In the latest Iwata asks, a product developer talking about Mario Kart Wii revealed that there were 30 prototypes for the Wii Wheel. The prototypes meant Nintendo could make the Wii Wheel the perfect size, weight and color. They even made sure to put the Wii logo on the back so that everyone it could be seen by those not playing.


News Source: uk.wii.com

A new product called the Wii Clip aims to make modding Wii-D2A and D2C consoles something of a 2 minute plug and play job. The Clip has one major advantage of not ruining the motherboard but there is still some handy work required and there is absolutely no guarantee of how effective this method is or will be.

Specifications

* Support all WII-D2A and D2C standard chip board, very high install efficiency, you can finish all job in 2 minutes.

* Very easy to install, just need solder these very big pin to pin points first, then put it onto cover the D2C chip, plug and play.

* Very easy to disable the WII chip, just need remove (pull out) the WII-CLIP from the WII motherboard, not need any soldering anymore. This way can give back you the original WII console immediately.

* Very easy to upgrade the D2C chip, just need pull out the WII-CLIP form the motherboard, then use the new chip to replace the old one, and re-cover it onto the WII D2C chip, the upgrade job is done.

Official Website: Wii-Clip

Nintendo has announced that it plans to introduce a pay to play service some games despite Nintendo'S WiFi connection service being free of charge in the past. The scheme will allow users to subscribe on a game by game basis for certain titles and these games will have a red icon on the box instead of a blue one.

Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service has always been entirely free of charge, but the company will soon introduce a pay-to-play service for some games, it announced at Game Developers Conference.

"Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay And Play" will let users subscribe on a game-by-game basis to certain titles. Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama announced the service at GDC, but did not say what upcoming games would require payment for the service, or how much they would cost.

To avoid customer confusion, Pay-And-Play games will have a red icon on the game's box that reads Pay And Play, in place of the traditional blue Wi-Fi Connection icon, which will only be used for games that are free to play.

News Source: Wired

The director of Brawl Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed that there will be no voice chat for Super smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii due to all sorts of rules and regulations on the Wii platform that meant it wasn't a viable option. He went on to say if gamers are really desperate for chat, then maybe they could set up Skype and talk to their friends as they please by their game station.

IGN: Brawl seems like the perfect game to introduce a Wii headset for voice chat. Why have you avoided this?

Masahiro Sakurai: Well, when I first started making Smash Bros. Brawl, I thought it would be wonderful if online battles between friends had voice chat and potentially keyboard based chat as well. But there are all sorts of rules and regulations regarding communication on the Wii platform and so it was apparent to me that it just wouldn't come together, we weren't going to be able to do it, so we decided to cancel that feature. I'm very sorry about that. But if you're really desperate for it, you could set up Skype by your game station and go at it with a friend if you like.


IGN: Why can't players in random online matches communicate or even see each other's names? What's the philosophy behind that?

Masahiro Sakurai: When thinking about this game and when realizing that we were going to do Wi-Fi, we had to think a lot about the whole idea of communication over the Internet. When we were doing this, one of the things that we paid a lot of attention to is the fact that there are a lot of unpleasant experiences to be had out there, be that being insulted over the Internet or that sort of thing. You know, it's one thing if you're used to it and you're playing a first-person shooter online with 16 people and you know these guys and you're trading insults back and forth and yelling at each other, that's all well and good. But when you've got new players, and one thing I've aimed to do is to really bring new players into the fold, if this is their first online experience I want it to be a pleasant one. I want to dodge and avoid those kinds of situations that could make the whole experience online psychologically damaging or unpleasant, so that's one of the reasons we've decided not to include that feature.

It was revealed today that later this year Commodore 64 games will be available to download on the Virtual Console. The first two games to be released will be International Karate and Uridium. C64 games will be available on the Wii Shop channel for 500 Wii points but they are currently only scheduled for a European release. Nintendo said that these titles “will be bolstered by regular updates to the line-up from the Commodore 64 back catalogue”.

“By working with Nintendo of Europe, we are ensuring that future generations of gamers can play some of the best and most popular titles that kick-started the computer games revolution and so keep the C64 legacy in gamers hearts,” said Bala Keilman, CEO of Commodore Gaming.

