Results tagged “Nintendo”

Nintendo is bringing out the big guns in publishing Metroid: Other M in America. It's not surprising either, it's a game whose content is easy to advertise outside of Japan. Metroid has never been very popular in its home country, but has been much more well received in America. It's funny, because the original Metroid for NES sold a little over a million in Japan, but no other Metroid has come close to that. If Other M sells over 100,000 copies in Japan, it will be the third best-selling Metroid game ever -- though keep in mind that no record of Metroid II or Super Metroid's sales in Japan exist. Nintendo of America definitely knows who to advertise it to here.

But they seriously outdid themselves:


This is the Other M commercial making the rounds on various television networks, and yeah, it's pretty great. It's the best video game commercial I've seen in a very long time.

Nintendo's finally begun advertising games that are aimed squarely at gamers again. There was also a pretty good Sin & Punishment 2 spot aired a while back (though it didn't prevent it from being a sales bomb, sadly), which marked the first time Nintendo advertised a core-aimed game since Advance Wars: Days of Ruin back in January '08:


Speaking of that franchise, Advance Wars is also another series that's had a better time in America than Japan, despite being Japanese. In fact, Days of Ruin never saw the light of day in Japan. 

Both of these are pretty cool, so I guess I can forgive them for not publishing Last Window here and apparently passing on releasing Golden Sun: Dark Dawn by the end of the year. It is on track to release in Japan by the end of the year, however, according to its official website. You know what? Golden Sun is another franchise Japanese franchise of Nintendo's that has been more popular in America, though to a lesser extent than the aforementioned two. We seem to have quite a few of those, and they all make for interesting examples.

Metroid: Other M releases for Wii in every major territory next week. 

This is precisely what Hironobu Sakaguchi is going to keep saying about The Last Story, Mistwalker's next RPG for Wii, despite the obvious implications that exist in the title. Feel free to insert Lost Odyssey into that comparison as well. But that's not going to stop us from making them! Though plenty of info was contained in various Famitsu issues throughout the last few months, very little of it was posted online aside from various developer diaries on the official website. Why? Because that's how Nintendo of Japan rolls. Is it silly? Absolutely; but they're not going to let that stop them.

The first trailer was posted on the official site yesterday, and it looks pretty great. Just about as great as it looked from the screen shots in Famitsu months ago. It's hard to believe this game is running on Wii; it's a sure sign that developers -- well, the developers that are still working on Wii games -- are starting to master the system's architecture.

But it also has some interesting gameplay decisions. A cover system? In an RPG? It looks like something right out of Gears of War, Uncharted, or, perhaps more aptly, Mass Effect 2. And it will also sport a real time combat system, making it look like a more tactical version of Final Fantasy XII. Ever since I played some of FFXII (and by that I mean the demo), and seeing as how Japanese RPG developers like to follow in the footsteps of the last Final Fantasy game, I was hoping some of them would have FFXII-inspired battle systems. This has not been the case.

The fact that this game has one is fitting. Lost Odyssey was said to be what Sakaguchi originally wanted Final Fantasy XI, so perhaps these are some ideas he wanted to go into FFXII. Or maybe it's what he wanted Final Fantasy XIII to be! Ah, speculation.

The art direction also helps make it look good. Kimihiko Fujisaka (of the Drakengard games) has a very pretty art style, and it's nice to see his designs transfer over into the game well. This game has one of the best-looking female main characters (whose name is Kanan, apparently) I've seen in a Japanese RPG in a long time. The music in the trailer and especially on the official website is also exquisite. Wish I knew who was composing it. The trailer says the game is due at the end of 2010, so we probably don't have long to wait. Nintendo of Japan has a habit of revealing and releasing their games in quick succession (sometimes too quick), it might release earlier than you think.

A localization of this game is probably more a question of "if" rather than "when" as far as Nintendo of America is concerned. You would think it would be a no-brainer, but we're talking about an outfit that passed on releasing games that were already in English. So you never know with this company. Hopefully this and Xenoblade (which also has a battle system inspired by FFXII) manage to get localized. Given how they've been pretty good lately, hopefully they keep on giving.

Images of courtesy of AndriaSang. If you're having trouble viewing the video, check it out on Youtube.

You already know and have been taken into the upcoming 3DS lineup, but what about regular DS games? There are still plenty of them left, and Nintendo's press packet contained information on quite a few of them. Please note that both Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (coming this holiday season!) and Dragon Quest IX (coming July 11th!) were featured at the conference, and therefore won't be included in this post.

If you're unaware of what's coming up for DS from Nintendo themselves, I don't blame you. Amidst the plethora of games to cover from E3, it seems DS coverage has gotten a little lost in the shuffle. And that's not just including third-party titles; no, Nintendo has quite a few games being published as well. Two are expected localizations of games already released in Japan, but one was newly introduced at E3, albeit from a familiar franchise.

Nintendo continues their slow-though-admirable localization pace for the Layton titles with Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, the third game in the franchise. The story this time around involves Luke from the future sending both Layton and present day Luke a letter warning them about the troublesome future they face. It's up to the fearsome, puzzle solving duo to fix this problem before it's too late.

