news via nintendorevolution

Go Nintendo kills the Wii rumor
Nintendo Wii Bluetooth Is NOT Picture HungryThere's been a bizarre Wii rumor floating around that seemed so darn unlikely, even we didn't post about it. It all stemmed from a Nintendo forum user (This is becoming a trend, no?) that posted the following:

I just went in my photo channel just to look at the opening menu (I had no pictures on the SD card, or so I thought) when I clicked on the left button. It said that there were 12 pictures available. So, I was like “what’s going on here” and viewed them. It turned out to be pictures from my brother’s phone.

The allegation was that Wii was magically synching with nearby cellphones via Bluetooth and downloading the photos of 'em.

Pure nonsense, says Go Nintendo.

This is 100% not true. Bluetooth devices have to be paired with one another to get them to see each other. On top of that, there would be no reason that an SD card would have to be inserted to get this to work. To further prove that it doesn’t work, I even tried it multiple times just to give a first-hand confirmation that this isn’t true.

Another day, another rumor debunked. ...

news via computerandvideogames

Flash website lets you create and play mini-games on the Wii

Do you fancy making your own mini-games for people to play on their Wii? Wiicade.com is a Flash-based mini-games website that is designed specifically for use on the Wii's Opera Browser.

Cleverly, all the games on the site are played using the mouse pointer which, when browsing on a Wii console, will be operated with the pointer functionality of the Wii Remote. So you'll be able to play the games with the Remote.

The best part is that it has an option that allows users to create and upload their own games for other Wii users to play - essentially starting a homebrew scene of sorts on Wii.

There is already a decent selection of cool games, from shooter to puzzle games, all made to fit the ration of a TV and many of them even imitating the visual style of the Wii's interface menus.

Now we're just waiting for someone to make a Flash version of Duck Hunt. It's bound to happen.

we could see a mini homebrew scene for the wii come from this ...

news via palgn

We previously reported some of the ups and downs of the much talked about Toys R US Wii pre-order deal in our Wii rumour feature a couple of weeks ago. A recap for those who missed the drama: Toys R Us had been promising a 'free game at launch' with $50 down on a Wii pre-order since the middle of the year. When it was announced that Wii Sports would be packed in with the console, many reasonably assumed that TRU would go the cheap route and say that this pack-in was the free game, even though every other store would be offering the same deal automatically.

However, Toys R Us employees began telling customers that it would in fact be an additional Wii game of their choice, and this news set pre-orders alight. Three weeks ago, the dream of free Zelda was shattered like so many stalfos when TRU changed the deal so that the free game could only be the upcoming movie tie-in Open Season. After receiving a lot of negative feedback as to this odd choice of title, TRU changed their deal again, allowing customers to chose between Open Season and the Wii version Need For Speed: Carbon, which while still no Zelda was an improvement.

But yesterday it seemed the already soiled rug had been pulled out from under eager gamers' feet. According to US gaming mega-blog Kotaku, the deal is now totally off, and customers will be receiving no free game at all. But while we all know the interwebs are world wide these days, what do the yanks know about Australian retailers?

While we are still waiting for official confirmation from the Toys R Us head office, some inquiries with actual stores, combined with common sense have led us to believe Kotaku have it wrong, and that current pre-order holders will still receive their choice of Open Season or Need For Speed: Carbon. The pre-order deal is now closed for new customers, perhaps this was confused with the deal being canceled for existing customers?

We'll keep you updated if we hear any more on the topic, but for now it seems as if there's no need to declare 'open season' on TRU. ...

news via pro-g

New information coming from analysts puts the Wii launch availability far ahead of the PS3.

Sony had intended to launch the PS3 with launch stock in the region of 400,000 units. However, in the run-up to the launch this figure began to come down to around 200,000 units. According to analyst PJ McNealy of American Technology Research the actual launch figures of the PlayStation 3 are likely to be even lower than 200,000 at between 125k and 175k.

The Wii launch was much closer to expectations with McNealy indicating that launch stock was in the region of 425k to 475k.

"This number is in-line with our expectations, and bodes well for consumers looking for a Wii this holiday season. Our research indicates that Nintendo will likely ship at least 1.5MM to 2.0MM units to North America this calendar year, which indicates that availability of the Wii both at retail and via online stores should provide buying opportunities," said McNealy.

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has also commented on the two new platforms. Sebastian expects Nintendo to ship a further 150,000-200,000 Wii consoles to North America each week in 2006, bringing 2006 shipments of the console roughly inline with pre-launch estimates.

The PS3 does not look to be fairing as well, with Sebastian estimating that the console will only ship in the region of 750,000 units, some 250,000 units shy of Sony's one million target.

Another concern for the PS3 is a relatively low software tie ratio of approximately 1.5 games per console. This falls short of the Xbox 360 tie ratio which has maintained roughly 4 games sold per console. This low figure hasn't been helped by the large percentage of early buyers who bought a PS3 to sell on eBay.

"Based on our analysis of auction listings," notes Sebastian, "we estimate that approximately 20,000 PS3s have sold on eBay since pre-orders for the console began last month, with an average auction price of approximately $1,500 (a 150% premium over the retail price)."

Whatever happens, expect some impressive spin to come from each camp when they release sales figures for their respective launches. ...

news via reuters

The rush to get hold of Nintendo's new Wii video game console is being fueled by demand for another attraction -- the new game in Nintendo's legend of Zelda series -- but game critics were uncertain this level of interest would continue.

