Gamenikki
Blogs
- josh allen | editor in chief
- jonathan point-du-jour | staff writer
- bill shaeffer | staff writer
- dan spidell | staff writer
- david driscoll | staff writer
- frank goodoff | staff writer
- troy fabrizio | staff writer
- jason frothingham | staff writer
- james williams | staff writer
- david yellope | staff writer
- dave jesteadt | staff writer
- ben thornton | staff writer
The Blog
Ricoh Makes Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Laser
Posted: Thursday 13th of July 2006 5:16:36AM
Source
Source: Engadget
Summary
Ricoh develops a laser that can read both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
Other Notes
This is a couple of days old but I just can't let the story pass without writing on it. It has the feel of something big despite my not being able to get my head around the full implications. I have many thoughts about this but, as you will see, they are still mostly half formed.Source: Engadget
Summary
Ricoh develops a laser that can read both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
Other Notes
- Makes "hybrd" DVD players "inexpensive"
- First players expected out in 2007
First, we'll see how much of a big deal Blu-Ray really is to Sony and the Playstation 3. The Trojan Horse thoughts of Sony dominating the next gen DVD marketplace by leveraging the PS3 are now on shaky ground with this development.
Second, Sony should have seen this coming. As soon as there was a format schism with major players on each side, there was bound to be a dual format player. When was the last time you saw a new DVD burner which only worked with DVD-R or DVD+R? And, more importantly, how can you link a lot of your future success to ignoring that this could happen.
Thirdly, Sony can't have realized this laser was so close to development, especially after the pricing gamble they made at E3? How can they charge $500 for a PS3 when part of its big advantage of having a built-in Blu-Ray player is negated by multi-format players which will arrive not long after the system hits the market.
Fourth, maybe the situation is not so bad for Sony. Is the pricing on this dual-format laser feasible? It's been stated that this will make hybrid players "cheaper" than dual head players but how much cheaper? How about after each group takes a bite out of the profit margin with licensing fees?
Fifth, and speaking of which, Sony could enforce some sort of technology propriety with wise charging of fees. However, that will only work for so long: charge too little and dual format players make the PS3 look handicapped but charge too much and Blu-Ray goes the way of Beta.
Lastly, there's the whole issue of next generation DVDs, in general. They haven't been selling as well as many in the industry had hoped. Maybe people are reluctant to give up their large DVD collections and start anew. Maybe all but the biggest of the audiophiles and movie fans have realized there are diminishing returns in quality not worth the price as you move up the DVD ladder. Maybe there aren't nearly as many people who can afford thousands of dollars towards a home theater.
Maybe we've all been wrong on Sony's plans for the future. But the theories looked sound: Sony leverages their dominant gaming empire to help dominate the next generation of DVD sales. It looked like a fairly solid plan but things seem to be unraveling before our very eyes. However, maybe it was never as simple and elegant as we all thought and there's much more to the PS3 picture than meets the eye.
DS Lite Gets a US Release Date
Posted: Friday 5th of May 2006 4:10AM
New Nintendo DS Lites The Way For Mario
Lighter, Brighter Hardware Follows Latest Version of Top Franchise
Millions of people around the world already enjoy playing Nintendo DS, and the system's future looks even brighter. On June 11, Nintendo DS Lite joins Nintendo's video game family when it launches in the Americas. The lighter, brighter version of the hot-selling Nintendo DS is expected to be priced as low as $129.99 at retailers throughout the United States. The inaugural color is an elegant Polar White with a raised DS logo on the cover.
Nintendo DS Lite arrives just in time for players to pop in the latest version of one of the most storied franchises in video game history. New Super Mario Bros., launching May 15, updates classic Mushroom Kingdom action with new features and fun.
"DS Lite and New Super Mario Bros. represent a double shot of gaming excellence," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "We've got something for both lovers of beautiful, new gadgets and fans of old-school gaming."
Nintendo DS Lite comes with a variety of distinctive changes that set it apart from the original – and from all other hand-held video game systems:
* It's less than two-thirds the size of the original Nintendo DS and more than 20 percent lighter.
* Its two bright screens can be adjusted to four levels to adapt to different lighting conditions and to extend battery power.
* The microphone sits in the center of the unit, and the LED lights are clearly visible whether the unit is open or closed.
* The stylus is 1 centimeter longer and 1 millimeter thicker than the stylus of the original, and slides into a side storage slot.
* The Start and Select buttons were repositioned for easier access.
* A removable cover keeps the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot clear from dust and debris when it's not in use.
New Super Mario Bros. is just one of the many Nintendo DS games that look great on Nintendo DS Lite. Players set off on a side-scrolling platform adventure bursting with the style and superb game play that got many people hooked on video games in the first place. The Mushroom Kingdom is populated with friends and foes, both new and old, and tons of power-ups, including mushrooms that make Mario mega- and micro-sized. The Super Mario franchise has sold more than 184 million games worldwide, which makes it one of the top-selling video game franchises of all time.
Ever since its November 2004 launch, the original Nintendo DS has helped to redefine perceptions of what constitutes a video game. Many systems have been sold to people who are discovering video games for the first time. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection , Nintendo's wireless gaming service, has seen more than 1 million connections worldwide. Thousands of people every day log on to battle one another in Metroid Prime Hunters or see who has all their Tetriminos (falling blocks) in a row in Tetris DS.
Nintendo DS continues to broaden the market for video games. Nintendo DS has software that appeals to older gamers, hard-core gamers and even lapsed gamers. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day went on sale in the United States on April 17 after encountering massive success in Japan. Nintendo will continue that momentum by introducing two upcoming titles that require more brain power than firepower. On June 5, Big Brain Academy arrives to challenge users with a variety of mental tests designed to evaluate various skills. Then on June 26, Sudoku Gridmaster will keep number crunchers busy with more than 400 sudoku puzzles, each one sanctioned by the original creators of sudoku.
It's about time the DS Lite got a release date. Too bad it couldn't have been the week before E3 as was rumored. However, I think Nintendo was completely overwhelmed with demand in Japan.Lighter, Brighter Hardware Follows Latest Version of Top Franchise
Millions of people around the world already enjoy playing Nintendo DS, and the system's future looks even brighter. On June 11, Nintendo DS Lite joins Nintendo's video game family when it launches in the Americas. The lighter, brighter version of the hot-selling Nintendo DS is expected to be priced as low as $129.99 at retailers throughout the United States. The inaugural color is an elegant Polar White with a raised DS logo on the cover.
Nintendo DS Lite arrives just in time for players to pop in the latest version of one of the most storied franchises in video game history. New Super Mario Bros., launching May 15, updates classic Mushroom Kingdom action with new features and fun.
"DS Lite and New Super Mario Bros. represent a double shot of gaming excellence," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "We've got something for both lovers of beautiful, new gadgets and fans of old-school gaming."
Nintendo DS Lite comes with a variety of distinctive changes that set it apart from the original – and from all other hand-held video game systems:
* It's less than two-thirds the size of the original Nintendo DS and more than 20 percent lighter.
* Its two bright screens can be adjusted to four levels to adapt to different lighting conditions and to extend battery power.
* The microphone sits in the center of the unit, and the LED lights are clearly visible whether the unit is open or closed.
* The stylus is 1 centimeter longer and 1 millimeter thicker than the stylus of the original, and slides into a side storage slot.
* The Start and Select buttons were repositioned for easier access.
* A removable cover keeps the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot clear from dust and debris when it's not in use.
New Super Mario Bros. is just one of the many Nintendo DS games that look great on Nintendo DS Lite. Players set off on a side-scrolling platform adventure bursting with the style and superb game play that got many people hooked on video games in the first place. The Mushroom Kingdom is populated with friends and foes, both new and old, and tons of power-ups, including mushrooms that make Mario mega- and micro-sized. The Super Mario franchise has sold more than 184 million games worldwide, which makes it one of the top-selling video game franchises of all time.
Ever since its November 2004 launch, the original Nintendo DS has helped to redefine perceptions of what constitutes a video game. Many systems have been sold to people who are discovering video games for the first time. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection , Nintendo's wireless gaming service, has seen more than 1 million connections worldwide. Thousands of people every day log on to battle one another in Metroid Prime Hunters or see who has all their Tetriminos (falling blocks) in a row in Tetris DS.
Nintendo DS continues to broaden the market for video games. Nintendo DS has software that appeals to older gamers, hard-core gamers and even lapsed gamers. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day went on sale in the United States on April 17 after encountering massive success in Japan. Nintendo will continue that momentum by introducing two upcoming titles that require more brain power than firepower. On June 5, Big Brain Academy arrives to challenge users with a variety of mental tests designed to evaluate various skills. Then on June 26, Sudoku Gridmaster will keep number crunchers busy with more than 400 sudoku puzzles, each one sanctioned by the original creators of sudoku.
I'm still up in the air about whether I'll personally get one. Maybe if there's a good trade-in deal...
Nintendo Notes from the GDC
Posted: Sunday 26th of March 2006 9:09PM
Source: Nintendo.com
Nintendo President Challenges Developers To Create Bold New Games
Mar 23, 2006
Nintendo Also Announces Plans to Offer Classic Sega and TurboGrafx Games
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 23, 2006 – Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today challenged a crowd of game developers to think differently and take a fresh approach to the creation of video games. During his keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Iwata said Nintendo will provide developers with the tools they need to disrupt the traditional methods of game creation, much as the company already has.
These tools include the controller for Nintendo's next home console (code-named Revolution), which lets users control the action on their television screens through the motion of the controller itself. The controller lets game developers create new kinds of gaming experiences, ones that enhance the experience for hard-core gamers while making video games more accessible and less intimidating to novices. The new forms of innovative software that can be created by any size developer will be made available for download via Revolution's Virtual Console service.
"This new approach is like stepping onto an unexplored continent for the first time, with all the potential for discovery that suggests," Iwata said. "No one else can match the environment we're creating for expanding the game experience to everyone. Our path is not linear, but dynamic."
Iwata also announced partnerships with Sega and Hudson to offer downloadable access to their classic games via Revolution's Virtual Console. Revolution owners will be able to relive their past gaming glories from the Sega Genesis console by playing a "best of" selection from more than 1,000 Genesis titles, as well as games sold for the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). These games join Revolution's access to 20 years of fan-favorite Nintendo games from the NES, Super NES and Nintendo 64 eras.