If you've played a Layton game before, you pretty much know what to expect here. The game releases in America on September 20th, 2010. Meanwhile, as noted a couple of days ago, the fifth game has been moved to 3DS, and was featured in Nintendo of America's press packet with Level 5 as the publisher. That game, known as Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, is apparently releasing in Japan this fall, alongside the 3DS.

So where does this leave the fourth game? Got me. Level 5 opens their Santa Monica office in September, so they're easily in a position to localize the fourth game. We'll see what happens, and hopefully the end result won't be skipping over it for localization.

Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, the third game in the series, was also featured in Nintendo's packet. This game released in Japan back in March, and hits America this holiday season. Like the last game, this one will have downloadable missions via Nintendo's WiFi connection. Unlike the last game, this one will also have four-player co-op missions. If you're of the audience, look forward to it.

The last DS game in the packet was one previously unannounced: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-land Mayhem. As the title implies, this is another Minis game like the second game and the DSiWare title, so anyone expecting them to go back to the Donkey Kong '94-inspired style (that includes me) like the first game on GBA is out of luck again. This game also drops this holiday season.

The 3DS may be looming in the shadows, but that doesn't mean the DS doesn't have any life left in it. I'm a little disappointed to see that Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem wasn't announced yet, but it's too early to rule that out. I am surprised to see no mention of Pokemon Black and White in the packet, but it might be a little too early to advertise that. Besides, it's not like they don't already have a Pokemon game in there. If you're wondering, Nintendo has already announced it for a spring 2011 release. This wraps up this little mini-series. Hope you enjoyed it! My apologies if you didn't.

Now, we can officially switch gears and talk about the Wii titles that are contained within Nintendo's E3 2010 press packet. Looking at the list, it's...well, it's pretty brief. Not to say that Nintendo doesn't have plenty of titles coming out for Wii these days -- and that's pretty much all that's coming out for it now -- but most of them were featured prominently at Nintendo's press conference last week. So yeah, I don't have much of a post here. Sorry.

But wait! It appears the press packet does contain information about each game. Info that hasn't made its way to too many video game websites yet. There's also been some new info on some games since then. So this post does serve a purpose. Really.

Kirby's Epic Yarn was one of the most fantastic-looking games unveiled last week. It's literally the kind of game no one's ever seen before. There have been some complaints about how its gameplay style is rather un-Kirby-like, but neither was Canvas Curse for DS, and look at how that turned out. The question right now is: who's developing this game?

It's not an internally-developed Nintendo game, but one handled by Good-Feel, who previously handled Wario Land: Shake It! for Wii. Shake It! was apparently good, but felt a little too familiar to the older, portable Wario Land games. Epic Yarn, on the other hand, is something entirely new for the franchise, and it should be free of that problem. The game releases this fall.

Mario Sports Mix pits Mario and pals in a multitude of sports events: volleyball, basketball, ice hockey, and dodgeball. And all in one game. I don't think anyone is seriously surprised to see Mario starring in more games that aren't platformers at this point. But your question might be the same as above: who's developing this one? This one isn't an internally developed title either; it's coming from Square Enix.

Wait, Square Enix? But they make RPGs! That might be what some of you are saying (or not), but it's not too surprising. They also handled development for Mario Hoops 3-on-3, which hit DS back in 2006. And it just so happens that this game also includes basketball. 3-on-3 wasn't too bad as long as you didn't crack your touch screen by tapping it too hard. This game doesn't release until 2011, so you'll have to wait until you're ready to flick your Wii Remote so hard that you'll break your TV screen.

Wii Party may not release in America until this fall, but it hits Japan on July 8th. Nintendo of Japan announced on the game's Japanese website that it will come with a Wii Remote, similar to Wii Play. Assuming Nintendo of America will do the same for our release, and they likely will, look forward to this being at the top of the charts for a long time. And unlike Wii Play, this game actually looks fun to play.

Nintendo's doing a lot to make sure the fall lineup is covered in America, whether they're publishing games from their internal studios or other developers. It's a pretty telling sign about how unfortunate the third-party situation is, especially in Japan. Now, hopefully Nintendo can fill the RPG void in America seeing that Namco can't be bothered to localize Tales of Graces.  

Yeah, that was a little boring, but the last entry in this mini-series, the DS list, will be more interesting -- mainly because they're not getting coverage anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised to see that people think the DS's lineup this fall is weak, but it's actually not too bad. Until tomorrow, then.

You can check out a better look at these games on Nintendo's E3 website. While it's there.

When a new console is unveiled, it's the first-party software that displays its potential power. In a surprise twist, this is not the case with the 3DS; in fact, it's the exact opposite. Upon observing most of the games unveiled, it seems that most of Nintendo's efforts are on the lower end of the technical spectrum. Not to say that's bad, of course, which would be lunacy. But there are a number of third-party games that really look pretty spectacular.

When Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said the 3DS was going to appeal to everyone at E3 last week, the easy conclusion to make from that was having the system appeal to people who don't usually play video games. In other words, this, like the DS and Wii before it, would have software to appeal to Nintendo's expanded audience and people who could be classified as gamers. That summation was incorrect. He was talking about the PSP audience.

