EA: We love Wii U
Back in June, everyone was talking about the Wii U, Nintendo’s first video game console with high-definition graphics unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.
Since then, no one’s heard much more about Wii U, which has a tablet screen for a controller and can be used in conjunction with Wii remotes. Nintendo must be hunkering down to put the finishing touches on it before it hits stores sometime next year.
But Peter Moore, the video game industry veteran who was promoted to be Electronic Arts’ chief operating officer in August, told Reuters this week that everything appears to be on track with the Wii U, at least from his perspective working for a publisher making games for it.
“There are no indications that there’s anything that feels like it’s off target,” Moore said. Nintendo’s stock has taken a beating in recent months and its share price is approaching its low for the year.
Moore said he will be visiting Nintendo’s hometown of Kyoto next week to check on how the console is shaping up.
“From our perspective right now, specs are a big deal,” he said, adding that during his trip, he will looking to find out more about the gadget’s graphic and computer processing units, its price and when it might be shipped.
Moore, who has experience launching consoles from his days at Microsoft, says Nintendo was smart to incorporate a tablet into the console with the Wii U.
Introducing Nintendo’s Wii U
Nintendo just announced the successor to the Wii at the annual U.S. video game confab, E3 on Tuesday.
Here’s what we know so far:
The new console is the first Nintendo device to support HD graphics. Its controller features a 6.2-inch touch-screen that works as a second display showing the same images being played on TV. The screen can also provide gamers with additional information to give them an edge over competitors. It can run old Nintendo games, has motion-sensor capabilities and can be used in conjunction with Wii controllers, the company said. Additional hands not included!
- plays 10 adp full HD graphics, can connect to HDMI
- will play proprietary high density discs and downloaded content
- hits stores between April 1 2012 and December 2012
- no HD video on touchscreen, but the new console will deliver HD video on TV screens
Bah.. Now to sell my Wii before gamestop lowers its trade value to 20$ like they do every time a new console is announced.. Then place a pre order even though I don’t really want this -_-
Damn you Nintendo for tapping into my inner child!
Also anyone know if there’s anywhere that you can pre order from? Amazon doesn’t have it up yet and the only site I saw that has some sort of recognition for pre orders is http://www.preorder-wiiu.com.. but even there you still can’t pre order.
E3: Nintendo’s Iwata says Vitality Sensor lives!
That (above) was Nintendo President Satoru Iwata at last year’s E3. Cool idea, eh? So what happened to it?
The device — a pulse reader that fit on a fingertip and aided/monitored one’s ability to relax, I guess — was the kicker of the Wii-maker’s showcase a year ago, and it was only fair to expect that this year there would be some blossoming of the plan. But at this year’s event we got nothing. Many blogs noticed its absence. Read here, here, and here.
In essence, Iwata said Vitality Sensor lives. However, a fireworks show is no place to demonstrate a state-of-the-art pillow, and that Nintendo is searching for the right pillow show. Or something like that.
So here is the answer straight from Iwata (through an interpreter), in a response to an analyst’s query about the lack of ground-breaking ideas from Nintendo at E3 2010:
What we have shown and announced here at e3 has shifted more toward the traditional gamer and traditional Nintendo audience. Perhaps we have not talked about some of these other elements and games that perhaps you are interested in talking about. While we haven’t focused on these elements here at the show, the question is what is the appropriate timing and the appropriate venue for sharing some of those ideas with a broader audience.
I’m sure many of you are asking the question: what’s happening with the Vitality Sensor? What I can say is that prior to the show when we put the lineup of titles out on the table and asked ourselves what should we show at E3 this year, one of the first questions was, within this title lineup, is it appropriate to focus on the Vitality Sensor at this time? Would the Vitality Sensor not get buried under the other titles that will be shown? Or even more importantly at an event like E3, a place that’s full of thrills and excitement where people are very busy, would it be appropriate to ask people to come and sit down put their finger in the vitality sensor, and say “OK now, please relax and calm down.”
We had questions about whether it would be the appropriate venue to show this product. So we decided that we would be creating another opportunity for ourselves to showcase this product.
So do you still want to see what the Vitality Sensor can do, or has that ship sailed?
E3: Dancing with Xbox Kinect on Day 1
Day one of the 2010 E3 video game conference was dominated by news from Microsoft, who told us a little more about Xbox 360 with Kinect, the gesture/motion system that lets users do many things on screen without the need for a controller. The system, due in November, poses a threat to top dog console the Nintendo’s Wii, and Sony’s new add-on, called Move.
