A year and a half after it named Shigeru Miyamoto as one of its 100 Most Influential People of 2007, Time magazine has honored his work yet again. More specifically, it has named Wii Fit, the Donkey Kong and Wii designer’s latest project, as one of its best gadgets of 2008. Though game critics had mixed feelings about the game and its balance board peripheral, Time heaps praise upon its fitness regimens, saying, “Weight loss has never been easier.”
30
Oct
What we heard: Last week, gamers perusing newsstands were flummoxed to find the Take-Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick plastered on the cover of Men’s Fitness. Typically the domain of ultimate fighters, professional athletes, and the occasional buffed-out rapper, the magazine decided to highlight Zelnick’s cyclist and fitness enthusiasm as a way to segue into an article on games. Ironically, though, the executive isn’t even mentioned in the piece, titled “Virtual Fitness: Tomorrow’s Reality.”
What we heard: Though Sony touts its consoles as having a 10-year life cycle, traditionally a new generation of machines is introduced every five or six years. With the launch of the Xbox 360 in 2005 and the PlayStation 3 and Wii a year later, it only seems logical that the next console wave should arrive sometime around 2011 or 2012.
Given that precedent, What They Play’s prediction that Nintendo’s next console will arrive “by 2011″ isn’t exactly earth-shattering. Nor is the site’s citing of unnamed sources that the console will be a “true ‘next generation’” machine with high-definition graphics and a built-in high-storage capacity to accommodate “greater emphasis on digitally distributed and backwardly compatible content.”
2
Oct
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that the recent Xbox 360 price cut had seen European sales treble over the past two weeks–without quoting any figures. The company has also launched a marketing blitz using games, such as Rock Band 2, to try to ram home the console’s new-found price advantage.
Figures from sales-tracking body Chart-Track released today suggest that this boost may well be needed if the Xbox 360 wishes to regain ground lost to the Wii–and that the post-price-cut sales were in fact responsible for stopping Sony’s PS3 closing the sales gap at the last minute.
22
Aug
What we heard: With MTV Games’ Rock Band upping the ante in the rhythm game scene last year by introducing drums and vocal tracks, Activision Blizzard and peripheral makers RedOctane had no real choice but to respond in kind with Guitar Hero: World Tour. In addition to an overhauled plastic guitar that features a touch-sensitive neck, the publisher has announced a pair of new peripherals: a five-pad drum kit with kick pedal and pressure sensitive pads and a microphone for karaoke tracks.
21
Aug
Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock may have drawn a less-favorable reception from critics due to its comparatively limited instrument set, but it went on to dramatically outsell its most direct competitor, MTV Games’ Rock Band. With Guitar Hero World Tour, the publisher has addressed that feature deficiency in a major way by introducing a five-pad drum set, karaoke tracks, and a robust song creator, among other additions.
With those features slated to arrive for all editions of the game, developer Vicarious Visions has a few Wii-specific tweaks up its sleeve. RedOctane representatives confirmed for GameSpot today that Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii will include Mii integration in the new Mii Freestyle mode.
You can, and it’s actually called “homebrew,” which is one of those words that always sounds like a neologism (a newly coined word) but in fact originated in the mid-nineteenth-century, meaning “an alcoholic beverage made at home.” Go beer, then, and what’s more, go who’d-a-thunk-it hacks that let you for-real load Linux and “embrace your inner penguin” on an unassuming white box half the size of a toaster.
9
Dec
In the run-up to Christmas, advertising is usually frenzied for video games and consoles, but Nintendo has decided that since the console is in short supply, there is no point in promoting it.
A Nintendo spokesman explained, “We have been running the campaign all year round, but we want to take a responsible stance this Christmas and not fuel demand.”
Nintendo is currently producing 1.8 million Wiis a month, reports Marketing Week, although the company has still been unable to meet the demand for the console, which remains in short supply at many retailers.
Via (Game Spot)
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