The 3DS is definitely more powerful than the PSP, so it won't have a power disadvantage against its competitor any longer. Also, they already have a laundry list of third-party developers to take advantage of this thing; and some of them have worked on popular (or soon to be) PSP games.

Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater is one of the games showing off the 3DS's graphical prowess. This game, which itself looks like a remake, or updated port, of MGS3 (the best game in the franchise, and my personal favorite PS2 game), was featured in a fully manipulative tech demo at E3. Looking closer at the screen shots featured in Nintendo's press packet - with a few more being featured on the official website - it definitely looks slightly better than the PS2 version, thanks to the 3DS's shading capabilities.

But enough about the visuals. There are quite a few people confused as to exactly what this is. Some think it's just a tech demo, but that's hard to swallow when this was revealed as the third game being teased on Kojima Productions' E3 website. It was also implicitly stated by Nintendo of Japan President Satoru Iwata as being a game in development at E3. Also, it seems Kojima stated that it's a real game, and he's directing it. This won't be something like Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

The name "The Naked Sample" is apparently referring to the tech demo shown at E3. Shots from the demo are shown on the official website linked above.

Resident Evil: Revelations is, as Keiji Inafune says, a brand new game in the franchise for 3DS. The big debate over this in the past week has been whether the screen shots display pre-rendered CG footage or real time. Well, the trailer was uploaded to Capcom's website, along with various other Japanese sites last night (midday on Tuesday, in Japanese time), and it's definitely real time. Like the MGS3D one, the E3 demo also had this video with a manipulative camera. If you're still not convinced, just look at the water to see how poorly rendered it looks compared to everything else. But "compared to everything else" still looks pretty good.

Another question was (and is) who is shown in the video. Chris Redfield (in his muscle-bound RE5 self) was easily recognized, but lot of gamers, many of them dedicated RE fans, didn't know who the woman was. The trailer reveals that it's Jill Valentine. Her model here looks a little off compared to her RE5 iteration, but her face looks pretty similar to her RE3 model. No one has any clue who the guy with the Aussie accent is, but man does Steve Blum sure get a lot of work!

The last question here is: is this the manifestation of Resident Evil Portable that was announced for PSP at the Sony E3 Conference last year (but never shown)? Doesn't look like Capcom is answering that, but it's pretty possible. But it's amazing that the 3DS is getting a mainline RE game right off the bat (or close to it) while the Wii has only received two on-rails shooter spin-offs. Hopefully we'll see some gameplay footage of this soon.

I was pretty surprised to see some English screen shots for Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle in the press packet. In case you're wondering, this is the fifth game in the series and the second game in the second trilogy - which all take place before the first three games. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, releasing for DS in America (and probably Europe) this fall. Also interesting: Level 5 is listed as the publisher of the fifth game, which means they'll be putting those newfound international publishing duties to work.

Moving the fifth and sixth Layton games to 3DS is better for Japan and the system itself, but it's much better for America and Europe. Originally, they would have been releasing five and six in Japan in fall 2010 and fall 2011 for DS, respectively, which is OK. But given the localization schedule NoA was on, they'd be releasing these games, regular DS games, well into 2013. Not a chance in hell would that happen, and it's traditionally not NoA's style to play catch-up like Capcom did with the Ace Attorney franchise a few years ago.

The one worry here is that by listing the fifth game in the packet, it could imply that they're skipping the fourth game. But I don't think that will happen. While the 3DS will be busy penetrating the market next year, there will still be a market for DS games. The question right now who will be localizing it.

(And hope I don't have to eat crow on that.)

Honestly, I meant for this post to be just as long as my last one on 3DS titles, but somehow it got pretty lengthy. Whoops! Make sure to check out Nintendo's E3 site for a look at more third-party titles like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, and Ridge Racer, though the screen shots are smaller than the 3DS's native aspect ratio.

Anyone who follows Nintendo during E3 intensely knows that they bury some of their excellent material within their press site/packet. But that goes double this year, since a good portion of the conference was dedicated to the 3DS unveil and detailing exactly what it does. Because of that, Nintendo's press site is packed with info and glimpses at games they have for 3DS, DS, and Wii. I'll start with 3DS software here. There's so much of it that I'll have to make two posts about it. That's pretty cool!

No one really expected Nintendo to reveal too much of what's in development for 3DS yet, especially given past precedent. Nintendo's lineup with the DS unveil in 2004 was pretty underwhelming, and its launch was more underwhelming. But looking at what they have for 3DS, they certainly don't intend to make that mistake again, and the result is a lineup that only fans could have dreamed of. They've clearly been saving all of these games up after not unveiling too much in 2007 and 2008.

OK, so I mentioned Kid Icarus: Uprising before, but damn if it doesn't look incredibly good. This is the first new installment in a long time, and given the genre it was in before, it probably shouldn't be a surprise that its style takes after another Nintendo franchise (albeit Treasure-developed): Sin & Punishment - whose second installment releases in America a week from today. It's one of the games in Nintendo's arsenal that really displays the 3DS's power, because a lot of people (me included) thought it was a Wii game when the video began rolling. There's no clue as to when this releases, unfortunately; that goes for every game here.

