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Wii Is Better Than PS3? So Says Eggebrecht

Oh how easily the tides have turned. From Factor 5’s humble beginnings on the PS3, turning Lair from what appeared to be a AAA effort into a critical flop. We now know the developer has switched tracks to develop an upcoming Wii title, we also know Factor 5 was one of the best developers on the Gamecube, pushing the hardware with its launch title that still remains fairly unchallenged. But just how much power does the Wii truly hold? Factor 5’s engine is nearly complete, and he feels that it holds a lot more than you’d expect.

“We’re pretty much at a state where we’re almost done with the engine. At the same time, we’ve also been working on content quite a bit because we had enough running very quickly on the platform that we were able to. But the biggest milestone or mark right now is that we’re almost done with the engine and it does everything that the PS3 did and then some, quite frankly. So we’re pretty happy with that.”

Obviously that is a slight exaggeration, as there is no way we’ll be seeing their next title outputting 1080p, but it does peak interest in what their upcoming title could truly hold. On that note, Julian understands that the focus on the Wii in not just about the graphics, but about the control, and figures he has it all figured out.

“But one of our main focuses is the innovation around the controls. Everybody is always talking about the motion control, but I think people are overplaying that a bit. I really, really love the pointing aspect of the remote. Although we’re going to use everything for what we have in development, I think the pointing stuff is probably the biggest innovation which we’re working on right now.”

I would have to agree with Julian on that point, so far we’ve actually come to realize that one of the biggest features the Wiimote has to offer, which so far has been somewhat underutilized in the IR functionality. Somewhat merging that bridge between the PC and consoles. Hopefully Julian can produce as good as the way he seems to be able to talk it up, and we don’t have another Lair on our hands.

Nintendo Wavebird Not Shipping Any Longer

Nintendo has stopped shipping of the wireless GameCube controller — known as Wavebird — to retailers. The Wavebird was one of the first true RF based wireless controllers, where now virtually all controllers are wireless on the current generation of consoles. Nintendo has said that the Wavebird will still be available on their online store, but didn’t mention for how long it’ll be available, or when, as it’s not listed online.

Wii Outsells Gamecube’s Lifetime Sales in ONE Year

Nintendo has seen staggering sales for the Wii, but just how staggering has it been? Well, the console has surpassed the Gamecube, Nintendo’s previous outing, in Japan - its lifetime sales within a year.

Exactly 4,179,963 units of the Gamecube were sold during the lifetime of the product. Astonishingly, the Japanese picked up 4,231,044 units of the Wii, having the new console outsell its brother in just over a year.

Only one word comes to mind: wow!

Master Chief’s Identity Finally Revealed

Drawn by Raven Perez, the comic strip above is quite funny, finally revealing who Master Chief really is. You can find more game related comic strips on the official site here.

Madden NFL 08 Review Roundup

Another year, another football season, another round of Madden NFL. This year’s version of Madden has hit the stores, available on 10 (ten!) different platforms, that’s gotta be some sort of record, even for EA.

GameSpot (85/100) “Madden 08 seems to represent a tipping point of sorts for the series. You feel like the game is right on the brink of getting back to where it was four or five years ago in terms of stature and innovation.”

IGN (87/100) “Madden NFL 08 is a great game. It’s certainly the best Madden since the 2005 edition and a worthy offering for the new generation of gaming. The new animation system is outstanding and the game itself plays wonderfully.”

1UP (90/100) “You’ll find a much smarter brand of football in 08: Quarterbacks now scramble when no one is open, wideouts continue to make blocks 30 yards downfield, and defensive backs rarely fall for the deep ball. Some might even say that pass defense is a tad too stingy this season.”

GameSpy (90/100) “While it has been difficult to wholeheartedly recommend a Madden football game for a few years, Madden NFL 08 is a significant improvement over the series’ past, and has refined the formula in such a way that it actually brings something new to the game.”

Note: The reviews were based on the Xbox 360 version, which runs at a constant 60 fps, while the PS3 version runs at 30 fps, as several PS3 version reviews also point out.

Digitalbattle Weekly Comments Contest is On Again.

Hi everyone well its that time of the week again, where we all get together and giveaway prizes for thoughs who like to comment on our stories. We’ll pick the best 3 comments each week and award each one with a game. All you have to do is to continue posting relevant and constructive comments on stories. Check out this week’s prizes after the break. Read more

Comments Contest Winners Announced

And the winners of the weekly comments contest are, drum roles please!

