Nintendo unveiled the tablet-centric Wii U at last year’s E3. At the time the company was clear that it was a working name. A report earlier this year stated that Nintendo was exploring other options. E3 kicks off next week and it seems increasingly likely that Nintendo is sticking with the unusual moniker.
First off, Nintendo just launched a Wii U Facebook campaign complete with an intro video with Reggie Fils-Aime welcoming guests to the Wii U page. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the Wii U logo is now on Nintendo’s press site. → Read More
The Wii U brand is a bit underwhelming. At best it builds upon a very successive product. But at worst the name suggests its simply an add-on rather than a completely revamped system. A new report just surfaced that sources a Nintendo insider stating the company is considering renaming the next-gen Wii.
Nintendo is quickly spiraling down. The Wii U — or whatever it’s to be called — needs to be a hit. Nintendo cannot misplace another piece in Tetris. → Read More
3DS sales have picked up lately, but Nintendo‘s financial numbers are still weak. Big N today released [PDF] another set of disappointing results for the first nine months of its fiscal year (April to December 2011). The company lost a whopping US$630 million, compared with a profit of US$635 million in the same time frame last fiscal.
Sales were down 31.2% year-on-year to US$7.2 billion. → Read More
One of the first things I was told when I ducked into one of Nintendo’s suites to play with the Wii U was what they wouldn’t tell me. Price, release date, technical specs, games in development — all of these were taboo topics that would be (and were) met with a gentle dismissal if I broached the subject.
Great. With that load lifted, I picked up the Wii U controller and dove in. → Read More
They have been fighting against the concept of making customers pay for extra game content for years, but as previously reported, Nintendo has now changed its strategy. According to a report by Japanese business daily The Nikkei, Nintendo has chosen Fire Emblem as the first game on the 3DS to offer paid download content.
Fire Emblem: Kakusei, the latest title in the classic RPG series, is scheduled for release in Japan in spring 2012 (it has been announced earlier this year).
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One of the big disappointments at E3 was the news that Nintendo’s weird new console, the Wii U, would only support one of their tablet controllers at once. But recent losses have made them reconsider their situation and the opportunities presented by allowing a second controller to be used in the home — and sold at stores.
We were initially skeptical of the new system, as rumor after rumor piled up and eventually were mostly proven to be true. A six-inch touchscreen with built-in motion and traditional controls — a big gamble, but not as big as only allowing one to be used at a time. The Wii was all about being in the same room as people and flailing about like crazy. Taking that away removes the keystone from the arch and it all comes tumbling down, revealing the last-last-generation graphics and laggy controls. → Read More
The Tokyo Game Show 2011 is just ten days away, but Square Enix preferred to hold a separate press conference in Tokyo to announce their next big game, Dragon Quest X [JP]. Perhaps the biggest surprises, after months of anticipation, are that the tenth installment in the 25-year old RPG series will be an online RPG and available on both the Wii and the Wii U.
The full title of the game will be Dragon Quest X: Awakening of the Five Tribes Online, with Square Enix planning to release it next year on the Wii (a date for the Wii U hasn’t been fixed yet). Players will be exploring the same world on both consoles and can transfer game data to their 3DS and share it with other players via Streetpass. → Read More
Nintendo is prepping a slightly retooled Wii for a pre-holiday release. This streamlined model sits horizontally (as a game console should) instead of vertically like the original. It’s also slightly smaller, lacks the ability to play Gamecube games, and will likely hit at a lower price.
This move has standard procedure for game makers ever since the original NES. In an effort to revive sales and take advantage of new, lower-priced hardware, game makers will release an “updated” version of a particular console. This of course is the last act for that particular system as most of the time its replacement has already been announced. In this case, Nintendo announced the Wii U at E3 2011. → Read More
Don’t expect Episode 3 to come to your New Controller any time soon, but Valve’s Gabe Newell has made some noises about Nintendo being included in their “scalability model.” What he means is that there was no way they were downsizing a game to fit on the Wii, but the Wii U might have the chops to make it worth porting games to. For a long time Nintendo has been the whipping boy for AAA developers, who have either designed crippled versions of their franchises or skipped the Wii altogether. But as we saw at E3, many are changing their minds. Nice to be able to add Valve to the list. → Read More
A Sega marketing exec, speaking to Gamespot, blurted out that the Wii U will probably launch spring/summer of 2012, a proposition that sounds a bit fishy. We could see Nintendo announcing availability at E3 2012 and then selling it around the holidays, thereby sewing up 2012 and 2013 in terms of console sales, but a spring launch just doesn’t make much sense. → Read More
There’s seemingly a philosophy inside Nintendo that form factors and ideas don’t die, but rather are shelved and re-released once the proper technology is ready. The Wii U is just the latest in a long line of consoles that use rather old form factors and ideas. Just look at this chart we found on Reddit. The Nintendo Watch & Game spawned the DS 24 years later, the Power Glove preceded the Wii, the Virtual Boy the 3DS, and the Wii U now seems like a proper implementation of the GameCube/GameBoy Advance controller scheme. Not that there’s anything wrong with this process. It clearly works. → Read More
Alright, everyone. You can go home. E3 2011 is a mainly bust besides Nintendo’s amazing Wii U. Microsoft added Bing to the 360 and Sony announced the name of the NGP, the Vita. Sure, there are several clever games like Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, and several new Zelda games. But there really isn’t anything new per se here. It’s a bunch of rehashing of the same, I’m sorry, tired story lines.
Of course E3 is still fun. Hell, it’s probably one of the most fun trade shows of the year. It’s wall-to-wall video games. Stick around if you must, but once you see the Wii U, you may as well head home because that’s the best as it gets here this year. → Read More
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