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by Published on April 26th, 2008 20:47
Following Nintendo's latest fiscal results, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian noted that Nintendo may consider a "refresh" to its DS handheld if sales continue to slow down.
"Nintendo expects to ship 28M DS handheld units in F2009, a decline from 30M units shipped in F2008. The forecasted year-over-year decline in DS hardware shipments in its fourth year on the market is in line with our expectations. We expect DS unit sales in the U.S. of 6.4M in 2008, and continue to believe our forecast may be conservative. According to its press release, Nintendo plans to accelerate DS sales momentum with further penetration into the consumer mass market and by introducing new software and services for the platform. Moreover, we believe Nintendo could launch a refresh of its handheld platform if sales momentum does not continue," Sebastian said.
He also noted that Nintendo's new projection of 25 million Wiis shipped in the new fiscal year implies a monthly production boost to 2.1 million units, which is consistent with what he recently told GameDaily BIZ regarding Nintendo's production plans.
Additionally, despite the first-party dominance on the Wii, publishers continue to flock to the console, Sebastian said: "While software sales on Nintendo Wii continue to be driven to some extent by first-party titles such as Wii Play, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy, we note that many third-party software publishers continue to increase development pipelines for Wii titles. This is consistent with our analysis of title economics that suggests that publishers should be able to tolerate lower retail pricing and attach rates on the Wii to a certain extent without sacrificing title profitability."
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...ardware/?biz=1 ...by Published on April 26th, 2008 20:38
Yes, Europe. It's shocking, but Mario Kart Wii comes out in North America tomorrow. But, y'all are probably over the latest real kart simulator and have moved on to enjoying Wii Fit. The continent where the history comes from already reviewed Mario Kart Wii many moons ago and rated it a perfectly competent experience. What do the American outlets think? Pretty much the same thing.
IGN (85/100): "Every player is going to have their own love/hate relationship with Mario Kart Wii, but in the end the game does so many things right that it'd be foolish not to give credit where due. Online seriously raises the bar for Nintendo, trumping even Smash in a big, big way. ... It isn't the best Mario Kart in the series, but it's a must-play experience on Wii, and standard-setting offering as far as online, channel support, and connectivity are concerned. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got some online stats to obsess over. "
GameTrailers (84/100): "Generally, video game franchises move forward with each successive release. In this case, Mario Kart for the Wii has taken a few steps forward, and one huge step back. This is the first case of Nintendo not finding a happy medium between accessibility and servicing hardcore players. Yet if you get a group of people together on a Saturday night to play you'll be the only one complaining. While the competitive spirit may be quelled, there's no denying that the foundation here is solid, and the addition of bikes, tricks, and online play are all positives that no one can deny."
GameTap (80/100): "Mario Kart makes a good case for connecting the Wii online, too. Via the Mario Kart Channel, you race other gamers from around the world in an eight-driver contest; you can even see which countries they represent. This is the way to go for multiplayer karting. ... But online or off, you can't go wrong with Mario Kart. If this is your first experience or you've been absent for a while you're in for a treat. If you're a grizzled MK vet at least you can pit your skills with racers around the world--and still have something to grumble about. "
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/26/me...-kart-wii-wii/ ...by Published on April 26th, 2008 20:35
Is it too early to say that we're beginning to see a pattern develop here? We know that a mere handful of reviews for Rockstar's latest opus have been published, but should the current trend continue, Grand Theft Auto IV could be the subject of more perfect scores than 1976 Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Yes, IGN recently dropped the suspiciously non-embargoed first online review for the title, giving it a 10 out of 10 (on both platforms) and evoking the wrath of the Nintendo Defense Force, calling GTA IV "the best game since Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time."