Iwata also revealed for the first time that a new game called The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass would be released for Nintendo DS later this year.
Iwata, a game developer himself, revealed behind-the-scenes stories about the development of three key initiatives.
For the industry leading Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, internal engineers and developers overcame a series of hurdles to make the system seamless and flexible enough to allow players to choose to play wirelessly either with friends or against unknown opponents. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection reached 1 million unique users in just 18 weeks – nearly five times the adoption rate of the leading online game console network.
He described a pivotal meeting in coming to agreement on development of the incredibly popular "brain games" in Japan. A leading Japanese scientist attached a sci-fi-looking wired helmet to a Nintendo staffer and then visually demonstrated stimulation of brain activity as the staffer played prototype software.
Finally, he described the hundreds of sketches, dozens of prototypes and company-wide collaboration that led to the final form of the unique Revolution controller system, which resembles a traditional TV remote control. He called the related research and manufacturing costs of the new control system, "… our method to disrupt the market … realizing a new way to connect a player to his game."
Jason already blogged a bit about this, but here's the official release from Nintendo.Nintendo President Challenges Developers To Create Bold New Games
Mar 23, 2006
Nintendo Also Announces Plans to Offer Classic Sega and TurboGrafx Games
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 23, 2006 – Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today challenged a crowd of game developers to think differently and take a fresh approach to the creation of video games. During his keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Iwata said Nintendo will provide developers with the tools they need to disrupt the traditional methods of game creation, much as the company already has.
These tools include the controller for Nintendo's next home console (code-named Revolution), which lets users control the action on their television screens through the motion of the controller itself. The controller lets game developers create new kinds of gaming experiences, ones that enhance the experience for hard-core gamers while making video games more accessible and less intimidating to novices. The new forms of innovative software that can be created by any size developer will be made available for download via Revolution's Virtual Console service.
"This new approach is like stepping onto an unexplored continent for the first time, with all the potential for discovery that suggests," Iwata said. "No one else can match the environment we're creating for expanding the game experience to everyone. Our path is not linear, but dynamic."
Iwata also announced partnerships with Sega and Hudson to offer downloadable access to their classic games via Revolution's Virtual Console. Revolution owners will be able to relive their past gaming glories from the Sega Genesis console by playing a "best of" selection from more than 1,000 Genesis titles, as well as games sold for the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). These games join Revolution's access to 20 years of fan-favorite Nintendo games from the NES, Super NES and Nintendo 64 eras.
Iwata also revealed for the first time that a new game called The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass would be released for Nintendo DS later this year.
Iwata, a game developer himself, revealed behind-the-scenes stories about the development of three key initiatives.
For the industry leading Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, internal engineers and developers overcame a series of hurdles to make the system seamless and flexible enough to allow players to choose to play wirelessly either with friends or against unknown opponents. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection reached 1 million unique users in just 18 weeks – nearly five times the adoption rate of the leading online game console network.
He described a pivotal meeting in coming to agreement on development of the incredibly popular "brain games" in Japan. A leading Japanese scientist attached a sci-fi-looking wired helmet to a Nintendo staffer and then visually demonstrated stimulation of brain activity as the staffer played prototype software.
Finally, he described the hundreds of sketches, dozens of prototypes and company-wide collaboration that led to the final form of the unique Revolution controller system, which resembles a traditional TV remote control. He called the related research and manufacturing costs of the new control system, "… our method to disrupt the market … realizing a new way to connect a player to his game."
The most unique news to come out of this is that the TurboGrafx and Sega Genesis will be a part of the Revolution's Virtual Console. If we had some confirmation on the Master System and Sega CD, that'd be even better, but I'll take what I can get for now.
It's a little perplexing because as recently as a month or so ago, there were murmurings from major companies that Nintendo had barely approached them about getting games onto the Virtual Console for the NES, SNES, and N64. Now they're making big deals for games that aren't even on their own console.
Two things will make the Revolution's Virtual Console idea sink or swim. The first, and most obvious, is pricing. If Nintendo's going to charge $15 to play the same Super Mario Bros which can be found on $1 cartridges currently propping open half of the world's used video game stores on warm spring days, it's going to fail.
Secondly, they need to have a huge selection of games to choose from. The NES derived its popularity from having games from Mario and Zelda to Tecmo Bowl to Final Fantasy to Tetris to Bubble Bobble to Contra. These are all different games which targeted completely different demographics which have since been splintered with 2 and 3 major players in the marketplace.
This is not to say Sega and the Master System weren't a major competitor, but Nintendo and Sega were making the same types of games whereas when competitors entered the market later, they saw the value of trying to grab whole genres of games. Sony snagged the RPG segment and Microsoft grabbed the shooter segment and both grabbed the sports segments of the gaming population. So, now, rather than having a
But I digress. To get back to the point at hand, if Nintendo can't get agreements with most, if not all, major publishers for the rights to older games for their own systems, even if priced right, the Virtual Console will fail.
The next major announcement from the GDC concerned the DS. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, a new entry into the series, will be available by the end of the year. It has the art style of The Wind Waker which looks like a better fit on the DS than on the Gamecube.
Lastly, Nintendo WiFi Connection has over 1 million unique users in only 18 weeks. There's something about it taking 1/5th the time it took a certain competitor took to get there but it didn't name any names. Wonder who that could be...
Also, a little announcement that came out right before the GDC was that New Super Mario Bros and Big Brain Academy have been moved back slightly to May 15th and June 5th, respectively. Guess people won't be playing Mario at E3 after all unless it's at the Nintendo booth. They had videos of it from the GDC and my anticipation of the game just keeps growing as it looks more and more like it captured the magic of Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World.
TWIN's Return
Posted: Sunday 26th of March 2006 6:55PM
After a brief hiatus, I'm looking to get TWIN back up and running. Lots to talk about from GDC to Hunters and Tetris and there's no telling what could happen in the next couple of weeks. So look for TWIN to return either next week or in three weeks.
TWIN Goes on Hiatus
Posted: Monday 20th of March 2006 3:40AM
Sorry, This Week in Nintendo fans, all two or three of you out there (heck, if there were any, I'd be curious to hear from you with suggestions and comments via email at frank_AT_gamenikki). TWIN will be going on hiatus for a little bit as I'm adjusting to some new real life circumstances.
Have no fear, it will be back, but it's undetermined at this time as to when. Have fun with Tetris and Hunters this week.
-Frank
Have no fear, it will be back, but it's undetermined at this time as to when. Have fun with Tetris and Hunters this week.
-Frank
This Week In Nintendo #15
Posted: Monday 6th of March 2006 10:20AM
Edition: #15
Dates: 02.27.2006 thru 03.05.2006
Top Headline
DS Lite launches in Japan If you don't have one, you won't be getting one for a while.
Other News
Um...
Last Week's Top Releases
NDS Animal Crossing: Wild World Bundle
NDS Super Princess Peach
NDS FIFA Street 2
NGC FIFA Street 2
Releases This Week
NDS Pokemon Trozei
GBA Tales of Phantasia
GBA Naruto: Ninja Council
NGC Naruto: Clash of Ninja
Closing Thoughts
From most published reports, it sounds like the entire country of Japan is sold out of the DS again. This time it was the launch of the DS Lite that turned out consumers in droves. Nearly 100K were gone from shelves in pretty much half a day.
It's gotten pretty good reviews from sites who have the unit in hand. However, it still sounds incremental enough that it's not a slam dunk for people who already have a DS. Not to mention, there's no release date for the US aside from those pesky early May rumors. They seem logical as optimistic projections of how long it will take Nintendo to manufacture enough Lites to make Japan happy as well as release it in the US to make a big splash.
A couple of decently big titles are coming out this week. If you're looking for another puzzle game for the DS or something with Pokemon on the label, Pokemon Trozei is here. For the RPG fans, it's Tales of Phantasia, hopefully a strong GBA entry as not much came out for the system last month except Drill Dozer. And a pair of games based on Naruto, if you're a fan of that anime series.
Sure, there's some more cool stuff later this month (Hunters, Tetris, and more) but, really, for this week, that's it. It was a pretty slow news week for Nintendo.
Dates: 02.27.2006 thru 03.05.2006
Top Headline
DS Lite launches in Japan If you don't have one, you won't be getting one for a while.
Other News
Um...
Last Week's Top Releases
NDS Animal Crossing: Wild World Bundle
NDS Super Princess Peach
NDS FIFA Street 2
NGC FIFA Street 2
Releases This Week
NDS Pokemon Trozei
GBA Tales of Phantasia
GBA Naruto: Ninja Council
NGC Naruto: Clash of Ninja
Closing Thoughts
From most published reports, it sounds like the entire country of Japan is sold out of the DS again. This time it was the launch of the DS Lite that turned out consumers in droves. Nearly 100K were gone from shelves in pretty much half a day.
It's gotten pretty good reviews from sites who have the unit in hand. However, it still sounds incremental enough that it's not a slam dunk for people who already have a DS. Not to mention, there's no release date for the US aside from those pesky early May rumors. They seem logical as optimistic projections of how long it will take Nintendo to manufacture enough Lites to make Japan happy as well as release it in the US to make a big splash.
A couple of decently big titles are coming out this week. If you're looking for another puzzle game for the DS or something with Pokemon on the label, Pokemon Trozei is here. For the RPG fans, it's Tales of Phantasia, hopefully a strong GBA entry as not much came out for the system last month except Drill Dozer. And a pair of games based on Naruto, if you're a fan of that anime series.
Sure, there's some more cool stuff later this month (Hunters, Tetris, and more) but, really, for this week, that's it. It was a pretty slow news week for Nintendo.
Blu-ray arrives on May 23rd with some movies
Posted: Wednesday 1st of March 2006 8:59AM
SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT TARGETS MAY 23 FOR LAUNCH OF FIRST BLU-RAY DISC TITLES
UNDERWORLD EVOLUTION SET FOR DAY AND DATE RELEASE WITH DVD
Variety of Content Will Be Available To Support Initial BD Products At Retail
Release
CULVER CITY, CALIF. (February 27, 2006) – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) is targeting May 23 to deliver the first wave of Blu-ray Disc (BD) titles at retail, it was announced today. Delivery will coincide with the launch that day of the first commercially available BD player from Samsung Electronics, which will be followed shortly by BD players from Pioneer and Sony along with a BD compatible VAIO PC from Sony.
