Posts Tagged ‘Wii’
Silent Hill Reimagining Officially Announced
Working on a franchise is a difficult task. Every sequel has to add something new to the gameplay without deviating too far from what made the original games popular. Survival horror games began quite often with characters who were either ill suited to defend themselves or with the proper skills but limited resources. Later series eventually changed things so that many titles became a little more action based.
Rumors have been circulating regarding a new Silent Hill game that’ll be bringing the series back to its roots and today Konami officially announced Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii, PS2 and PSP for this fall. It’s being developed by Climax UK, the team who were behind Silent Hill: Origins.
The title features Harry Mason once again searching the town of Silent Hill for his missing daughter Cheryl. For old fans of the series they’re adding in some new features, making NPCs frequent new areas and adding in new clues and details. As you explore the game will be keeping track of where you go, what clues you find and how you react to other characters and altering the overall experience accordingly, a feature they’re calling ‘Psyche Profiling’.
The Wii version will of course feature motion controls. The Wiimote functions as a flashlight to illuminate the dark corners of the town and a cellphone, allowing you to take photos and access a GPS function to help navigate. Some puzzles will also be solved by manipulation of the Wiimote.
Nintendo Announces New Wii Storage Solution and Zelda Game
Nintendo has announced a couple of new offerings that many gamers will surely find interesting. On one hand is that announcement of the new Wii Storage Solution. Video game developers now have expanded opportunities given that worldwide shipments for the Wii system surpassed 50 million units and worldwide shipments for the Nintendo DS franchise are at more than 100 million units.
The new The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks game that will utilize the intuitive touch control of Phantom Hourglass in an all new adventure that will please longtime Zelda fans while keeping the game accessible to all DS owners. The concept behind this Zelda game includes utilizing a steam locomotive to travel around the world, switching Phantom and Link to explore the dungeons, and solving puzzles using new items.
(Source) Press
Nintendo announces 50 million Wiis shipped
At this years GDC, Nintendo has announced that the Wii has shipped 50 million units worldwide, which makes it the fastest selling home console in history. This makes good sense, as AMD recently revealed that they shipped 50 million Wii GPUs.
Wii shipments can be roughly distributed as: 23 million in North America, 17 million in Europe and 10 million in Japan and rest of Asia. Analysts expect the Wii to break the 60 million units sold this year.
Tags: Wii
Survey Suggests Netflix May Be Wii-bound
In an increasingly wired society console companies are realizing that it’s not enough to offer great games. Microsoft scored a big victory by getting a partnership with Netflix, allowing subscribers to stream many of their favorite films and TV shows. There are several methods to stream shows but thus far the Xbox 360 is the only gaming platform that allows you to do so.
A recent Netflix survey suggests that all this may be about to change. It asks users what their thoughts would be regarding a similar option for the Wii. The survey also hints that such an option would be possible by a one-time purchase of a disc that would have to be put into the Wii any time an owner wanted to watch something. This would have the low price of $2.99 and would ultimately prove cheaper than the Xbox option since you wouldn’t have to pay the subscription fees for an Xbox Live gold membership.
Of course such a survey is far from a guarantee that the service will be made available and even if it is, there’s no telling when it’ll be available.
Wii getting 65nm CPU/GPU this summer?
We got a word from a tipster (who frequently tips off Chinese trade paper Digitimes), that Nintendo will be refreshing Wii internal hardware this summer, with 65nm versions of both its CPU and graphics chips, while clock rates would stay the same.
Currently, the IBM PowerPC based CPU is made on a 90nm process and the ATI “Hollywood” GPU is likewise 90nm. Both companies have been making 65nm chips for over a year, while ATI also has 55nm working technology as well.
Furthermore, thanks to the new chips, the Wii is said to be “passively-cooled”, meaning it won’t require any fans.
Considering how cheap flash memory is these days, it would be easy to assume that Nintendo would increase the 512 MB internal flash storage as well. However, according to the source, the new version of the Wii would have no other hardware changes besides 65nm technology and new heat sinks for cooling.
It makes perfect sense for Nintendo to go 65nm, as both Sony and Microsoft have updated their CPUs to 65nm (in Microsoft’s case, the GPU as well) and are currently working towards 45nm. Compared to 90nm, the 65nm manufacturing process not only brings lower power consumption and cooler processors, but substantially reduces manufacturing costs as well. However, as usual, there is no official word from Nintendo. Considering that the company still hasn’t released the official Wii specs, it’s unlikely that they’ll share the news of 65nm parts.
We’ll only know when someone dissects their new Wii this summer.
Nintendo Raising the Price of Wii in England
Okay so one day after I blogged that there is finally supply to satisfy the demand for people looking for Nintendo’s Wii console, news comes out that the price will be raised in England. Why? It is simple economics. To balance the demand, prices will be raised to help control the supply.
On a business aspect, this sounds logical. But for consumers, it may draw varied criticism such as possibly looking for other game consoles that fit their budget. When the Wii ran out, you can bet a lot of people have been saving up until the game console would be available. But now, they raise the price?
Also, add the aspect of economic problems playing a part in this. The price tag needs to be adjusted to justify the cost in producing them hence another excuse for the Wii to become more expensive than before. You can just look at the depreciating economy as an accomplice to these developments.
Nintendo doesn’t expect the people to understand. It’s a business move. With the risk of possibly slowing down on sales from demand certain to occur, you may see people shying away or perhaps waiting for such time when the price is lowered once again. The only question is when.