I was thrilled to see that a new Paper Mario game was on its way. And this one is an actual RPG, unlike the 2D/3D hybrid platfomer Super Paper Mario for Wii. This will be the first RPG title in this series in about six years (depending on when it hits store shelves), and the screen shots indicate that this is definitely a new game. It's only being known as Paper Mario for now, but I'm sure they'll have a proper subtitle in the near future.

Nintendo also wants to tingle your sense of nostalgia with some remakes. They officially announced Star Fox 64 3D, which is a remake of...well, you know. The 3DS has all of the controls to do everything the game will offer, and it will definitely be better than the sadly mediocre Star Fox Command.

Another remake is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, another game many people reading might be familiar with. I'm not sure if this game was supposed to be announced yet. A clever individual changed some words in the universal image html for the screen shots on Nintendo of America's E3 website, and found some images of the game. Nintendo then confirmed its existence at a roundtable for journalists later that night. But the fact that they were in the E3 image section could mean they definitely planned on revealing it then. We'll never know the real details.

In addition to what's listed above, there's also a new Mario Kart game -- graphically the least impressive game; and who wants to bet that this will be Nintendo's big game for Fall 2011 - nintendogs + cats (mentioned at the conference), an Animal Crossing game, Pilotwings Resort, and a game called Steel Diver. Looks like Nintendo has a lot of bases covered, and that's not including third-party titles.

For a further look at these games, check out Nintendo's E3 site. Preferably before they pull it down.

Nintendo definitely has a few tricks up their sleeve at the moment. While you could say this about most companies at this time, being a little less than two weeks from E3 and all, here we have a company on the verge of releasing their next portable system. So it would probably be wise to cut the prices to the previous iterations to clear out shelves and help sustain sales.

And cut them they did! Well, in Japan. The DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL/LL will all receive price cuts in Japan on June 19th, Nintendo announced today. This actually makes logical sense, because DS sales have slowed down quite a bit in that territory. But there's also confirmation that Europe will be receiving price drops on their hardware as well, effective June 18th. It's possible that America will receive that well, given that  something is happening earlier in that week. Along with the price drops in Japan, three new XL colors were introduced, which are due for release on June 19th:

And man are they funky. They serve as a complete parallel to the existing colors. But this isn't the first time Nintendo has done this.

Can you feel the power emanating from this? They call it "the 90s," I hear.

This is basically an homage to the "Play-it-Loud" era, with the new XL colors seeming very similar to the then-new Game Boy colors. And just like those, these new colors are arriving just when a new system is coming along. And yes, I'm aware that it's not the exact same situation. No one in their right mind would consider the Game Boy Pocket a successor the Game Boy, but it's similar enough.

But there's no clue as to whether Nintendo is intentionally making these as an homage to Play-it-Loud -- though that won't stop us from acknowledging that as being pretty spiffy -- and who knows if these will even see the light of day outside of Japan (like the white XL, for instance). The chance of the latter point happening depends on when Nintendo plans to release the 3DS in each territory. The fact that they're dropping the price on the models proves that they didn't want to introduce it at a higher price than the XL in Japan, so there's a high chance that the same will happen here. Unless Nintendo of America and Europe are feeling gutsy...

Some exciting news awaited some of us as we woke up this morning. While some of us in America were sleeping, Nintendo of Japan decided to reveal that a new Fire Emblem game was coming to DS on the franchise's portal. Quite a few of us are Fire Emblem fans too, so I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear this news.

Well, maybe they were, as a quick look at the teaser from certain fans and the Japanese press revealed that it's not actually a "new" game per se, but another remake similar in vein to the last DS title: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. This upcoming game, given the title Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~ (meaning "Mystery of the Emblem: Hero of Light and Shadow), is a remake of the third Fire Emblem game released in Japan, known merely as Monshō no Nazo. This game is a direct sequel to Shadow Dragon, but it's original release in Japan wasn't that simple.


Shadow Dragon may have been a remake of the first game on Famicom, but it was the second time that game was remade. It was also given a remake on Super Famicom, and released along with Mystery of the Emblem on the same cartridge. So yeah, the remake and sequel were both on the same SF cartridge. But Nintendo apparently decided to release the remakes of both games on DS separately. All we know about this game thus far is the teaser, so no one knows whether this one will include Shadow Dragon and this game on one card. It should be said, however, that the chances of this happening are minimal.

With this news, fans of Fire Emblem are both excited and disappointed, with whatever side you end up being on depending on whether you liked Shadow Dragon or not. Some fans didn't jive with the game's changes or the in-game 3D models. Hopefully, Intelligent Systems can produce a remake that doesn't split the fanbase this time around. Some people around the 'net say that the original game feels a little clunky these days, so maybe they can merely spruce up the mechanics and utilize what worked best about the last few games. If the trailer's art style is indicative of what will be in the final game (and it probably is), it looks like Masamune Shirow won't be contributing to this game.

