It seems the more I learn about the Wii U, the more questions I have regarding Nintendo’s bizarre handling of their new console’s announcement.
According to WatchPlayRead.com by way of CVG, Nintendo will not be releasing their iPad-ish controller separately. It will only be available bundled with the Wii U. According to an un-named Nintendo rep, the Wii U was developed around a “one tablet philosophy.”
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Nintendo’s press event was a very familiar one in the beginning. A lot of must have Nintendo franchises will be making appearances on Nintendo’s portable systems, and Wii. Most notably, Zelda’s 25 Anniversary is being celebrated with 4 Swords for DSi, Ocarina of Time 3D for 3DS, and Skyward Sword for Wii.
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For some reason unbeknown-st to the gaming community, 2k games decided not to run one of their adds featuring Serena Williams and an un-named actress. Now, to be fair, this stuff happens all of the time for various reason. Games cut out sections and re-release them later as downloadable content. Advertisers make multiple commercials-ads and targets specific demographics. Not all commercials make it to the public. People shouldn’t begin demanding a witch trial for 2 scantily clad women using the move controller. This is nothing more than a Victioria’s Secret commercial with a video game backdrop.
Did you ever get the sense at the end of last year that there weren’t as many AAA gotta have titles released as has been the custom of years past? Wondered where all of the games were that you were supposed to be playing in 2009?
As every gamer knows, this is typically the time of year where we can all relax and catch up on our backlogs, aka the pile of shame, that we’ve added even more games to during the holiday season. I hope you all were able to catch up very quickly because the AAA games are coming over the course of the next 3 months. This is what last fall should have looked like had it not been for Modern Warfare 2. There is just one problem. We no longer have an excuse to get other people to purchase all of this gaming goodness for us since Christmas has come and gone. Everyone has to figure out a way to get the games they want on their own or coerce someone into getting them for you. You might want to be a little more loving this Valentine’s Day! 
What follows is a rundown of significant titles that are coming in the following months, so if you want to see why you, your wallet, your family, and anyone who is used to seeing you, even for a minute, in the outside world should be worried, follow the link….
With the recent price drop on the Wii, Amazon saw a 1,700% increase in sales yesterday. The NPD sales this month should be insane. Prepare to continue to see WiiPlay! at the top of the list forever.
The writing is on the walls for plastic peripheral bundled games. Guitar Hero 5′s bundle sales haven’t been stellar in comparison to previous years, and Activision decided to give Guitar Hero: Van Halen free to purchasers of GH:5. But, what should a company do to reinvigorate interest in the Guitar Hero franchise? One person…Hugh Hefner, The man who has helmed the ship of sexy ladies for the past 50 years. In a new GH:5 commercial two lovely ladies are on both sides of “Hef,” concentrating on their GH skills. This isn’t Hef’s first foray into gaming. You probably don’t remember the PS2 game, Playboy: The mansion, because no one played it….Well, on second thought, Allen did!
I don’t usually do first impression write-ups, but sometimes you have gaming experiences that strike a chord with you that is so strong, you’ve got to share with anyone you might think will listen. As I grow older as a gamer, these experiences are rare and precious. This experience has happened for me four times: The first time I played Intellivision (the game was Night Stalker), Ninja Gaiden (NES), Ninja Gaiden (Xbox), and most recently, Muramasa: The Demon Blade on the Wii.
If you want to hear a first impression on a Wii title that doesn’t have Zelda, Mario, or Metroid in the title, click the jump.
Last week Harmonix announced 15 more songs to the already 10 previously known songs for The Beatles Rockband. This makes 25 out of the 45 songs that have now been revealed. So after seeing the list I realized that there are many songs from the list that I really didn’t know. Out of curiosity I spent time Youtube’n some of them to find out what they were. This led me to start a project that eventually is this blog post you are reading. If you are interested in checking out the song list and listening to some of the songs….
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Goichi Suda, CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture says that No More Heroes 2nd game may be the last to appear on the Wii. Gamestooge.com has reported his statement regarding the future of the NMH franchise:
“I really want to make NMH a big franchise and with this second episode have bigger success. I’m putting a lot of care into developing this IP, as I feel there’s a lot of potential. I think this is the last NMH that is going to be developed on Wii. To expand NMH to new possibilities, we need a new platform. Wii is a great platform, but we’ve done everything we can with it now.”
Sounds to me like the sales returns may not have been what he was looking for–given the Wii’s install base. It shouldn’t be a surprise though. No More Heroes isn’t the type of game the majority of Wii owners are looking for.
The fun of NMH is the fact that it was coded from the ground up to utilize the Wii’s built in control scheme to produce an over-the-top action game that was fantastic fun to play. Honestly, I can’t imagine playing this game with a Dual Shock3 or a 360 controller. Sure, graphics w would be better, but unless he’s got a total re-boot for the series in mind, most of the fun will be left behind.
You ‘gotta love suits. They speak first, and think about the sillyness of their statements later–if ever. Newly appointed SCEE President Andrew House has issued some “suit-speak” reported on by CVG.com (via Official Playstation Magazine), where he talked about how Wii owners will add to the PS3′s install base over time. Huh?!
In his OPM interview, House Stated, “If you look back at previous lifecycles, like PS2 versus N64, we have lots of data that suggests that lots of people bought into N64 as their entry level gaming device, and were happy to upgrade to a more powerful machine later in the lifecycle when the price point was right for them. I think we’re going to see this later on PS3, and the fact that it’s a Blu-ray player as well and that there’s a [greater] wealth of network based experiences than are perhaps available on the device they already have will add to the proposition. I think that will definitely be a factor in the marketplace.”
Sony had the most games that I care about at E3, but I think Mr. House’s suit speak statement should have been checked through an assistant. The majority of Wii owners will never upgrade to a more powerful machine, because THEY AREN’T GAMERS. They have no interest in moving on to a PS3, or a 360 for that matter, because their journey into gaming begins and ends at Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and first party Nintendo titles. All he’d have to do is look at attachment rate data for the Wii to see that (unless you’re EA).
My father-in-law owns a Wii. He and his wife will play Wii Sports for hours when the family gathers. He has no interest at all in any other gaming system. As for BluRay–he’d sooner buy a BluRay player before even thinking about buying a Playstation3. While I haven’t done hard research, I would bet money that my father-in-law is the rule rather than the exception in regard to moving on from the Wii–simply by seeing who Nintendo has marketed the Wii too since its announcement and launch.
Mr. House’s time would be better spent trying to twist some Sony exec arms to get the Playstation3 at a better price point, than holding on to the pipe-dream of building the PS3′s installbase off of the Wii. Much like a release date for Duke Nukem Forever–it’ll never happen.
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