SPHE and MGM Home Entertainment will first release eight BD titles, with another eight following shortly June 13. Benjamin S. Feingold, president, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, made the announcement.
The first Blu-ray Disc titles from SPHE and MGM Home Entertainment will include: 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight’s Tale, The Last Waltz (MGM), Resident Evil Apocalypse and XXX. BD titles streeting June 13 include: Kung Fu Hustle, Legends of the Fall, Robocop (MGM), Stealth, Species (MGM), SWAT and Terminator (MGM). Underworld Evolution will debut in early Summer day and date with the DVD.
"We are primed to ensure that a variety of Blu-ray Disc content is available at retail to support the introduction of the first BD players from Samsung Electronics and Pioneer, as well as the first BD player and compatible VAIO computer from Sony," said Mr. Feingold. "Sony Pictures further intends to provide additional titles to coincide with the launch of BD products from other manufacturers. We’re thrilled that the Blu-ray Disc era is about to begin."
Outstanding CE products:
"As a charter member of the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA), Samsung Electronics is proud to introduce the first commercially available Blu-ray Disc player, BD-P1000, to Best Buy, Circuit City and electronic specialty store consumers on May 23," said Jim Sanduski, senior vice president of marketing for Samsung Electronics America. "We're extremely pleased to join Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in providing an outstanding high definition experience that features the next generation optical disc format."
"Pioneer is thrilled to offer the BDP-HD1, our first Blu-ray Disc player, which will allow consumers to purchase high definition content to watch in the comfort of their own homes," said Sam Ohdate, president of home entertainment for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. "With exciting new titles like these being released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and other studios, we're confident Blu-ray disc will become the next generation in home entertainment."
"Our BD enabled VAIO PCs incorporate the very best and latest technology to help consumers unleash their creativity and experience entertainment in new, exciting ways," said Mike Abary, vice president of VAIO product marketing in the U.S. "We're eagerly looking forward to having engaging Blu-ray content available that really takes advantage of the performance these PCs can achieve."
"The first Blu-ray Disc titles from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment mark a significant milestone in the BD revolution of home entertainment" said Philip Abram, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' Home Products Division. "We are excited about the upcoming launch of the BDP-S1 Bluray Disc player and with engaging content from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, consumers are in for a spectacular high-definition experience."
About Blu-ray Disc:
The Blu-ray Disc format provides nearly five times more data storage than DVD, with an unprecedented 25 GB (single-layer) and 50 GB (dual-layer) of capacity. Blu-ray Disc players are backward compatible with other disc formats and deliver the highest quality high-definition (HD) entertainment, while providing a secure playback environment through the use of the most advanced copy protection available.
Blu-ray Disc was created to support the accelerating convergence between consumer electronics and information technology. The platform can also support numerous film, music, computer and game applications. Sony Computer Entertainment recently announced plans to utilize BD-ROM technology in their next-generation Playstation 3 system.
Blu-ray is supported by more than 170 leading hardware and software manufacturers, including the leading innovators in the CE and IT industries.
About Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a division of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. Sony Pictures Entertainment's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Information on Sony Pictures Entertainment and Blu-ray can be found on the World Wide Web at www.sonypictures.com/bluray.
We finally have some sign of life from Blu-ray. I'm somewhat surprised at the lack of run this is getting as it is one of the dots to connect to the PS3 after weeks (months) of idle delay speculation.UNDERWORLD EVOLUTION SET FOR DAY AND DATE RELEASE WITH DVD
Variety of Content Will Be Available To Support Initial BD Products At Retail
Release
CULVER CITY, CALIF. (February 27, 2006) – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) is targeting May 23 to deliver the first wave of Blu-ray Disc (BD) titles at retail, it was announced today. Delivery will coincide with the launch that day of the first commercially available BD player from Samsung Electronics, which will be followed shortly by BD players from Pioneer and Sony along with a BD compatible VAIO PC from Sony.
SPHE and MGM Home Entertainment will first release eight BD titles, with another eight following shortly June 13. Benjamin S. Feingold, president, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, made the announcement.
The first Blu-ray Disc titles from SPHE and MGM Home Entertainment will include: 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight’s Tale, The Last Waltz (MGM), Resident Evil Apocalypse and XXX. BD titles streeting June 13 include: Kung Fu Hustle, Legends of the Fall, Robocop (MGM), Stealth, Species (MGM), SWAT and Terminator (MGM). Underworld Evolution will debut in early Summer day and date with the DVD.
"We are primed to ensure that a variety of Blu-ray Disc content is available at retail to support the introduction of the first BD players from Samsung Electronics and Pioneer, as well as the first BD player and compatible VAIO computer from Sony," said Mr. Feingold. "Sony Pictures further intends to provide additional titles to coincide with the launch of BD products from other manufacturers. We’re thrilled that the Blu-ray Disc era is about to begin."
Outstanding CE products:
"As a charter member of the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA), Samsung Electronics is proud to introduce the first commercially available Blu-ray Disc player, BD-P1000, to Best Buy, Circuit City and electronic specialty store consumers on May 23," said Jim Sanduski, senior vice president of marketing for Samsung Electronics America. "We're extremely pleased to join Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in providing an outstanding high definition experience that features the next generation optical disc format."
"Pioneer is thrilled to offer the BDP-HD1, our first Blu-ray Disc player, which will allow consumers to purchase high definition content to watch in the comfort of their own homes," said Sam Ohdate, president of home entertainment for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. "With exciting new titles like these being released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and other studios, we're confident Blu-ray disc will become the next generation in home entertainment."
"Our BD enabled VAIO PCs incorporate the very best and latest technology to help consumers unleash their creativity and experience entertainment in new, exciting ways," said Mike Abary, vice president of VAIO product marketing in the U.S. "We're eagerly looking forward to having engaging Blu-ray content available that really takes advantage of the performance these PCs can achieve."
"The first Blu-ray Disc titles from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment mark a significant milestone in the BD revolution of home entertainment" said Philip Abram, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' Home Products Division. "We are excited about the upcoming launch of the BDP-S1 Bluray Disc player and with engaging content from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, consumers are in for a spectacular high-definition experience."
About Blu-ray Disc:
The Blu-ray Disc format provides nearly five times more data storage than DVD, with an unprecedented 25 GB (single-layer) and 50 GB (dual-layer) of capacity. Blu-ray Disc players are backward compatible with other disc formats and deliver the highest quality high-definition (HD) entertainment, while providing a secure playback environment through the use of the most advanced copy protection available.
Blu-ray Disc was created to support the accelerating convergence between consumer electronics and information technology. The platform can also support numerous film, music, computer and game applications. Sony Computer Entertainment recently announced plans to utilize BD-ROM technology in their next-generation Playstation 3 system.
Blu-ray is supported by more than 170 leading hardware and software manufacturers, including the leading innovators in the CE and IT industries.
About Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a division of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. Sony Pictures Entertainment's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Information on Sony Pictures Entertainment and Blu-ray can be found on the World Wide Web at www.sonypictures.com/bluray.
It's a questionable pile of movies. Was anyone really clamoring for Stealth on another format? You know, the movie that was so bad they were supposed to bundle the UMD with Wipeout Pure to try and get it to sell on the PSP (and looks like it's been cancelled)? Sure, there are a couple of good ones like Terminator but when that and the new release of Underworld Evolution are your big guns, your launch lineup looks woefully inadequate like a certain Sony handheld.
A Lionsgate press release was more revealing with movie prices of $30-$40 and first wave including Terminator 2. A second wave dated for "a June/July date still to be determined" featuring Reservoir Dogs, Total Recall, Stargate and Frank Herbert's Dune gives a bit more depth to the upcoming lineup.
At the CES, in early January, Samsung revealed a Blu-Ray player which would be available "in early Spring 2006, in tandem with the availability of the first pre-recorded Blu-ray titles". This press release probably solidifies that date.
Speaking of connecting the dots, the next sentence in the release is quite telling: "It is expected to retail for approximately $1,000". It shouldn't take too long to come down in price and be $500ish retail and even less wholesale by Christmas. For the PS3, this seems quite damning. Yes, the Samsung press release is nearly 2 months old. But unless their pricing projection has changed drastically in 2 months, Sony would be undercutting one of their valuable Blu-ray partners. So, either the PS3 is going to cost a fortune, launch without a Blu-ray player initially, or be delayed past the "spring" release.
The delay seems the most likely as Sony knows options 1 and 2 jeopardize not only the PS3 but also Blu-ray. If the PS3 costs a fortune, lines for a certain Microsoft console are going to swell. If the PS3 ships without Blu-ray, the "Trojan Horse" aspect of the system is lost. Why invest a ton of money into Blu-ray and trying to sync the launch up with your new console only to throw it all away by making it an add-on?
The launch date also makes no sense as it's after E3. Presumably, the uber conference was going to be the coming out party for the PS3 (and Revolution), much like E3 was last year for the Xbox 360. No doubt, one of the pertinent presentation points would be the release date. Anything beyond May is not their target "spring" date which Sony has been holding steadfast to and renouncing delay rumors.
It would be one thing if the release for Blu-ray was, say, in March. Then Samsung could get some early adopters at an insane $1000 price tag and make a quick buck from people who are tired of waiting for the PS3 release date. But now, unless the PS3 is greatly delayed or Blu-ray removed, why would anyone buy a $1000 BD player when you could pay substantially less and get PS3 gaming?
So, now, we know for sure that Blu-ray is coming in late May. Idle speculation puts the PS3 in, what, September? A Christmas release? Either Sony is going to come out with an announced delay very soon since people will start connecting said dots or they'll just have everyone speculate until E3 and drop the bombshell there.
This Week In Nintendo #14
Posted: Tuesday 28th of February 2006 12:38PM
This Week In Nintendo #14
Edition: #14
Dates: 02.20.2006 thru 02.26.2006
Top Headline
Mario Much Sooner Than Thought After dating the DS Mario for Japan last week, it gets a May 7th release for the US.