The seven-page, five-thousand word review (and accompanying video review, after the jump) praises the game's art style, the immersive backdrop of Liberty City, the "Oscar quality" story and the "refined" gameplay. The enamored reviewer even commends some of the quirky extra features included by Rockstar, such as Niko's multipuropse cellphone, or the in-game use of alcohol: "You don't have to drive drunk," the reviewer exclaims, "but it's fun to give it a try." Great, now we can look forward to public backlash towards the game's DUI-endorsing write-ups, as well.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/26/ig...er-perfect-10/ ...by Published on April 26th, 2008 20:35
Is it too early to say that we're beginning to see a pattern develop here? We know that a mere handful of reviews for Rockstar's latest opus have been published, but should the current trend continue, Grand Theft Auto IV could be the subject of more perfect scores than 1976 Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Yes, IGN recently dropped the suspiciously non-embargoed first online review for the title, giving it a 10 out of 10 (on both platforms) and evoking the wrath of the Nintendo Defense Force, calling GTA IV "the best game since Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time."
The seven-page, five-thousand word review (and accompanying video review, after the jump) praises the game's art style, the immersive backdrop of Liberty City, the "Oscar quality" story and the "refined" gameplay. The enamored reviewer even commends some of the quirky extra features included by Rockstar, such as Niko's multipuropse cellphone, or the in-game use of alcohol: "You don't have to drive drunk," the reviewer exclaims, "but it's fun to give it a try." Great, now we can look forward to public backlash towards the game's DUI-endorsing write-ups, as well.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/26/ig...er-perfect-10/ ...by Published on April 26th, 2008 20:32
Immersion, the same folks responsible for adding haptic technology (force feedback from touch panels, pretty much) in a fleet of Nokia handsets, could be looking to do the same with Cupertino's one and only. While VibeTonz isn't specifically mentioned by name, a recent report (which should certainly be filed as a rumor for the time being) is suggesting that bigwigs from both outfits are in ongoing meetings "over licensing and implementation issues of iPhone haptics." Interestingly enough, this news is flowing hot on the heels of Immersion appointing Clent Richardson as president and CEO; if that name rings a bell, he previously spent five years pretty high up the ladder at Apple. Of course, all the signs pointing to yes doesn't mean anything in and of itself, so we'll just twiddle our thumbs a bit longer and hope to have some feedback for 'em soon enough.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/26/a...ogy-on-iphone/ ...by Published on April 26th, 2008 20:27
You used to play videogames all night. Your Quake prowess was unmatched; your skills at Command & Conquer unparalleled. You have a gaming history that stretches back beyond the PlayStation generation to the SNES, Megadrive, Amiga and ZX Spectrum. You were there at the dawn of gaming.
Tick-tock... Time passes. You've quietly come to realise that you're not the hard-core gamer you used to be. Even your Xbox 360 Gamertag seems far too 'sensible'. How do you know that a mid-life gaming crisis is setting in? Watch out for these warning signs…
You prefer playing against the computer
Online gaming against real people has become depressing – it exposes your faded, spoon-sharp reflexes and you abhor the trash-talk from 12-year old fanboys. You prefer playing offline against the computer because a game's algorithms are slightly more predictable. And, once you master the scripted patterns of play, you stand a real chance of being good… of actually winning. And that feels great, doesn't it? Ranking second-bottom on a multiplayer leader board doesn't.
You only play when your girlfriend is out
Because you only have one high-def TV and to play videogames on it while she's at home is 'selfish' and not something the two of you can do 'together'.
You believe that winning isn't everything
It's the taking part that counts. Obviously. And that's not because you're not good at games. You are. But you've found that there's more to life than spending five hours every night killing all of the Templars in Assassin’s Creed. The fact that you can't find the last three Templars is irrelevant.
It's been days, not hours since you last switched on your console
Because things keep getting in the way: TV, movies, books, going out to restaurants, shopping, going down the pub, DIY, dinner parties, the gym, more DIY, your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend [delete as applicable]… oh, and having a job.
