Nintendo sits atop the home video-game market. Its Wii, though less technologically advanced than Microsoft’s Xbox 360 or Sony’s PlayStation 3, continues to outsell those machines and is now in more than 20 million homes.

The Wii’s reach extends far, including use for physical therapy.
So why are retailers having so much trouble selling Wii games?

Take Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It was one the most hotly anticipated video games of the year; it sold more than 1.4 million copies during the first week of its release, in early March, and broke records for Nintendo of America.

“We certainly have a built-in fan base for Smash,” said Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America’s vice president for corporate affairs. “I’m hoping that we can continue to generate success and awareness of the game.”

But sales dropped more than 90 percent over the first four weeks, according to estimates from VG Chartz, a team of analysts who study video-game sales.

Some major retail chains — including Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us — have already begun bundling the Smash Bros. game with Wii machines for sales online, a sign that the base of hard-core gamers who went looking for the game has been depleted.

Retailers confirm the sharp drop. “We sold a couple thousand copies in the first week,” said Xavier Pervez, assistant manager at a GameStop in Fairfield, Conn. “It’s dropped off significantly now, maybe 100 in each of the last couple weeks.”

Toys “R” Us has instructed its sales staff to warn customers that some Wiis cannot read the Smash Bros. disc, and to refuse to exchange the game if customers later claim it is defective. Some parents who receive that warning are just as happy to buy a different game instead. But Nintendo claims few Wiis are subject to the malfunction, and Toys “R” Us sales staff said few customers have been dissuaded from buying or keeping the game.

“The number we got back for return was pretty minimal,” a saleswoman, Christina Giori, said. “Maybe eight copies out of 500. It’s something Nintendo’s really trying to crack down on.”

A number of games that garnered critical acclaim in recent months, notably the cartoonish action-adventure game Zack & Wiki and the off-kilter action-adventure No More Heroes, have yielded disappointing sales.

Over the first three months of the year, only three other Wii titles broke the list of top 10 best-selling games compiled by the NPD Group, a market research firm: Super Mario Galaxy, Guitar Hero III and Wii Play, a sports game that comes with the purchase of a much-needed additional game controller. The Wii may not be behind the success of all those titles, though; Guitar Hero, for example, sold 2.2 million copies for the Wii, but 2.8 million copies for the Xbox 360 and almost 5 million for two versions of the PlayStation.

The problem is that, in marketing the Wii, Nintendo cast a wide net and caught more than the big fish. The Wii’s innovative motion-sensitive controller and a price lower than the rival machines appeal to a broader audience than the traditional market of young male hard-core gamers. Younger children, women and older consumers, who historically have not been sought by the video-game industry, have discovered video games through the Wii — just not that many of them.

These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine. They don’t buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation.

The average Wii owner buys only 3.7 games a year, compared with 4.7 for Xbox 360 owners and 4.6 for PlayStation 3 owners, said a Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter. “It reflects the broadening of the demographic,” he said. “Nintendo’s market doesn’t feel the same sense of urgency to buy every game that’s coming out.”

“You don’t see a lot of titles that reach 30 to 40 percent of the installed base,” said a Lazard Capital analyst, Colin Sebastian. “My in-laws in Texas have a Wii sitting on their living-room floor next to the TV, which to me is kind of amazing. They have Wii Sports, a Brain Age game, Wii Play. That’s about it.”

Part of the problem, analysts say, is that other game makers have yet to embrace unconventional advertising methods that can reach this broader audience. Nintendo did it by promoting its memory game Brain Age on the radio.

“Advertising on GameInformer and 1up.com just isn’t reaching this audience,” Mr. Pachter said. “When you make a game like Zack & Wiki or Boogie, which turns the hard core off and doesn’t reach the masses, then you’re in trouble.”

Still, not all third-party publishers have found the Wii market difficult to crack. Multiplatform games like Ubisoft’s Rayman: Raving Rabbids, a cartoon action-adventure, have found receptive audiences.