Laurent Fischer, Nintendo Europe’s MD of marketing and PR added, “With over 184 classic titles now available to enjoy, Virtual Console on Wii is a great way for users to access a breadth of classic retro games. We hope that this great choice of games will bring nostalgia to our gaming fans, while an entirely new generation of video game players can experience a host of classic games for the very first time.”

News Source: next-gen

Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime said today that Wii Fit will be launching on May 19 and the price including the Wii Fit Board would be under $100. He said they still working to finalize the price given currency exchanges but it could be close to the $83 it costs in Japan. In terms of marketing, Reggie said Wii Fit is likely be Nintendo's largest launch of the year from a total dollar spend standpoint. Reggie said that there were 10 games in development that take advantage of the Balance Bord, so you won't be paying all that money for a peripheral that will only be used on one game. Reggie seemed to contradicted Nintendo Japan president Saturo Iwata by saying that he believes Wii Fit combines fun and fitness, Iwata had previously said the game is not meant to make you fit, just aware of your body.

IGN: What're the chances of a Wii Fit console bundle and how soon might such a package come to fruition?

Reggie Fils-Aime: In terms of Wii hardware bundled with Wii Fit? As you know, Matt, we continue to sell out of Wii consoles as soon as we put them into the market and until we've gotten to a point of stable demand and supply, I don't see any different package configurations hitting the market. While a Wii Fit plus Wii console would be a fantastic idea, until we've got much more product into the marketplace, it just doesn't make sense to even contemplate it right now.

In a recent interview on Wii.com, Shigeru Miyamoto told Nintendo president Satoru Iwata that Wii Fit is not actually meant to make you fit. "I forgot to mention something important earlier: I don’t think Wii Fit’s purpose is to make you fit; what it’s actually aiming to do is make you aware of your body." Miyamoto said. So does that mean Wii Fit is actually only reminding you that your out of shape and should do some real exercise?

Iwata: Now that you mention standing on one leg, one of the things that Wii Fit made me realize was how different people can be between when they’re standing only on their dominant leg and when they’re standing on the other. It was quite a discovery.

Miyamoto: I think it’s important to make discoveries like this about yourself. I forgot to mention something important earlier: I don’t think Wii Fit’s purpose is to make you fit; what it’s actually aiming to do is make you aware of your body. That’s why we wanted people to talk with their families about Wii Fit, and become aware of these things together as a group. If you’re standing still, and it tells you "Your body is swaying", you can see on the training results screen that your body has been shaking. But I think you’d never realize that your body is shaking in day-to-day life. I think becoming aware of things like this about yourself is quite interesting.

News Source: wii.com

PRESS RELEASE: Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl Tournaments Storm the Country

Nintendo and Best Buy Team Up to Crown a National Champion

Attention all Smash fans: Put up your dukes! Just before the launch of the much-anticipated Super Smash Bros.(R) Brawl, Mario(TM) and friends are hosting four regional Wii(TM) tournaments. The competitions will visit Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and finally New York for a Midnight Madness Launch event at the Best Buy store at 622 Broadway in New York. All of the 256 participants at each location will receive a $10 Best Buy gift card. One lucky grand prize winner will receive a custom-designed, crystal-covered Wii, a home theater system from Best Buy and other prizes.

"Super Smash Bros. is one of the world's most popular game franchises
because it draws in characters from across the Nintendo universe and beyond for some all-out fighting fun," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Super Smash Bros. Brawl has extreme appeal among our core audience, but these tournaments are a great way to get new fans involved as well -- before the game is even available in
stores."

Each regional tournament will provide the first 256 people in attendance the chance to "brawl" one-on-one with other contestants in asingle-elimination tournament to determine a winner in each market. Regional winners will face off in a final multiplayer "brawl" at the New York City tournament.

The grand prize winner will receive a crystal-coated Wii with a design from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a home theater system from Best Buy and a copy of the game. The second-place finisher will receive one Wii system and Wii Remote, one copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a $1,000 Best Buy gift card. The third-place finisher will receive a Wii and Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $500 Best Buy gift card. The fourth-place finisher will receive a Wii, an extra Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $250 Best Buy gift card. For more information about the tournaments, visit Nintendo.com.

