Digital Trends
In a telephone press conference, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said the Nintendo is working with video game retailer Gamestop on launching a "rain check" program for the company’s Wii video game console, offering shoppers a chance to reserve a Wii for delivery in January. The popular console has been in short supply since its introduction a year ago, and the shortages promise to make setting hands on a Wii during the holiday season quite a challenge.
Nintendo has introduced a whole slew of games for its Wii console at E3, with Wii Fit asthe flagship title. By the end of 2007, Nintendo expects to add around 200 titles to its more than 150 games, many from outside publishers, and will include titles that can be downloaded forits virtual console. But the company hopes for great things from its Wii Fit game, in which players get to exercise the whole body, using the Wii Balance Board, or WBB, which transmitsinformation to the console. It will offer a variety of different exercise activities from yoga to push-ups, virtual hula hoops and stretching, all conducted by virtual instructors. It’sexactly the kind of thing to appeal to casual gamers, especially older ones, although Nintendo didn’t announce a release date for the game. Although expected to be the big one,it’s just one of a number of upcoming titles for the Wii. There will be four Mario Bros. titles, including “Mario Kart Wii” and “Super Mario Galaxy.” “Metroid Prime 3” will be added to the Metroid Prime series, and there are plenty of third-party titles from EA, Sega,Activision and Disney Interactive. One of the more interesting Wii additions will be the WiiZapper, due later this year. It fixes onto the Remote and Nunchuk to resemble a gun, to be used with several games including “Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles” and “GhostSquad.” “In less than eight months, Wii has proved itself the video game system for everyone, and we’re not letting up,2 said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.“We’re producing hit after hit after hit, supported by a long line of third-party publishers who have shifted their resources to help make Wii the most distinctive video game system inhistory.”
Nintendo is attempting to reach out to smaller game developers and simultaneously build available content for the Wii by launching WiiWare, an online channel for distributing games without the barriers involved with traditional publishing. Although the unusable channel has been visible to Wii gamers for some time, Nintendo officially announced their intentions for WiiWare Tuesday morning.
“Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, in a statement. “WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners.”
Swallow this amazing fact if you can: there are close to nine Nintendo DS or DS Lite portable game systems sold every 60 seconds. Sure, this number may seem small when compared to other addictive products like cigarettes, alcohol, video poker, or Paris Hilton, but this is a gaming system we are talking about.
"More than 5 million people joined the ranks as Nintendo DS owners in America last year alone," says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "And right now, they’re all saying the same thing — ‘give me more!’ Fortunately, no matter your taste or experience in gaming, that’s exactly what we’re supplying in the months to come."
By most accounts, Nintendo’s only failure with the Wii console this holiday season was not being able to get enough units to Wii-hungry retailers. Now, the company wants to keep Wii enthusiasm afloat, so it’s announced a series of new and classic gaming titles which are due to become available for the Wii during the first quarter of 2007.
“Our tremendous worldwide launch shows people, from experienced players to non-players, are hungry for the kinds of entertainment only Wii provides,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo America. “Wii hardware production continues full bore, and every week we’re delivering more incredible content to further expand the experience.”
A trial version of the Opera Web browser is now available for download for Nintendo’s Wii video game console. Assuming Wii owners have connected their systems’ to a home network or otherwise set them up for Internet access, the browser can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel on the Wii menu; from there, click Wii Ware (or Wii Software in the EU), then click Download the Internet Channel. (There’s even a comic explaining the process.)
The video game console wars certainly aren’t dull this year, with all the soc-called next-generation consoles now available, Microsoft looking to woo players away from the expensive (and hard-to-find) PlayStation 3, and the holiday shopping season getting into full swing. And Nintendo’s Wii is not being left out of the frenzy: according to the company, they’ve sold more than 600,000 Wii consoles in the Americas in just the system’s first eight days of availability.
In a chart on the Nintendo website, the gaming industry saw revenue growth of about 11 percent when compared to the same period in 2005. While 11 percent may not seem very high, imagine a growth rate of only 1.6 percent with the Nintendo DS taken out of the picture. The Nintendo DS alone has seen a growth rate of over 203 percent in just about a year’s time with total global hardware figures showing 20 million units sold, and 82 million software titles sold.
Everyone wants to be an insider, and you can be one too! Choose your poison: sign-up for our Newsletter, join us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. Do all three and you'll be swimming in the the latest news, reviews, videos and more gadget goodness!
Become a DT soldier! Join us on Facebook and share the best news, guides, videos and other cool information directly with all your friends. Some might even thank you for it!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Facebook.
Do you like information in small snippets? Then our Twitter feed is just for you. Follow Digital Trends and you'll be able to catch up daily on our latest content, or even interact directly with our team. Tweet Tweet!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Twitter.
That’s Right, Sign-up For Our Monthly Random Prize Drawings and You Could Be That Winner.
