Tag Archives | Nintendo

Wii Getting Hollywood Movies (In Japan)

Posted by Jared Newman on June 25, 2009 at 1:26 pm

wiivideo1 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 “Minna no Theater Wii” (“Everyone’s Theater Wii”) channel.

It’s no stretch of the imagination to see this video service coming to the US and Europe. In addition to Blockbuster, CinemaNow is already available in the West through LG Blu-ray players, Dell PCs and Archos portable media players.

Paramount Pictures will be the first to offer content on Japanese Wiis, with new releases and catalog titles. Presumably, other studios will follow, and if I had to venture a guess, I’d say Nintendo will line up more content before considering a western migration.

In its current form, the Japanese video service is vastly different from those of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. It’s more like Second Life, with Mii avatars socializing in a virtual living room. There are also coupons to download onto Nintendo DS handhelds and celebrities who drop in to peddle their own content. Before the CinemaNow partnership, videos were created specifically for the Wii.

I’m not sure whether that format would work outside of Japan, but with the addition of Hollywood films, a Wii video channel seems readier for export than ever.

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Classic Console Gaming Goes Portable

Posted by Andrew Brandt on June 5, 2009 at 10:16 am

Wandering the backwaters at E3 can yield some surprising finds, like the Hyperkin booth. The company, which sells accessories for most current and older-generation console systems, was showing off its month-old FC Mobile II, a portable game system that accepts original, 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges. The $60 package includes a light gun and two wireless controllers, and can be connected to a television or played portably using the built-in 2-inch LCD screen.
But 16-bit gamers don’t have to lament–starting this summer they’ll be able to play their favorite Sega Genesis or Master System cartridges on a unit Hyperkin plans to sell. The Sega model will also connect to a television or be playable on a tiny LCD, includes two built-in classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, and can play any other Genesis cartridges you find in dust-covered boxes in your closet or scrounge up at a garage sale.

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Few Surprises From Nintendo at E3

Posted by Jared Newman on June 2, 2009 at 2:36 pm

Nintendo didn’t look like a trendsetter at its E3 press event today. Instead, we got an earful of cockiness.

The Wii and the Nintendo DS have the broad appeal that Sony and Microsoft can’t capture, and Nintendo knows it. Today, the theme was “everyone,” with the slogan “everyone’s game” repeated several times throughout the presentation.

But with all the innovation out of the way, appealing to everyone just isn’t that exciting. Most of the topics discussed were already known about, and even the breaking news wasn’t surprising.

There was a feeling before the show that Nintendo would unveil new Zelda and Mario games, but only the latter came to fruition. Mario will star in two Wii games this year and beyond: New Super Mario Bros., due this holiday, is a classic two-dimensional platformer with four players at a time (this is not revolutionary, despite Nintendo’s insistence) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a straightforward sequel to the 2007 hit.

Nintendo’s confidence continued with the announcement of Wii Fit Plus, a sequel to the Balance Board game that has dominated sales charts since its US release last spring. The expanded collection of exercise games is sure to keep those sales alive when it arrives this fall.

I hoped to see some clever use of the Wii MotionPlus — an accuracy-boosting Wii Remote extension due this month — but instead Nintendo merely demonstrated Wii Sports Resort, a collection of minigames that’s been known about since last year. Nintendo didn’t discuss any MotionPlus games from other publishers besides those we already know about, including Red Steel 2 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.

And then there’s the Nintendo DS. I won’t dwell on the facile attempts to draw in female audiences with games like Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion and Style Savvy, but the audience was chuckling.

It wasn’t all bad. The announcement of Metroid Other M — a return to third-person shooting for the classic franchise — tickled this long-time fan’s heart. And at the end of the show, I spent a few minutes fencing in Wii Sports resort, and I had fun as expected. But the lack of any bombshells at Nintendo’s press event was a letdown.

I imagine that all the talk of broad appeal is exciting to analysts and investors, but for a journalist that came to see some cool stuff, well, it was just dull.

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Nintendo Announces Wii Biofeedback Sensor

Posted by Andrew Brandt on June 2, 2009 at 12:12 pm

At the Nokia Theater in downtown LA this morning, Nintendo’s E3 press briefing for its new lineup included the expected cast of characters for its Wii and DS platforms. Among the announced products were more than one new Mario game, a new Metroid game, and a new feature for the DS which allows you to edit photos and upload them directly to Facebook. But the most interesting — and least discussed — new announcement was about a hardware accessory for the Wii which provides the platform with the ability to literally take the pulse of the player, while playing.