1st SasukeX - Wii Remote Controller
2nd Tidles - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
3rd The Wicker Man - Resident Evil 4
3rd Anuban - Resident Evil 4

Special DB Editor Commentor Prize goes to Zac - Resident Evil 4Please send your postal info gday1234@gmail.com

Many Regards Paul Nation

Win Prize Giveaways in DigitalBattle’s Comments Contest

DigitalBattle is again holding a contest for those who like to comment on our stories. From this week on, we’ll pick the best 3 comments each week and award each one with a game. All you have to do is to continue posting relevant and constructive comments on stories. Check out this week’s prizes after the jump. Read more

Japan’s love for Nintendo increases

Japanese based research company Media Create reported that for the week of june 8th to 24th Nintendo’s hardware and software topped the charts leaving Sony and Microsoft eating dust. the Nintendo DS Lite sold 163.888 units against 32.984 PSPs on a ratio of 5 to 1, meanwhile the Nintendo Wii managed to sell 7 times as much as the PS3, 65.582 against 9.581, while the Xbox 360 sold inexpressive 3.369 units. On the same week, the new entry on Zelda’s series; The Phantom Hourglass for the DS sold 302.887, becoming by far the biggest seller of the week., You can see the full chart here.

New Games Shipping This Week

If you’re not enjoying the good weather these days (depending where in the world you’re located), you may enjoy some of the new games shipping this week, especially if you’re a Wii owner, as Capcom releases Resident Evil 4 for the Wii.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii): Capcom releases the Wii version of the very successful GameCube game, and probably the best horror game ever made.

Sim City DS (DS): EA is ready with Sim City DS, the city building sim takes good advantage of the dual screen and the stylus on the DS.

Colin McRae DIRT (PC, Xbox 360): Codemasters’ latest rally game is set to give Motorstorm some serious competition. Next week the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 versions will be released.

Transformers: The Game (DS, PSP): The movie is out in 3 weeks while DS and PSP owners will have a chance to play the game this week.

Nintendo Cutting Back On PR

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime has finally responded to rumors indicating that 90% of Nintendo’s PR department would be cut. He confirmed that since the move from Redmond, 60% of the company’s marketing and sales department is gone.

Some of the employees relocated to San Francisco and New York, while some, 60% in this case, chose to leave the company. Furthermore, Fils-Aime didn’t comment on the possible departure of George Harrison, Beth Llewelyn and Perrin Kaplan, the latter is know for several PR bloopers in recent time. Fils-Aime added that it was better to make the relocation now, when things are going good for Nintendo, as opposed to doing the move and restructuring when the company is in trouble, as many corporations chose to do these days.

Nintendo has now moved close to Silicon Valley, where a number of game developers are based, including EA and LucasArts. This was crucial according to Fils-Aime, who says spending time physically with developers is a must.

Resident Evil 4 Wii With A Budget Price

Surely it would have been the rip-off of the year if Capcom priced the Wii port of Resident Evil 4 at a regular $60 price, but fear not, the game will ship with a $29.99 price tag. This comes from Capcom, as the price was revealed on the official product page.

Resident Evil 4 for the Wii is mostly a port from the GameCube version, but with a few tweaks and of course full support for the new Wii controls. The game ships on June 19 in the U.S. and June 29 in Europe.

First Four Months Chart

Kotaku has created a nice little graph outlining the first four month of sales for consoles in the last two generations. This is a great perspective on how initial sales don’t determine the overall viability of a console. Notably Gamecube ranked above PS2 by 20 thousand, but the same couldn’t be said at the end of their console lifecycles.

Read (Kotaku)

Japanese Hardware Sales, Feb 5 - 11th

What can be gleaned from the hardware sales? Well the PS3 is pretty damned close to matching the Wii, while the portables continue to absolutely dominate the list, the DS lite has more than a comfortable lead. The 360 continues to not really appeal to Japan. My predictions for next week? I wouldn’t be all too surprised if the PS3 picked up third place. Barring any sort of sudden mass Wii shipments, GDC probably helped pack a punch for Sony.

- DS Lite: 108,512
- PSP: 56,175
- Wii: 44,494
- PS3: 32,115
- PS2: 14,585
- Xbox 360: 3,333
- Game Boy Micro: 812
- GBA SP: 679
- Gamecube: 240
- DS Phat: 119
- GBA: 13

Read (Media Create)

February NPD Hardware Sales

Here are the February hardware sales released by the NPD Group for the United States. The numbers speak for themselves.