Hudson Soft has had success with titles including Sudoku, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles and fishing games.
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If you're both a coffee- and gadget-freak, this project by DIY'er Tim Hirzel will probably be a notably inspiring hack. By combining a fancy-pants Rancilio Silvia espresso machine, the multi-purpose Arduino micro-controller, a Wii nunchuk, and some seriously high-level hacking, Tim has created a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. The typically straight-up espresso maker is now controlled electronically, allowing integration of a calendar, sleep timer, wake-up alarm, and temperature regulation. The system also allows a user to time its functions (to get that perfect cup of espresso), and the nunchuk can be used to alter settings on the unit.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/21/r...the-arduino-a/ ...

Nikko Citigroup upgraded its rating on Sony this morning in anticipation of it breaking even on PS3 costs earlier than expected. At the moment, Sony sells the PS3 at a loss. The respected group of analysts is now earmarking August as the milestone month. Sony's CFO recently suggested that the move would occur in the second half of the year -- a date analysts then pegged at November. No details behind the new upbeat expectations were provided by Nikko CG. However, it's safe to assume that the PS3's break-even event will be realized by a switch to a sub-65nm cell processor, sub-90nm RSX graphics chip, or both, since the smaller chips are less-costly to manufacturer.

P.S. It's worth noting that Sony has consistently stated that the PS3 will only break-even when both the Cell and RSX chips have shrunk.

Update: Reader Yaddam205 just reminded us about the "Slim PS3" redesign rumored for release in Autumn. No guarantees but smaller, less power-hungry, and cooler running chips would certainly be at the foundation of such a rig.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/21/p...ips-in-august/ ...

We've been avoiding the 3G iPhone rumor mongering as much as possible recently. After all, we know it's coming as both AT&T and Apple have confirmed. Now this: one of Italy's most respected newspapers, La Repubblica (like the WSJ with red sauce), is claiming in no uncertain terms that the 3G iPhone is coming shortly to Telecom Italia without a revenue sharing deal and without long-term exclusivity. If true, this change in strategy opens the doors for a true, global, 3G iPhone launch on UMTS networks around the world come summer time.

We contacted Telecom Italia who refuse to comment on the matter.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/21/3...rmed-in-italy/ ...

No, not audible as in the ability to be heard from beneath the strain of a million screeching iPod fanboys. Rather, the Microsoft Zune is about to be Audible book capable. At least if you believe Paul Thurrott (which we do) and others who have received confirmation from Audible Amazon that the Zune will be AudibleReady "before years end." Of course, it's not official until Ballmer shouts it out in a sweat splashing rampage across stage... but it's close.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/21/z...tting-audible/ ...

Been a while since we had a commercial demo, heres a new one to enjoy and you can preorder from Play Asia should you like it enough.




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News from Neoflash:

R6 motion menu v3.0.0722 for R6 Silver and Gold [2008-4-21]

history:
* Fix one bug of TF access, the TF compatibility is more better now
* Add one option for support the slow TF , you can use SELECT to choose 0-7 speed class, to see which speed class is suit with your TF
* Add the save type select function, if you see the new rom don't work, please use L/R key to swap it to 4M type and try again.

download:
http://www.neoflash.com/download/R6_...lver_and_Gold_[2008-4-21].zip ...

News/release from thedopefish


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The latest release of the ARM toolchain is now available. There are a number of improvements

binutils updated to 2.18.50
gcc updated to 4.3.0
grit updated to 0.8
ndstool now uses default.arm7 from libnds directory
newlib multibyte code enabled with C-UTF8 locale
devkitPro Updater 1.4.6 now downloads and installs the default.arm7 file used for arm9 only projects separately from libnds. This will allow us to maintain a much improved default arm7 core which will later include built in wifi support.

As usual, windows users should run the updater which will update itself, make sure you add the new default arm7 when shown the update list.

For other platforms where automatic update is not available here are the links to the SF releases.

devkitARM release 22

default arm7 20080416

The donations page has been fixed, thanks to those who told me the donation buttons were broken. Your support is much appreciated.

A porting guide for 4.3.0 is available on the main gnu.org site, there are a number of new features and better conformance to C++ standards.

http://www.devkitpro.org/ ...