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Poll shows 30 per cent fewer people consider themselves gamers compared to a year ago
New research from Japan’s Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association suggests that the number of people in Japan who consider themselves to be gamers has reduced significantly in the last year.
The organisation polled over 1,000 individuals aged between three and 79. The number that claimed to be gamers had dropped by 30.3 per cent compared to when the same poll was run in 2007.
Kotaku calculates that in broader terms, this means there are six million fewer gamers in the country now than there were a year ago.
Of those who said they did not consider themselves gamers, the most common reason was simply a lack of interest in gaming with the second most common response being that there were other things people would rather do.
The results back up 2008’s market figures which showed that despite ongoing growth in regions such as the UK and North America, the Japanese video games market is in steep decline, shrinking 15 per cent last year.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/33726/Japa...on-the-decline ...

Before the launches of the Nintendo DS and Wii, almost no one expected them to reach their current level of mainstream acceptance, remarked Nintendo president Satoru Iwata at the GDC keynote Wednesday morning.

Now Nintendo is hearing similar misgivings from external developers. Many, says Iwata, have questioned whether their games would be able to sell on the system. Many have asked if third-parties can succeed. There is a general belief, he says, that third-parties cannot compete with Nintendo.

Iwata says they are wrong. Seventy-three titles have sold 1 million copies on the Wii. It is not a matter of Nintendo's branding or monetary funds, rather, says Iwata, it is a difference in approach.

The Nintendo president used to hold similar views himself. When he worked for HAL Laboratories, he believed Nintendo could make better games because it had more money and therefore more time to spend during the development process. Once he was inside, he realized that their success stems from a philosophy similar to the rapid prototyping found in the Experimental Gameplay Project.

In particular, it is how game designer Shigeru Miyamoto works that makes Nintendo so different. He sees game development opportunities where others don't, and leverages them for game players better than anyone else in the world today, says Iwata.

Miyamoto takes his ideas from observing how others have fun, but he never writes a design document. Instead, he assembles a small team to build a rough prototype that is very limited in scope but clearly defines what the game is about. The objective is to create fun through trial and error with the smallest number of developers possible. Only when the concept is ready for mass production does Nintendo begin to assign more developers and begin building art assets.

Sometimes this prototyping stage lasts more than two years. Sometimes they are abandoned. But this way Nintendo doesn't waste money. And if a concept doesn't work, there's nothing to prevent it from showing up in other games.

The Game Boy Advance version of Rhythm Heaven was made by a team of five people, says Iwata. The DS version was made by a team of three.

Miyamoto's other secret is "random employee kidnapping." He steals a Nintendo employee who is not involved in development and asks them to play through a game, watching where they have fun and where they become bored. Nintendo can't send a developer to every household, so Miyamoto has to make sure people can always figure out the games on their own, says Iwata.

"If it can't be enjoyed, it is not the consumer's fault," he says. "The fault belongs to us."

Gamer evangelists

"We work in a time of rapid change," he notes. Much has been made of videogaming's expanded audience. But when videogamers make purchase decisions, one rule remains the same: software sells hardware, he says.

To date the company has shipped 100 million DSes and 50 million Wiis worldwide. The videogame industry has rapidly grown in North America and Europe.

People think this industry growth is a result of the expanded audience, he says. But according to research firm NPD Group, only 20 percent of Wii-owning households held no consoles before Nintendo's motion sensing system.

Wii's success is dependent on established game players introducing the Wii to new consumers. They are the ones supporting the industry, says Iwata.

Iwata also notes that the reason why Nintendo released a Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros. and Mario Kart so early in the console's life cycle was to expand the install base, which should expand everybody's ability to sell games.

WiiWare and DSiWare

Iwata closed his talk by championing development opportunities on WiiWare and DSiWare. On WiiWare, 90 percent of all games were developed by third-parties. To help spur creativity, he showed off a few upcoming projects:

Rock & Roll Climber is a rock climbing game for WiiWare that makes use of both the motion-sensing capabilites of the remotes and the Balance Board to let gamers virtually climb rock faces.

Nintendo also showed off what it dubs "Moving Memos" for the DSi, which is best described as Hypercard for a handheld. It lets people animate pictures and then upload and share their creations through a central server.

