via Games Industry


WiiWare, Nintendo's download service for original content, will launch in March according to Engine Software.

The company is preparing Project Bang, a casual game aiming to take advantage of the Wii remote, for one and two players.

"Nintendo's WiiWare service is a new downloadable game content service that is scheduled to be launched in March 2008," stated Engine Software.

Engine is currently working on DS projects Dragonhunters for PlayLogic and GoPets: Vacation Island for Konami.

"We are very excited about our first game for the WiiWare service," commented Ruud van de Moosdyk, VP of development at Engine.

"When we acquired our official Wii license last year we already had several concepts written up that would be ideal for WiiWare, and Project Bang is the first to actually go into production."

Although the company hopes to have the game completed "early on in the service's operational status," it has not yet confirmed an exact release date.

WiiWare (Wii Software in Europe) was unveiled by Nintendo in June last year, and intends to offer developers a chance to produce small budget titles for digital download, much like Sony's PSN service and Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade.

GamesIndustry.biz has contacted Nintendo for clarification of the WiiWare launch period. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Being total addicts of Namco's bonkers city-crushing roll-'em-up, we practically know the demo of Beautiful Katamari released on OXM's cover disc months ago off by heart - and now the full game finally has a release date.

February is when the waiting will end, and we'll finally get to smash over the Great Wall of China, batter our way through Paris and stick Zeus to our 800 metre Katamari of death and suffering in glorious 720p. It's going to be awesome.

We reviewed the full game back in October (and you should check that out now) - that's how long we've been waiting for this game.

Fans will know what to expect - a crazy Japanese soundtrack, a tiny green hammerhead alien that kills the world with giant sticky balls and, for the first time in the series, online multiplayer.

Sold.


See 80 screenshots here ...

via Eurogamer


Nintendo has explained how Professor Kageyama's Maths Training will work when it's released on DS next month. Result! Or "solution", probably.

Kageyama Hidea is a Japanese primary school head-teacher, apparently, and he came up with this idea of writing numbers along the top and left of a 10x10 grid and then getting you to do various sums involving them, filling in the little boxes on the grid.

Sounds quite clever, and of course it's a "Training" game so the idea is that it stimulates you mentally if you play it every day, mixing in other among its maths "exercises" to build up a steady diet of number-crunching. You get to hold the DS like a book and jot down all your answers, too.

Depending on speed and accuracy, you'll be rewarded with bronze, silver or gold medals, and then given a tick, just like you got in school (well, probably not you, but you understand the principle), and then eventually you will be able to work out whether you have enough change in your pocket for a Snickers or whether you need to break into the emergency fiver.

Anyway, Maths Training is due out on 8th February, and given how much we enjoyed doing quick-fire sums in Brain Training we can only imagine it will be good, and wipe away the pain of Sight Training. ...

via Eurogamer


Nintendo has explained how Professor Kageyama's Maths Training will work when it's released on DS next month. Result! Or "solution", probably.

Kageyama Hidea is a Japanese primary school head-teacher, apparently, and he came up with this idea of writing numbers along the top and left of a 10x10 grid and then getting you to do various sums involving them, filling in the little boxes on the grid.

Sounds quite clever, and of course it's a "Training" game so the idea is that it stimulates you mentally if you play it every day, mixing in other among its maths "exercises" to build up a steady diet of number-crunching. You get to hold the DS like a book and jot down all your answers, too.

Depending on speed and accuracy, you'll be rewarded with bronze, silver or gold medals, and then given a tick, just like you got in school (well, probably not you, but you understand the principle), and then eventually you will be able to work out whether you have enough change in your pocket for a Snickers or whether you need to break into the emergency fiver.

Anyway, Maths Training is due out on 8th February, and given how much we enjoyed doing quick-fire sums in Brain Training we can only imagine it will be good, and wipe away the pain of Sight Training. ...

via Games Industry


The Nintendo DS capped an excellent year in Japan with a strong flourish in the last two weeks of 2007, with sales of the hardware falling just shy of 500,000 units.

That compares, according to the latest data from Media Create, with the Wii which sold 385,000 and the PlayStation Portable which sold 332,000 in the same time frame.

While sales overall slowed from the previous week, the week ending December 30 still saw above average sales of consoles, with the PlayStation 3 now firmly outselling the PlayStation 2 - albeit with numbers around a third that of the Wii.