Other News
Magnetica coming to America
Reggie talks up Revolution dev kits
Bucket o' Rumors
Last Week's Top Releases
NDS Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll
NGC Sonic Riders
Releases This Week
NDS Animal Crossing: Wild World Bundle
NDS Super Princess Peach
NDS FIFA Street 2
NGC FIFA Street 2
Closing Thoughts
If you've kept up with TWIN, you know that the new Mario for the DS is one of my most anticipated games for the system. Last week, it was dated for May in Japan, much to my surprise. This week, we find out the same is true for the US. Ye olde gaming rumor mill has it that May 7th could be an even bigger day in the US. Not only is it 2 days before E3 starts but there are reports the DS Lite will be released the same day. Guess what Nintendo hopes everyone in LA will be playing.
In an attempt to liquidate some of that "old" DS stock ahead of the Lite arriving, there have been quite a few deals of late. Lots of places were running "buy a DS, get a game free" and there were some good games in those like Mario & Luigi and Advance Wars with an Animal Crossing bundle arriving this week. If you don't really care about getting a Lite, there are all sorts of good DS deals to be had right now.
Magnetica aka Puzzloop is due in stores this June. It's a puzzle game from Mitchell Corporation, the dev who made Polarium. As for this week's releases, there's Super Princess Peach to tide you over a little until Mario arrives in a couple of months. The release date page is getting updated as fast as possible, tho there are still some major developers not on the list. Check it out.
I didn't really know where else to write about this rumor, so here goes: Sony is planning on battling the Revolution with the PS2. They will combine the PS2 with an Eyetoy, a Revolution-style controller, and a $99 price point. Again, this is pure fiction in the sense that it's just a very questionable rumor email on a gaming site but, let's have some fun with it anyway.
First the pro's. Sony has a huge installed user and developer base for the PS2. The Revolution is expected to have low development costs and this would be in the same boat. It could be viewed as giving them two product lines, a bargain one to combat Nintendo and a high end one to go after Microsoft. Without a lot of expensive R&D, it's basically free money from giving an old system some more legs.
Now the con's. Why would you cut into your possible PS3 base with an item like this? Why would someone pay for a "last gen" system when they could have a next gen one that isn't prohibitively more on the cost front? If they did go ahead with this, does Sony have the resources to push and develop for the PS3 and this system just to go after Nintendo, who really isn't competing with them? Lastly, not that Sony has a stellar reputation to begin with but, if they come out with a Revolution copycat, aren't they going to get called on it and lose some credibility in the marketplace, again hurting their competition with Microsoft, a much bigger and more important piece of the pie to them?
It seems possible but unlikely and that's not even considering the source. With a lot of Sony's hopes resting on Blu-Ray, I'm not sure they'd do something this daring that could possibly backfire and jeopardize everything. Then again, with my prediction track record, you should probably start lining up now for your Eye-PS2-Rev thingie.
Finally, since the Revolution front has been fairly quiet with the DS getting all the love, Reggie spoke to Engadget about the dev kits. Apparently over a thousand have been shipped to developers and there are four versions of kits. First devs start with a Gamecube with a Revolution controller hooked up to get used to it. The second had some minor changes and the third was souped up. The fourth, shipping soon, is supposed to be 90-95% of the Revolution's power.
The other tidbit to come out of the interview and subsequent IGN article is that the dev kits for the Revolution cost around $2000, cheaper than even the PSP SDK, to say nothing for the PS3 or Xbox 360. Dev kit costs are nothing if you're EA or Ubi, but it's another matter if you're a small, independent company. If Nintendo can get some quality games from small, third-party developers then this is good news. If not, there's not much ventured and nothing gained.
Edition: #14
Dates: 02.20.2006 thru 02.26.2006
Top Headline
Mario Much Sooner Than Thought After dating the DS Mario for Japan last week, it gets a May 7th release for the US.
Other News
Magnetica coming to America
Reggie talks up Revolution dev kits
Bucket o' Rumors
Last Week's Top Releases
NDS Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll
NGC Sonic Riders
Releases This Week
NDS Animal Crossing: Wild World Bundle
NDS Super Princess Peach
NDS FIFA Street 2
NGC FIFA Street 2
Closing Thoughts
If you've kept up with TWIN, you know that the new Mario for the DS is one of my most anticipated games for the system. Last week, it was dated for May in Japan, much to my surprise. This week, we find out the same is true for the US. Ye olde gaming rumor mill has it that May 7th could be an even bigger day in the US. Not only is it 2 days before E3 starts but there are reports the DS Lite will be released the same day. Guess what Nintendo hopes everyone in LA will be playing.
In an attempt to liquidate some of that "old" DS stock ahead of the Lite arriving, there have been quite a few deals of late. Lots of places were running "buy a DS, get a game free" and there were some good games in those like Mario & Luigi and Advance Wars with an Animal Crossing bundle arriving this week. If you don't really care about getting a Lite, there are all sorts of good DS deals to be had right now.
Magnetica aka Puzzloop is due in stores this June. It's a puzzle game from Mitchell Corporation, the dev who made Polarium. As for this week's releases, there's Super Princess Peach to tide you over a little until Mario arrives in a couple of months. The release date page is getting updated as fast as possible, tho there are still some major developers not on the list. Check it out.
I didn't really know where else to write about this rumor, so here goes: Sony is planning on battling the Revolution with the PS2. They will combine the PS2 with an Eyetoy, a Revolution-style controller, and a $99 price point. Again, this is pure fiction in the sense that it's just a very questionable rumor email on a gaming site but, let's have some fun with it anyway.
First the pro's. Sony has a huge installed user and developer base for the PS2. The Revolution is expected to have low development costs and this would be in the same boat. It could be viewed as giving them two product lines, a bargain one to combat Nintendo and a high end one to go after Microsoft. Without a lot of expensive R&D, it's basically free money from giving an old system some more legs.
Now the con's. Why would you cut into your possible PS3 base with an item like this? Why would someone pay for a "last gen" system when they could have a next gen one that isn't prohibitively more on the cost front? If they did go ahead with this, does Sony have the resources to push and develop for the PS3 and this system just to go after Nintendo, who really isn't competing with them? Lastly, not that Sony has a stellar reputation to begin with but, if they come out with a Revolution copycat, aren't they going to get called on it and lose some credibility in the marketplace, again hurting their competition with Microsoft, a much bigger and more important piece of the pie to them?
It seems possible but unlikely and that's not even considering the source. With a lot of Sony's hopes resting on Blu-Ray, I'm not sure they'd do something this daring that could possibly backfire and jeopardize everything. Then again, with my prediction track record, you should probably start lining up now for your Eye-PS2-Rev thingie.
Finally, since the Revolution front has been fairly quiet with the DS getting all the love, Reggie spoke to Engadget about the dev kits. Apparently over a thousand have been shipped to developers and there are four versions of kits. First devs start with a Gamecube with a Revolution controller hooked up to get used to it. The second had some minor changes and the third was souped up. The fourth, shipping soon, is supposed to be 90-95% of the Revolution's power.
The other tidbit to come out of the interview and subsequent IGN article is that the dev kits for the Revolution cost around $2000, cheaper than even the PSP SDK, to say nothing for the PS3 or Xbox 360. Dev kit costs are nothing if you're EA or Ubi, but it's another matter if you're a small, independent company. If Nintendo can get some quality games from small, third-party developers then this is good news. If not, there's not much ventured and nothing gained.
Midway takes aim at Take-Two's baseball exclusivity
Posted: Thursday 23rd of February 2006 8:44AM
Source
Gamespot
Summary
Midway puts Slugfest on calendar. But what about Take-Two's MLB exclusivity rights they paid $100M for?
Other Notes
Midway is the first to try and "challenge" these stupid exclusivity contracts. Never liked this idea one bit starting with when EA signed the first one with the NFL. They basically said they would rather spend $50M+ per year to keep out competitors so they can drive up prices than spend some of that money on R&D and keep prices lower. There is no possible way this is good for gamers. No clue if Midway has any chance in court, tho I'd imagine not.
Gamespot
Summary
Midway puts Slugfest on calendar. But what about Take-Two's MLB exclusivity rights they paid $100M for?
Other Notes
- Slugfest 2006 announced for budget price of $19.99 of Playstation 2 and Xbox
- "When Take-Two announced its deal for MLB exclusivity, it said in no uncertain terms that it is the only third-party publisher that can make MLB-licensed baseball games. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony can make baseball games, but only for their respective consoles. The deal doesn't just cover simulation baseball games either; Take-Two specified that it included MLB games in the arcade and strategy genre as well.."
Mario, Magnetica dated for US
Posted: Thursday 23rd of February 2006 6:52AM
New Super Mario Bros. Coming May 7 Only on Nintendo DS
Two New Titles Announced For Nintendo DS
It's been more than 20 years since Nintendo's highly acclaimed franchise, Super Mario Bros., first hit store shelves. On May 7, eager fans from Mario's classic days must wait no longer to see the brothers return in an all-new platformer with the launch of New Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo DS.
On the heels of Valentine's Day romance is in the air, even in the Mushroom Kingdom. But Princess Peach wasn't able to celebrate with her special someone, seeing that she's been taken prisoner by Bowser and Bowser Jr. Only the Mario Bros. can rescue the princess from her evil captors as they battle familiar enemies like Goombas and Koopas along with new foes and big bosses.
New Super Mario Bros. is loaded with features and characters that could only exist in the Mushroom Kingdom, including all-new power-ups like the Blue Shell, in which Mario can ride, and a massive Mushroom that makes him ultra-huge. The title features stunning 3-D models moving through lavish, cleverly designed 2-D worlds, culminating in a final showdown for the freedom of Princess Peach.
Then, on June 5, another title launches for Nintendo DS. In Magnetica, marbles roll down a twisted path toward the goal and it's up to players to stop them by launching new marbles into the oncoming ones. The marbles will disappear if players match three or more in this massive marble elimination. All actions are controlled with the stylus in this title that satisfies even the strongest puzzle addiction.
Ok, it's been a slow week so this is the biggest news we could turn up in a press release over at Nintendo.com:Two New Titles Announced For Nintendo DS
It's been more than 20 years since Nintendo's highly acclaimed franchise, Super Mario Bros., first hit store shelves. On May 7, eager fans from Mario's classic days must wait no longer to see the brothers return in an all-new platformer with the launch of New Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo DS.
On the heels of Valentine's Day romance is in the air, even in the Mushroom Kingdom. But Princess Peach wasn't able to celebrate with her special someone, seeing that she's been taken prisoner by Bowser and Bowser Jr. Only the Mario Bros. can rescue the princess from her evil captors as they battle familiar enemies like Goombas and Koopas along with new foes and big bosses.