(Source) JustPressPlay
Tags: budget, business aspect, business move, consumers, england, game consoles, Nintendo, risk, simple economics, Wii
Wii Play sells 10 million in the US
Nintendo has announced that Wii Play has sold 10 million units in the US. Wii Play — a series of mini games which come with a Wii controller — has been dominating the sales charts ever since it was released in 2007.
Wii Play retails at $50, only $10 more than a standard Wii controller. In the same announcement, Nintendo has revealed that the sales of individual Wii controllers have reached 12,7 million, meaning a total of 22,7 million controllers have been sold (in the US alone), while 19 million Wii consoles have been sold in the US.
NPD: Wii sells 750,000 units in February
According to the latest NPD sales data, Nintendo’s Wii was the best selling console in February, selling an estimated 750,000 units in the US. The Xbox 360 came in second with 391,000 units, the PS3 third with 276,000 units and the aging PS2 sold 131,000 units.
On the software side, Capcom’s Street Fighter 4 sold an impressive 850,000 units on all platforms combined.
Nvidia brings PhysX to the Wii
Last week Nvidia announced that the PhysX SDK would be available to PlayStation 3 developers for free, and now the graphics/physics company has announced a free SDK for Wii developers as well.
The SDK, which is now available for all registered Wii developers, consists of a fully featured API and physics engine. PhysX has also been available on the Xbox 360 for a while, and is used in titles like Mass Effect and Gears of War (as it’s a part of the Unreal Engine 3).
House of The Dead: Overkill- Campy, Yet Fun
The Wii has made home versions of light-gun games possible. Some of the first games in this style to be released for the Wii were ports of arcade games. Several of the House of the Dead titles were packaged together and released previously, but there was also a completely new title in development.
It’s called House of The Dead: Overkill and it combines all the best features of a light-gun game with all the best/worst features of campy horror movies. It’s directly aimed at the semi-casual market, with the content definitely not for kids and the gameplay on the relatively easy side.
The controls are incredibly simple, but for this style of gaming it’s exactly as they should be. Point, pull the trigger on your zapper or other lightgun accessory (or simply push the B button) and shoot. Shake to reload, shoot again. If you’re just going through the game you can simply blast away; enough hits will take down any of the walking dead. Hits to the limbs will sever that body part and of course headshots will take them down immediately.
Top Ten Reasons Why The Wii is Winning
Since we’ve discussed why the PS3 is foundering it’s only fair we point out what the Wii has been doing well.
10. Brand Loyalty.
When it comes to video game companies, Nintendo boasts an incredible amount of longevity. Their first console, the Nintendo Entertainment System almost singlehandedly made home gaming popular and they’ve been going strong ever since. People have been buying Nintendo products for years. Sony hasn’t been in the games industry for quite as long and Microsoft is a relative newcomer to the console game.
ATI ships 50 millionth Wii GPU
AMD’s graphics division, ATI, has announced that they’ve shipped their 50 millionth Wii GPU, codenamed “Hollywood”. It thereby becomes ATI’s most successful console GPU. ATI’s Rick Bergman said of the milestone:
“We’re proud to provide the ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip as the cool and quiet graphics engine that factors so prominently in the overall enjoyment for Wii owners. AMD counts Nintendo as a valued customer and we continue to work together to make console entertainment a growing phenomenon worldwide.”
ATI previously supplied Nintendo with GPUs for the GameCube, and are currently supplying Microsoft with GPUs for the Xbox 360.
Nintendo raising the price of the Wii in UK
Due to the depreciation of the British Pound, Nintendo will be raising the price of the Wii in the region. A company spokesman said;
“Due to the severe and continuing depreciation of the pound, we are, unfortunately, having to raise our trade price to UK retailers of Wii hardware. The price that they then offer to consumers is, of course, up to the retailers.”
The Wii currently retails at 180 GBP in the UK, a price point which will likely increase to 200 GBP. The Pound has lost around 20% of its value in 2008 alone.
Gamer Doc Showing Off Success at International Franchise Expo
Claimed to be more than just a video game store, Gamer Doc is showing great strides as an entertainment center, featuring “Gamer Centers” for Xbox 360(R), PlayStation3(R) and Wii(R), making it easy for customers to find the games, consoles and accessories they are looking for. Gamer Doc also sells flat-panel HD monitors and cables, offers console and disc repairs, and the knowledgeable staff can show customers how to hook-up their systems for optimum game play.
Designed to provide an enjoyable shopping experience for everyone, Gamer Doc customers who know what they want can come in and buy, rent, sell, pre-order or trade-in games, drop off a console or game for repair, and be in and out of the store quickly, while those who are new to gaming or want to browse, can take their time and have all of their questions answered.
“Our franchisees are very excited to be part of the video game industry, which continues to experience robust sales even in this sluggish economy,” Belanger said. “More and more consumers of all ages, from kids to parents to senior citizens, are choosing video games as the best value and the most fun for their entertainment dollar.”
(Source) Press
Nintendo denies Wii MotionPlus delay
There have been rumors lately suggesting that Nintendo is having problems with the new Wii MotionPlus attachment, and that it might even be delayed past June.
Nintendo has now officially responded to the rumor, saying that “No date was ever announced for MotionPlus — so technically it can’t be delayed”. But as 1UP points out, Nintendo did say that MotionPlus would ship with Wii Sports Resort, which is planned for release this Spring.
Earlier this week, it was reported that The Conduit would not support MotionPlus as originally planned, simply because it didn’t improve gameplay.