It’s Official.. Nintendo has dropped the Price on the WII

Nintendo drops Wii price to $199.99

Nintendo has officially announced that the price of the Wii will drop to $199.99, effective on Sunday. The long-rumored $50 price cut comes in the wake of recent price drops for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Sony to drop the Blu-ray from a PS3?

I was talking with one of my gaming friends over the weekend and somebody set up us the bomb on this one. According to this rumor, Sony is working on a new marketing strategy and system.

In order to get the PS3 more market saturation and order to compete in the casual gaming [PogoWolf: Nintendo, Natal, and that whole motion controller thing] market Sony is working on a new SKU for the slim PS3 that removes the Blu-Ray player itself.

This new SKU removes the most expensive part of the PS3 allowing Sony to drop the price to around $150 and still leave most of the standard PS3 hardware.    I was informed that this new version will also be available in an array of colors and what are being called “tattoos” (skins) for the system and that the first release model will be in white to differentiate the system from the full PS3 SKUs.
It was also been stated that Sony will release a piggy-back Blu-ray player for this new SKU sometime after launch.  It will connect to the system via the USB port and will offer a full Blu-ray movies and gaming experience. [PogoWolf:  Think of the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360]

This ‘arcade’ version of the PS3 will connect to the PSN, using the built in Wi-Fi in order to download games and demos.  Some of the smaller PS3 games might even show up on the PSN for these ‘Arcade’ users.  I was also informed that Sony is looking into allowing users, using a code, to ’store’ their digital copy of a movie they have bought for streaming from the PSN.

However in order to cover the costs of the bandwidth needed to download Blu-Ray based games Sony is to create a new ‘Platinum’ pay for version of the PSN for Arcade customers    The standard PSN will still be free but the Platinum version will offer premium content and exclusives not available to the free PSN customers and will cost about $49.99 for a full year.
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PogoWolf:
Most likely this is complete BS…

But it’s really not a bad idea. It would be the first console to go to a complete digital delivery way of distributing its games and content. Granted downloading full 25gig games would be a bit of a bitch. However, it’s known that a lot of space on the Blu-Rays are duplicate files to help load times and no compression on audio and textures because there’s all that extra room. Remove the redundant files and compress not only the audio and textures (lossless mind you) but then ‘ZIP’ the package.. and even the downloads shouldn’t be too bad. Hell Sony might even be able to stream the games to the system the same way sites like GameTap does.

First official lightsaber accessories for Wii announced update: no Motion Plus

There are a few weird, internal reactions a nerd has to deal with when a company — Bensussen Deutsch & Associates, in this case — announces that it’s creating the first officially licensed Star Wars lightsaber and blaster accessories for the Wii. On one hand, Wii accessories are, by and large, completely pointless. On the other hand, they’re lightsabers … and they light up. On yet another hand (wait … three hands?) the accessories, including the blaster, clearly don’t have enough room to accommodate MotionPlus (as far as we can tell).

Granted, these are being released in conjunction with Star Wars – The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, which has no MotionPlus support that we’re aware of, but come on! Any lightsaber accessory should have an extra slot for MotionPlus. We don’t care if LucasArts ever makes another lightsaber game or not. Hell, we’ll pick up Red Steel 2 and just pretend we’re using a lightsaber. At least, we would, if these accessories supported MotionPlus.

Oh, the Clone Trooper blaster also comes with stickers.

Update: We’ve confirmed with BDA that neither Republic Heroes nor its accessories support MotionPlus.

First official lightsaber accessories for Wii announced [update: no Motion Plus] originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sega gives the Wii some love?!

Well I never thought I would see this in my lifetime, but Sega in a [super secret meeting] has partnered with Platinum Games.   A team of programmers mostly from the Capcom Clover studios, the guys that created Devil may Cry, Okami, Viewiful Joe among others.   3 new games are are slated for release on the Wii.

Sega.. making games for the Nintendo.. who would have thunk it.. 

Nintendo hit with a $21 million dollar patent infringement…

According to the article on [Yahoo! News] Anascape Ltd, a small East Texas company,  gained a 21 million dollar windfall from Nintendo because of a patent infringement while creating the controllers for the Gamecube and the Wii.

Personally I think I need to hold a patent on suing companies for patent infringement.. That’ll make me a lot of cash..

 

1 million Mario Kart for the Wii Sold…

[Games Industry] is reporting that Media Create has charted the Wii version of Mario Kart selling another 174,000 units in the past week pushing it over the 1 million sold mark.

 

the current top 10 in Japan is as follows:

1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)

3. Link’s Crossbow Training (Wii)

4. Wii Fit (Wii)

5. Taiko Drum Master DS: Seven Island Adventure (DS)

6. Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage (DS)

7. We’re Fossil Diggers (DS)

8. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)

9. Deca Sports (Wii)

10. Wii Sports (Wii)

 

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Well this goes to show that Nintendo is doing VERY well, with Sony trying to get 3rd place.   But with only 1 PS3 title in the top ten.. wow. =/    Of course, the Xbox is no where to be found..LOL

 

Things that make marketing people cringe…

One of the guys in one of my lists made this nice little announcement to the group:

“A mum was buying Donkey Kong racing for Wii, I was talking a guy about the Nintendo Wii how its good for my kid but I dont play it much, he said same about his daughter, the mother buying the game turned around and said:

“Nintendo make the Wii?”

Immediate bursts of laughter from game staff and other customers…
I mean, she is a buying a Nintendo game, has bought a Nintendo console, ummm, don’t you read the box you got the Wii in? Dont you see Nintendo written over the game you just bought?”

Millions of dollars spend in marketing, and people still don’t know who makes what.  I guess that really does prove that most people don’t care about the hardware, it’s all about the games.

What if Nintendo make Halo 3?

First I must point out how freaking annoying it is that WordPress.com doesn’t allow object tags in their posts.. so you need to link any video that isn’t on youtube.

(grrr)

Anyway.. here’s a lower quality YouTube of the video…

New US Wii Channel…

According to the official [Nintendo web site] a new channel has launched for the the Wii.

Nintendo Channel is an interactive guide to what’s new in the world of Nintendo – now available for easy download from the Wii Shop Channel. Watch trailers, mini-documentaries, product demonstrations, and gameplay videos. Browse the game guide pages to get information about your favorite games on Wii and Nintendo DS. You can even click to order games straight from your Wii, if you have the Internet Channel installed.

Makes me wish I had a Wii.  =(    Hey!  Nintendo!!! want to see more reviews and information on the Wii?!  Seen me one!  I’m a nice guy!!  hehe

Guitar Hero: On Tour

Well as some of you might already know the Nintendo DS is to get their OWN version of the Guitar Hero game series. Actvision has confirmed 15 of the 25 songs to be included and let us know that the game WILL have a wireless co-op mode.

As you can see the fret board pops into the cartridge slot and you strum with the stylus.  I’m not sure this will be the most comfortable way to play the game, but time will tell.

as for the set list, here’s what you can look forward to:

Do What You Want – OK Go
All The Small Things – Blink 182
Spiderwebs – No Doubt
Are You Gona Be My Girl – Jet
We’re Not Gonna Take It – Twisted Sister
All Star – Smash Mouth
Breed – Nirvana
Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield
Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
This Love” – Maroon 5
Heaven – Los Lonely Boys
Helicopter – Bloc Party
China Grove – The Doobie Brothers
Rock and Roll All Nite – KISS (cover by Line 6)
What I Want – Daughtry

 

at least it’s a better track list then the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith edition..=/