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Opinions of the games industry's top analysts appear to be divided when it comes to Nintendo's latest hardware offering, Wii U.

Piers Harding-Rolls from Screen Digest said the console is a "compelling proposition" and has "strong potential to innovate".

Doug Creutz from Cowen and Company acknowledged Wii U's "promise" but questioned the machine's power. "I'm not sure how revolutionary it will be," he said. According to Creutz, Wii U is "on a par" with PS3 and Xbox 360 rather than "a step up".

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter applauded the "smart" blend of tablet and console, saying it will be "hard" for others to copy the design. "Nintendo will have a head start for a while," he said, "and it will be interesting to see if they can exploit it."

Jesse Divnich from EEDAR lauded Wii U as "a very original and unique system and a perfect transition for consumers from the Wii". Nintendo shares might have fallen "substantially" after the Wii U announcement, said Divnich, but: "I believe investors are going to get this wrong".

All four analysts have concerns, however. Divnich "truly hopes" there aren't too many PS3 and Xbox 360 games ported to Wii U. "The Wii forced developers to be original and unique," he said. "The Wii became successful because it offered so many differentiating features and software that was different and original from its competitors.

"I'll say it flat out: any core-port over to the Wii U will be minimally successful."
Jesse Divnich, EEDAR
"I'll say it flat out: any core-port over to the Wii U will be minimally successful." Conversion costs may be low, but "no port will reach blockbuster status on the Wii U console" Divnich also questioned the "overlap" between the 3DS and Wii U controller when at home.

Piers Harding-Rolls thinks Wii U may confuse people with its "complex vision". "I don't believe that this proposition is as mainstream as the original Wii," he said, because Wii had a "more simple message". Existing Wii owners may even be confused into thinking the Wii U tablet works with Wii, Harding-Rolls added.

To that end, "consumer education is key" for Nintendo, said Harding-Rolls - but also a "significant challenge and expense". A two-screen, two-device vision puts Wii U on "more directly competitive footing" with Apple and its new AirPlay idea, too, pointed out Harding-Rolls.

Mainstream success concerns Doug Creutz as well. He sees Wii U as "Nintendo's attempt to re-enliven their appeal to the core gamer market". But by doing so, Nintendo may sacrifice a larger slice of the pie. "I don't know that this gets people who are not Nintendo fanboys - granted there are a lot of those - to run out and buy the console if they already have Xbox 360s or PS3s," said Creutz. But he expects Wii U to be "somewhat successful" nonetheless.

"At more than $300, it will almost certainly be too expensive."
Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan
And Nintendo has to do something, said Michael Pachter, because it is "falling behind" Xbox 360 with Kinect and PS3 with Move. With Smash Bros. the only Nintendo Wii U game announced, Pachter finds it "hard to know if the launch software will be compelling".

Success also depends on price - currently an unknown. But the analysts are unanimous in their conviction that Nintendo cannot break the $300 barrier.

Creutz said Nintendo "absolutely must price sub-$300 given the Wii U is really a lateral move from current competitor consoles rather than a step up".

At $300, Pachter said Wii U "may" be pricier than future Move or Kinect bundles. "At more than $300," he added, "it will almost certainly be too expensive."

"I don't think the Wii U can go higher than $299," offered Divnich, "it just can't and won't happen. I haven't seen the full specs, but no way it crosses that $299 price point."

Harding-Rolls stated the obvious: "A good price would be one that makes it a mass market proposition while delivering strong profits from launch."

Assuming the price is right, can Wii U not only follow in the footsteps of Wii but also outsell its predecessor?

"I doubt it will be more successful than the Wii... The Wii caught lightning in a bottle."
Doug Creutz, Cowen and Company
Harding-Rolls doesn't think so, but partly because the appetite for consoles themselves will diminish as net-connected tellies, set-top boxes like OnLive and tablets running OnLive take off. "Wii U will inevitably launch into a more competitive market than the Wii," he said, "and therefore at this stage I don't believe it will surpass Wii sales."

Creutz isn't sure anything can beat the early adoption rate of Wii. "The Wii caught lightning in a bottle," he said. "I doubt it will be more successful than the Wii, at least in terms of the initial adoption curve."

"Ask me in three years!" exclaimed Divnich. "The Wii is one of the best selling consoles of all time and it may be too early to make any 'official' prediction on overall sales just quite yet."

Nintendo announced the ...

PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai has admitted that Sony "may never know" exactly what data hackers stole during the PSN security breach in April.

Speaking to BBC Click, Hirai said the company knew "information was accessed" for up to 100m accounts, but could not be certain "what part... [was] actually taken from our servers."

He added: "The people that intruded our systems are very good in hiding their tracks as they left our systems, so we might not know for a very long time or we may never know."