The tournaments will take place at the following times and locations:

Feb. 16
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Orpheum Theater
842 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Feb. 23
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Ten15 Folsom
1015 Folsom St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

March 1
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Olden Hall
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609

March 8
Doors open at 5 p.m.
Best Buy (NOHO)
622 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Super Smash Bros. Brawl features dozens of Nintendo characters, from Mario to Link(TM) to Pikachu(R), as well as new characters like Solid Snake, a gritty soldier from Konami's hugely popular Metal Gear series, and Sonic The Hedgehog. The combat-filled game lets characters of all kinds brawl until only one is left standing. Its predecessor, Super Smash Bros.(R) Melee, was the best-selling game of all time for Nintendo GameCube(TM). Super Smash Bros. Brawl has more characters, more features and more action-packed fun. What's
more, Super Smash Bros. Brawl uses Nintendo(R) Wi-Fi Connection, which allows up to four players to simultaneously brawl no matter where they are based. For a complete list of characters and features, visit http://www.SmashBros.com.

Journalist Matt Matthews done a bit of digging on Game Rankings and found that reviews of Wii games are severely lagging behind the Xbox 360 and PS3. The average of all reviews for the Xbox 360 is about 70 percent, while for the PS3 it is over 73 percent. However, the Wii puts in a very poor average performance with 64 percent.

While doing some data trawling through GameRankings recently, I ran across a phenomenon on the Wii that I hadn't really seen quantified before.

The average of all Xbox 360 reviews cataloged on GameRankings turns out to be almost 70%. The same number for the PlayStation 3 is over 73% and for the Nintendo Wii ... a dismal 64%. A picture says it best.

News Source: Next-Gen.biz

Well known console hacker Timbinc has detailed his ability to hack the Nintendo Wii in order to allow him to boot up custom code. His article titled 'Wii hacked it' will go over the heads of most, but if you're really into the technical aspect of things then it's definitely worth a read over at debugmo.de. Just remember to get your reading glasses on!

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata and Masahiro Sakurai (the creative force behind both the Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series) agreed that if all their games mirror games like Wii Sports or Wii Fit, Wii gamers would soon grow bored. Iwata believes games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit were a step in the right direction breaking from the old "more contents and more depth" philosophy and brining more variety.

Iwata
Without a doubt, the rapid speed at which consumers make purchases and then grow tired of them is an area of game development in which the balance has been thoroughly upset. Some time ago we were able to say "if we invest this much effort to make this type of product, gamers should get this much fun play time out of it." Now, however, these odds are changing and there is a feeling that the product won’t hold the gamers attention unless you continually design more game contents and add more depth.

Sakurai
That’s why I think games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit were a step in the right direction. I’m not saying that these games lack depth, but these games proposed an unprecedented line of thinking and broke from the old "more contents and more depth" philosophy.

Iwata
Right, but that absolutely doesn’t mean that we did this because we thought development would be easy. An astounding amount of effort was actually put into the fundamental development process of these titles. We’re investing our efforts in other areas besides graphics and data capacity. However, as I mentioned earlier, if all our games mirror games like Wii Sports or Wii Fit, our gamers would soon grow bored. It’s truly a division of duties.

Sakurai
I agree.

News Source: wii.com

A Japanese game retailer is reporting that there is going to be severe shortage of Smash Bros. Brawl for its Japan release. Apparently Nintendo have only initially shipped 300,000-400,000 units, nowhere near the millions that it will most likely sell. Also a console importer has said that vendors in Japan have also waned of a shortage so have stopped pre orders.

Canned Dogs has more details:

"Lepton has tried to buy the games at full price from other sources just so they can fill the preorders, but nobody as any stock. They have then managed to secure an additional 100 copies of the game at 7350 yen each, which is at a price that is even higher than the selling price of the game which is 6800 yen (they’ll be losing money with each sale).

They still do not have enough copies of the game to fill preorders."

Import retailer NCSX mentioned something similar in their Monday stock update:

"Last night, vendors in Japan warned us that there might be a shortage of [SSBB] so we're closing preorders today. If the information turns out to be erroneous, we'll accept new preorders again."

Agreeing with comments made by MS executives previously, Suda 51 indicates that third party titles for the Wii aren't selling in Japan and Nintendo are the only ones who really profit from the Wii. Speaking specifically about No More Heroes, Suda commented that sales weren't as high as he'd hoped and Nintendo titles are doing well but this pattern expands beyond Japan too.

