The folks over at Hulu originally promised Wii users would have access to their Hulu Plus streaming service by the end of 2011, but things didn’t exactly pan out the way they had hoped. Well, after a few extra months of waiting, the Nintendo-faithful are finally being rewarded for their patience: the Hulu Plus app can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel.
The app itself is free, but actually using it will cost users the standard $7.99/month. → 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
Japan’s video game industry is the world’s second biggest (after the US), but it’s on a downward streak for the fifth consecutive year. Based on sales, the country’s video game industry has contracted by as much as 8% year-on-year, Japan’s biggest gaming magazine Famitsu is reporting [JP].
Between December 27, 2010 and December 25, 2011, Japanese game companies generated US$5.9 billion in sales. The Famitsu says that sales from hardware makers actually went up 2.4% (thanks to the launch of the 3DS and PlayStation Vita) to reach US$2.3 billion. Software revenues in Japan dropped 13.7% to US$3.6 billion last year. → 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).
→ Read More
The Famitsu, Japan’s (and maybe the world’s) biggest video game magazine, has tested Zelda Skyward Sword (the newest Zelda game for Wii) in their newest issue. And apparently, they liked what they played: as the first game this year, Zelda Skyward Sword scored a perfect 40/40 score.
The four testers gave away ten out of ten points each, making the Wii title the third in the Zelda series to get a perfect total score. In fact, Ocarina of Time for the N64 was the first game ever to get the 40/40 from Famitsu (in November 1998). Zelda: Wind Waker, which went on sale about four years later on the Gamecube, received the same rating. → Read More
Hulu Plus has long been missing from the Wii leaving Netflix as the only major streaming service on the gaming console. But that changes soon. Nintendo just announced that Hulu Plus will soon be available on both the Wii and the 3DS. The exact launch data wasn’t announced, but the release states that that the service will hit “both systems by the end of the year.”
This comes as Nintendo is prepping for the next generation Wii, the Wii U. But that system isn’t going to launch for months and Nintendo still has to move Wii units while fighting off the 360 and PS3. Adding a major new streaming service like Hulu Plus will certainly keep some owners happy. → Read More
I remember the time when you were either a Nintendo kid or a Sega kid — assuming you were lucky enough to have one of the consoles at all. You’d ask your friend if they had played Super Mario Bros 3 warpless, and they would respond that no, they were still trying to beat their Casino Zone times in Sonic 2. Things would be a little tense after that. And this was a prejudice that I felt would never be mended. But when Sega went all-software after the Dreamcast (R.I.P.), things changed.
Sure, we’ve had Sonic games on Nintendo systems — have for years. But a Sonic-blue Wii? According to my inner child, they’ve finally crossed the line. → Read More
Ever heard of the Wavit remote? It’s totally okay if you haven’t; that’s not what this story is about. The Wavit Remote’s makers on the other hand… Well, they’ve decided to up and sue Nintendo over the Wii. Not only that, but they’ve included other retailers and manufacturers — including WalMart — in the complaint as well. And they’ve chosen the setting most likely to yield a win: the Eastern District Court of Texas.
Now, that’s not to say that Wavit makers ThinkOptical will get a win, but this particular court circuit tends to favor the patent holder over all else. → 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
While I haven’t heard any popular outcry regarding the Nintendo 3DS price drop – a quiet that, is, in a way, the most interesting part of the entire affair – Nintendo has decided that it’s time to explain itself to the early adopters. Satoru Iwata, CEO of the company, stated that the move was, in fact, unprecedented, but Nintendo had some very good reasons for cutting the 3DS price: → Read More
Although his statement could be an elaborate prima aprilis prank, Nintendo COO Reggie Fils-Aime stated that the Wii U would be arriving after April 1, 2012 and would co-exist on the market alongside the Wii, DSi, and 3DS. In a Forbes interview Fils-Aime said that the two major Nintendo consoles would be on the market simultaneously until they stop supporting the quickly aging original Wii. → Read More
China has always, as Kotaku writes, “cockblocked” consoles. The reasons are manifold, but the official party line is that a ban on consoles will prevent kids from poisoning their minds with video games and gaming. Considering the market is huge in China, fat lot of good the ban did but that’s how things break down.
Now, however, Lenovo is skirting the ban by selling a home entertainment device called the iSec. The iSec is described as having Kinect-like controls and, if that’s the case, could the real Kinect, PS3, and Wii arrive on China’s shores (legally, and not in the grey market) sooner than later? → Read More
At this E3′s Nintendo press conference, we were treated to a nice little dose of Zelda music, and told there would be a sweet 25th anniversary soundtrack, as well as some traveling concerts and a free DSiWare game. All very good, but I couldn’t help but be disappointed at the lack of a collected edition like that issued for last year’s Mario 25th Anniversary. And according to Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata, that’s not going to happen. → 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
What would you do if you were Nintendo, sat on a 5-year old console and were about to announce its successor? You would probably lower the price to boost sales, and that’s exactly what Nintendo in the US today did with the Wii. → Read More
The Wii successor/Project Café rumors have died down since Nintendo’s official announcement a week ago, but there’s still a little info leaking out (allegedly) here and here. Today has brought a few more nuggets to the web, so let’s take a look. → 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