Hirai also revealed that Sony did not know if "any credit card information was taken", explaining that the company "shared that as a potential possibility" in the interests of consumer safety.

Despite the media focus on Sony, he insisted: "It's certainly not just a Sony issue, but more of a corporate issue for everybody. As you probably know, even in this past week or so there have been other organisations and companies where a similar sort of intrusion has occurred."

Asked what Sony had learned from the experience, he replied: "Whether we're talking about a large corporation like Sony as well as smaller organisations, whoever deals with personal information as well as credit card information needs to be very vigilant about how that data is being secured.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...r-know-details ...

Nintendo's breakthrough pad uses wide-VGA display, report claims
The gamepad screen at the heart of the Wii U experience displays at a 854x480 resolution, according to new research and estimates.
Entertainment site Golgotron claims the Wii U controller screen displays at the wide-VGA display standard.
The factual basis to this claim is debatable. The resolution size was estimated after hi-res images of the controller were observed.
The controller screen was manually measured at 870 pixels wide – though it was believed that that errors were made in the calculation and a far more likely result is 854 pixels.
“854 x 480 is a very common widescreen resolution, and it’s within 2 per cent of our not-scientific-enough measurement,” the report read.
The Wii U controller demonstrated at E3 will not likely be the final version sent to retailers by the end of 2012.
The console itself displays TV content at 1080p.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...put-at-854x480 ...

Though others will be able to join in using a DS, 3DS or Wii controller
With Nintendo's Wii U still in the early stages of development every aspect is still open to change, but for the time being at least it looks as if each Wii U will only be able to use one new touch-screen controller.
"Our basic premise is that you can use one with a system," Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto told News.com.au. "If we got to an idea of having multiple (controllers) it might be just more convenient for people to use their Nintendo 3DS and have a way to connect that.
"That being said, we are doing research about if someone brings their controller to their friends house and they want to play together on Wii U to whether or not something like that would be possible."
Miyamoto also went on to claim that while the innovations introduced with the likes of Wii and DS have been widely replicated by rivals, the Wii U will be harder to copy.
"It might be more convenient for people if companies did do that because this system is going to make it easier for people to interact with game systems," he added.
"Because of the way we've designed the game system, where the controller is really just that — it does have a screen but it doesn't have a processor inside it.
"All of the processing is happening inside the hardware itself, and then the hardware is sending the information to the controller with incredibly low latency because of the wireless beam we're using. It would be very difficult for the other hardware systems to be able to implement this at this stage."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44808/Wii-...one-controller ...

New iOS 5 feature strikingly similar to rejected app
A University of Birmingham student said he was shocked to discover the similarity of the new Apple iOS 5 Wi-Fi Sync feature to his previously rejected application.
Greg Hughes Wi-Fi Sync application was rejected fro the iTunes App Store in May of last year according to a Register report. An Apple developer relations representative called to deliver the bad news, reportedly telling Hughes that the firm's engineers were 'impressed' by the app.
With his Wi-Fi Sync rejected on the basis of 'unspecified security concerns', Hughes went on to publish the app on jailbroken iPhone App store Cydia where it shifted more than 50,000 copies at$9.99 a time.
On Monday Apple unveiled iOS 5 with an identically named Wi-Fi Sync feature and a logo with a striking similarity to that of Hughes' Wi-Fi Sync icon.
Coincidence or rip-off? You decide.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/36471...-rip-off-claim ...

Third-parties in play with Nintendo for Wii U; Yarnton: ‘New console will grow market further’
Nintendo has its eye on an even bigger addressable audience of gamers with its new Wii U home console.
After courting new audiences for so long, the focus is back on a much-desired re-engaging of actual gamers alongside that skillful non-gamer push.
“Wii U pushes the boundary – it gives gamers a much deeper experience, but the control and touchscreen means we can widen the audience even more,” Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton told MCV. “With DS and Wii we expanded the audience; we changed perceptions about gaming.
“What we are now doing is looking to grow that further, but with power and graphics and a new controller, gamers get a deeper experience than ever before.”
And that’s good news for retail, said Yarnton: “We’re still growing the Wii audience. We are doing really good numbers in the UK at the moment – the price drop got people back in stores, and helped retail in a very challenged market.”
Unveiled at E3 this week and due out in 2012, Wii U is a new home console to go under the TV. It features HD graphics, online connectivity and an optical disc drive, keeping physical retail-sold games in the mix.
But the centrepiece is an innovative controller which mixes joypad, touchscreen and streaming technology. Games can be transferred from TV to handset.
Most telling: Nintendo didn’t announce many first-party games for the console, but third-party partners did in their droves. Core games including Batman: Arkham City (Warner), Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft), Darksiders II and Metro (THQ), Aliens (Sega), plus Namco Bandai and Tecmo Koei titles were all confirmed.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44805/Wii-needed-this ...