New Super Mario Bros. is loaded with features and characters that could only exist in the Mushroom Kingdom, including all-new power-ups like the Blue Shell, in which Mario can ride, and a massive Mushroom that makes him ultra-huge. The title features stunning 3-D models moving through lavish, cleverly designed 2-D worlds, culminating in a final showdown for the freedom of Princess Peach.
Then, on June 5, another title launches for Nintendo DS. In Magnetica, marbles roll down a twisted path toward the goal and it's up to players to stop them by launching new marbles into the oncoming ones. The marbles will disappear if players match three or more in this massive marble elimination. All actions are controlled with the stylus in this title that satisfies even the strongest puzzle addiction.
Mario Bros coming out in May in the US is pretty big. It seemed unlikely that it would be out in Japan that soon much less here.
Magnetica is the American version of Puzzloop and will be out in June. The game has been around a couple of years but you can never have too many puzzle games for the handheld.
This Week In Nintendo #13
Posted: Monday 20th of February 2006 10:47AM
Edition: #13
Dates: 02.13.2006 thru 02.19.2006
Top Headline
DS Conference Nintendo gets a web browser, tv tuner, and shows off a bunch of games, including dating the DS Mario for May in Japan, much sooner than thought.
Other News
Capcom has their own party
Last Week's Top Releases
NDS Age of Empires: Age of Kings
Releases This Week
NDS Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll
NGC Sonic Riders
Closing Thoughts
The DS Conference was pretty much the big news this week for Nintendo. If you want to read more, we've got it here, chock full of a news story's worth of commentary. Jason has also covered the Opera angle quite extensively.
Capcom had their own conference this week and the news wasn't good for Nintendo. Pretty much nothing coming Nintendo's way but a bunch of stuff that would look on the DS ending up on the PSP: seven games, to be exact. I wonder if Capcom is still feeling burned from this generation and the less than stellar sales numbers of the Capcom Five (bonus points if you could name Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7, PN 03 Resident Evil 4, and Dead Phoenix).
Then again, the DS has already gotten Phoenix Wright, Resident Evil, and Mega Man Battle Network. But would it have killed them to send a little love Nintendo's way like Capcom Puzzle World and Mega Man Powered Up? It's not like these are graphics marvels that need the PSP horsepower and "big" screen. Maybe they'll put them out for the PSP but then release them for the DS about a year later instead of keeping them system exclusive like some other games for other systems that I could name.
On the games side, Sega has a couple of games coming out this week, Super Monkey Ball for the DS and Sonic Riders for the Gamecube along with the PS2 and Xbox. Age of Empires got pretty good reviews last week. Haven't gotten my hands on it yet, but it looks solid. Still, February's been a bit slow but things pick up quick in March.
Well, that's pretty much it. Two big doses of news and nothing else going on unless you get excited whenever someone puts a mike in front of Reggie and he says something we already know like that Zelda is still for the Gamecube and is likely coming out in Fall, around when the Revolution is. Really, that's the next biggest news story for this week and as much as I like Reggie, that's really not news. Until next week.
Dates: 02.13.2006 thru 02.19.2006
Top Headline
DS Conference Nintendo gets a web browser, tv tuner, and shows off a bunch of games, including dating the DS Mario for May in Japan, much sooner than thought.
Other News
Capcom has their own party
Last Week's Top Releases
NDS Age of Empires: Age of Kings
Releases This Week
NDS Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll
NGC Sonic Riders
Closing Thoughts
The DS Conference was pretty much the big news this week for Nintendo. If you want to read more, we've got it here, chock full of a news story's worth of commentary. Jason has also covered the Opera angle quite extensively.
Capcom had their own conference this week and the news wasn't good for Nintendo. Pretty much nothing coming Nintendo's way but a bunch of stuff that would look on the DS ending up on the PSP: seven games, to be exact. I wonder if Capcom is still feeling burned from this generation and the less than stellar sales numbers of the Capcom Five (bonus points if you could name Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7, PN 03 Resident Evil 4, and Dead Phoenix).
Then again, the DS has already gotten Phoenix Wright, Resident Evil, and Mega Man Battle Network. But would it have killed them to send a little love Nintendo's way like Capcom Puzzle World and Mega Man Powered Up? It's not like these are graphics marvels that need the PSP horsepower and "big" screen. Maybe they'll put them out for the PSP but then release them for the DS about a year later instead of keeping them system exclusive like some other games for other systems that I could name.
On the games side, Sega has a couple of games coming out this week, Super Monkey Ball for the DS and Sonic Riders for the Gamecube along with the PS2 and Xbox. Age of Empires got pretty good reviews last week. Haven't gotten my hands on it yet, but it looks solid. Still, February's been a bit slow but things pick up quick in March.
Well, that's pretty much it. Two big doses of news and nothing else going on unless you get excited whenever someone puts a mike in front of Reggie and he says something we already know like that Zelda is still for the Gamecube and is likely coming out in Fall, around when the Revolution is. Really, that's the next biggest news story for this week and as much as I like Reggie, that's really not news. Until next week.
Briefly: Microsoft wants HD-DVD to fail and the $900 PS3
Posted: Monday 20th of February 2006 10:46AM
I'm going to try something new and actually talk about companies not named Nintendo for a change since I ran across a couple of stories on Joystiq this past week that seem to have had some legs. One is something I don't think a lot of people have thought about and the second is something that people have blown way out of proportion.
The first is based on an article from Engadget and suggests Microsoft wants HD-DVD to fail. Sounds nuts, right? I mean, after all, they've pledged support for it. But, it has been uncharacteristically weak support for a company that likes to charge full-bore at what they want. They haven't been the driving force behind either technology so why not position yourself to pay lip service to one format while secretly hoping neither wins. That way, you can pick up the pieces and pick the pockets of jaded consumers after both fail. With all of Jason's musings on the UMD format the past couple of weeks with visions of 4-sectioned DVD sales floors, this seems all the more plausible.
Second is the story of the $900 PS3 costs. Now, I'm not thrilled with financial "analysts" talking gaming to begin with as it's typically like watching a football fan trying to stumble his way through a baseball discussion with gems like "Derek Jeter's the best player in the game since he has a lot of World Series rings". For example, a couple of weeks ago there were a couple of ludicrous PSP vs DS projections including one where they used Sony's number shipped for the PSP as number sold but used the numbers sold for the DS to base their projections on. And someone pays them to do this.
This analysis has a similar credibility flaw right off the bat as the report claims a $900 price tag despite their numbers only adding up to $800. Still, a lot of people were taking this $900 price tag and "reporting" likely PS3 launch prices at $600 and up, flawed reasoning on many counts. First, Joystiq had a very similar article which pegged preliminary cost estimates for the X360 at $715 and it still sold at the $300/$400 launch price point. A $400 or maybe $500 price tag for the PS3 launch seems much more likely. Second, companies typically lose money on the consoles themselves, particularly at launch. Near as anyone can tell, the Xbox console has always lost money and accounts for a lot of that $4 billion shortfall over the lifespan of the system. Thirdly, these costs come down as the console ages. The article claims the cost in 3 years will only be $320 per system, allowing Sony to make a price drop or two and either be breaking even or losing a much smaller amount before too long. Finally, these are estimates. None of this is based on official public and published facts. It's not as if you can walk up to IBM and ask how much a Cell costs, much less what bulk rate they are selling them to Sony at.
It seems really unlikely that we'll see a higher than $500 price point for the PS3 as it would be market suicide. That's just not something Sony can afford to do when it has the hopes of both the gaming and movie divisions resting on the PS3 having a huge install base.
The first is based on an article from Engadget and suggests Microsoft wants HD-DVD to fail. Sounds nuts, right? I mean, after all, they've pledged support for it. But, it has been uncharacteristically weak support for a company that likes to charge full-bore at what they want. They haven't been the driving force behind either technology so why not position yourself to pay lip service to one format while secretly hoping neither wins. That way, you can pick up the pieces and pick the pockets of jaded consumers after both fail. With all of Jason's musings on the UMD format the past couple of weeks with visions of 4-sectioned DVD sales floors, this seems all the more plausible.
Second is the story of the $900 PS3 costs. Now, I'm not thrilled with financial "analysts" talking gaming to begin with as it's typically like watching a football fan trying to stumble his way through a baseball discussion with gems like "Derek Jeter's the best player in the game since he has a lot of World Series rings". For example, a couple of weeks ago there were a couple of ludicrous PSP vs DS projections including one where they used Sony's number shipped for the PSP as number sold but used the numbers sold for the DS to base their projections on. And someone pays them to do this.
This analysis has a similar credibility flaw right off the bat as the report claims a $900 price tag despite their numbers only adding up to $800. Still, a lot of people were taking this $900 price tag and "reporting" likely PS3 launch prices at $600 and up, flawed reasoning on many counts. First, Joystiq had a very similar article which pegged preliminary cost estimates for the X360 at $715 and it still sold at the $300/$400 launch price point. A $400 or maybe $500 price tag for the PS3 launch seems much more likely. Second, companies typically lose money on the consoles themselves, particularly at launch. Near as anyone can tell, the Xbox console has always lost money and accounts for a lot of that $4 billion shortfall over the lifespan of the system. Thirdly, these costs come down as the console ages. The article claims the cost in 3 years will only be $320 per system, allowing Sony to make a price drop or two and either be breaking even or losing a much smaller amount before too long. Finally, these are estimates. None of this is based on official public and published facts. It's not as if you can walk up to IBM and ask how much a Cell costs, much less what bulk rate they are selling them to Sony at.
It seems really unlikely that we'll see a higher than $500 price point for the PS3 as it would be market suicide. That's just not something Sony can afford to do when it has the hopes of both the gaming and movie divisions resting on the PS3 having a huge install base.
PSP UMD Movies in Trouble?
Posted: Friday 17th of February 2006 10:18PM
Source
Variety, that bastion of gaming news.
Summary
Comedies are selling well on the UMD format but not much else is so Sony, Warner Home Video, and others are cutting back.
Other Notes
Not to say we told you so, but Jason's been writing for the last couple of weeks about this.Variety, that bastion of gaming news.
Summary
Comedies are selling well on the UMD format but not much else is so Sony, Warner Home Video, and others are cutting back.