WarioWare Snapped takes advantage of the device's on-board camera, merging addictive WarioWare mini-games with EyeToy-style gameplay. You'll be asked to rapidly shake your head to get a dog to shed water from its coat, or quickly match your face and hands up with on-screen symbols. Later, friends will be able to watch a video of your recorded actions.

Nintendo also announced its new storage solutions for the Wii. A new system update allows players to save WiiWare and Virtual Console games directly to their SD cards, as well as launch saved titles from the cards. The system update also makes the Wii compatible with high-capacity SD cards that will be capable of holding up to 240 game files apiece.

It will also add ...

Before the launches of the Nintendo DS and Wii, almost no one expected them to reach their current level of mainstream acceptance, remarked Nintendo president Satoru Iwata at the GDC keynote Wednesday morning.

Now Nintendo is hearing similar misgivings from external developers. Many, says Iwata, have questioned whether their games would be able to sell on the system. Many have asked if third-parties can succeed. There is a general belief, he says, that third-parties cannot compete with Nintendo.

Iwata says they are wrong. Seventy-three titles have sold 1 million copies on the Wii. It is not a matter of Nintendo's branding or monetary funds, rather, says Iwata, it is a difference in approach.

The Nintendo president used to hold similar views himself. When he worked for HAL Laboratories, he believed Nintendo could make better games because it had more money and therefore more time to spend during the development process. Once he was inside, he realized that their success stems from a philosophy similar to the rapid prototyping found in the Experimental Gameplay Project.

In particular, it is how game designer Shigeru Miyamoto works that makes Nintendo so different. He sees game development opportunities where others don't, and leverages them for game players better than anyone else in the world today, says Iwata.

Miyamoto takes his ideas from observing how others have fun, but he never writes a design document. Instead, he assembles a small team to build a rough prototype that is very limited in scope but clearly defines what the game is about. The objective is to create fun through trial and error with the smallest number of developers possible. Only when the concept is ready for mass production does Nintendo begin to assign more developers and begin building art assets.

Sometimes this prototyping stage lasts more than two years. Sometimes they are abandoned. But this way Nintendo doesn't waste money. And if a concept doesn't work, there's nothing to prevent it from showing up in other games.

The Game Boy Advance version of Rhythm Heaven was made by a team of five people, says Iwata. The DS version was made by a team of three.

Miyamoto's other secret is "random employee kidnapping." He steals a Nintendo employee who is not involved in development and asks them to play through a game, watching where they have fun and where they become bored. Nintendo can't send a developer to every household, so Miyamoto has to make sure people can always figure out the games on their own, says Iwata.

"If it can't be enjoyed, it is not the consumer's fault," he says. "The fault belongs to us."

Gamer evangelists

"We work in a time of rapid change," he notes. Much has been made of videogaming's expanded audience. But when videogamers make purchase decisions, one rule remains the same: software sells hardware, he says.

To date the company has shipped 100 million DSes and 50 million Wiis worldwide. The videogame industry has rapidly grown in North America and Europe.

People think this industry growth is a result of the expanded audience, he says. But according to research firm NPD Group, only 20 percent of Wii-owning households held no consoles before Nintendo's motion sensing system.

Wii's success is dependent on established game players introducing the Wii to new consumers. They are the ones supporting the industry, says Iwata.

Iwata also notes that the reason why Nintendo released a Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros. and Mario Kart so early in the console's life cycle was to expand the install base, which should expand everybody's ability to sell games.

WiiWare and DSiWare

Iwata closed his talk by championing development opportunities on WiiWare and DSiWare. On WiiWare, 90 percent of all games were developed by third-parties. To help spur creativity, he showed off a few upcoming projects:

Rock & Roll Climber is a rock climbing game for WiiWare that makes use of both the motion-sensing capabilites of the remotes and the Balance Board to let gamers virtually climb rock faces.

Nintendo also showed off what it dubs "Moving Memos" for the DSi, which is best described as Hypercard for a handheld. It lets people animate pictures and then upload and share their creations through a central server.