"We mean you no harm" say hackers
Sony hackers LulzSec informed the NHS that the group had obtained a number of administrative passwords.
"We mean you no harm and only want to help you fix your tech issues," Lulz Security emailed the NHS.
In a reference to the coverage of the 15-year-old terminal cancer sufferer Alice's 'bucket list', LulzSec concluded: "We hope that little girls feasts on the bonres of many giving souls."
The Department of Health told the BBC that only a 'very small number of website administrators' were involved and that no patient information was exposed by the breach.
New York based bank Citigroup also reported a seperate data breach in which hackers had accessed credit card account numbers and contact details of 200,000 North American customers.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/36467...prove-security ...

A new report by the Entertainment Software Association, which runs E3, has shown a continued increase in the market share for digital software, alongside a slight market shrink and a rise in the adoption of casual gaming.

The report begins with a quote from ESA president and CEO Michael D Gallagher, setting the report's somewhat biased stall out early.

"It is critical that we support economic sectors that create jobs, develop innovative technologies and keep America competitive in the global marketplace," writes Gallagher.

"The video game industry is one of those important, high-tech economic drivers. Our industry generates over $25 billion in annual revenue, and directly and indirectly employs more than 120,000 people with an average salary for direct employees of $90,000."

The report shows the North American market has shrunk marginally, from $16 billion in 2009 to $15.9 billion in 2010, but last year $5.8 billion of that was made up of 'other delivery formats' as opposed to $5.4 billion in 2009. Those other formats include, not just digital downloads, but casual, social, mobile and subscription titles.

$2.94 billion was spent on peripherals in the territory last year, with a further $6.29 billion on hardware.

Much of the data suggests the market is broadening considerably, off-setting a reduced spend by core markets with increased penetration into demographics with more money but less time, who are more likely to indulge in Facebook Scrabble than Call of Duty deathmatch.

72 per cent of US households play games
The average age of a North American gamer is 37
In 2010, 29 per cent of North American gamers were over 50
58 per cent are male
55 per cent play games on phones or handhelds
The average adult gamer has played for more than 12 years
68 per cent of American parents believe "game play provides mental stimulation or education"
59 per cent believe "that computer and video games provide more physical activity now than five years ago"
98 per cent are confident that ESRB ratings are accurate
The trends in the report are continuing ones, but the data, sourced from NPD, reflects an increased importance being placed upon the digital market, thanks to an improved tracking of download titles. Nonetheless, a lack of input from leading online PC download service Steam means that there are certainly gaps in the figures, despite a conscious split of computer (PC) and video (all other) games in the paper.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...f-gaming-in-us ...

Nintendo share prices have continued to decline in the wake of the Wii U announcement earlier this week, diminishing by a further 4.7 per cent yesterday.

This follows a 5.7 per cent drop on the day immediately after the reveal of its new home console, which left Nintendo stock prices at their lowest in five years. While yesterday is yet to close in the US, current figures suggest a further decline of 3 to 4 per cent.

Nintendo itself claims to be flummoxed by its share slump, with CEO Satoru Iwata telling Reuters that "Honestly speaking, the reaction to (Tuesday's) presentation and what I heard from people I met and the mood of the convention did not chime at all with what happened in the stock market.

"It's very strange."

There is historical precedent for this, similar having occurred in the wake of the Wii's initial announcement, with Iwata claiming that in both cases it was a matter of observers not having used the new technology themselves.

"In the end, it is easy to get the mistaken impression that this is just a game console with a tablet. People who came to the presentation and tried it out have understood very well that it opens up a lot of new possibilities. But people who have not tried it will find it hard to believe that this controller will change things."

Multiple analysts have offered different takes on the prospects of the Wii U, although the response has been broadly positive, if cautious. Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management, told the Wall Street Journal that "The product itself is not bad," but Nintendo may have suffered because "market expectations had been far too high... "It is also a reflection of structural issues caused by a transformation within the market."

Meanwhile Panoptic Management Consultants analyst Asif Khan told Industry Gamers that the issue may be that "Put very simply, investors hate uncertainty. With the Wii U announcement, the investing community has no information on release dates, price, components, specs, and even some features seem up in the air."

He added that "I also think that the Wii U controller looks weird to someone who has not had a chance to play with it. Most investors have not had a chance to hold the device and the software demos were limited in their scope.

"This kind of negative response by investors is not shocking, and I have been viewing it as a buying opportunity for myself and clients."

The price of the Wii U has yet to be revealed, although Iwata has suggested it is likely to be in excess of ¥20,000 ($250/£150).

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...re-price-slide ...