Gamedaily BIZ has a nice little feature up where they ask if Sony can do something that someone has never done before: dominate the industry for three generations. Based on a report run by BusinessWeek Online, they analyze Sony's high-priced offering and claim that developers are instead diverting resources to the more cost-effective Xbox 360 and Wii. To quote the article:

"At its autumn games preview on July 13, for instance, traditional Sony ally Electronic Arts spent far more time showing off innovative Nintendo games than it did titles for the PS3," emphasized BusinessWeek. "EA announced six Nintendo Wii launch titles and showed long working demos for two of those. But it offered only a short clip of a car-racing game for PS3. EA says it's still testing the potential of the PS3."

Makes sense since the development costs are already extremely high as it is and with the incredibly-cheap process by which developers can make games on the Wii, a process more expensive on the Xbox 360, however less expensive than on the PS3, we're sure to see this occur even more should the Wii strike gold once released to retail. ...

Quite some time ago, Suda 51 announced he was developing an exclusive game for the Wii. As the rather insane mastermind behind the bizarre Killer 7, this was caused a noticeable stir...yet, at E3 2006, nothing was shown.

Flash forward to today, where rival fellow Wii-centric news site The Wiire managed to hack obtain the official trailer for the game, slated to be shown at E3 by cancelled at the last minute. Though they promise to put up a higher resolution version in the near future, the three and a half minute trailer shows some good stuff.

Cel-shaded in a style similar to Killer 7, Heroes seems to share the assassination themes of its forebear. A man named "Travis Touchdown" uses a lightsaber to kill "Helter Skelter" and...well, maybe you should just take a peek yourselves. It's pretty insane.

Seriously, props to The Wiire for obtaining and hosting this video; we would have all our readers head over to their site to check it out. This is exciting, exciting stuff, and Heroes promises to be a HUGE game for the Wii. It's being developed by Grasshopper Manufacturer, and is tentatively scheduled for release in the summer of 2007. ...

Shigeru Miyamoto shared info with IGN about the Wii:

Nintendo game master Shigeru Miyamoto, speaking with Japan's monthly Nintendo Dream as part of the magazine's 10th anniversary festivities, has shared a few intriguing details on the Wii, its controller, and his upcoming games.



Miyamoto first spoke about the origins of the system. "It was very important to have it become 'something that would be best to have there,'" he said, speaking of Nintendo's desire to make the Wii an attractive machine for households. Miyamoto feels that game machines had the status of a desirable household item at one point, but they lost it. The change happened when games "lost their fundamental nature as pure entertainment."

Wii development started with thoughts of "what kind of machine would make for a console that one wants to keep in the home?" The answer was something that doesn't get in the way, something "not frightening." The Wii project also began with the notion of making something "anyone can play, simply using one hand."

Of course, every Wii includes, in addition to the Wii-mote, the nunchuck accessory. Miyamoto explained the origins of the secondary device and its name. When Nintendo first made demo units, the development staff referred to the device as a nunchuck simply because it looked like one. American staffers referred to the device as nunchuck as well, so it became a development code for the device. Eventually, Nintendo investigated the copyright status of the term "nunchuck," learned that it was free to use as a standard word, and went with it.

Nunchuck isn't the precise name for the analog expansion unit that will ship with every Wii, though. Anything that's attached to the Wii-mote in similar fashion to the analog expansion unit is said to be in a nunchuck style position. Anything that's fixed to the remote similar to the gun expansion that was shown at E3 is said to be in zapper style position.

Earlier in development, the Wii-mote was referred to as the "Core Unit." The devices that attached to it were referred to as the "Peripheral Unit." This naming originated when Nintendo came up with the idea of splitting the controller into separate units. The biggest cost to the controller comes from wireless functionality and power consumption. Nintendo realized that by placing these costly capabilities into one device, the Core Unit, they would then be able to make and release a variety of Peripheral Units at cheaper cost to users.

Miyamoto also touched upon one of the last areas of the controller's functionality, its speaker. "We had a lengthy discussion on the matter," said Miyamoto about the decision to include either a speaker or a microphone in the controller.

There was apparently even some consideration of including neither in order to keep the controller from becoming too complicated, but this was vetoed. "Because you're using a wireless, rod-shaped remote control to play, it's important to have feedback and reaction to the actions that you take," said Miyamoto. "Controllers until now have used rumble, but we felt that rumble would be insufficient, and ended up keeping the speaker in."