As shown in these incredibly blurry photos taken at the event, the device that Nintendo execs are calling the Wii Vitality Sensor, looks like a small plastic sleeve into which you slip an index finger. A cable connects the Vitality Sensor to the Wiimote controller.

The tease for the Vitality Sensor explained that it would give Wii developers the ability to design games that use this type of input—games which can read the player’s physical state in a way that no current-generation console can. In theory, said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, such an accessory could be used in, for example, a game designed to help the player relax and control his or her heart rate.

While this kind of biofeedback in games isn’t exactly new–especially so for Nintendo, which released a short-lived biofeedback sensor with a game for its Nintendo 64 platform years ago — the timing of the announcement is interesting, when you consider that the other two members of the console maker’s club are expected to announce point-at-the-screen game controllers like the Wii currently uses.

I don’t think Nintendo intends to recreate The Journey to Wild Divine for the Wii, but it isn’t hard to see how, combined with the Wii Fit controller, a heart rate monitor would make a pretty useful fitness gaming accessory. A number of developers have been working on games that use biofeedback to train players to relax. A version of something similar for the Wii — which has already brought huge numbers of casual gamers into the console market — would open up the market for so-called relaxation games to a much broader audience.

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The Obligatory E3 Wish List

Posted by Jared Newman on May 29, 2009 at 7:17 pm

The run up to the Electronic Entertainment Expo is always full of predictions, rumors and promises, but I’m tired of peering into the crystal ball. Instead of guesswork, here are my wants and needs for the games industry’s biggest trade show:

From Microsoft: Word on the street is that the Xbox 360 will get a motion-sensing camera to compete with Nintendo’s Wii. No thanks. I’m pretty happy with the Xbox 360’s thumbstick gaming, and I’d rather see Microsoft wait on motion control until the next console cycle, when the company can gather a full stable of game developers behind it. Instead, lets see Hulu support over Xbox Live. A robust gaming handheld, as rumored, would be cool, too.

From Nintendo: This is a tough one. Conventional wisdom holds that The Big N will focus on games instead of hardware this year, maybe with a Zelda or Mario-related announcement to please the fanboys. I’d like to see something that uses the Wii MotionPlus in a mind-blowing way. If such a game involves any Nintendo icons, so be it.

From Sony: Cut the price of the Playstation 3 already, jeez. Seriously though, the most likely rumor — that of a UMD-less PSP — is the one that I like. I desperately want to see what happens when a game console ditches physical media, and Sony has the chance to be ahead of the curve.

From Game Publishers: It’d be nice to hear that the old way of piling up game releases around the holidays is being phased out. Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera has a story today on why this may not happen — basically, there’s still a market for all those games, so no reason to hold back — but as a gamer it’s frustrating. This spring was fruitful for good games, but I think we’re headed for a dull summer before the usual fall/winter pounding.

I’ll be covering the show here in Los Angeles, starting with Microsoft’s Monday morning press conference. In the meantime, feel free to offer up your own hopes and dreams for the future of gaming.

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Book of Nintendo: Thou Shalt Not Emulate

Posted by Jared Newman on May 8, 2009 at 5:32 pm

If we can all agree that an Intellivision compilation for the Nintendo DSi would have been pretty neat, than we can all mourn together, because it’s not happening.

The reasoning is most peculiar. Nintendo says games from two of its virtual storefronts, WiiWare and DSiWare, must not run under emulation — that is, software that pretends to be hardware, such as an old game console. So while Nintendo will happily let you buy old video games through the Wii’s Virtual Console, it’s not cool for third parties to do the same on their own, at least according to Intellivision rights holder Keith Robinson.

IGN, which broke the story, has already performed the necessary speculation, wondering if this news foreshadows a store for classic games on the DS. With no comment so far from Nintendo, you can’t read into the story any further than that.

Still, this is disappointing given DSiWare’s track record so far. The most recent update to the store consisted of an Animal Crossing-themed clock and calculator, and most of the actual games are derivatives of existing Nintendo DS or Game Boy Advance releases. It’s certainly not the hub of unique indie games that WiiWare has been since launch.