Nintendo turned to one of its most popular franchises to make sure its Wii console got off on a good start in the three-way race for sales this holiday, against Microsoft's Xbox360 and Sony Corp.'s Playstation 3.

For almost 20 years the Legend of Zelda has been one of the top properties in the video game industry, selling more than 47 million copies, so Nintendo ensured "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" came in tandem with the launch of Wii.

The new game makes use of the new controls of Wii such as its motion-sensitive controller, with players swinging the remote to make sword attacks, pointing it to fire arrows, and even simulating reeling motions in fishing challenges.

"Nintendo has an opportunity to reclaim the market share lead (with the Wii)," said Jamil Moledina, executive director of the Game Developers Conference.

Nintendo has some ground to make up. Its GameCube held just 14 percent of the global video game market compared to Sony's Playstation 2 winning a 70 percent share and Microsoft Xbox's 16 percent, according to DFC Intelligence.

The new Zelda game has received rave reviews since its release with some critics calling it one of the best Zelda titles yet. According to Gamerankings.com, the title has an average rating of 97 percent among critics.

"It took Nintendo almost a decade to do it, but the publisher has finally created a new Zelda game that is so epic that it deserves to be crowned the best in its class," raved game critic Matt Casamassina on IGN.com.

view more of the artical here ...

news via playfuls

Do you know what the first condition of a perfect console launch is? Releasing enough units so that everyone can get one! Well, if not everyone, at least as many as possible.

Of the three competitors on the console market, Nintendo seems to be the only one to have understood this necessity. Sony would have certainly liked to have millions of consoles available for sale, but problems determined by the incorporation of the BluRay unit didn’t allow the Japanese company such a luxurious release of its product.

Microsoft released Xbox 360 a year ago, however, as it didn’t respect this condition, the unit was sold out shortly after its launch. Lucky for the Redmond company that they had a whole year at their disposal in order to solve this problem – now they can be proud of having sold 7 million consoles. Microsoft hopes to celebrate having delivered 10 million units to consumers by March 2007.

Nintendo Wii, deemed a bona fide outsider at the beginning of the console war, has already sold 700,000 models if we are to believe what the site monitoring console sales is saying.

In less than a week, Nintendo will launch another 400,000 consoles in Japan and another number of consoles in Europe, undisclosed for now, in an attempt to reach its goal of selling 4 million units by the end of the year.

Sony is in the paradoxical situation of being defeated by a console greatly inferior to PS 3 technically. PlayStation 3 is undoubtedly a must have for any self-respecting gamer, but Nintendo Wii does hold one advantage: it will be available for purchase in stores. Sony has sold out its few hundred thousand PS3s at launch and it is unclear when the next units will hit the market.

As the holiday season is only days away, it’s hard to imagine that Sony will miraculously come forward with another couple of hundred thousand consoles, conjured out of thin air.

Surprising as it may be, the war of the consoles is not being fought over technical specs, as we’d expect it to be, but over availability. Whoever produces more units faster will win, and from this perspective, Nintendo is carefree.

Compared to Wii, Xbox 360 is no happier case. The console has already turned 1 year old and Microsoft will have to initiate a publicity campaign or price reductions in order to stimulate sales growth.

In case you’ve missed the most recent episodes of “Attack of the Next-Generation Consoles: Sony and Nintendo Counter-Attack”, don’t be mistaken into thinking Nintendo Wii will sell just because there’s so much more of it than of its rivals on the market.

While Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were competing in categories such as “who can stuff more memory and processors per square centimeter”, Nintendo bet on the human factor and instead of concentrating on graphics and processor power, it reinvented the magic wand, creating a wireless controller which allows gamers to make any kind of movements they desire while playing.

Is Nintendo the winner of the console war? It’s still too soon to draw a conclusion, one way or another, especially since Sony will fight mightily to regain its footing. Wii certainly is this season’s revelation. ...

news via inquierer

Next year, according to rumours

NINTENDO HAS plans to release a new version of the Wii next year that will ship with a HD DVD player, according to industry rumours.

Gameinformer.com quotes Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime as saying that Nintendo decided not to ship with high-definition capability when it launched on Sunday because it wanted to keep the cost down.

However, his words indicate that it may have plans to release one in the future. Later next year Nintendo has plans to release a new version of the Wii and Gameinformer is speculating that this will be when the outfit will stick on the new drive.

A spokesNintendo said that the outfit was "absolutely not currently announcing any plans to upgrade the maximum resolution from 480p". But then again everyone knews that.

However, the spokesNintendo admitted it shouldn't be impossible in theory. In fact, said the spokesman, Microsoft was able to patch the Xbox 360 to support 1080p and Nintendo has already released a patch to allow Wii gamers to transfer game saves to SD cards.

So it could be true. ...

news via engadget

Have an Xbox 360 but secretly prefer your PS2 Dual Shock controllers over Microsoft's offerings? XCM's just released some photos of its latest adapter prototype, the XFPS 360, which include a pair of USB plugs, two PS/2 (the boring kind) jacks, and a place for your beloved PS2 (the fun kind) controller. In some ways, this is just a role reversal for that Xbox controller to PSP hack we spotted last year, don't you think? Anyway, the XFPS 360 hasn't quite yet entered mass production, so we've got no price or availability deets for the time being.

screen via comment ...

new hack and video via abeisgreat

This is a video about how to transfer a save from any wii console to your own. This will open up possibilitys of large save dumps and maybe in the future some form of wii homebrew. This is a really simple process you only need a Wii, an Sd, and a Pc with a sd reader/writer.

video via youtube ...