He let out one bit of information, confirming first if it was okay to reveal it. Nintendo is making a game in which four players play together by passing a single controller around. The controller calls out player names in order to indicate whose turn it is.

He also suggested another idea, a game where the controller quietly gives out secret information to individual players as their turn comes about.

One of the main driving forces for the inclusion of the speaker was third parties. Nintendo actually considered removing the device for cost reasons, but found third parties requesting that it be left in.

Interest wasn't as high inside Nintendo from the start. "When we first started talking about the speaker, there was absolutely no reaction," revealed Miyamoto. This changed when people heard the sound effects generated by the speaker while swinging a sword in Zelda and noted that it sounded like swinging a Light Saber.

Asked about reactions from E3 which claimed it difficult to go back to using a standard controller after having used the Wii controller, Miyamoto said, "That's because once you've gotten used to free style using the remote control, going back to a controller where you use both hands, you're unable to move your hands and end up feeling a lack of freedom. However, I have absolutely no intention of being negative about current controllers. We are, after all, preparing a standard style controller in the form of the Classic Controller."

Miyamoto feels that some games will actually work better with the classic controller. He mentioned F-Zero as one such game.

The dialogue turned at one point to, of all things, left-handed and right-handed gaming. Miyamoto is left-handed, and he said that he's recently been trying to get used to using the remote/nunchuck pair in the "reverse" way -- that is, the ...

LiraNuna has posted a new released of his Wonderswan Emulator for the Nintendo DS:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

Latest Sales for the 10th-16th July

- DS Lite: 140,858
- PSP: 35,283
- PS2: 23,927
- DS Phat: 11,821
- GBA SP: 2,619
- Game Boy Micro: 1,581
- Xbox 360: 1,105
- Gamecube: 928
- GBA: 28
- Xbox: 10

The DS is still gong very strong in Japan, just about everybody there must have one by now ? ...

Remember the new Xbox 360 bundle with PGR3 we thought was coming? Well, a tipster says:

Just saw the sku pop up in our POS screen.
"Xbox 360 PGR Bndl
Price 499.99 Cdn."
Also the company is offering Employees a 360 Plat for $50 off. Looks like with the new sku and price drop, making room for the new Platium system bundle.
He also says there may be some bundle coming up with the HD DVD drive, but nobody's sure of that yet. ...

Software colossus Microsoft today reported its earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30, 2006. Overall, the tech giant saw $2.3 billion in profits on revenue of $11.8 billion. That was a 24 percent slide from the $3.7 billion in profits on revenue of $10.2 billion it enjoyed during the same quarter in 2005.

The fastest-growing sector of Microsoft's various businesses was its Server and Tools division, which saw $3.18 billion of quarterly income, an 18 percent year-on-year increase. However, another sector closer to gamers' hearts also saw massive revenue increases. Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division, which includes games, saw $1.14 billion in revenue--a 94 percent boost when compared to the $587 million the division earned in 2005. Xbox revenue--which includes sales of the original Xbox and Xbox 360--increased some $503 million, or 129 percent.

Obviously, one big reason for the massive increase in revenue was brisk sales of the Xbox 360, which, after several months of shortages, is now in ample supply. Microsoft was eager to tout the console's success, announcing that it shipped over 1.8 million Xbox 360 units during the quarter, bringing its international installed base to 5 million. Microsoft also took the opportunity to retout the fact that 60 percent of Xbox 360 owners--some three million consumers--use Xbox Live, its online gaming service.

However, despite the jump in sales, the Home & Entertainment division once again lost money--a lot of money. It posted an operating loss of $414 million for the quarter, a 106 percent increase from the previous year. The biggest reason for the increase is the fact that, as Microsoft admits, it loses a significant amount of money on each Xbox 360 sold.

"Home and Entertainment operating loss increased primarily as a result of a $682 million increase in cost of revenue primarily associated with the Xbox 360, partially offset by the revenue growth," the company said in its earnings report. "Our business model anticipates that while we currently sell Xbox 360 consoles at a negative margin, product cost reductions and the future margins on sales of games and other products will enable us to achieve a positive margin over the Xbox 360 console lifecycle."