Goichi Suda, otherwise known as Suda 51, claims that third-party titles for the Wii aren't selling in Japan and that only Nintendo is really profiting from its success.

Speaking about Japanese sales of his game, No More Heroes, he says, "Whilst the sales weren't as high as I hoped, other titles for Wii aren't selling so well either. Only Nintendo titles are doing well. This isn't just because of the current situation in Japan, as this is happening outside Japan."

He also expressed surprise over the casual audience that has been the primary adopters of the Wii. "Actually I was very surprised about the reality about Wii, because before I was making this game, I wasn't expecting that Wii would be a console targeted only for non-gamers. I expected more games for hardcore gamers. The reality is different to what I expected."

News Source: Gamesradar

Nintendo has no plans to increase first party software development in North America, commenting that North American third party developers are more than capable of satisfying domestic tastes. Harrison went on to state that the actual decision about producing more software would come down to Satoru Iwata but he is not aware of any such plans in the US.

"I'm not aware of any plans to push for more software development here in the US. The actual decision about producing more software and who should do it is driven by Satoru Iwata and the management team, including Mr. Miyamoto, in Japan," Nintendo of America senior VP George Harrison told Wired.

Only a handful of US first party games have been developed for Wii to date, including Texas-based Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Harrison went on to say that Western third party publishers are perfectly suited to cater to domestic tastes, and tend to specialize in areas that aren’t Nintendo’s strong point.

"They're doing a great job both on DS and on Wii. They tend to provide product in categories that we aren't particularly good at doing, like sports or other genres. And since they're Western publishers, they tend to be more in tune with Western tastes."

News Source: Next-Gen

Activision Inc Chief Executive Bobby Kotick believes that the 360, PS3 and Wii must fall to $199 in the next two years to reach mass-market appeal. He says the Wii price point is setting a standard that the others must match and issues like the Wii being less complex technically doesn't matter to consumers. "In the next 24 months they all will need to be at that $199 price point, and you can imagine Nintendo will be down to the $129 price point over the next few years," he said. He also went on to say that many developers had shifted resources to create games for the Wii due to its success. However Activision was approaching with caution as Wii game sales are dominated by titles made by Nintendo itself.

But Wii game sales are dominated by titles made by Nintendo itself, prompting Activision to take a more cautious approach.

"We realized that, much like Nintendo, the pathway for success and the highest operating margin leverage on the Wii is a relatively small number of titles that really capitalize on capabilities of the hardware," Kotick said.

"Some of our competitors are doing a lot more talking about how they're organized than innovating for the Wii and if (publishers) are going to be successful they are going to have to step up to the level of innovation that Nintendo has proven themselves capable of," he said.

News Source: reuters

Tancred Dyke Wells the creative director of Kuju (behind Battalion Wars games) has sent out a stark message that there are loads of lazy titles on the Wii. He warned that despite the fact the Wii is twice as powrful as the Gamecube, third party titles are failing to take full advantage of the console.

He revealed that despite the studio "running the juice out of the Wii" with Battalion Wars 2, it is working on a number of secret projects that are "continuing to advance the graphical standards" it has already achieved and that there is "room to do more".

Some more hardcore fans of Japanese publisher Nintendo have bemoaned the lack of "gamers' games" since the Wii's release and have been disappointed at Nintendo's reluctance to embroil itself in the graphics "arms race" lead by Microsoft and Sony.

Despite this, Dyke-Wells believes that the Wii is a "pretty good piece of kit" and said that recent titles like Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and his own Battalion Wars 2 have provided "a bit of a wake-up call and serve as a batter benchmark than has been established to date".

Dyke-Wells added: "I can only guess at what's motivated the approach that some other publishers may have taken to the platform. But at least from Nintendo what you're seeing is consistent flagship triple-A titles.

"OK you might say there's been a bit of a gap in core gamer games from Nintendo - a bit of a hiatus in the release schedule, it's like waiting for a bus and then they all come along at this time of year, but I think you're just seeing the fact that Nintendo won't let stuff out of the door until it's ready. And I think that's applied to all their flagship titles. Not just us.

