Nintendo Wii for Sale

Nintendo’s story line is very interesting as till 1980 it made big name in the videogames industry. Then it had to spend 10 years on the fringes of the industry, outclassed and outgunned by Sony’s PlayStation. Nintendo was firmly in command of both the home console and hand-held markets. But in the category of home console, Sony’s PlayStation took the upper-hand. Nintendo’s share rates went down drastically when Sony announced its Portable PlayStation.

However, today Nintendo is back at the helm. Its most popular hand-held console, the DS is on the verge of selling 100 million units which is twice as many as Sony’s PSP. With the Wii, Nintendo also took charge of the home console which is approaching to selling of 50 million units. Both the DS and Wii brought back the glory to Nintendo and it took a firm stand in the market.

Electronics Arts has officially announced Dead Space for the Wii console along with a new game called Dead Space Extraction. The horror game has a new central character as the first person with multiplayer option. The game is expected to be shipped in late September by EA.

To make the introduction of Dead Space more interesting, EA has added a new heroine to start the horror journey in Dead Space Extraction. The story continues on the Wii version from the point when the space colonists struggle to get rid of the horrifying infection. The Extraction has new characters, weapons, puzzles and enemies. The Wii is mostly known for porting games that are family oriented, sports and full of leisure. But through this game, it will introduce its fans too much blood, breathtaking actions and an engraving game-play to make it have a stunning effect on the audience.

The latest released Mario and Luigi RPG 3 made a very good start of sales in Japan on the first day itself as reported by Famitsu. The game has an early release before the expected date of release and it sold 155,000 units in the first two days itself. The early two games by the developers of Mario and Luigi, Alpha Dream did not made such a good hold on the market but the impressive start of Mario and Luigi RPG 3, it looks as if its sales could cross half a million mark very soon.

The other releases were of Capcom on the PS3 and XBox 360 which did not do that well. Maybe Capcom will re-think and work on DS and Wii version. Tenchu on PSP started in the same way as it did on Wii with 10,000 sales in its first day.

The weekly column of Gamasutra, ”Sailing The World” gives a report of the top five sellers for every platform namely, Nintendo DS and Wii, XBox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PCs. It provides an important update of sales pattern across North America, Japan and Europe.

Last week’s chart showed Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection making a strong sales start on the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the very first week of its release. Nintendo Wii Fit still holds the number one position, Rock band 2 Special Edition (EA Games) at second position and Mario Kart and Wii Play on the third and fourth positions respectively.

A new campaign has been started in which Aberdeen University and NHS Grampian are looking for Old Age Pensioners who have fallen at least once in last year. Thy will be provided with a Nintendo Wii complete with Wii Fit to improve their balance. Volunteers will be asked to attend regular sessions either at their home or at the Woodend hospital.

According to the researchers, this activity might help in improving the standard of life of those people who have been affected by osteoporosis. It might also reduce the hip fractures among old people caused mainly due to falls. The Wii balance board helping such people to exercise makes it a social tool also.

There are bleak chances that Sega might be planning to return to the business of console market. According to a publication, Sega has trademarked two names, Ringwide and Ringegde. It has also trademarked a logo with two rings. It clearly states that these two names will be used for “arcade game boards…stand alone video game machines, (or) arcade game machines with built-in screens.”

The business of arcade games has lost much importance as console game business is the mainstream. So, may not go back to arcade business. The console market is completely dominated by Nintendo but Sega’s coming back to console business might be a threat to all the other competitors. Sega has learnt from all its mistakes done in the past and it now knows how to be successful.

Can you the days when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ruled the video game world?  Though Ubisoft doesn't seem to have the same appreciated memories as the rest of us, at least they've got a few things right.  Take, for instance, this announcement on Joystiq about TMNT: Smash Up coming to the Wii this fall, a game our panelists have talked about in a previous podcast.

 As indicated, the Turtles will be fighting in a Smash Bros. fashion in Smash Bros. style-stages.  With the facility to take up any of the four fighters and several enemies and allies from the franchise, the game will take players in a bearing we haven't seen the Turtles go in some time, a direction called interesting. With a great development team and an excellent outlook on this Wii elite, what is left to be skeptical about? Actually, plenty.  In the video game world, side-scrolling, arcade-style beat-em-ups are what made the Turtles popular.  In order to return them to glory, would it be suitable to get something like the Subspace envoy from Brawl, in a multiplayer fashion.

Though the other sectors were pulling the emergency brakes, during the drab season, the video game industry rooted up a 9% increase in U.S. sales during December, NPD Group said today. The gain was led by a 15% up tick in sales of software including Call of Duty: World at War, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and Guitar Hero World Tour. For 2008, sales of games, consoles and accessories grew 19% to $21.33 billion from $17.98 billion in 2007.
The comparatively better contrast is of the layoffs and studio conclusions made last year by THQ and Electronic Arts, two of the biggest players in the industry. "This is not a case of the rising tide lifting all boats," said Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD Group. Among the winners were Nintendo, whose Wii and DS consoles continue to run out of stock in stores, and Activision Blizzard, a Santa Monica company whose big bets on the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises have paid off generously. 

Nintendo recently entered some new items into the Japanese trademark database: one of which we know about, the other a total ambiguity. The second item refers to a new type of DS card, called the 'Houi Sensor Card,' which can be translated as a motion/movement card.
A similar apparatus was made for a Japan-only title called Slide Mag-Kid, yet this was a GBA slot device that essential the DS to be resting on a table. This device however seems to suggest a DS game card sized device to achieve similar results.

Before the Sony Playstation 3 had come out, you probably expected that the console would be toyed by the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. However, the ending was far from that option. It was the Nintendo Wii that turned the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 into its toys.

In spite of the failings present in the Xbox 360 console, it sturdily survived against the Playstation 3. The only flaw that looked to be present in the Playstation 3 console was the bulky price tag. So far, it is possible that Sony will slash the prices of the Playstation 3 down to $299 by April. Microsoft had released interesting info today. It sold eight million more consoles than Sony did. In that respect, Microsoft trumped Sony in regards to selling consoles.