It’s worth noting, as IGN does, that Apple has already approved the compilation, officially dubbed Intellivision Lives!, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I hope Nintendo shifts DSiWare into gear and starts competing.

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Pachter: New Consoles in 2013, “If At All”

Posted by Jared Newman on May 1, 2009 at 2:57 pm

Remember when Technologizer wildly guessed that the next generation of game consoles would arrive in 2010 and 2011? Michael Pachter, the Wedbush Morgan analyst who routinely makes headlines with his predictions, begs to differ.

His latest newsletter, via Edge, states that the next console cycle won’t begin “before 2013, if at all.” That’s right, Morgan even leaves room for the possibility of an indefinite current-generation.

“We remain convinced that the publishers will resist the introduction of any video game hardware technology that requires a refresh of software, as the publishers have as yet to capitalize on the immense investments made in being competitive in the current cycle,” Pachter writes.

The flaw in this logic is that it’s not a new concept. As a rule, console makers love to cash in on their investments, letting software revenues roll in while hardware costs decline, and yet new consoles have been popping up on a five-year cycle ever since the 8-bit era.

There is, however, a wild card this time, and I’m surprised Pachter doesn’t mention it: Motion control. Nintendo tapped into previously uninterested markets with the Wii, and there’s no shortage of speculation that Sony and Microsoft are looking to get in on that. Rumors regarding a Playstation 3 motion controller have popped up as recently as today, and we’ve previously covered one possibility for the Xbox 360.

It all boils down to whether Sony and Microsoft get into motion control (or some other game-changing concept) in this generation or save it for the next cycle. I won’t predict whether that’s going to happen, but if it does — and if it’s successful — then yes, the next generation is a long way off. Otherwise, I’m sticking with my earlier predictions.

Am I waffling? Sure, but that’s why Pachter gets the big bucks.

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Japan's Wii Video is No YouTube or Hulu

Posted by Jared Newman on April 23, 2009 at 2:38 pm

wiivideo1

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 conveniently translated by Andria Sang, talks of a virtual world that blends eerily with the real.

The channel places Mii characters in a living room, where time passes by in equal proportion to the outside world. This is the hub for various other services offered in the channel. Foremost is the video channel, providing paid and ad-supported shows, as previously reported. Partner companies will have their own content, accessed by clicking on a plant in the room, as well as product samples that can be delivered to a pre-entered real world address. Weirder still, celebrities will occasionally visit the virtual home as “concierges” peddling additional programming.

In addition, DSi owners will be able to sync the handheld to the channel and download virtual coupons, which can be redeemed at participating retailers.

This is all pretty wild stuff — sort of like Second Life, but much more restrained — and you have to wonder how much of it, if any, will make it out of Japan. I can see the original content coming west, as it allows Nintendo to bypass the licensing kerfuffles that are making a mess of existing online video sites. And the delivery system is smart, drawing families in with another channel for their Miis.

But samples in the mail? Celebrity avatars invading your virtual home? They could be failures stateside, or Nintendo could strike gold again. I won’t venture a prediction.

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The Game Boy Turns Twenty

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 21, 2009 at 8:41 am

Game Boy Oddities It was twenty years ago today that Nintendo released the Game Boy handheld in Japan. The recent rash of publicity for the anniversary has me feeling nostalgic for my Game Boy, which I bought at the going-out-of-business sale at a location of one-time Toys R Us rival Child World; I’m pretty sure I have it boxed up in storage somewhere.

We celebrated the Game Boy’s special day a bit early with Benj Edwards’ gallery of Game Boy Oddities–some of which are really odd–and if you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend taking a gander. Benj is marking the anniversary over at Ars Technica with a list of six reasons the Game Boy is #1, and he performed a commemorative Game Boy teardown at PC World a couple of weeks ago.

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Happy Birthday, Game Boy. You're Weird!

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 13, 2009 at 11:49 pm

You think the iPod’s iconic and enduring? Let’s talk come 2021, when it’ll have been around as long as Nintendo’s Game Boy, which turns twenty next Tuesday. To mark the occasion, Benj Edwards found an array of peculiar variations, offshoots, add-ons, and tributes. Never has one pocketable plaything been so many things to so many people.

Click here to view Game Boy Oddities slideshow.

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