Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton has admitted that demand for the Wii and DS has "declined".

Speaking on Radio 4 this morning, Yarnton blamed falling demand for the Wii and DS on the "cycle" and the recession, but made a point of saying everybody was in the same boat.

"We've had very good years," he said. "It's [falling demand for Nintendo consoles] part, I suppose, of the cycle. We're not recession proof. We've probably as an industry been better than other industries."

When asked whether demand for the Wii and DS had peaked, Yarnton replied: "We obviously would like to be selling more. It has declined. But the whole market has as well. It's not just ourselves."

The Wii and DS have been hugely successful in the UK. Nintendo's sold 12 million DS consoles and eight million Wiis on these shores.

Despite the mammoth sales, Yarnton reckons there's plenty of room for even more.

"We think there's still plenty of opportunity for the product. There are a lot of people still waiting to get into gaming. There is a lot of interest from older people, people that normally didn't game. We've got some innovations on the way as well.

"We've got Nintendo 3DS. I think it's quite a leapfrog, actually. Especially when you look at the other technology out there in TV and movie, where with 3D you have to wear glasses, whilst with our 3D offering you don't have to wear glasses.

"There are no real new models coming out [from Sony and Microsoft]. No leapfrogging. They're [the new Xbox 360 250GB] just derivatives of the original versions they've had. We still with Wii have got a lot of technology we haven't fully harnessed and a lot of development of games coming that I think will still wow people when they see it."

Yarnton also denied the accusation that Nintendo has been forced to slash prices ("The actual price, when we launched Wii in 2006, recommended retail was about £179. We don't set the price. And that price hasn't changed"), and had his say on UK tax breaks for game developers, which were scrapped in the last budget.

"We support it very much," Yarnton said. "We as an industry want to be on a level playing field, not only on a global basis, where we know there are tax breaks right around the world, from Canada to Korea to Australia, but also with other creative industries, such as the movie industry, where there are tax breaks. There are sound arguments that show with the tax breaks we'll actually create more jobs."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ni...emand-declined ...

GAME has seen "amazing demand" for the new Xbox 360 250GB.

The videogame retailer opened 400 stores at midnight for the release of Microsoft's "whisper quiet" new Xbox 360.

"At midnight, over 400 GAME and Gamestation stores opened across the UK to allow our customers to get their hands on the new Xbox 360," Neil Ashurst, head of PR for GAME and Gamestation, said.

"There has been amazing demand for the new version of this ever-popular console, which includes a new slim design, 250GB hard drive and built-in WiFi connectivity. There was a fantastic atmosphere in our stores as hundreds of people queued to be one of the first to play on the new console."

Microsoft announced the new Xbox 360 250GB during its press conference at E3 2010 last month. It costs £200 in the UK.

The new Xbox 360 has already done the business in the US, where it helped sales rise by a whopping 88 per cent year-on-year.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/am...r-new-xbox-360 ...

Sony might have been bottom of the pile for US sales throughout June - and forced to praise monthly year-on-year sales growth again - but that hasn't dampened the company's expectations of the "big impact" PlayStation 3 will have this holiday.

"Videogames are fuelling new innovation for the entire consumer entertainment category, and today's numbers are a testament to the big impact we'll play this holiday," said Sony America's Patrick Seybold.

"With a healthy flow of PS3s back in the channel, and 11 months of PS3's consecutive growth behind us, we're confident the PS3 will become the main entertainment hub for many new consumers this year and provide countless reasons to congregate in the living room."

All of which will be helped by the "groundbreaking" PlayStation Move, he added.

Sony's now sold 13m PlayStation 3s in the US and 17m PlayStation Portables.

Microsoft focused, unsurprisingly, on the chart-topping success of the new "whisper quiet" Xbox 360. And signs of slowdown, we're assured, are not on the horizon.

"Retail demand for the new Xbox 360 250GB console remains high, and retailers continue to order as many units as Microsoft is able to supply," said the company in a statement.

Red Dead Redemption finished top of the software pile on Xbox 360, and sales of hardware, software and accessories combined to earn $333m. Not content, Microsoft also looked ahead, and it too claimed to be in the best position for the holiday bonanza.

"Collectively, Microsoft has also heard from retailers around the US that Kinect and its related games are a top priority this holiday," Ballmer's bunch added.

Microsoft has shifted 1,924,900 Xbox 360 units this year. The US total stands at 20,555,886.

Finally, Nintendo - for whom the birds sing - saw the Wii and DS account for half of June's hardware sales. On top of that, six of the top 10 games were on Nintendo platforms.

"Consumers continue to look to Nintendo for exceptional value and one-of-a-kind gaming experiences," said Nintendo of America's Cammie Dunaway. "Between games like Super Mario Galaxy 2, the pioneering motion controls of the Wii system and the portable fun of Nintendo DS systems, Nintendo offers something for everyone."

She, too, had a message for the autumn: "As we prepare to launch a remarkable line-up of new games in the second half of the year, we are grateful that consumers are supporting Nintendo consoles to continue their run as the nation's most popular game systems."

The DS added half-a-million sales in June to its regional total of nearly 42m. The Wii put over 400,000 sales towards its ever-closed 30m US landmark (currently 29,540,081).

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/np...o-sony-respond ...

Downloadable Tomb Raider game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will be exclusively available on the Xbox 360 for at least four weeks.

This is a requirement of all games that are a part of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade promotion, Crystal Dynamics told Eurogamer in a new interview.

