For some inexplicable reason, Nintendo and Toyota have teamed up to turn the Nintendo DS into a navigational remote control, thereby allowing drivers (although I hope passengers do most of the fiddling) to set their routes using their game consoles.
The service, called Kuruma de DS lets you see map and destination info as well as tour information as you drive through town. The service slightly gamifies the experience by adding a POI saving option. → Read More
Nintendo posted a new financial report today, and in a nutshell, things aren’t looking too good. The company’s net profit dropped a whopping 66% to $944 million in the fiscal year that ended March 31, compared with $2.78 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenue in the same time frame fell 29.3% to $12.2 billion. → Read More
In addition to Tissot, Certina offers nicely designed Swiss watches are affordable prices, and is part of the Swatch Group. While not as common in the US, there are some real nice Certina timepieces that should be considered when looking for a decently priced quartz watch. Though there are mechanical Certina watches available as well. Basically, Certina watches are priced in the 200 – 2,000 euro zone. → Read More
A new DSiWare title gives users the ability to create computer programs using the BASIC programming language. Not only can users create their own programs, but it also comes pre-loaded with a few simple games that demonstrate the raw power of the language. → Read More
Nintendo has let the world know that the DS is the single best selling video game console of all time in the U.S. Of all time~! It makes you wonder whether or not Nintendo really ought to be concerned at all with the likes of mobile phone-based gaming. After all, isn’t Angry Birds, the single most important video game of all time, now available on non-mobile phone platforms? → Read More
Both Sony and Nintendo reported their financials today. And in a nutshell, things look good for Sony and not so good for big N. As we reported earlier this week, Sony returned to profitability in the second quarter of this year. But we now have confirmed numbers.
Sony reported a net profit of $290 million as of June 30 (it suffered from a $296 million loss in the same quarter last year), with sales rising 4% to $19.5 billion in that time frame. → Read More
Remember that DSi XL that’s coming out next week? Well, I hope you didn’t spend a bunch of money in the DSiWare store with your regular size DSi. Yep, turns out that you can’t transfer games to your new hand-held. That really sucks. → Read More
Nintendo’s announcement of its new portable 3D gamimg device 3DS was very brief, prompting us to speculate about possible features and implications for the way people will play games in the future. But today the Nikkei, Japan’s Wall Street Journal, is offering a bit more insight (and the Nikkei is usually a very reliable source). → Read More
Big news from the Japanese video game world today: Nintendo announced [JP, PDF] they will launch a successor to the DS/DSi for the next fiscal year (which begins next month in Japan and ends in March 2011). And what sounds particularly cool so far about the Nintendo 3DS is that the new portable device won’t require any special glasses for users to see the 3D images, according to Nintendo. → Read More
So here’s a quick rundown on what’s going on with the new Nintendo DS, tentatively called the DS2 but, knowing Nintendo, they’ll probably call it the WiiDSBoard2Screen or something. The first improvement is an almost bezel-less set of two screens, so close together that they can act as one. It will also have an accelerometer and the dev kit is out and folks are currently working on games with an eye on an announcement at E3 and a 2010 release. → Read More
Fans of the Legend of Zelda games who happen to leave the house once in awhile don’t need to be told that today marks the newest installment of portable Zelda games, as The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks hits store shelves for the Nintendo DS and DSi for $34.99. → Read More
Announced back in May, The Biggest Loser is now officially available for the Nintendo Wii and DSi platforms for $40 and $30, respectively, bringing the grand total of fitness games on the market up to seven billion and one.
Developed by THQ, the game mimics the experience of being on The Biggest Loser Ranch just like the TV contestants, except that you get to live in your own house and you can keep eating delicious donuts with reckless abandon — it’ll be our little secret. → Read More
The Nintendo DSi launched in Japan on November 1st, 2008 and the first 170,000 were sold out within two days. 435,000 were sold during the first week here in the States, and UK gamers snatched up 92,000 units during the first weekend. But in all, Nintendo has sold nearly 7 million DSis and over 100 million DSs. That’s a lot. → Read More
Band Hero is coming to the Nintendo DS this fall and, yes, you’ll be able to play drums and, double yes, there will be an actual drum peripheral for your DS. Nothing too fancy, just something called the “drum grip” that fits over the DS’ buttons and D-pad. Oh, and as luck would (not) have it, the drum grip won’t work with the DSi. So there’s that. → Read More
Launching in September for the Wii, DS, PC and Mac is a childhood favorite of mine, Waldo. Yes, the striped sweater wearing dope is making his triumphant return to the world in the form of a videogame. The question is: where the hell has he been for the last 21 years? I’d like to buy him a beer. → Read More
Nobody wants to read “businessy” news on a Friday afternoon on CrunchGear, so let’s keep this one short: Nintendo only had an okay year last year; this year, it expects sales to be flat. It chalks that up to a decline in the software tie-in ration for new DS and Wii consoles. That is, the sheen of Wii Sports has worn off, and people are no longer compelled to buy the four game per Wii (2 per DS) that they had → Read More
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