If you're wondering why they skipped the second game, it's likely because it's a rather large departure from the usual Fire Emblem formula. In fact, it bears more of a resemblance to Sega's earlier Shining Force games. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems' plan is to apparently focus on the games that stick close to the formula.

It's pretty sad that, upon hearing this news, there will probably never be a new Fire Emblem game created from the ground up for DS with the 3DS coming soon -- despite it being one of Nintendo's most successful systems ever. The fact that there hasn't been an original Fire Emblem game in three years (Radiant Dawn on Wii) stings too. On the other hand, the fourth and fifth games are, according to fans, apparently some of the best games in the series. If they plan on remaking all of the games, this may not be so bad after all. Well, granted they don't mangle anything in the process. This new Fire Emblem game will apparently be available in Japan later this year, but who knows if it will be at Nintendo of America's E3 booth. You know, if they plan on localizing it at all.

Many avid fans of RPGs have noticed a pricing trend for the big boy -- Square Enix's -- games after the lions share of genre releases jumped to the PSP and DS.

Many new games for the DS start at $30 or $35. Most (but not all) PSP games start at $30. But not Square Enix games. Every last one of them on either system makes their debut at $40. This tendency has led to widespread use of the phrase "Square Enix Tax" by fans bemoaning the premium pricing.

But we're not talking about that. Sure, it's a bit of a pain in the wallet that games I want cost more than the games from other developers, but I know that in a year's time the price will drop to $30 or even $20. I have no such reprieve with the REAL game taxers who, mysteriously, I've never seen or heard griped about.

This real tax? The Nintendo tax

In the Game Cube era, Nintendo was notorious for it's retail pricing strategy with first-party (their own) titles: $50 until its rereleased (years later) with an ugly yellow stripe on the box (better known as "Player's Choice"). Some popular titles, like Super Smash Bros. Melee, never made it until the last year of the console's lifespan. Others, such as Mario Kart: Double Dash never made it there period.

For the Wii the same remains true.... except there are no longer any Player's Choice releases to force price drops.

Would the launch of Super Mario Galaxy 2 perhaps allow us to buy the first one for less? A week away and no news on that front. I can't wait to update this article with Galaxy 1 and 2 side by each with twin $50 price tags.

[UPDATE]: As seen in Best Buy (full disclosure: In a rash display of unethical photography, I moved the Super Mario Galaxy 2 display up so it could be next to the original rather than its actual position below it for easier comparison).

Ready for liftoff

While I could hem and haw over more recent titles like Mario Kart Wii or Wii Music (which is a fun toy, but it wasn't worth $50 when it came out and sure hasn't become more valuable with age), I'll go right to the point and call out the earliest-possible titles; the games which were born with the system.

The big Wii launch title, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess? First game out the door three-and-a-half years ago, still $50. Further, if you can even find a Game Cube copy new, it's $50 too.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves? Still $50.

Excite Truck? Retails for $50, too (if you can even find a retail copy).

Even on the DS, the sting is felt with Nintendo titles getting stuck at $35.

The ridiculously-titled Super Mario 64 DS? $35.

5.5-year-old launch title WarioWare: Touched! with a sequel out? $35.

Compare, if you will, to first-party PS3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man, which debuted at $60 and has since been Greatest Hits'd with a MSRP of $30.

Best-selling

Back in the day (SNES/N64/GBA), all it would take was a million sales (or thereabouts) for Nintendo to drop a "Player's Choice" label on the next print run of a game.

Nowadays the market is different.

114 DS games and 79 Wii titles have sold over one million copies (numbers that also count non-Nintendo titles which are irrelevant to this griping) ... and that only counts through March. Yet there the "Player's Choice" has been absent despite deserving titles springing up left and right. Though, worldwide sales of Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver made the million-seller point four times over -- each -- the first week it was on sale in the States. Perhaps a million is now a very low bar if any title can jump it so quickly.

Evergreen

While the whole forever-pricing strategy does slows sales to any given person, enough buyers take the plunge to keep pushing the titles off shelves at top-price.

Does this have something to do with sales decline curves. Economically speaking, when supply is greater than demand, the so-called "invisible hand of the market" (better known as nervous retailers and publishers) pushes price down until the supply can sell-out (or sell enough). But if demand stays steady the price will too in equilibrium (and if demand increases beyond supply, you get gouged on eBay). With Mario Kart Wii still selling over 600,000 units in the first quarter this year, there's probably little incentive for Nintendo to charge less. You can also see this basic financial strategy evident when a new DS model comes out only when sales of the last one slow down.

Let's take a look at sales for a recent member of the $50 club, and compare it to the game Reggie Fils-Aime called out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

       

While Call of Duty won the famous challenge, observe how much its total sales relied on its first month of sales. While both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions outsold New Super Mario Bros. Wii in November, Mario turned the tables for every month thereafter. Also note that only Mario enjoyed a holiday boost.

Unfortunately, we do not have sales figures for either version of Modern Warfare 2 for March or April. Why? Examine this third chart, the most telling of all:

Despite not having bested the life time sales of the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2, Mario has never left the top-10 since release -- and only once dropped out of the top-5. Modern Warfare 2 has slid down at a steady clip, eventually passing that top-10 threshold were NPD no longer reports units sold (hence the bank bits on chart No.1 and No. 2).