Other Notes
- Apparently "top PSP movie performers" sell 100K while the usual ones sell 40-50K
- Sony has a TV adapter coming out as well as an online movie store
- "Industryites say retailers are being flooded with new discs and view underperforming PSP movies as an area for cutbacks with upcoming high-def releases set to reach market in the coming months."
I guess that whole idea of showing effects laden action movies on a 4" screen just doesn't appeal to people when even portable DVD players have twice the screen, more battery life, and play standard DVDs. Like Jason has been talking about, once Blu-Ray and HD-DVD arrive for their inevitable battle, the UMD format is going to have a really short shelf life if it doesn't start selling real soon.
The good news for Sony: apparently young, dumb stoners who love their stupid comedies will still pay $20-$30 for a neutered format which only plays on the PSP and lacks additional features that DVD fans love.
Notes from Nintendo DS Conference
Posted: Thursday 16th of February 2006 5:13PM
Nintendo held a press conference in Tokyo in the wee hours of yesterday morning to outline some of their Japanese plans for the DS. There were no “megaton” announcements: no new Pokemon: Pearl/Diamond news or big games like a new Zelda but there’s quite a bit of new stuff to cover.
I suppose the biggest news is on the hardware side. In Japan, there’s going to be a digital TV receiver for the DS. However, as I understand it, there’s an entire mobile digital TV infrastructure there that we don’t have in the US so I’m not sure how likely that item is to come stateside.
The other big “hardware” announcement is that Opera has developed a web browser for the DS, based off of their mobile browser. This is an interesting step in the direction of making the DS more "functional". A while back, I wrote about how, since the PSP was the multimedia machine, it would behoove Nintendo to position the DS as a productivity machine. Now, if only there was a way to make the Palm OS rumors true. These have floated around since pretty much the introduction of the system and it's a natural fit with the touch screen interface.
For more about the browser, check out Jason's blog post about the topic entitled “DS gets a browser???”
Onto the software side, Tetris DS was dated for Japan, about a month after its March 20th release in the US. And, in the big announcement, the new Super Mario Bros for the DS has been dated and it’s much sooner than expected, May there. No release date here yet, but if it’s that far along in development, then it won’t take too long to localize and release it here, easily before Christmas.
Quite a few RPGs were shown and/or dated for the DS in Japan, including Children of Mana, Xenosaga I & II, Contact, and Tales of the Tempest. These four are all due in March or April, as are Tenchu Dark Shadow and Pokemon Ranger.
For stuff a little further away, there were a couple of wacky things announced in the way of a calligraphy training program and a cooking “game”. Squeenix is still developing Final Fantasy III as well as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Dragon Warrior Monsters entries. Konami including online play and what looks like a 3-D engine for their DS Winning Eleven entry. New DS entries of the Dynasty Warriors, Super Robot Wars, Phoenix Wright, and Tamagotchi series are also on the way.
Looks like Japan will have its hands full with DS stuff to help push the Lite. Hopefully we’ll be able to say the same about the US in a couple of months.
I suppose the biggest news is on the hardware side. In Japan, there’s going to be a digital TV receiver for the DS. However, as I understand it, there’s an entire mobile digital TV infrastructure there that we don’t have in the US so I’m not sure how likely that item is to come stateside.
The other big “hardware” announcement is that Opera has developed a web browser for the DS, based off of their mobile browser. This is an interesting step in the direction of making the DS more "functional". A while back, I wrote about how, since the PSP was the multimedia machine, it would behoove Nintendo to position the DS as a productivity machine. Now, if only there was a way to make the Palm OS rumors true. These have floated around since pretty much the introduction of the system and it's a natural fit with the touch screen interface.
For more about the browser, check out Jason's blog post about the topic entitled “DS gets a browser???”
Onto the software side, Tetris DS was dated for Japan, about a month after its March 20th release in the US. And, in the big announcement, the new Super Mario Bros for the DS has been dated and it’s much sooner than expected, May there. No release date here yet, but if it’s that far along in development, then it won’t take too long to localize and release it here, easily before Christmas.
Quite a few RPGs were shown and/or dated for the DS in Japan, including Children of Mana, Xenosaga I & II, Contact, and Tales of the Tempest. These four are all due in March or April, as are Tenchu Dark Shadow and Pokemon Ranger.
For stuff a little further away, there were a couple of wacky things announced in the way of a calligraphy training program and a cooking “game”. Squeenix is still developing Final Fantasy III as well as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Dragon Warrior Monsters entries. Konami including online play and what looks like a 3-D engine for their DS Winning Eleven entry. New DS entries of the Dynasty Warriors, Super Robot Wars, Phoenix Wright, and Tamagotchi series are also on the way.
Looks like Japan will have its hands full with DS stuff to help push the Lite. Hopefully we’ll be able to say the same about the US in a couple of months.
This Week In Nintendo #12
Posted: Saturday 11th of February 2006 9:39AM
Edition: #12
Dates: 01.30.2006 thru 02.12.2006
Top Headline
More Details Emerge About DS Lite! Nintendo showed off the three colors of the new DS Lite: white, navy (looks black), and a teal-ish color and they look striking. More news below.
Other News
Reggie with announcements about DS downloads, voice chat, numbers
First two Brain Age games dated for US
Last (Two) Week's Top Releases
NDS Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
NDS The Rub Rabbits!
NGC Chibi Robo
NGC Dora the Explorer: Journey to the Purple Planet
GBA Drill Dozer
GBA Sudoku Fever
NDS Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop
GBA Curious George
NGC Curious George
Releases This Week
NDS Age of Empires: Age of Kings
Closing Thoughts
Alright, enough with the two week waits; TWIN is going back to being weekly next Sunday. This one's a long one and it comes a couple of days early as I'll be out of town this weekend.
More juicy DS Lite details came to light (pun kindof intended) this week. Aside from the facelift and tummy tuck, the DS also did some endurance training as the battery charges faster and the lowest level of brightness now goes 15-19 hours. The current DS runs 6-10 hours, or about the same as the Lite will run on its highest brightness setting. That said, the new max brightness is five times that of the current DS screen. In another minor cosmetic change, the stylus will be on the side rather than in the back and will be slightly longer (1 cm) and thicker (1 mm) than before.
There is some bad news, however. The DS Lite uses a new AC adapter so no using that old SP charger as a spare any more. And, when playing GBA games, the cartridge sticks out about 1 cm so all of us who use a GBA game for a nice change of gameplay pace will have to change that habit. Although it does come with a little dummy cartridge that fits flush with the edge of the Lite for when you're not playing GBA games.
After writing the somewhat lukewarm review of the DS Lite in the last TWIN, I'm really starting to warm up to it. If someone has a trade-in offer, I may take the plunge after all. Now, if only they could have gotten rid of that GBA-cart-sticking-out problem. Ultimately, if I make a trade, it will all depend on how it feels with games like Mario Kart as the current DS is still great. If the lower weight makes it feel a lot more comfortable, then it's worth the change.
If I were to make a list of my most hotly anticipated DS games, it would go something like this: the new unnamed Mario, Pokemon: Pearl/Diamond, everything else. It's not that the “everything else” is useless, it's just that those particular two are miles above the rest. Unfortunately, we're looking at Christmas at the earliest for those and likely into next year.
The pile of "everything else" has a lot of great stuff in it, mind you, and they’re a lot closer to the horizon, like Metroid Prime Hunters and Tetris on March 20th, both (mark your calendars!). And now there's another couple to add to the list as the Brain Age games get dates in the US. The first, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is due April 17th while the second, Big Brain Academy, is due May 30th.
For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it went by the name Brain Training in Japan and caught fire as all three versions have sold over a million copies. They are more of Nintendo's "non games" which have a frighteningly addictive hold on people. This particular series is designed to sharpen your mind by doing fun little puzzles. I'm curious to see if these are fun.
And I'll be able to find out using one of Nintendo's new marketing tools (see that smooth segue?) which Reggie talked about on Thursday at the DICE Summit. Nintendo has reached agreements with EB Games, GameStop, and Game Crazy and is in talks with Target and WalMart to have download stations inside those stores for DS owners to wirelessly download demos and other goodies. The first set includes demos from the first Brain Age game, Mario Kart DS, Meteos, Pokemon Trozei, Tetris DS, and True Swing Golf as well as a Hunters movie. The downside is that the DS has no storage medium so it's like any downloaded game on the system (ie like single-cart multiplayer) where the content goes away when the system is turned off. Still, can't beat the price of free downloads.
Another announcement to come out of Reggie's speech was that Metroid Prime Hunters would have voice chat where players could speak with opponents before and after games played over Nintendo Wi-Fi. This comes on the heels of a February 3rd story on Nintendo.com where a couple of the NOA “web lackeys" were allowed to play a beta and mentioned how nice the lobby was compared the Mario Kart. No, you can't chat during battle and I'm sure the lobby isn't perfect, but we're getting steps closer to a rich and full online for experience, game by game.
Last bit of Reggie news as we know he loves his numbers. The latest stats he gave for Nintendo Wi-Fi were over 860,000 unique users and 21 million unique connections as well as 14.4 million DS's sold worldwide through December. That’s a lot of DS goodness around the globe.
Finally, missed a pretty good release week last week with XX/XY sequel The Rub Rabbits! and Resident Evil remake Resident Evil: Deadly Silence for the DS, GBA platformer Drill Dozer from Pokemon developer Game Freak, and quirky Chibi-Robo for the Gamecube. There’s only one substantial release this week but it should be good as there’s a DS entry from the venerable PC Age of Empires series called Age of Kings. It should make a nice real-time strategy compliment to turn based juggernaut Advance Wars.
Dates: 01.30.2006 thru 02.12.2006
Top Headline
More Details Emerge About DS Lite! Nintendo showed off the three colors of the new DS Lite: white, navy (looks black), and a teal-ish color and they look striking. More news below.
Other News
Reggie with announcements about DS downloads, voice chat, numbers
First two Brain Age games dated for US
Last (Two) Week's Top Releases
NDS Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
NDS The Rub Rabbits!
NGC Chibi Robo
NGC Dora the Explorer: Journey to the Purple Planet
GBA Drill Dozer
GBA Sudoku Fever
NDS Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop
GBA Curious George
NGC Curious George
Releases This Week
NDS Age of Empires: Age of Kings
Closing Thoughts
Alright, enough with the two week waits; TWIN is going back to being weekly next Sunday. This one's a long one and it comes a couple of days early as I'll be out of town this weekend.