You’re the oldest person trading in games at GameStation
So you lie about why you’re there. "It’s, ahem, my son's birthday. I'd like to trade these in for Guitar Hero please…"
You like your Xbox 360 and your PS3 equally
Being a more 'mature' gamer means you have more disposable income, so you can afford the luxury of owning a PS3 and an Xbox 360. So you've become the gaming equivalent of the United Nations, calming accepting the virtues of both consoles to the deaf ears of Xbox zealots and Sony fanboys (who simply ignore you and carry on their slanging match regardless). Because when you stare at those side-by-side game comparison shots on CVG, you can't see the difference. Maybe the PS3 palette is lighter… maybe… Of course, your eyesight could be failing…
You fondly remember a ‘golden age’ of gaming
You lament the current glut of videogame sequels and often talk fondly of an innovative 'golden age' of gaming. You remember Manic Miner, good ‘ol Chuckie Egg and the Ultimate games on the ZX Spectrum. You played Sensible Soccer the first time around on the Amiga, Elite on your mate’s BBC B, and finished Sonic The Hedgehog on the Megadrive. Happy days… But when modernised versions of these gaming classics turn up on Xbox Live, your excitement quickly evaporates. You quickly realise that, by today’s standards, those cherished oldies are now shallow, repetitive and not much fun.
You avoid playing on the Wii because it’s too much effort
There's no denying that the Nintendo Wii is a revolutionary games machine but… well, it does require a lot of effort. Aren't there times when you just want to slouch into a comfy sofa with a traditional joypad? Times when you can't be arsed with all that wiimote waving and waggling? It's way too energetic – a 20 minute bowling session in Wii Sports is almost akin to a full workout.
Your FPS experience consists of spawn, run, die... spawn, run, die... spawn…
The reflexes that served you so well in GoldenEye and Quake seem to be two seconds slower than everybody else these days. You think 'fire', 'jump', 'spin', 'run', 'collect spinny power-up', but your fingers press 'fire' (and pause), 'fire' (and pause), 'spin' and… no, I actually meant 'jump', and – oh, I’m dead. Either you're slowing down, or today's hard-core gamerati are faster than you ever were.
You find the idea of videogames based on board games perfectly acceptable
Anyone for a game of Carcassonne tonight? The wife's out until 10pm and I'll be online after I've had my dinner…
You've pre-ordered GTA IV but don't mind if it doesn't turn up on launch day
Wednesday's just fine. Really. You're a bit busy at the moment, anyway. In fact, you probably won't get a chance to play GTA IV until the weekend. You're also not bothered by the prospect of downloading the DLC for GTA IV either. You'll never finish the main game anyway.
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming...e-gamer-329291 ...by Published on April 26th, 2008 18:47
via Gaming Bits
Early impressions of Sonic Unleashed at the SEGA Blog reveal what most have suspected from preview screenshots and videos. Speedy Sonic gameplay from the SEGA Genesis 2D era in a refreshed 3D perspective. "SegaDawg" shares his impressions of 15-minutes of play time on the Xbox 360 version of Sonic Unleashed....
From SegaDawg at the SEGA USA blog:
"There’s speed, and lots of it. Those of you wanting 2D — you’ve got it. Those of you wanting 3D, well, you’ve got it too. Each perspective brings its own challenges.
The gameplay itself on the level I played really felt like classic Sonic. There’s rings, there’s bumpers, there’s loops, there’s jumping … but there’s also a few other things in there as well that add to the experience.
The level I played had multiple paths so you’ll be encouraged to play each level several times over and try to find the fastest path or the most rings you can.
There was a cool section in 3D perspective where Sonic has to use a quick-step to the left or right to avoid multiple obstacles in his path. This is done with a button-push, not with the stick, so it’s an almost-instant jump left or right without breaking stride. Pretty cool.
The landscape and environments look great and there are some things there that Sonic can interact with.
A couple of the sections felt a lot like a roller coaster.
Not all the bumpers work in Sonic’s favor."
Sonic Unleashed will be coming in Holiday 2008 to the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and Wiiby Published on April 26th, 2008 18:42
An interesting article posted by the Giana's Return team at the official website
The organizing team just recieved an email from someone who pretends to know more about a commercial “Giana Sisters” remake, which is in the works by the german company “bhv Software GmbH”. If we can believe Amazon Germany the game should be out in shelves on 15th May 2008. We are really looking forward to have a talk with the guy who has details....
Actually this is something which scares some of us off.
I might repeat a part of the story again, for those who don’t know:
The history of ”Giana’s Return” has begun as Giana 32k (DOS), a Giana Sisters clone with 7 levels, coded in less than 32 kilobyte. Later on, he wanted to make a full game out of it and was looking for a leveldesigner, this is where Kojote, the current organizer of Giana’s Return came in.
