Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto has told ONM that the games industry could lose its 'uniqueness' when Microsoft and Sony launch their own motion controllers.

When asked if Wii had now lost its unique selling point, Miyamoto replied: "Well, I should say that it could be taken as a compliment if others are following suit, by saying Nintendo was right in choosing a certain direction. But if you ask me if that is going to be good for the entire business, I really don't know."

"If everyone else is going to do exactly the same thing, unfortunately in this entertainment business that means less uniqueness, and uniqueness is what Nintendo has tried to realise."

However, Miyamoto was keen to stress that the emergence of rival motion controllers isn't something for Nintendo or its fans to worry about. "We don't look to the future in one direction only," he said. "When you say that one element of our uniqueness might have been lost, you don't really have to be concerned about that, because Nintendo always tries to find something new. I hope you are looking forward to our challenge to discover this new uniqueness!"

So it looks as if Nintendo is still aiming to stand out from the crowd with its next console? What do you think Nintendo's next console should do?

http://www.officialnintendomagazine....e.php?id=13425 ...

via Gizmodo




Not only can this 2007 model UX490 quad-boot into OS X, Windows 7, XP Pro, and Vista Business, but its specs have been overhauled. A voice-capable HSPA modem has been added, plus a faster CPU and larger solid-state hard disk.

The original 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo U2200 processor (which was soldered in place) has been swapped with a 1.33GHz Core 2 Duo overclocked to 1.438GHz. And the 48GB SSD is replaced with a fast RunCore ProIV 128GB SSD. Amazingly, the battery life is said to be pretty much the same.

It's a pretty involved mod, but it's a hackintosh I'd definitely like to take for a spin. That 4.5-inch touchscreen doesn't look too bad, either. ...

via MCV


Wii hardware sales jumped 60 per cent last week – as the black version of the console helped stimulate fresh interest in time for Christmas.

The Black Wii, which launched a fortnight ago on Friday, November 6th, helped the console become the best performing home system of the week, according to Nintendo.

And preferred distributor Nindie.com – owned by
Koch Media – has told MCV that it has been working “round the clock” to deal with increased demand.
Nintendo is hoping to avoid any stock troubles as demand increases. Lowe added: “We’re bringing in a decent supply of stock and hopefully retail will find it in plentiful supply this Christmas – although consumer reaction to the new colour might suddenly change that position. It is a limited edition version of the console so currently we only have plans for it to be available in 2009.”

Koch Media boss Craig McNicol added: “We are working around the clock this Q4, opening each weekend to take in deliveries to support yet another strong Nintendo Christmas. Nindie.com continues to be the only place to offer a fair allocation of stock to the independent channel.
...

via the Financial Post


Microsoft Corp. has responded to a possible class-action lawsuit over banning up to one million Xbox 360 consoles from accessing its online gaming service, arguing the company is well within its rights to ban users from Xbox Live.

U.S. law firm Abington IP recently announced on its website that it's considering filing a class-action lawsuit over Microsoft's worldwide crackdown on modified Xbox 360 consoles by booting them from the Xbox Live online network. The firm is asking those interested in joining the suit to contact them.

Microsoft "conveniently" waited until after the launch of two of Xbox 360's biggest holiday titles before banning up to one million consoles from accessing its online gaming service, the firm argued.

A spokesperson from Microsoft reacted to the possible lawsuit on Friday. "Piracy is illegal and modifying an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use. Microsoft is well within its legal rights to ban these users from Xbox Live."

The number of bans has not been released by Microsoft, but some media reports suggest between 600,000 and one million consoles were banned.

The law firm is asking Xbox Live subscribers who were not refunded for the time left on their subscription to participate in the possible class action.

A 12-month subscription to the service, which allows players to access the online marketplace and play online with other subscribers, costs about $60. More than 20 million people are members of Xbox Live.
Abington IP said the timing might have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had the console bans taken place before the releases. The firm also argued sales of Modern Warfare 2 -- which launched Nov. 10 and set a new sales record by grossing about $550-million over the first five days of sales -- would have been hampered by the bans. Both Halo: ODST and Modern Warfare 2 have very popular multiplayer modes.
...

via Information Week


The U.S. Air Force is looking to buy 2,200 Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles to built out a research supercomputer, according to an document posted on the federal government's procurement Web site.

The PlayStation 3s will be used at the Air Force Research Laboratory's information directorate in Rome, N.Y., where they will be added to an existing cluster of 336 PlayStation 3s being used to conduct supercomputing research.

The Air Force will use the system to "to determine the best fit for implementation of various applications," including commercial and internally developed software specific to the PS3's Cell Broadband Engine processor architecture. The research will help the Air Force decide where Cell Broadband Engine processor-derived hardware and software could be used in military systems.

The Air Force has used the cluster to test a method of processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and "neuromorphic computing," or building computers with brain-like properties.

The PlayStation 3's eight-processor Cell powers other supercomputers, including the world's second-fastest, IBM's RoadRunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In June, the Department of Defense awarded $2 million for this research under its High Performance Computing Modernization Program, the DOD's arm for supercomputing research, development, test, and evaluation. That follows an initial investment of $118,000 on the original cluster.

Before it won the research award in 2008, the information directorate's advanced computing architectures team considered alternative configurations and the possibility of a hybrid system, but found multicore Xeon servers slower and more expensive than PS3s, and GPGPUs to be slower in some important types of calculations.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's information directorate spends about $700 million annually on R&D, in areas such as collaboration, networking, cybersecurity, and computer modeling. ...

[Photo from CVG]

As the launch in Japan as begun, the folks at Computer and Video Games have managed to get a hold of a new Nintendo DSi XL. They've posted some photos comparing its size to the likes of the first DSi and a PSP go. See them all right here. ...

Wii Game Studio is an easy drag and drop game maker for the nintendo Wii.

Wii Game Studio 1.5 is out.

The room editor is less flickery, and the grid and overlays are now drawn above the text.

Actions can now be duplicated

The script bug has been fixed, so now scripts can be run from within other scripts.

www.wiigamestudio.com ...

News via http://gbatemp.net/index.php




The major news of interest is the support of the GBA emulator that was made for the dsiplayer and the Snes emulator thats gonna be built in, does the Snes emulator run close to full speed, if it does then this could be a real major hit for the supercard team. ...

News via http://www.nintendomax.com/index.php...80&format=news

Louis and Pierre Monestier perform "Rapid Fire"For the DS, so shoot'em up where you need to destroy using projectiles in the form of stars before they cross the screen.

This game is to eliminate the creatures do before what does the length of the field. Without getting hit.
Before each game you can toggle the music. And you can also choose the map and where they will play.
As time passes more monsters move quickly (at first you do not realize but in the end it's different ...)
During the duration of the game can receive bonuses that have 3 levels of evolution:

Multi-launch: Allows you to run multiple projectiles (3,5,7).
Size: Increases the size of projectiles.
Speed: Increases speed of shots.
Refill: Increases the speed between each run.
Perforating: The projectiles perforate enemies.

At the end of each party can see their scores.
Have fun!

Download and Give feedback Via Comments ...