Guardian of Light will be released on Xbox Live on 18th August for 1200 Microsoft Points (£10).

Crystal Dynamics hopes the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of the game will be released on Steam and PlayStation Network respectively as soon as the window of exclusivity is up.

"As with all arcade titles, irrespective of platform, you have to go through your submissions before they agree and approve a date. Unlike a disc based title where we can pick our window, you have to go by what the first parties approve and give you a date, to make sure you're not coming out on the same day as five other titles. They like to manage the release window accordingly.

"We have requested a specific date and hopefully we'll get that and it's not too long after the 360 SKU.

"The agreement with Microsoft is, in order to participate in their hugely successful Summer of Arcade promotion, there is a window of exclusivity. That window of exclusivity is a set four weeks."

Other games in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade promotion include Limbo, due out on 21st July and Castlevania Harmony of Despair, which will be released on 4th August.

Crystal Dynamics hopes to have a release date for the PC and PS3 versions of Guardian of Light in "seven to 10 days".

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is Crystal Dynamics' first download-only game. The San Francisco developer took the reigns of the Tomb Raider franchise from Core Design after press mauled Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/la...-360-exclusive ...

British developer Just Add Water has revealed that it is collaborating with Oddworld Inhabitants on "multiple projects across multiple platforms".

In an announcement on its website, JAW said that initial discussions took place in June 2009 and that while there are no details on the games yet, "over the coming weeks and months we will be announcing these exciting projects starring all of your favourite Oddworld characters".

"We're all extremely excited to breathe life into the Oddworld universe and indeed to let it breathe life into us," said JAW managing director Stewart Gilray, who also spoke about tapping into the minds of Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna, among others.

The Oddworld series began with Abe's Oddysee in 1997 and grew to include Abe's Exoddus, Munch's Oddysee and the rather delightful Stranger's Wrath, which you can read about in our extensive retrospective.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ju...-with-oddworld ...

An anonymous reader writes with news that Sony is planning a firmware update for the PS3 to enable 3-D playback from Blu-ray movies and YouTube. The update is scheduled for September, and support for 3-D photos will come later. Sony's Kaz Hirai spoke recently about how the PS3 was designed with these kinds of upgrades in mind. "Given how fast technology turns over now, we knew going in that we had to pack a lot of horsepower into the PS3. Four years ago — when you look at the console's power and its retail price — a lot of people were critical with the fact that there was so much packed under the hood. Now we're especially pleased to be introducing things like Move and 3-D gaming because we're able to show tangibly why we released the PS3 with the power it has, and why it makes so much sense to future proof a console." Sony also updated its PS3 Terms of Service to warn against too much 3-D viewing.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...ay-and-YouTube ...

Evidence is growing that the upcoming Nintendo 3DS may see Nintendo fully embrace digital distribution.

While the console-maker has dabbled in downloadable games with WiiWare and DSIWare, these had seemed very much secondary to traditional physical game sales.

According to website Siliconera, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admitted to investors that the company had not fully leveraged the potential of its online stores.

"We are thinking the release of new hardware should be good timing for a dramatic improvement of this situation," he said, and boasted of the new handheld's "enhanced wireless communication function."

While he did not detail the nature of the downloadable content, he did describe its method: "Nintendo 3DS will receive various pieces of information automatically if there is a chance of communication while a user carries it even when he or she does not try to start communication pro-actively by unfolding Nintendo 3DS."

By combining Nintendo 3DS with such function, we are now planning to expand our digital-distribution type of business."

However, this may not mean solely game downloads - Iwata has previously claimed that the 3DS will be capable of automatically downloading "newspaper and magazine articles."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ution-business ...

The ongoing lawsuit against Activision Blizzard by former members of Call of Duty creator Infinity Ward has reportedly been revised, with the claimants asking for 50 per cent less cash.

While originally the group of former and current Infinity Ward staffers had sought a total of $625 million in damages and unpaid bonuses, the cap is now apparently set at $216 million - just under half the previous maximum for damages alone.

Website Kotaku claims to have seen a copy of the amended lawsuit, which also provides further detail on the dispute that led to the firings of studio founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella.

The suit apparently alleges that Activision denied 60 per cent of promised bonus money – some $54 million - from Modern Warfare 2 sales from the developer, stipulating it would be handed over only if Modern Warfare 3 was completed and released by November 2011.

Also claimed to be in the update are accusations that Activision conducted secret interrogations, manned exits with bouncers, and that CFO Thomas Tippl told employees "get over it" following complaints about the withheld bonus.

A hearing on August 5 hopes to consolidate the various suits – including a separate claim by West and Zampella – into one trial. The trial itself is scheduled for next May.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...USD216-million ...

Developer Ruffian Games has scored a number one spot in the UK charts for its first release, Xbox 360 sequel Crackdown 2.

The title has gathered strong review scores amongst the specialist press including our sister site Eurogamer.net, and knocks Traveller's Tales latest LEGO game off the top of the charts after three weeks.

There are no other new entries in the top ten this week, and only two titles climb the charts – Wii hit Dance on Broadway at four, and THQ's latest UFC game, re-entering at ten.

The full top ten follows:

01 Crackdown 2
02 LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
03 Red Dead Redemption
04 Dance on Broadway
05 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
06 Super Mario Galaxy 2
07 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
08 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
09 Just Dance
10 UFC 2010: Undisputed

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...es-uk-top-spot ...