A closer look at staying power shows many big hits dropping like rocks. March launches took the top 6 positions in March's NPD top 20 (perhaps why Mario Slid out of the top-5): God of War III, Pokémon Soul Silver, Final Fantasy XIII (PS3), Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360), Pokémon Heart Gold and Final Fantasy XIII (360).

In April, God of War III dropped from No. 1 to No. 5, Soul Silver stayed at No. 2, Heart Gold moved up to No. 4, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 dropped from No. 4 to No. 7 and both versions of Final Fantasy XIII dropped off the top-20 entirely. (further, Wii Sports Resort went up to No. 6 from No. 11 and Wii Fit Plus went up one spot to No. 8). Also on the April chart: No. 13 New Super Mario Bros. ($35, 2006) and No. 18 Mario Kart Wii ($50, 2008).

Is it the quality of the games, scope of the audience, slow release cycles or something else that keeps their games selling when even the best titles on other consoles fade away?

Frankly, Big N is probably not going to change a thing. What they're doing, while it keeps economically-disadvantaged players from having every first-party game they'd like to, works very well for their ledger.

The RIAA's at it again.  Its teamed up with the MPAA and are attempting to get into everyone's computers to delete stuff they don't want you to have, and that's not all.  The thing that bothers me the most is the border checks for unauthorized material coming into the US on anything that can store music and video files.  Read all about it here.  Meanwhile, the MPAA admits that its piracy calculations were wrong, but refuses to reveal how it arrived at the figures it claims.  I guess this means that they could've just made up the numbers on the spot.

A method has been discovered to stave off the events that led up to the robots taking over in The Matrix.  Just give them video games.  The Tetris-Bot plays Tetris without the help of a human master.  Bad news, though, for humans playing video games.  The benefits of training your brain might not be as advertized, according to a recent study.  Unfortunately, this means that all those brain training games Nintendo sells will do pretty much the same thing to your brain as playing Halo 3 would.  Wii Fit, however, does provide benefits to its users, but Nintendo may be profiting on someone else's patent... yeah, probably not.  It's amazing how many of these unknown companies patent things, wait a few years, and then sue Nintendo to try to make millions, rather than come up with an actual product.  In this case, the company claims to have marketed actual products, and a quick Google search seems to confirm this.  It'll be interesting to see if the judge decides this case has merit or if it's just patent trolling.

One of the greatest April Fools Day pranks of the year was finally revealed by GameStation: for a little while, they legally owned the souls of nearly everyone who used their service.  They sent a notice of nullification to those users affected after revealing their joke and the reasons behind it.  Maybe now people will read the fine print a little closer.

And once again, more news in a bit!

Fans of shows that appeal to geek-type people noticed some new programming this past week.  Miami Medical premiered on CBS last Friday.  The show probably doesn't have much appeal to geeks unless they're interested in medical dramas and miss ER terribly or they're interested in Miami as a setting and aren't already watching CSI: Miami and/or Burn Notice; instead, geeks were probably dismayed to find that the show that used to air in the time slot, Numb3rs, has gone on hiatus already, two months early (possibly for good if some fans' worries are correct; some are already worried about what Miami Medical may or may not be doing to Numb3rs).  But consolation came a day later, when the new season of Doctor Who premiered on BBC, featuring a new Doctor, a new TARDIS, a new companion, and an amazing story about an escaped prisoner.  Until news comes that Numb3rs has been renewed for another year, Doctor Who will fill the gap nicely.

Nintendo's doing it wrong this week: gamers who already have the DSi and who want the bigger one will have to buy all the games they'd already downloaded to their first DSi, due to the way the DRM is set up.  Of course, this also means you should take good care of your DSi, if you already own one.  Lose or break your DSi, and you're paying for your downloaded games again if you want them back.

Last week, it was reported that Sony was going to break their promise to PS3 gamers who like having the Other OS feature on their system.  Well, right on schedule, they went ahead with their firmware update on April 1st, pissing off gamers everywhere.  A software cracker by the name of George Hotz has vowed to fight back and create a custom firmware for the PS3 that will let PS3 users retain Other OS and still access the PlayStation Network and all the other features that Sony refuses to give access to users of outdated system software.

Australians already have to deal with the overinflated cost of games down under as well as the government refusing to allow games with a certain degree of mature content into the country, but now they have to deal with Ubisoft's crappy DRM deciding that Australians don't really need to play a game they paid for, in this case, The Settlers 7.  In the past, Ubisoft has been able to blame their DRM problems on outside attacks.  It'll be hard to see them do that this time around.

A gaming vest has been created at the University of Pennsylvania that will respond to action in a video game and help you to feel what the character is feeling.  If you're stabbed, you'll feel it against your back.  If you're shot, you'll feel it in your chest (or shoulder, or wherever you're shot).  I would assume headshots won't be simulated.  Apparently, it could also have a possible use for movie fans.  According to the article,


Yeah, but at the end of Live Free Or Die Hard, Bruce is pretty beaten up and he still shoots the bad guy through his own fucking shoulder!  I don't want that!