WarioWare Snapped takes advantage of the device's on-board camera, merging addictive WarioWare mini-games with EyeToy-style gameplay. You'll be asked to rapidly shake your head to get a dog to shed water from its coat, or quickly match your face and hands up with on-screen symbols. Later, friends will be able to watch a video of your recorded actions.

Nintendo also announced its new storage solutions for the Wii. A new system update allows players to save WiiWare and Virtual Console games directly to their SD cards, as well as launch saved titles from the cards. The system update also makes the Wii compatible with high-capacity SD cards that will be capable of holding up to 240 game files apiece.

It will also add ...

Bungie's revealed that it has plans to produce more Halo 3 content, or support ODST for a while at least.

That's despite previously saying that it's viewing ODST, the stealth-orientated spin off of Master Chief's trilogy, "as the final exclamation point in our ongoing efforts to extend the Halo 3 experience".

It doesn't sound like the developer has small plans for the title either, saying it'll likely be producing Halo 3 goodness for another couple of years.

"Halo 3 took two and a half years to make, and we're still working on it," producer Allen Murray told Joystiq. "We'll probably be working on it for two more years."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=211783 ...

Though Media Molecule is the big winner with four separate category victories

Bethesda’s next-gen action RPG Fallout 3 has claimed the coveted GDC 09 Game of the Year Award at this year’s event, though it was LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule that emerged as the ceremony’s main benefactor, scooping four accolades.

Fallout 3 fended off the likes of Fable 2, Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto IV, and indeed LittleBigPlanet, to win the headline-grabbing prize. It also won the Best Writing category, beating Braid, Metal Gear Solid 4 and GTA IV in the process.

Media Molecule’s critically adored PS3 platformer, meanwhile, won four awards in total – Best Technology, Best Game Design, Best Debut Game and the Innovation Award. It was nominated for seven gongs overall.


Here’s the complete list of winners for the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards:

Game of the Year – Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
Best Game Design – LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Writing – Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
Best Technology – LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Visual Arts – Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
Best Debut Game – LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Handheld Game – God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready at Dawn)
Innovation Award – LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Audio – Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
Best Downloadable Game – World Of Goo (2D Boy)

http://www.developmag.com/news/31600...the-Year-Award ...

Publishers and retailers praise ‘masterful’ Nintendo launch; Handheld update ‘certain to sell out’, says industry
The hardware launch of the year is just a week away, and the UK games industry expects Nintendo’s DSi to give retail a huge boost.
The handheld arrives in the UK on Friday, April 3rd, just as consumer spending ramps up ahead of the Easter weekend.
“Nintendo is hugely influential and retail uplift on hardware and software [after DSi’s launch] will make for industry growth,” said Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens.
“The cloud of recession is deep and widespread but the games industry, while affected, will be less so than others and the consumer is looking for a ‘feel good’ factor in their lives. Why not DSi? Nintendo has been masterful at broadening the market.”
An Atari spokesperson added: “For Nintendo, the Easter timing seems excellent and we certainly wish them every success.”

Morrisons’ games buyer Jon Biggs enthused: “We intend to launch the DSi across the entire Morrisons estate. I expect we will quickly sell out. It’s always exciting when a product breathes new life into the market.”
DSGi games buyer Peter Willis continued: “The DSi will be just as popular as DS. We already have one of our strongest ever pre-order executions in place.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/33730/Trad...ter-domination ...

During the DSi development panel, DSi design director Masato Kuwahara showed some early handheld prototypes that never made it to market. Like this Game Boy Advance predecessor from 1995, the first prototype for a next-gen color handheld system, shown next to a DSi:



“There’s no way you’re fitting that thing in your pocket,” Kuwahara said via a translator. “You would be shocked to see how big that device was.” He also said that the graphics engine wasn’t proficient, and that there were performance issues.



The next prototype shown was a touch-screen adapter that Kuwahara designed to attach to the Game Boy Color. He said it was not “favorably received” by the software development team because the LCD screen didn’t have a backlight. He also revealed that Miyamoto liked the adapter when it was used on the GBA SP, but it was not brought to market. Kuwhara was disappointed but said, “I’d like to to think my prototype led to the appearance of the Nintendo DS.”

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...e-it-gdc-2009/ ...