But I’ll tell you who should be worried: those Dance competition video game folks. Microsoft demonstrated a pad-less, controller-less dance game that looked like a lot more fun than stomping on a giant pad with arrows. Check out the video below…
Here is the unboxing of the new factor of the Xbox 360, which is smaller, and has built in Wi-Fi. (via giantbomb.com)
from Shop Talk:
Check Out Line: Vampires and caped heroes rule in online swap world
Check out the popularity of vampires and werewolves, Taylor Swift and caped superheros in the online trading world.
Swaptree.com, an online company that allows consumers to trade books, CDs, DVDs and video games for free with others, provided its top swaps of 2009.
Topping the books lists among most traded were "The Host," which topped four offerings in the Twilight series. Albums by Taylor Swift (pictured) claimed the top two spots on the most traded CDs list, while "The Dark Knight," the latest Batman movie, was No. 1 on the movies list. The most traded video game was Wii Fit.
“Because of the recession, we are continuing to see a lot of consumers who love that they can trade for new media items instead of buying new," Swaptree co-founder Mark Hexamer said in a statement. "Swapping and frugality are lifestyle trends that aren’t going anywhere.”
Also in the basket:
Heinz CEO sees changed consumer habits
When Holiday Shoppers Get Hero's Welcome (New York Times)
THQ CEO: Don’t bet against the Wii
Remember how you couldn’t get a Nintendo Wii? Remember the long lines at retailers, and “No WIIs” signs in store windows. The Wii is still very popular, but the momentum has slowed a bit, leading some to wonder if it has lost its mojo.
And even though games like “Wii Fit Plus” and “Wii Sports Resort” are top sellers, adult action titles like Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ and Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” have been getting all of the fanfare.
But Brian Farrell, long-time CEO of THQ, which publishes games on the Wii including “All Star Cheer Squad” and “World of Zoo” said that its the short-sighted game publisher who thinks the Wii is dead, if only because, you know, those things are everywhere, Farrell said at the Reuters Media Summit.
“One of the good things about my tenure is I have seen a lot, and you tend not to listen to fads. You tend to follow your judgment about how markets work. So when we heard (other developers saying they had not made enough games for the Wii) last year, we were just ‘steady as she goes’ on the Wii. That is the way we feel about it now.
There about 40 million Wii’s out there globally. That is a huge installed base. It is music to our ears when people say, ‘horrible market, we are getting out of it.’ We have made a lot of money over the last 15 years of my tenure going into markets that other people have given up on.
Does it have the high growth it used to have? No. Is it a perfect market to harvest with low cost, high quality products? We are delighted with the numbers so far on “The Biggest Loser”, “Super Hero Squad”, “SpongeBob”.
There is still a lot of money to be made on the Wii, so I love it when my competitors say it is over.”
Black Friday sprint begins for video game industry
Black Friday marks the beginning of the most critical time of the year for video game makers, as customers jam stores on the day after Thanksgiving to pick up games and consoles as gifts.
As a brutal 2009 winds to a close, the gaming industry is hoping that a strong six weeks of sales in the United States, the largest market, could help them salvage something from the year.
Nintendo said Monday its Wii home console — the long-time U.S. champ that has been struggling lately — sold more than 550,000 units in the U.S. during Thanksgiving week. To put that in perspective, the company sold around 500,000 Wiis in all of October, according to industry tracker NPD.
Not to be outdone, Sony announced Tuesday that demand for its PlayStation 3 console over the Thanksgiving week “was at an all time high.” The company said it sold 440,000 units for the week in the U.S.
Both Nintendo and Sony have recently slashed prices on their consoles, as has Microsoft with its Xbox 360. The PS3, which is more popular with hard-core gamers, has seen plenty of momentum since the price cut. At the same time, Nintendo has set up holiday kiosks in malls across the country to give consumers the opportunity to play its casual and family-friendly games.
A more complete picture on who turned in the best Black Friday performance will come later this month, when NPD releases its November sales data.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Xbox, Youtube, iPhone
We caught up with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the movie rental company’s event where it awarded a $1 million prize after a contest aimed at improving the accuracy of movie recommendations. He spoke about his hopes of working with Apple on the iPhone, the possibility that YouTube will beef up its movie service, and the future of the DVD.
Reuters: What will Netflix subscribers gain from the improvements in the recommendation system?
Hastings: It’s doubling the quality of our movie recommendation and that helps our subscribers get more enjoyment from movies. Because more often they love the movie they watch. More often the movies recommended will will turn out to be movies that you love. If you watch a couple of movies and don’t like many, you start to watch (sports and other programming). If every movie is incredible, you start to watch more.