More juicy DS Lite details came to light (pun kindof intended) this week. Aside from the facelift and tummy tuck, the DS also did some endurance training as the battery charges faster and the lowest level of brightness now goes 15-19 hours. The current DS runs 6-10 hours, or about the same as the Lite will run on its highest brightness setting. That said, the new max brightness is five times that of the current DS screen. In another minor cosmetic change, the stylus will be on the side rather than in the back and will be slightly longer (1 cm) and thicker (1 mm) than before.
There is some bad news, however. The DS Lite uses a new AC adapter so no using that old SP charger as a spare any more. And, when playing GBA games, the cartridge sticks out about 1 cm so all of us who use a GBA game for a nice change of gameplay pace will have to change that habit. Although it does come with a little dummy cartridge that fits flush with the edge of the Lite for when you're not playing GBA games.
After writing the somewhat lukewarm review of the DS Lite in the last TWIN, I'm really starting to warm up to it. If someone has a trade-in offer, I may take the plunge after all. Now, if only they could have gotten rid of that GBA-cart-sticking-out problem. Ultimately, if I make a trade, it will all depend on how it feels with games like Mario Kart as the current DS is still great. If the lower weight makes it feel a lot more comfortable, then it's worth the change.
If I were to make a list of my most hotly anticipated DS games, it would go something like this: the new unnamed Mario, Pokemon: Pearl/Diamond, everything else. It's not that the “everything else” is useless, it's just that those particular two are miles above the rest. Unfortunately, we're looking at Christmas at the earliest for those and likely into next year.
The pile of "everything else" has a lot of great stuff in it, mind you, and they’re a lot closer to the horizon, like Metroid Prime Hunters and Tetris on March 20th, both (mark your calendars!). And now there's another couple to add to the list as the Brain Age games get dates in the US. The first, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is due April 17th while the second, Big Brain Academy, is due May 30th.
For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it went by the name Brain Training in Japan and caught fire as all three versions have sold over a million copies. They are more of Nintendo's "non games" which have a frighteningly addictive hold on people. This particular series is designed to sharpen your mind by doing fun little puzzles. I'm curious to see if these are fun.
And I'll be able to find out using one of Nintendo's new marketing tools (see that smooth segue?) which Reggie talked about on Thursday at the DICE Summit. Nintendo has reached agreements with EB Games, GameStop, and Game Crazy and is in talks with Target and WalMart to have download stations inside those stores for DS owners to wirelessly download demos and other goodies. The first set includes demos from the first Brain Age game, Mario Kart DS, Meteos, Pokemon Trozei, Tetris DS, and True Swing Golf as well as a Hunters movie. The downside is that the DS has no storage medium so it's like any downloaded game on the system (ie like single-cart multiplayer) where the content goes away when the system is turned off. Still, can't beat the price of free downloads.
Another announcement to come out of Reggie's speech was that Metroid Prime Hunters would have voice chat where players could speak with opponents before and after games played over Nintendo Wi-Fi. This comes on the heels of a February 3rd story on Nintendo.com where a couple of the NOA “web lackeys" were allowed to play a beta and mentioned how nice the lobby was compared the Mario Kart. No, you can't chat during battle and I'm sure the lobby isn't perfect, but we're getting steps closer to a rich and full online for experience, game by game.
Last bit of Reggie news as we know he loves his numbers. The latest stats he gave for Nintendo Wi-Fi were over 860,000 unique users and 21 million unique connections as well as 14.4 million DS's sold worldwide through December. That’s a lot of DS goodness around the globe.
Finally, missed a pretty good release week last week with XX/XY sequel The Rub Rabbits! and Resident Evil remake Resident Evil: Deadly Silence for the DS, GBA platformer Drill Dozer from Pokemon developer Game Freak, and quirky Chibi-Robo for the Gamecube. There’s only one substantial release this week but it should be good as there’s a DS entry from the venerable PC Age of Empires series called Age of Kings. It should make a nice real-time strategy compliment to turn based juggernaut Advance Wars.
Brain Age series dated for Spring in US
Posted: Wednesday 1st of February 2006 8:50AM
After decades of exercising players' thumbs, Nintendo is now moving to their minds. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day for Nintendo DS will help players flex their mental muscles. Brain Age represents the first in a series of U.S. brain-training titles that already have taken Japan by storm.
Brain exercise has been a hot topic lately. Baby Boomers and test-prepping school kids alike want to challenge themselves. In fact, a recent Time magazine article cited Brain Age in its exploration of the trend of people looking for ways to exercise their brains.
But Baby Boomers picking up a video game system? It's not as far-fetched as you might think. Three separate titles in the brain-training series are currently a huge craze in Japan. Each of them has achieved sales of more than 1 million units, with the most recent title hitting that milestone in less than a month. The craze has been fueled largely by older players, many of whom had never played a video game system before.
Brain Age (known as Brain Training in Japan) was inspired by the work of Professor Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. His studies evaluated the effect of performing reading and mathematic exercises to help stimulate the brain.
"Young or old, everyone looks for ways to get a mental edge," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Our brain-training series, led by Brain Age, builds on the popularity of word and number puzzles and acts as a treadmill for the mind."
Brain Age presents players with a series of fun mental brain-training challenges that incorporate word memorization, counting and reading. It even includes sudoku number puzzles, which have become extremely popular features in newspapers around the country. The distinctive touch screen of Nintendo DS lets users write their responses, just as though they were using a PDA. Players even turn the Nintendo DS sideways to make it feel more familiar, like a book. The more often users challenge themselves, the better they become at the tasks and the lower their estimated DS "brain age."
Nintendo's brain-training series of games represent a cornerstone of Nintendo's aim to expand the world of video games to new audiences. The second title in the series, Big Brain Academy (known as Brain Flex in Japan) offers players 15 fun activities that test their brain powers in areas like logic, memory, math and analysis. Up to eight people can play with a single game card, and each activity takes less than a minute to complete.
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is rated E for Everyone and launches on April 17. Big Brain Academy is Rated E for Everyone and launches May 30.
Another of the huge "non-games" for the Nintendo DS, the Brain Age series has 3 games, each of which have sold 1 million in Japan. It remains to be seen if it can connect with American audiences, as there are certainly differences between the two gaming cultures. Still, the previous DS "craze" there, Nintendogs, did well over here so these will be something to check out when they come stateside. Does Nintendo have another new hit franchise on their hand?
Brain exercise has been a hot topic lately. Baby Boomers and test-prepping school kids alike want to challenge themselves. In fact, a recent Time magazine article cited Brain Age in its exploration of the trend of people looking for ways to exercise their brains.
But Baby Boomers picking up a video game system? It's not as far-fetched as you might think. Three separate titles in the brain-training series are currently a huge craze in Japan. Each of them has achieved sales of more than 1 million units, with the most recent title hitting that milestone in less than a month. The craze has been fueled largely by older players, many of whom had never played a video game system before.
Brain Age (known as Brain Training in Japan) was inspired by the work of Professor Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. His studies evaluated the effect of performing reading and mathematic exercises to help stimulate the brain.
"Young or old, everyone looks for ways to get a mental edge," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Our brain-training series, led by Brain Age, builds on the popularity of word and number puzzles and acts as a treadmill for the mind."
Brain Age presents players with a series of fun mental brain-training challenges that incorporate word memorization, counting and reading. It even includes sudoku number puzzles, which have become extremely popular features in newspapers around the country. The distinctive touch screen of Nintendo DS lets users write their responses, just as though they were using a PDA. Players even turn the Nintendo DS sideways to make it feel more familiar, like a book. The more often users challenge themselves, the better they become at the tasks and the lower their estimated DS "brain age."
Nintendo's brain-training series of games represent a cornerstone of Nintendo's aim to expand the world of video games to new audiences. The second title in the series, Big Brain Academy (known as Brain Flex in Japan) offers players 15 fun activities that test their brain powers in areas like logic, memory, math and analysis. Up to eight people can play with a single game card, and each activity takes less than a minute to complete.
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is rated E for Everyone and launches on April 17. Big Brain Academy is Rated E for Everyone and launches May 30.
This Week In Nintendo #11
Posted: Tuesday 31st of January 2006 4:33AM
Edition: #11
Dates: 01.16.2006 thru 01.29.2006
Top Headline
DS Lite! A slight redesign of the Nintendo DS is on the way. Has some nice little changes but nothing earth shattering. It arrives in Japan on March 2nd.
Other News
Animal Crossing with some online hacking problems
Nintendo DS very strong on Japanese charts
Mother 3 due April 20 in Japan
Last (Two) Week's Top Releases
NDS True Swing Golf DS
Releases This Week
NDS Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop
GBA Curious George
NGC Curious George
Closing Thoughts
Sorry for the lack of TWIN last week, but I was taken down by a cold. That's ok, as there really wasn't much news two weeks ago, but this past week, things are starting to get out of their post-Christmas malaise.
Guess I whiffed on that "unlikely" redesign rumor I dismissed in the last TWIN. The DS will be redesigned and released in Japan in just over a month. So far, only the white version has been shown, but there are supposed to be 2 more release colors for the DS Lite. For more detail, check out the news story here.
Animal Crossing has been having some issue with hacks, of late. The online economy is cratering a bit as only really rare things sell for a lot. But, that's not really that big of a deal in that game. Duped and "hacked" items, such as metroids and "invisible" furniture, are becoming prevalent, as well. But a bit more menacing problem showed up last week as a player went into other towns and would replace their gate with a museum, using a map hack. Suddenly a player cannot go to other towns and your only recourse is to move to another town. It's not very widespread, yet, as it takes some special hardware to do this. This guy was only doing it to people who were bragging about the most obnoxious thing they had done to others but everyone should beware that this is out there.
Then, last Thursday, a mysterious letter with no return address and a mysterious present showed up in anyone's mailbox who went on Nintendo WiFi. If opened, it turned into a red tulip which could change colors. However, if you put it down in your house, it was marked "unmovable" and you had a useless block in your house. By evening, the letter had stopped sending but there was no official explanation and we were left with a couple of competing theories. The first is that a hacker got ahold of the code from the Iwata letter from a couple of weeks ago and used it to send a hacked item to everyone. Obviously, this has huge repercussions, if true, as good hackers could start sending out crazy stuff via letters. This seems unlikely as it hasn't happened again. Or perhaps Nintendo closed the code hole which the exploit took advantage of. There are also unconfirmed stories that it was mistakenly sent out by someone at Nintendo .
