WiiNintendo

Last week Nintendo commented on a possible Wii drought this next holiday season. Many naysayers, including myself, figured this was Nintendo playing the market and trying to artificially increase demand for the console by allowing it to stay in short supply.

Well, now Nintendo may be working to prove us pessimists wrong! EMSnow, an electronic manufacturing services website reports that Nintendo has been in talks with numerous firms hoping to out source more of their Wii chip and manufacturing production and increase production.

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come and everyone who longs to own a Wii will have the opportunity to do so by this year’s holiday season.

Read more about it here: EMSNow

Recently George Harrison, the senior V.P. of marketing over at Nintendo of America announced that Wii shortages will probably extend into the 2007 holiday season, saying, “If you see one, buy it. Don’t assume that you can come back later and find one.”

While we’re all fairly used to the Wii being in short supply, is this not getting a little out of hand? It’s not like Nintendo isn’t a massive, global corporation equipped with both the resources and know how to really ramp up production on the console.

Surely Nintendo has the resources to meet demand, especially when considering the Wii is in fact made up of a few components left over from the Gamecube. It’s not like its sporting a special piece of hardware or technology that is either scarce or expensive to develop (as is the case with the PS3 and its Blu-ray laser).

Perhaps Nintendo is enjoying the Wii being in high demand a little too much. Am I wrong in being frustrated?

Source: Engadget

In celebration of the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS this October, Nintendo will be giving away a free stylus modeled after a quill pen to American fans that rush out and buy the game.

Those who register the game and their DS with Nintendo (via mynintendo.com) and fill out a survey will receive the stylus, while supplies last of course. As of now I’ve been unable to find any pictures of this stylish stylus, hopefully it will be something that doesn’t make me look like a total pansy while using it.

The game is also slated to be released soon after in the UK on October 5th vs. the October 1st date in North America but Nintendo hasn’t announced if this deal will be available in Europe.

Source: digital spy

For all you so eager to play the game that Nintendo is touting as the best first person shooter experience since Halo, here’s something to make you drool! The game still appears to be set for release in North America on August 20th of this year. Personally, I can’t wait.

For the first time in the past decade, UK censors have banned a video game. The British Board of Film Classification banned Manhunt 2 for its “unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying.”

The ban was celebrated by some including the family of a 14 year old who was killed by a 17 year old in February, 2004. The parents believed that the 17 year old was inspired to kill their son by the first Manhunt title. Police hold that robbery was actually the motive behind the murder and not the video game itself.

Personally speaking, I disagree with most any form of censorship and am glad we haven’t come to these measures here in the US. What happened to personal accountability? Are games not rated like movies? Is it not the parent’s job to monitor what their child plays?

Why are so many quick to judge video games while there are countless movies that display scenes of rape, torture, murder and so on all the time? Why does film seem to receive little negative attention of this nature? Is that simply because the same people romping around fighting to ban games actually enjoy watching these movies? If they enjoyed video games as much film would we see this charade continue?

Read more about is on the BBC

We all know from the Wii Sports Experiment that playing the Wii can help you break a sweat and of course any time a dedicated couch potato breaks a sweat, some soreness is sure to follow. Well, now that soreness has a new great name to go with it.

Dr. Julio Bonis woke up one Sunday with some soreness in his shoulder. He was having trouble determining where the discomfort was coming from and lo and behold realized it was from playing a Wii a few hours the day before.

From the Reuters Article:

The variant in this patient can be labelled more specifically as ‘Wiiitis,’” Bonis, a family practice physician, wrote in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.

The treatment consisted of ibuprofen for one week, as well as complete abstinence from playing Wii video games. The patient recovered fully.

All I can say is, I hope this is a clever joke aimed at promoting playing the Wii for fitness more so than coining a new medical term.

Source: Reuters

Ever since the Virtual Console was announced there have been questions about whether original content would ever be available via the download service. Many of us were disappointed when it looked like that would be a negative.

Now System 3’s CEO Mark Cale has lifted many of our spirits a bit when he mentioned that his company is developing original software that is possibly part of an all new download service Nintendo might be announcing in the next few months!

Cale hinted that the service will resemble Xbox Live Arcade. So will this service simply be an extension of the Wii Shop Channel or an entirely new channel? Hopefully we’ll hear some exciting official news very soon!

Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Datel, the makers of the Action Replay game enhancer that allows for numerous game (and console) cheats and enhancements is going one step further with its new product. The Drive Doctor allows Wii owners to connect their consoles to their PC using a USB cable. Once connected you can reference the Wii drive memory and even make adjustments to the game’s code on the fly.

Datel points out that as homebrew gaming and programming on the Wii becomes more popular the device will come in handy for playing “freely-downloadable software�. Is this a hint at more things to come from Datel?

There is one catch though, the Drive Doctor requires you solder 5 cables to install it. After that it appears it simply clips to the back of your console. The fact that the device requires soldering threw me for a loop. It sounds an awful lot like a mod chip to me, only with the chip placed outside the console.

The press release didn’t mention whether the device can be used to play backup game roms or allows for region free gaming but I’m sure it does one way or the other. After all, Action Replay on the Xbox allows for installation of Linux and Xbox Media center, which opens the doors to endless possibilities. If it does I’m sure it will be a big hit given that the product is backed by support that other mod-chip makers probably can’t provide and the fact that it can be bought at your local Gamestop or Wal-Mart.

Read more at Wii Fanboy

Recently Nintendo announced they were moving their North American marketing and sales division from Seattle to the San Francisco or New York area. Along with the announcement it’s been rumored that Nintendo’s official magazine, in publication since 1988, could be sold to a third party where it will continue to be published or possibly discontinued.

Personally, I think the magazine could do well to be picked up by a third party. I subscribed to the magazine for years as a child and recently re-subscribed at the beginning of this year only to be disappointed by the content. A third party could provide much needed unbiased coverage of Nintendo news as well as additional depth that Nintendo Power magazine lacks now.

With online publications gaining in popularity and postage rates increasing its not surprising to see many traditional magazines struggling. Gamepro has also faced some hardships recently.

source: maxconsole

Jack Thompson is at it again and this time his complaints hold even less merit then usual. The Florida based attorney who has endlessly attacked and sued the video game industry for producing games with content he sees as unfit is now upset with Wendy’s.

Wendy’s is working with Nintendo to include Wii-based toys in their kid’s meals. Apparently Jack objects to the partnership due to the fact that Manhunt 2, a murder simulator in Mr. Thompson’s eyes, is being published on the Wii.

Jack claims that Dave Thomas would have never supported this move. He’s obviously ignoring the fact that Nintendo might be one of the “kid� friendliest brands in the world probably only rivaled by the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon.

Geez Jack, didn’t you hear that all the new consoles have built in parental controls! Whatever happened to parents taking responsibility for what their children do? What ever happened to the first amendment rights?

Source: joystiq
Image author: Torokun from Kotaku

When the Everybody Votes Channel first appeared most everyone said the same thing. “Wow, Nintendo could easily use this to make decisions about what to release or produce!� And Nintendo fans were happy because finally we felt like we had a direct outlet to Nintendo to convey how we feel. Then the questions with the Everybody Votes Channel appeared. “Who will win the next American Idol?� “Can you snap your fingers?� And so on. Nothing all too interesting and I quickly lost interest.

Well, my interest peeked a bit more when doing my weekly voting yesterday and saw a new question. “How do you prefer to buy music, download or CD?�

Is Nintendo finally starting to edge in some market research here? This possibly could be a random user submitted question, but hopefully it’s something more on the marketing side. Now let’s see something a little more relevant to Nintendo like, “which would you rather receive as a Christmas gift, a new Zelda title or a new Metroid title?�

Another blogger had a pretty interesting take on the question over at aeropause.

Recently Rare commented on the possibility of Goldeneye 007 coming to the Virtual Console. The comment was made on a Q&A feature on Rareware’s website where the developer was asked about the possibility of the game making its way onto the Wii’s download service.

“The only Rare-developed title on Virtual Console right now is the original Donkey Kong Country, and unofficially there’s a strong likelihood that its sequels will follow. But the Donkey Kong series of games is a Nintendo-owned franchise starring an established Nintendo character, whereas something like Banjo isn’t (and even Diddy Kong Racing is less clear-cut), so it’s nowhere near as easy to call.â€?

It was also mentioned that since there is the existence of Xbox Live Arcade there could also be the possibility of the game going to that service too, though it would be strange to see a Nintendo game on Microsoft’s download service since Nintendo is still a direct competitor of theirs in the console business.

Who ever gets the game (hopefully Nintendo) I hope and pray they add an online gameplay feature!

Source: mywii.com.au