Reuters: Netflix video streams on Microsoft’s Xbox Live system. What about the PS3 and Wii? Hastings: Eventually we want to be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, all the Internet TVs. So we are working in parallel with all of those efforts. Currently our Xbox deal is exclusive and we haven’t characterized it more than that.
Reuters: Any plans to work in partnership with Apple and the iPhone? Hastings: it’s something that’s likely to come over time. But nothing in the short term. (With) movie watching, we are not focused on mobile yet, but (instead) on the TV, on Blu-ray and on the video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone.
Reuters: What of Youtube’s potential movie service? Hastings: I think there will be a lot of competition in this market: Hulu, Apple, Amazon, Youtube, Blockbuster. Internet video is a huge opportunity. And there will be a lot of people engaged, and that is going to be great for the consumer. All of us are going to innovate and compete with each other and provide more and more value to the consumer.
Putting Netflix on a Wii is a great idea, it’s the best selling console in the nation and it’s very family centered and oriented. Obviously going from playing Wii Fit to watching a movie on the same family console is a great marketing strategy. Nintendo even does promotional stuff, like this online one I’ve found for a FREE Wii. Check out the link for more info on how to get it.
http://www.gamesncs.com/rd_p?p=192108&t= 9528&a=13190-wii&gift=3679
Cloud-gaming service OnLive opens up
OnLive, the “cloud-based” gaming service that generated plenty of interest when it was announced in May, is opening itself up.
The company is aiming to challenge game console makers Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony with a bold and ambitious service: on-demand, lag-free access to graphically rich games, which can be played on any TV and nearly any PC, even budget netbooks.
Analysts say such a product could fundamentally change the economics of the multibillion dollar video game industry. The only question is how well OnLive works, and some have expressed skepticism. Since its splashy introduction, little has been heard from the company, which was busy testing its service internally and installing servers in its data centers to handle traffic. OnLive delivers games run on servers in the cloud, rather than locally on a PC or a console.
The company is now opening the OnLive beta to testing from outside gamers, said Steve Perlman, the company’s founder and CEO, in a blog post. Perlman is a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur who helped launch WebTV, which Microsoft bought in 1997. You can sign up to test OnLive at http://www.onlive.com/beta_program.html.
“One of the key challenges that OnLive technology addresses is providing a high-quality, fast-response gaming experience over a wide range of situations: different speeds/locations/types of broadband services, a variety of different PC and Mac configurations, several kinds of input and display devices, etc. So, a major focus of OnLive Beta is to test as many of these different situations as we can,” Perlman said in his post.
OnLive has been in development for seven years. It already has deals in place with 10 publishers to provide new game titles, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Take Two. The company has said it expects to launch its service in the winter of 2009.
Sony cuts PS3 price, sounds confident about holidays
The long-anticipated price cut on Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console might have come just in the nick of time, as industry sales continue to wilt in the heat of summer. Both game hardware and software sales have been flagging, but console price cuts typically spur game sales.
Sony took the PS3′s price to $299 from $399, and the company sounded bullish on its prospects for the holiday selling season.
“With this price move, we’re extremely confident,” said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, in a interview. “I don’t think there’s anything more that we could realistically ask for in terms of putting us in a position to be successful this holiday, I really feel like everything’s lined up for us.”
Sony’s PS3 has languished in third place in U.S. home console sales, trailing Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, both of which carry lower price tags. While many analysts say the PS3 is the most technologically advanced and powerful of the three systems, the $400 price tag in the depths of a recession was a tough sell. U.S. video game equipment and software sales fell 29 percent in July. Activision’s CEO even threatened to stop making games for the PS3, due to high costs and poor sales.
But Tretton said the home console cycle lasts for 10 years, making for a long race. “We’ve kind of kept out guard up and kept our powder dry and now we’re coming out with both fists swinging. We feel like we’ve weathered some significant competitive blows and now we’re great position to land a knock-out punch.”
“I think our competitors have had success in the case of Wii with the innovation and social aspect of the game play, but that seems to be wearing a little bit thin right now, and Microsoft seemingly pulled out all the stops last year, stripping down their machine and hitting that $199 price point on their base device.”
“If you follow this industry and follow where retail sales are generated it’s much like the football season, everything before holiday is pre-season and the numbers really don’t count. But when your get into the fall that’s when the majority of the sales are done, and we really wanted to time this announcement to take advantage of the fall selling season.”
I think sony have done too little to late both the xbox360 and the wii have such a hugh following and better online use that sony will struggle to catch up.
