive with details on the new chips.
Read More | San Jose Mercury
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