While such predictions may reassure some, others will find it interesting that Microsoft also still loses money on the original Xbox, which was introduced back in 2001. "The first-generation Xbox consoles continue to have negative margins," said the company. Microsoft also said a 19 percent increase in headcount, in part due to its acquisition of Lionhead Studios, contributed to the division's losses.

By itself, the Home and Entertainment division saw $4.266 billion in revenue for the fiscal year, earning $1.56 billion during the October-December 2005 quarter when the Xbox 360 launched. But, as with the quarterly earnings, H&E's expenditures once again outpaced its revenue. Its operating loss jumped 160 percent from $485 million in FY2005 to $1.262 billion in FY2006.

"Home and Entertainment operating loss increased primarily as a result of a $1.64 billion increase in cost of revenue primarily as a result of the number of Xbox 360 consoles sold and higher Xbox 360 unit costs, partially offset by the revenue growth," said the company. "Our fiscal year 2006 operating loss increase was also attributable to the significant impact of Halo 2 in fiscal year 2005"--the year the game shattered sales records on the original Xbox.

Despite the massive losses of its game division, Microsoft still posted strong overall results for its 2006 fiscal year, which also ended June 30, 2006. The company reported annual revenue of $44.28 billion, an 11 percent increase over its 2005 fiscal year. Net income--that is, profit--for the year was $12.60 billion, versus $12.25 billion the previous year. The company is also planning to buy back some $20 billion in stock in a massive tender offer. ...

According to Impress Watch, the Pokemon Company has announced that it will be giving away 150 "I Love Pikachu" special-edition DS Lites. The Nintendo portables will be identical to the Ceramic White model that has been released, except it will feature images of Pikachu, the most recognizable Pokemon.

In order to enter the contest, fans should check out the I Love Pokemon Club Web site using either their mobile phones or PCs. One hundred of the special DS Lites will be given to visitors to the PC version of the Web site, and 50 will be given to visitors of the mobile-phone site. ...

Recently released figures of the first half of 2006 paint a clear picture of the Japanese game market: It's one dominated by Nintendo's portable system--but expect the latter half of the year to be a match-up between next-generation systems from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.

The latest Weekly Famitsu, dated Friday, August 4, details the results of Japan's gaming market during the first half of the 2006 fiscal year, from December 26, 2005, to June 25, 2006.

Handhelds are dominating the Japanese market. Sales of the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite have reached 4 million units--a 63 percent share of the hardware market, according to Famitsu. The Game Boy Advance SP and Micro hardware picked up a little over 5 percent.

Nintendo's gain in the market contrasted with Sony's loss, as both the market share of the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable dipped. The PS2 dropped out of the dominant position it held in the first semester of 2005, plummeting from 29.6 percent to 13.5 percent. The PSP's share slipped 10 percent from the same period last year, although it managed to sell close to 1 million units, giving it 16.1 percent of the market.

Last but not least, the Xbox 360 sold 64,392 units for a 1 percent share--despite Microsoft's attempt to harness World Cup fever with a limited-edition 360 package featuring the Japanese soccer team's motif.

Compared with the same period in 2005, total hardware sales soared from 4.3 million to nearly 6.2 million units. In software, sales of top 100 titles for all consoles for the first semester of 2006 totaled more than 36 million, up from the roughly 24 million sold in the first half of 2005. Software sales closely mirrored the dominance of the DS in hardware. Of the top 10 selling games, seven were Nintendo DS titles, while three were for the PS2--the opposite of first-semester 2005, when three titles were DS games and the rest PS2 titles.

The period's top game, selling more than 2.5 million copies, was the DS title Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Motto Nou o Kitaeru Otona DS Training--otherwise known as the sequel to Brain Age. Following closely in sales were Final Fantasy XII on the PS2 (about 2.3 million copies) and New Super Mario Bros. on the DS (about 1.7 million copies). Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS placed fourth, and the original Brain Age was fifth. The remaining top 10 games, in order of popularity, were Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Eigozuke (DS), World Soccer Winning Eleven 10 (PS2), Mario Kart DS (DS), Tetris DS (DS), and Monster Hunter 2 (PS2).

Looking at the top 100 overall, things weren't so lopsided. The PS2 had 45 titles in the top 100, while the DS had 32. The sole Xbox 360 game, coming in at number 72, was Tecmo's Dead or Alive 4, while Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence made the cut at number 100.

Early 2006 belonged to the DS, but, Famitsu predicted, the latter half of the year will be marked by a three-way struggle between the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. ...