Technologizer

Playstation 3 Gets Netflix. What About the Wii?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Starting next month, the Playstation 3 will be able to stream Netflix Instant Watch movies, and just like that, the Xbox 360 and Netflix are no longer an exclusive couple. But does this open relationship signal a similar offering for Nintendo’s Wii? Doubtful, for now at least. The details thus far: PS3 owners will be able [...]

10 Awesome Free Wii Browser Games

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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Nintendo recently made the Wii’s Opera Web browser free to all, perhaps realizing that only a fool would pay $5 for it. But even with the Internet at the command of your Wii Remote, it’s not clear what to do, especially with no support for Hulu and premium content withheld from YouTube. Why not play some [...]

Wii Price Drops, Sony and Microsoft Beat Chests

Thursday, September 24, 2009

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Nintendo finally responded to the pressure from Sony and Microsoft, cutting the Wii’s price to $200, effective this Sunday. There were plenty of warning signs – store circulars, retailer’s internal e-mails, and plain old common sense — but now it’s official. I’ve said my piece about the Wii’s holiday prospects, but I had to chuckle today at [...]

The Video Game Bundle Wars of 2009

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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Evidence that the Wii will become a $200 console is piling up, with the latest rumor coming from Best Buy management. Engadget scored a screen grab of a company letter, warning that the price drop will happen on Sunday, following an official announcement this Friday. Alongside price cuts for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 [...]

Mario, and Why the Wii Will Still Reign

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

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It’s been rumored lately that Nintendo will cut the Wii’s price from $250 to $200 some time this month. That wouldn’t be a surprising maneuver, as Sony and Microsoft have recently tinkered with their own home console pricing. But at first, I laughed off the news. Nintendo doesn’t even have a killer app for the holidays, [...]

Nintendo’s Wii Vitality Sensor: Vaporware?

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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Okay, so it’s becoming clear that Nintendo doesn’t know exactly what to do with the Wii Vitality Sensor. The gadget, which supposedly measures pulse and other vitals from a player’s finger, was briefly introduced at E3 to a curious, if not bewildered press. Two months later, Nintendo brainchild Shigeru Miyamoto still won’t say how, exactly, [...]

The iPhone Outpowers the Wii? Who Cares.

Monday, August 3, 2009

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A game programmer is getting mouthy about the Wii, saying that an iPhone is more powerful for gaming. This argument transpired at the forums (via GameZine) for TellTale, which developed Tales of Monkey Island as a downloadable title from the WiiWare online store. A programmer with the handle “Yare” explained that the Wii is just not meaty [...]

Wii Getting Hollywood Movies (In Japan)

Thursday, June 25, 2009

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Nintendo is getting closer to a streaming Wii video service that would translate well to Western audiences. In Japan, where the Wii’s video channel launched in April, Hollywood films will be available through the same service that powers Blockbuster’s on demand offerings. Sonic Solutions, with its Roxio CinemaNow service, will partner with Fujisoft, which handles Nintendo’s [...]

Tiger Woods with Wii MotionPlus: Does it Work?

Monday, June 22, 2009

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Over the weekend, I finally had a chance to dig into Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 with the Wii MotionPlus, an accuracy-boosting dongle for the motion controller. The game itself is a blast — there’s something inherently addicting about creating a likeness of yourself and molding it into a pro golfer — but for our purposes [...]

Why Mandatory Wii MotionPlus is a Good Thing

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

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When Nintendo releases the accuracy-boosting Wii MotionPlus peripheral next month, it’s possible that game developers won’t force players to use it, and those that do may consider it a gamble. I get that impression from recent comments by Jason Vandenberghe, creative director for Red Steel 2. Speaking to Nintendo Power magazine (via Nintendo Dpad) , Vandenberghe [...]

Holding Out Hope for Motion Control

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

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We’re just over a month away from the release of Wii MotionPlus, an attachment to the Wii Remote that adds much-needed precision. Two EA Sports games, Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis, will be the first to show off the new technology, and hopefully they’ll be the antidote to Wii Sports’ heartless wrist flicking. But [...]

Japan’s Wii Video is No YouTube or Hulu

Thursday, April 23, 2009

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There appears to be a world domination plot afoot with Nintendo’s “Wii no Ma” video service, which will launch next week in Japan. Until now, details on the service were slim, other than an announced partnership between Nintendo and media giant Dentsu to produce original content. The full scoop, revealed on Nintendo’s Japanese Web site and [...]

At Last, the Wii Gets Real SD Storage

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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Funny thing about the Internet age: When a video game company announces a significant improvement in its console, there needn’t be any countdown to implementation. So it went at the Game Developers Conference today, where Nintendo announced common-sense SD card support for the Wii and said users could reap the benefits right now. Sure enough, when [...]

The Wii’s Identity Crisis

Friday, March 13, 2009

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For over two years, the Wii was regarded as a family system, and in many ways, it still is, with Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Mario Kart commanding most of the revolutionary console’s popularity. But a sudden turn of events hint of changes on the horizon. This week’s release of Madworld — a high-profile and thoroughly [...]

Sony’s Hirai Suffers Delusion, Thinks PS3 Leads Market

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

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I think somebody’s off their rocker. In comments to the company’s official rag PlayStation Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Kaz Hirai made the unusual claim that install base numbers are worthless: the PS3 is still the official leader in the industry. Pay no attention to the fact that the console is in third in overall console [...]

YouTube Comes to PlayStation 3, Wii

Friday, January 16, 2009

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Here’s a statistic that’s bandied about by game industry cheerleaders: roughly 40 percent of U.S. homes own a video game console. It’s also a figure that will likely be loathed by cable providers if more streaming video Web sites follow YouTube’s lead. Yesterday, Google’s video juggernaut launched a sleek interface for the PlayStation 3 and Wii. [...]