The Xbox 360 continued to lag far behind its rivals, despite picking up moderately in recent months, and broke the 500,000 units barrier right at the end of 2007.

Hardware sales for the week ending December 30 are as follows:

1. Nintendo DS: 218,894
2. PlayStation Portable: 161,370
3. Nintendo Wii: 152,209
4. PlayStation 3: 52,706
5. PlayStation 2: 25,569
6. Xbox 360: 8,304 ...

via Computer and Video Games


Those all-knowing industry analysts have peered into their crystal balls to see a bright future for PS3 following Warner Bros.' decision to go Blu-ray exclusive.

The move by the film-making giant puts Blu-ray, Sony's HD format, in good stead to win its long-lasting format war with the Microsoft-backed HD-DVD format, and that's ultimately great news for PS3, say analysts.

Mike Hickey of Janco Partners said: "We expect Sony's PS3 product will benefit from an eventual consumer and retail awakening of Blu-ray as the winning high definition format."

He added: "If Blu-ray can win the current format war, the true value of the PS3 can be unlocked, and will likely lead to an acceleration of PS3 sales."

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities was equally as optimistic about PS3's future, pointing at HDTV penetration as another crucial turning point for Sony. Noting that the PS2's success was helped by it being a popular DVD player, Patcher predicts the same of PS3 with it's Blu-ray playback.

"The difference this time is that you can't enjoy the full experience unless you have a 1080p TV, and we are still below 10 percent penetration," Patcher notes. "I think as overall HDTV penetration crosses 50 percent of households (probably late this year), Blu-ray will become more relevant, and PS3 will have an advantage," he told GameDaily. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Konami has confirmed earlier reports that Metal Gear Solid 4 will indeed come packaged with the multiplayer spin-off title, Metal Gear Online, but it will only be a starter pack.

We have an online component called a 'starter pack' that's shipping with Metal Gear 4," Konami told GameSpot, before confirming that downloadable content will be released following MGS4's release.

Exactly how much of the game would be in this starter pack went undisclosed, but in PSN terms 'starter pack' basically means it'll be a demo, with the main bulk of the game likely to come as a standalone purchase via the online PSN Store.

Konami promises more info on the deal soon. ...

via Games Industry


Japan has announced that it is to discontinue the 20GB and 60GB PlayStation 3 skus after a final shipment in January.

The company said that it now intends to concentrate on the 40GB model in the region as it "vigorously promotes" the home console during 2008.

Both 20GB and 60GB models were launched in Japan in November 2006, with the 40GB model launching in November last year.

Sony has continuously changed prices and introduced new models of the PlayStation 3 across Europe, the US and Japan since launching the console in each region.

Last October Sony Europe dropped the price of the 60GB console and introduced a 40GB model, before revealing it would phase out the 60GB sku all together.

In North America Sony launched a 80GB PlayStation 3 last August, and slashed the price of the 60GB model.

The 40GB PS3 has a few less features than the higher-spec models, most notably the loss of backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 titles.

The 40GB model is known to be cheaper to produce for Sony. Kaz Hirai noted earlier this week that he hopes the company's PlayStation business will become profitable in the next fiscal year, now that costs are being reduced at a manufacturing level. ...

via Eurogamer


Those of you with sneaky eyes will have noticed two fresh samplers for Yakuza 3 on the Japanese PlayStation Store.

The game is called Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 in those reaches of the world and you can get at it by creating a Japanese account claiming you live there and enjoy it very much.

According to our cherished forum-goer disc, the first and biggest of the two is a narrative taster at 960MB. Here you can amble around fetching some bits and pieces for quests, as well as draw a picture to unlock a new finishing move. You should also get into a couple of scrapes and enjoy some swanky cut-scenes.

The other demo is collection of mini-games: one has you trying to win the affection of a Geisha, another riding on horseback while shooting things and avoiding obstacles, while the last focuses on arena combat against a varied range of opponents.

So far Yakuza 3 is only confirmed for Japan, although SEGA recently confirmed the second game in the series would make its way to the US.

Meanwhile, us Europeans have only been treated to the first third-person action title, missing out on the other two due to poor western sales.

Pop over to our Yakuza 3 gamepage for a spattering of videos, or slice into our Yakuza 1 review to see what's what. ...