To shorten it a bit, Myth was working on a Windows version (Giant Worlds) which was published on a computer magazins cover CD. From this moment on he had the attention of the copyrightholder Armin Gessert, who tried to sue him, but after a chat on the phone, he dropped this.
Myth was too scared to continue development, but Kojote had plenty of new levels left, which were now without use. Considering building a level and testing etc takes more than some would believe, he took the project into his hands, now as “Giana’s Return”. Due to Myth complaining about his poor code and not giving the relevant parts, we had to start from scratch.
“Giana’s Return” was now born in 2001/2002. With the help of a console coder known as Christian Nowak, we have gone pretty far and were able to release a 0.90 beta version to the public, mainly for Dreamcast, GP32 and Windows (32-Bit). Due to unkown reasons, CHN dropped the work on Giana’s Return and left the console scene in general.
There we were… an almost done game, but with some minor bugs which destroyed the gameplay - and the best part - no source code.
It came what had to come…
The whole game required a new team and a new code base. In 2004 we pulled our head in an iceblock and started over again, with a NEW team.
Of course the organizer tried to get in touch with the responsible people, specially Armin Gessert. It turned out into a real pain, as Armin seems to hide himself pretty well. We have sent a written statement to him, CHN at the beginning of the project, as long as the project organizer. Without direct response from Armin. We didn’t take it too serious as we know he has to earn his bread as well, but we did not gave up. We even tried to ring up Armin Gessert at his company “Spellbound AG” in Germany - all we reached was talking to Mr. Speer, who said he will talk with Armin. No direct response from Armin again at all - up to now.
Considering “no answer” is an answer too and the word of Mr. Speer (see E-Mail above), we accepted his silence as “Do what you want”. After all we had no money intensions and just bring a worthy sequel of Armin’s great game. We have also been in touch with Chris Hülsbeck, who allowed us to use his original .SID files (the e-mail is still in our hands) and Manfred Trenz allowed us to redo all of the levels one by one. Of course the last two don’t have too much to say, as the copyright holder is still Armin, but having support from two people who were involved as well, nothing could have gone wrong.
Regardless to this, we want to point out again that no profit money has been made from this project, a four digit Euro sum has been invested by the organizer up to this day. Not to mention the hours and hours of work, provided by all team members.
Depending on the conflict which turns up now (no one is interested in getting sued for something), we either change the name of the game (as already announced) or we will limit the release to platforms which are comercially dead such as the Dreamcast and GP32.
The situation is more than disappointing, specialy after the progress we made recently and still do.
Well… let’s find out how limited the license of “bhv Software GmbH” is, maybe they just have the rights for a Windows version - and the Giana’s Return Team can easily avoid a Windows release, to keep everyone happy.
Time will tell…
Giana’s Return Organizingby Published on April 26th, 2008 18:35
via PSO-World
As reported by PSO-World member Cranberry, the US XBox Phantasy Star Online Episode 1&2 servers appear to have been shutdown a week early. XBox players have been unable to login since the last maintenance period on April 22nd. It is currently unknown whether users will receive a pro-rated refund for this early shutoff, on top of the one that was planned to be payed back....by Published on April 26th, 2008 16:39
Word from Paramount today is that Star Trek Season 2’s remastered DVD release is not cancelled as previously stated by many. Unlike its predecessor it is missing one vital component, the HD DVD portion! This saddens me, the HD DVD master was not only crisp and beautiful but it was also very interactive and neat.
I am a huge fan of the original, so regardless I will buy Season 2 when it is released in August. The good news is the film was still remastered and will feature a Dolby Digital soundtrack, plus those that bought the first season won’t be disappointed since the case is still designed the same way as the original was so it won’t stand out too much in your collection. Also consider this, if you have a good upscaller you will be missing very little. I believe it will still keep its 4:3 aspect ratio, so the picture won’t look stretched (The HD DVD side was also 4:3).
As for the “true” HD content, I believe it will eventually end up on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace (Season 1 has), and maybe even have some TV runs like Season 1 did remastered.
Your thoughts?
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