UPDATE: As of Monday, there was finally some official word from Nintendo about this and they claimed the latter explanation. They put up some FAQ items about the tulip and are currently working on a trying to find a way to fix the game of anyone who downloaded and placed the tulip in their house.
Last, but not least, for those of us who played (own) the SNES classic Earthbound, Mother 3 (what the series is called in Japan) has finally been dated for Japan. Hopefully we'll see a release here in the US.
Dates: 01.16.2006 thru 01.29.2006
Top Headline
DS Lite! A slight redesign of the Nintendo DS is on the way. Has some nice little changes but nothing earth shattering. It arrives in Japan on March 2nd.
Other News
Animal Crossing with some online hacking problems
Nintendo DS very strong on Japanese charts
Mother 3 due April 20 in Japan
Last (Two) Week's Top Releases
NDS True Swing Golf DS
Releases This Week
NDS Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop
GBA Curious George
NGC Curious George
Closing Thoughts
Sorry for the lack of TWIN last week, but I was taken down by a cold. That's ok, as there really wasn't much news two weeks ago, but this past week, things are starting to get out of their post-Christmas malaise.
Guess I whiffed on that "unlikely" redesign rumor I dismissed in the last TWIN. The DS will be redesigned and released in Japan in just over a month. So far, only the white version has been shown, but there are supposed to be 2 more release colors for the DS Lite. For more detail, check out the news story here.
Animal Crossing has been having some issue with hacks, of late. The online economy is cratering a bit as only really rare things sell for a lot. But, that's not really that big of a deal in that game. Duped and "hacked" items, such as metroids and "invisible" furniture, are becoming prevalent, as well. But a bit more menacing problem showed up last week as a player went into other towns and would replace their gate with a museum, using a map hack. Suddenly a player cannot go to other towns and your only recourse is to move to another town. It's not very widespread, yet, as it takes some special hardware to do this. This guy was only doing it to people who were bragging about the most obnoxious thing they had done to others but everyone should beware that this is out there.
Then, last Thursday, a mysterious letter with no return address and a mysterious present showed up in anyone's mailbox who went on Nintendo WiFi. If opened, it turned into a red tulip which could change colors. However, if you put it down in your house, it was marked "unmovable" and you had a useless block in your house. By evening, the letter had stopped sending but there was no official explanation and we were left with a couple of competing theories. The first is that a hacker got ahold of the code from the Iwata letter from a couple of weeks ago and used it to send a hacked item to everyone. Obviously, this has huge repercussions, if true, as good hackers could start sending out crazy stuff via letters. This seems unlikely as it hasn't happened again. Or perhaps Nintendo closed the code hole which the exploit took advantage of. There are also unconfirmed stories that it was mistakenly sent out by someone at Nintendo .
UPDATE: As of Monday, there was finally some official word from Nintendo about this and they claimed the latter explanation. They put up some FAQ items about the tulip and are currently working on a trying to find a way to fix the game of anyone who downloaded and placed the tulip in their house.
Last, but not least, for those of us who played (own) the SNES classic Earthbound, Mother 3 (what the series is called in Japan) has finally been dated for Japan. Hopefully we'll see a release here in the US.
Nintendo DS Redsign Goes Lite
Posted: Thursday 26th of January 2006 9:43PM
Those little DS supply shortages in Japan make sense now. Apparently, Nintendo has been hard at work on a minor DS redesign that will be coming out March 2nd. While there is no word yet on the US or Europe release date, it should be fairly soon after.
The DS Lite will be available in white and 2 currently unknown colors. It's a little lighter (215g vs 275g) and smaller (133.0x73.9x21.5cm vs 148.7x84.7x28.9cm) than the current DS. The power button was mercifully moved away from its previously poor location and the start and select have been made smaller and also placed in different locations. The status lights have been positioned in a "sexier" location, as well. A new feature mentioned in the press release is the ability to choose from 4 different brightness settings. Finally, it looks to have retained all the current DS goodness from the screen size to the GBA slot.
I really like what Nintendo did here. It's a redesign that's not a major update but a new color (not in Japan, but if it comes out here) and some minor technical upgrades to possibly push some of those "maybe"s into the "buy" column. However, it's not major enough, like the jump from the GBA to the GBA SP, to make too many current DS owners mad for not waiting on their purchase. Some will accuse Nintendo of trying to milk more money from their overly loyal consumers but many, including myself, are very happy with the DS right now, nicely engineered as is, and see this more as a tool to get new DS owners into the fold.
The DS Lite will be available in white and 2 currently unknown colors. It's a little lighter (215g vs 275g) and smaller (133.0x73.9x21.5cm vs 148.7x84.7x28.9cm) than the current DS. The power button was mercifully moved away from its previously poor location and the start and select have been made smaller and also placed in different locations. The status lights have been positioned in a "sexier" location, as well. A new feature mentioned in the press release is the ability to choose from 4 different brightness settings. Finally, it looks to have retained all the current DS goodness from the screen size to the GBA slot.
I really like what Nintendo did here. It's a redesign that's not a major update but a new color (not in Japan, but if it comes out here) and some minor technical upgrades to possibly push some of those "maybe"s into the "buy" column. However, it's not major enough, like the jump from the GBA to the GBA SP, to make too many current DS owners mad for not waiting on their purchase. Some will accuse Nintendo of trying to milk more money from their overly loyal consumers but many, including myself, are very happy with the DS right now, nicely engineered as is, and see this more as a tool to get new DS owners into the fold.
This Week In Nintendo #10
Posted: Monday 16th of January 2006 4:15AM
Edition: #10
Dates: 01.09.2006 thru 01.15.2006
Top Headline
Online Tetris!. THQ is bringing Tetris to the DS with six different versions featuring Nintendo themes. Even better is that it's going to be on Nintendo WiFi, although there is no word on fees.
Other News
Baten Kaitos 2 Coming Stateside
Nintendo Denies Nintendo DS Redesign
Last Week's Top Releases
NGC Mega Man X Collection
GBA Castlevania Double Pack
NDS Electroplankton
Releases This Week
None
Closing Thoughts
Tetris coming to the DS in online form is a nice little "stealth" announcement as the game is only a couple of months away. I know it's going to be a THQ version and I wish they had included plain, old ordinary original Tetris in the mix for some nostalgia, but it's still really nice to see the classic game available on the DS since GB games aren't compatible. With that on the way along with Ultimate Card and Brain Games coming to NintendoWiFi, Nintendo is giving non hardcore gamers collections that are both well done and decent bargains with a variety of games and modes on a single cart. Looks like March 20th is going to be a good day with that and Metroid Prime Hunters being added to the Nintendo WiFi lineup.
The other two stories come from IGN and are quasi-rumors. As far as gaming sites go, they're probably the biggest fish. However, something that has been confirmed to them and only them is still a quasi-rumor. The first is that a "source close to Namco" claims Baten Kaitos 2 will actually be coming to the US. This is great news for any Gamecube fans as BK was one of the better (only) RPGs for the system. No official release date has been specified.
Second, there's the story about a Nintendo DS redesign that's been floating around for a little while. Importer Lik-Sang was reporting some announcement due tomorrow (16th) in the wake of the DS shortages. Joystiq ran with the story and even had a redesign contest and soon it was everywhere. Well, Friday, IGN was told "we have nothing to announce at this time" by Nintendo. I guess we'll know tomorrow for sure but it seems fairly unlikely.
Frankly, aside from my hands hurting the first couple of days of excessive Mario Kart playing, there's not much I would change on the DS's design. I'd move the buttons slightly further apart and see if I could find a way to trim a little weight off the bottom half but that's about it. It's a really well engineered little machine.
Dates: 01.09.2006 thru 01.15.2006
Top Headline
Online Tetris!. THQ is bringing Tetris to the DS with six different versions featuring Nintendo themes. Even better is that it's going to be on Nintendo WiFi, although there is no word on fees.
Other News
Baten Kaitos 2 Coming Stateside
Nintendo Denies Nintendo DS Redesign
Last Week's Top Releases
NGC Mega Man X Collection
GBA Castlevania Double Pack
NDS Electroplankton
Releases This Week
None
Closing Thoughts
Tetris coming to the DS in online form is a nice little "stealth" announcement as the game is only a couple of months away. I know it's going to be a THQ version and I wish they had included plain, old ordinary original Tetris in the mix for some nostalgia, but it's still really nice to see the classic game available on the DS since GB games aren't compatible. With that on the way along with Ultimate Card and Brain Games coming to NintendoWiFi, Nintendo is giving non hardcore gamers collections that are both well done and decent bargains with a variety of games and modes on a single cart. Looks like March 20th is going to be a good day with that and Metroid Prime Hunters being added to the Nintendo WiFi lineup.
The other two stories come from IGN and are quasi-rumors. As far as gaming sites go, they're probably the biggest fish. However, something that has been confirmed to them and only them is still a quasi-rumor. The first is that a "source close to Namco" claims Baten Kaitos 2 will actually be coming to the US. This is great news for any Gamecube fans as BK was one of the better (only) RPGs for the system. No official release date has been specified.
Second, there's the story about a Nintendo DS redesign that's been floating around for a little while. Importer Lik-Sang was reporting some announcement due tomorrow (16th) in the wake of the DS shortages. Joystiq ran with the story and even had a redesign contest and soon it was everywhere. Well, Friday, IGN was told "we have nothing to announce at this time" by Nintendo. I guess we'll know tomorrow for sure but it seems fairly unlikely.
Frankly, aside from my hands hurting the first couple of days of excessive Mario Kart playing, there's not much I would change on the DS's design. I'd move the buttons slightly further apart and see if I could find a way to trim a little weight off the bottom half but that's about it. It's a really well engineered little machine.
Editor Ages One Year
Posted: Wednesday 11th of January 2006 7:50PM
Name: Josh Allen
Birthday: January 11, 81
Happy birthday from the crew (Chris, James, myself, and anyone who wasn't online when we hatched this plan).
Birthday: January 11, 81