• Nintendo DS 485,000
• Wii 335,000
• PlayStation 2 295,000
• Xbox 360 228,000
• PlayStation Portable 176,000
• Game Boy Advance 136,000
• PlayStation 3 127,000
• GameCube 24,000
• Xbox 480

Super Mario Bros. Theme on a Ruler

I just couldn’t resist posting this. This guy is better than the guy beatboxing on his flute.

[Thanks, Tom!]

Japanese Hardware Sales, Feb 19-25

Japanese hardware sales for last week are now available through Media-Create, and seem fairly indicative of what we were presented on the software side of things. While the DS failed to claim the top spot, it holds strong to the number one position on the hardware charts. A huge release of Monster Hunter has moved a lot of PSP units. This has been a big week all around for PSP. While the DS shows no signs of slipping, the PSP is proving it can forge its own portion of the market and there may be room for two portable systems in the marketplace.

1. DSL - 136,128 (-718) - 1,377,002 - 8,826,886
2. PSP - 100,210 (+65,705) - 437,828 - 4,969,957
3. Wii - 78,506 (+14,888)- 745,602 - 1,665,245
4. PS3 - 19,315 (-1,361) - 218,725 - 676,283
5. PS2 - 15,054 (-1,138) - 180,683 - 20,335,542
6. 360 - 4,183 (-1,027) - 62,010 - 326,712
7. GBASP - 1,035 (+192)- 10,014 - 5,928,965
8. GBM - 907 (-46) - 12,105 - 572,035
9. NGC - 323 (-24) - 4,129 - 4,173,597
10. NDS - 132 (-21) - 866 - 6,583,123
11. GBA - 59 (+19) - 407 - 8,823,613

Total sales: 355,852 (up 76,469 from last week)
Last week’s sales: 279,383

Japanese sales Charts Feb 12th - 18th

Last week’s sales charts have made their way out for Japan with some interesting results. There are no real movers and shakers as far as Nintendo having a sizeable lead on the pack, but there was a significant drop in systems sold from last week. It would appear to be a slightly slower week of shipments considering every Japenese retailer features sold out signs.

Things are still not looking great for the PS3 as it slips even further into the abyss.

- DS Lite: 136,846 Decrease 64,331 (31.98%)
- Wii: 63,618 Decrease 14,932 (19.01%)
- PSP: 34,505 Increase 2,330 (7.24%)
- PS3: 20,676 Decrease 2,755 (11.76%)
- PS2: 16,192 Increase 159 (0.99%)
- Xbox 360: 5,210 Increase 399 (8.29%)
- Game Boy Micro: 953 Increase 69 (7.81%)
- GBA SP: 843 Decrease 137 (13.98%)
- Gamecube: 347 Decrease 36 (9.40%)
- DS Phat: 153 Increase 32 (26.45%)
- GBA: 40 Increase 4 (11.11%)

[ Via Joystiq ]

GameCube Still In Production After All

Here we go again; Nintendo’s Perryn Kaplan once again lied to the press when she said the GameCube was no longer in production. And as usual, Nintendo UK corrected Kaplan, saying the Cube is indeed still in production and Nintendo is still developing software for the console. Kaplan previously lied when she said the Wii wasn’t region locked (when it in fact was region locked).

It seems that either Kaplan really doesn’t know what she’s talking about any longer, or no one at Nintendo is keeping her up to date. And here we all were, thinking only Sony had horrible PR reps.

Via Eurogamer

Nintendo Stops GameCube Production

Nintendo’s Perrin Kaplan has confirmed that the company has stopped manufacturing GameCubes and making software for the console. Kaplan asked herself the questions, so we didn’t have to:

Are we producing any more GameCubes? No. But do we have the inventory there for people to still purchase? Yes”.

The GameCube lost the last gen console war to Sony and Microsoft, mostly due to weak 3rd party support and lack of decent online play. The console was released in 2001 in Japan and North America, while Europeans had to wait to 2002. Nintendo managed to sell around 22 million unts worldwide.

On the software side, Super Smash Bros. Melee was the best selling game with 6 million copies sold, followed by Super Mario Sunshine (5.5 million), Mario Kart Double Dash (3,5 million) and Zelda: Wind Waker (3 million).

Read (MCV)

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