News Source: Videogamer

A few short posts ago, we reported on a story by 'thisislondon' which is part of the Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard & Metro Media Group that said that families were paying up to £500 for the Wii. To our suprise we also found the exact same article posted by The Sun who are part of the News Group Newspapers Limited. Word for word the story was exactly the same (with a different title) which suggests that someone has been distributing a press release on the matter, could that someone be Nintendo? Perhaps...

An article at the Washington Post looks at the potential backlash that the Wii Zapper will receive. However, Nintendo's senior vice president of marketing has played down such concerns by commenting that Nintendo doesn't even think the Wii Zapper looks like a gun, all it is a utility that allows for more diverse styles of play. However, all the spin in the world won't stop concerned parents from venting their anger at the device.

Ralphie Parker, patron saint of toy gun owners, with your pure desire and your unyielding mom, how deep would your passion burn for Nintendo's new Wii Zapper?

The toy in question is a new accessory for the Wii game console. It's not a controller but a gunlike cradle designed to hold the Wiimote and Wii Nunchuk, increasing players' accuracy in shooting games. Like the other members of the Wii family, the Zapper is white and elegant, all sleek curves and shiny surfaces. It is futuristic in the way that "Star Wars" is futuristic, a sort of retro-future that will never happen and already has. The name Zapper is a homage to the company's first Zapper, an orange ray gun sold with the original Nintendo in 1985.

This new Zapper, the Wii Zapper, with its snub nose and smooth grip, is the prettiest submachine gun ever sold.

If that's what it is.

"We don't think it even really looks like a gun," George Harrison said. He is Nintendo's senior vice president of marketing, so he offers an alternative concept: "It's a utility that allows for more diverse styles of play."

Certain parents disagree.

News Source: roanoke

IGN has reviewed the new Nintendo Wii Zapper and has awarded it a decent score of 6.5/10 but it is far from perfection. The layout results in problems accessing any of the Wiimotes face buttons which makes games like Red Steel and CoD troublesome to play. However, the actual product is made solidly, although IGN think that it won't be too long before people prefer to go free hand as usual when it comes to shooting games.

The other problem the tommy gun layout causes is the fact that it's pretty much impossible to access any of the face buttons on the Wiimote when it's in the Zapper bracket, at least with the speed that's require for gameplay. This makes the Zapper useless with games like Red Steel and CoD, which is disappointing.

To Nintendo's credit, the Zapper is by far the highest quality lightgun bracket available in terms of general build quality. The white plastic is lightly textured in grip areas and feels high quality overall. The Wiimote is secured quite well via a pair of grey plastic spring-loaded hooks that latch into it in the holes to either side of the Nunchuck connection point. The Nuncuck, too, is nicely secured in its place by plastic shivs that extend into the screw recesses. A protected wire run leads from the Nunchuck and into a space behind the forward grip where it can be coiled conveniently before jutting out the side to make the connection to the Wiimote.

Were the Zapper sold individually, we might suggest avoiding it in favor of a more adaptable third-party model. Such is not the case however, as the Zapper is bundled with Link's Crossbow Training, which is tons of fun. As such, we're pretty sure the Zapper will find its way into masses of homes. The telling issue will be how long owners will care to use it before abandoning the bracket altogether in favor of free hand shooting. We suspect not long.

News Source: IGN

The BBC is running in article which claims they have discovered something big - Wii shortages are expected this Christmas. Retailers, gaming fans and Nintendo themselves are quoted at various times indicating that the Wii will be hard to come by. A Spokeswoman commented that global demand has been higher than they could've anticipated and seasonality demand trends are being broken as the Wii is in high demand all-year round.

From the high street, the message is very similar.

"Although we're receiving regular deliveries from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft and getting the products onto the shelves as fast as we can - it's possible that demand will outstrip supplies on some products, for example the Nintendo Wii, which has been hugely popular all through the year," read a statement from high street gaming specialist Game.

"We're posting daily updates on our website at www.game.co.uk/stock to give customers the latest news on availability, and will continue to do everything possible to help our customers find the consoles they want."

Woolworths said that it was receiving a "slow trickle of stock every week" and also advised customers to keep an eye on their website.

"The Nintendo Wii consoles have proved extremely popular with our customers and have been flying off the shelves whenever we get new stock in," said a spokeswoman.

News Source: BBC