I'd rather have access to the $300k video game library that the Toronto Public Library is proposing.  They haven't said whether it'll be PC games or console games, or whether they'll pay attention to ratings.  Since libraries are already loaning out DVDs, despite such a thing being in direct competition with DVD rental stores, video games seem a logical step.  After all, technically they're in direct competition with bookstores anyway.

Last but not least, the zombie march previously reported (link above) can be considered a shambling success.

*Pardon my French, but the Die Hard quote just wouldn't work if I censored it.

Earlier this week, Nintendo officially confirmed what was rumored for a couple of months: they have a new portable coming out soon (PDF link). That letter appeared on Nintendo of Japan's website announcing that the Nintendo 3DS would be coming within the next fiscal year (that's between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011, if you're wondering), though I wouldn't expect it until closer to the end of said year. It said the new system would be able to replicate 3D images without having to wear specific glasses, though how that will look is unknown. Also, the system will be backwards compatible with DS/DSi software. It will be officially unveiled at E3 2010, which takes place on June 15-17th.

So yeah, another new DS is coming out now. But this one is, for all intents and purposes, a successor to the current model, meaning that it's far different than a more appealing redesign, an incremental upgrade, and a BIG incremental upgrade. Speaking of that "BIG" one, Nintendo decided to announce this before the DSi XL released in America (it hits on Sunday). Impeccable timing! Perhaps evidence that Nintendo of Japan decided not to give a crap about what NoA planned on doing? Nah, it's probably that the XL's intended audience isn't the type to go to NoJ's website to see the latest announcements like this, let along pay attention to video game news.


"Another DS? Already!?" is what seems to be the typical internet reaction from a lot of people upon hearing this. So is it really too early to have another DS? Nah. It really is time for a new one. A real new one.

Everything we've had before has either been a necessary upgrade or something that never really fully reached its potential; if said product was ever intended to reach its full potential. The DS Lite came around in 2006 to tell people that the DS wasn't just a kids toy, which someone easily could have concluded upon looking at the original. The DSi either released as a way for Nintendo to test the waters on providing digital content on a portable, or - if you want to get really cynical - it was a clever way of selling a more expensive DS. The DSi XL, at the very least, has bright 4.2 inch screens and longer battery life.

The DSi is also referred to in some parts of the internet as the new Game Boy Color, in that it was really just a system to hold consumers off until the real next system came along. Looks like anyone who said that around the time the DSi was releasing was right after all!


But now, the DS is past its prime. With all of the updates it's received, I don't blame anyone for forgetting that existing iteration will be six years old by the time the 3DS releases. The original rumor said it would be out in at least one territory by the end of the year, which is probably another way of saying "Japan." Completely fitting n with the recent release trend (Japan: Fall; Everywhere else: Spring) And it's Japan that needs it the most right now, because DS sales have really fallen off there recently. It's being constantly outsold by the PSP this year there, so Nintendo feels they need something else.

I also think we should feel generous that they gave the DS six years. The Game Boy Advance only had three-and-a-half years on the market before it was semi-offed, and the Game Boy Color only had a little over two-and-a-half. The lifespan of the latter is similar to what the DSi will be.

So now, the question is what its 3D will probably be like. People have pointed to numerous Youtube videos displaying what they think it could be, but Nintendo has a knack for surprising us with their results. Hopefully they'll be more on the positive side, because there are already plenty of people that are saying that they think this will be the new Virtual Boy. Then again, they also said that about the original DS. We'll see in June.

Okay.  Some patents can take years to clear, right?  Well, according to the unimaginatively named Patent Compliance Group Inc., Activision has been falsely using the term "Patent pending" lately.  Also, apparently, some applications of their patents have been misleading.  The penalties for this kind of behaviour are small to start with, but given how many copies of the games in question Activision has sold, it could easily add up.  There are those who think that this kind of lawsuit is somewhat bogus, although certain points may hold merit.  In the end, this is the kind of story you won't hear about ever again, unless PCG actually wins.

Bringing games from one continent to another has always been a sketchy deal.  A company has to decide whether a game will actually sell or not.  Inexplicably, Mother 3 (and indeed, two thirds of the Mother series) doesn't seem to meet Nintendo's criteria.  Then, it has to take into account whether the content is appropriate for the audience or not.  Most dating sims and eroge like RapeLay and the Maple Colors series obviously won't make the cut (oddly enough, games with rather weird titles like Let's Meow Meow! did make the cut, see the screen shot above).  Some companies are even running into the problem where Australia is refusing to classify certain games, which makes selling them in that country illegal.  And now, Australia is looking to block people from even knowing about those games, but such a measure probably wouldn't work, according to Kotaku.  Myself, I don't think Australia needs to have the same reputation as China when it comes to Internet censorship.

