Exercising Wii Caution
December 7, 2006
Nintendo is urging Wii gamers to use the wrist strap, keep their palms dry, and to never let go when waving the interactive Wii controller. Reports of damage caused by snapping straps have been cropping up on video game web sites, one of which includes reports of 13 broken straps, 7 televisions, and 2 laptop computers.
The Wii has been pitched as a cheaper alternative to pricier next-gen consoles like PS3 and Xbox 360, but some gamers complain they are facing unexpected costs after losing their grip on the console’s remote control and smashing their televisions, laptops, and other appliances.
Last week, Nintendo America chief Reggie Fils-Aime told Reuters that many gamers were using big, sweeping motions where smaller ones would do. “We literally have consumers letting go of the remote like you do a bowling ball. You can’t do that!” Fils-Aime said of a bowling game in its Wii Sports title.
In an e-mail sent to Wii customers and posted on various web sites on Wednesday, Nintendo said extreme motion could snap the strap by causing players to lose their grip on the remote. Nintendo cautioned players to stay at least 3 feet away from the TV and to make sure people and objects were safely outside their range of motion.
“Some people are getting a lot more excited than we’d expected,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said. “We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment.” The company has not decided on any specific measures to change the strap, Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said.
Halo 2 to Support Direct X 9, not 10
December 6, 2006
Despite reports from several game media outlets, Halo 2 will not support Direct X 10 visual effects, according to an update from Microsoft. Though the Windows Vista version of Halo 2 will be based on Direct X 9 graphics technologies, owners of Direct X 10 hardware can expect to see “certain performance benefits.” What those benefits are remains to be seen, though faster frame rates seem likely. Halo 2 for Windows Vista is expected to be released in early 2007.
The confusion apparently stemmed from the fact that Halo 2 will only be released for Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Vista platform, which is the only operating system to support the new Direct X 10 graphics standard. Currently, the only video cards to support Direct X 10 are Nvidia’s Geforce 8800 line, and their Direct X 10 functionality won’t be unlocked until Windows Vista’s consumer launch.
Direct X 10 is the long-awaited API enhancement that will allow for more spectacular visual effects, such as wide-scale shaders and bump mapping. It will only be released via Windows Vista. The consumer edition of Vista is expected to happen in the beginning of 2007.
Wii and DS Each Thrive for Nintendo
December 5, 2006
Nintendo said today that it sees an “emerging possibility” it will beat its earnings forecasts and DS sales targets. Official DS sales target for the year to March is 20 million units.
Nintendo President Satoru told Reuters that there has been little cannibalization between the DS and its new game console, the Wii. Analysts have been concerned that the DS and Wii could end up grabbing potential customers from each other, hurting Nintendo’s sales.
Nintendo, which dominates the handheld game sector but lags far behind Sony in the console market, aims to repeat the success of its hot-selling DS portable machine with the Wii, bringing both of the game maker’s two growth engines to full throttle.
“We had come up with the current earnings forecasts before we sold even a single unit of the Wii and when we were not so sure about the cannibalization effect between the Wii and the DS,” Iwata said.
“Confidence could be too strong a word, but there is an emerging possibility” for higher earnings results for the fiscal year that ends in March, he said.
Nintendo expects its operating profit in the fiscal year to grow 60.5 percent from last year and its sales to be up 45 percent.
Wii Sells Out In Japan
December 4, 2006
The launch of Nintendo’s Wii console on Saturday in Japan was greeted with the expected crowds of eager customers, and reports of a rapid sell out of stock. According to an AP report, more than 3,000 people braved inclement weather to line up at a Tokyo branch of national electronics retailer Bic Camera, with reports of similar queues elsewhere in the capital and across the country.
An estimated 400,000 units of the console were made available on day one, with an additional 1 million units planned before the end of the year in Japan. No reliable details of software sales have yet been made available, with Wii video game titles not due to appear in the weekly Media-Create charts until December 8.
Wii Sports is not bundled with the console in Japan (as it is in North America) and may supplant The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as the top selling game. Zelda: Twilight Princess is expected to be one of the highest performers in Japan, as it has been in North America.
Nintendo of America recently announced that it sold more than 600,000 Wii consoles in its first week on sale, now giving the console a worldwide installed userbase of over 1 million. In Japan alone the Wii surpassed the lifetime-to-date total of the PlayStation 3, whose limited stock has seen only around 160,000 units sold so far. The Wii also exceeded the lifetime-to-date total of the Xbox 360, put at around 180,000 units after almost a year on sale.
Grand Tursimo HD Halted
December 1, 2006
Work on controversial PlayStation 3 video game Gran Turismo HD (pictured) has been stopped, according to an announcement on the Japanese website of developer Polyphony Digital, with the content so far produced to be given away as a free download in Japan.
The game, which was demonstrated at long length at Sony’s pre-E3 2006 media briefing, catalyzed controversy after reports suggested that the game would not ship with any cars or tracks, but that each one would have to be bought separately via microtransactions.
The game itself was a high resolution port of Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2 (referred to as Gran Turismo HD: Classic), combined with a playable demo of work-in-progress for Gran Turismo 5 on the PlayStation 3 (referred to as Gran Turismo HD: Premium), which was to have included cars and tracks as standard.
The package was due to be released this year in Japan, but the online message from designer Kazunori Yamauchi indicates that instead the Gran Turismo HD: Classic element of the game will be made available free for download, for a limited time, from December 24. The offer has not been announced for any region other than Japan. The game will include ten cars and one track, with no mention of additional microtransaction content.
Although Yamauchi indicated that further Concept special editions of the game may be released in the interim, all current work is now being refocused on Gran Turismo 5, with a tentative release date of 2008. No mention was made of the much delayed PSP title Gran Turismo 4: Mobile.
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