The PlayStation Network experienced some problems just now, which were apparently isolated amongst pre-slim models of the PS3.  This, plus the constant bricking of pre-slim models by their new firmware versions, might point towards a larger problem Sony is having in keeping their pre-slim PS3 models working.  My inner conspiracy nut wonders if Sony is deliberately trying to get rid of all the pre-slim models, especially the backwards compatible ones, for some darker purpose.  Maybe they want to keep selling the PS2, or maybe they plan on introducing a new PS3 model with a different version of backwards compatibility inside.  Somehow it's easier to believe that the company is just bumbling their way through another year, having grown heads so big that they bob around like bobblehead dolls.

Apparently, the Wii can help stroke survivors recover faster.  With the discovery of so many good things that the Wii can do, it's a wonder anyone is still trying to bring down the gaming industry.  Good luck getting a Wii, though.  Christmas sales of the Wii has oscillated the console back into the territory of very limited supply and high demand.

And finally, the PlayStation 2 is currently outselling the PSP Go in Japan.  Yes, I said "2", not "3", although the 3 is outselling the PSP Go as well.  What a failure the PSP Go was.

Not even a week after I made a post about a trio of Dragon Quest games MIA outside of Japan, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies gets announced for North America at a press conference from Nintendo earlier today. It kind of makes that post fortuitous, and makes the DQIX part sound completely silly in retrospect. But I'm not upset about that in the least.

Another question was also answered. In said DQIX part, I mentioned how curious it was that Nintendo had been the only company dropping the game's name in multiple interviews, and that Square Enix never mentioned it once. There was a reason for that: Nintendo is publishing the game in America (or "the Americas," as their press release states). Nintendo said they were going to help advertise the game in America since most games in the franchise had flown under the radar, and it looks like they're going to keep that promise.

Dragon Quest VIII may have had a modicum of success when it released in November 2005 here, but the same can't be said for every subsequent release. Not to say their sales were bad per se, but they could have, and should have been better. (Though you could make an argument about Dragon Quest V's sales being bad.) DQIX stands a good chance at being a game that can really make this franchise popular outside of Japan if Nintendo is capable of putting the entirety of their marketing prowess behind it.

Other good things about Nintendo publishing it are that they will definitely give it bigger distribution than Square Enix can, which means you might be able to find it easily after six months, unlike DQV for DS. Also unlike Square Enix, Nintendo won't price the game at an utterly moronic $40. They're also planning to release it this summer, so it should go without too much competition. I'm wishing it all the best, and I'm sure the other contributors here are as well.

Which just leaves the other games, now. I wouldn't expect to hear anything about Joker 2 for a while, but I wonder where and how Dragon Quest VI will fit into all of this.

P.S. By the way, this isn't the first time Nintendo has published a game in this franchise. They also published the original Dragon Quest on NES here under the name Dragon Warrior. But I think this one will sell good enough that they won't have to sell the remaining copies to Nintendo Power subscribers.

A happy year of the Tiger to everyone!

Well, a happy year to everyone except those who were butthurt over the Google logo of a luger that was posted and then taken down again.  As much sympathy as I have over the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili (whose name is so hard to spell, I had to copy/paste it), there are people who would consider such a logo to be a tribute to his death.  Besides, the logos are done up in advance, and we can't blame Google for being insensitive.  Perhaps it is those who drink too much from the cauldron of Olympic cheer complain about such logos who are really the insensitive ones.  (Oh no, I very nearly said something negative about the Olympics!)

It looks like I wasn't the only one who decided I had better things to do than watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games.  Over in Port Alberni (which is close to my neck of the woods), a video gamer was logged into the Xbox Live network when he noticed someone on the network talking about a school shooting he was planning, saying that the headlines would be remembered forever.  The gamer called the police, who contacted Microsoft, and soon enough, the kid uttering the threats was tracked down to San Antonio and arrested.  What the kid probably should've been playing was a single player game.  Nothing spoils a killing spree like telling people you're going to go on a killing spree.

Here's a single player game for you: Adventures in Sex City.  According to the articles that have suddenly sprung up about it, the game must've just been released.  I can tell you right now that the game would be rated AO if the ESRB got their hands on it.  While I'm on the subject of endorsing stuff, there's a gaming centre in Arizona that's promoting friendly competitive play on the PS3 and Xbox 360 and providing a place for gamers to go to play.  If you happen to be in the vicinity of Tucson, give Arcade-in-a-Box a try.

Microsoft has been pulling out all the stops to steal Sony's Final Fantasy XIII thunder.  Not only does a special FF XIII edition 360 exist, but they've also been advertising the game heavily and not bothering to mention that the game is cross-platform, possibly hoping that gamers will be fooled into buying their system instead of a PS3.  A special edition 360 would be awesome to have; I've already made my decision on which system I'm going to buy for Final Fantasy XIII: it's a secret.

There are more colours available for the Wii remote: blue and pink!  Personally, I want a pink one.  It'll go well with the lilac PSP I don't have yet.  Hey, there's something Sony needs to do: release a completely pink PS3!  There's a Wii gamer down under who won't be able to afford such accessories for quite a long time: he currently owes one and a half million dollars for pirating New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Last but not least, the Church of England is still crying about violence in video games.

I hope those Chinese characters say what I want it to say.