Gamefly Adds Fast East Coast Shipping, More Availability Info
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Hot Deals, Internet,
Living in SF, I’ve never had a problem with the turn-around times for getting new games from Gamefly. Since it only takes about 3 days between sending in my played games and getting my next game, I’ve found the 3-game plan to be more than worth its cost. Still, Gamefly was hampered by the fact that it only had one shipping facility, in Los Angeles, CA. That all changed this past week when Gamefly opened up their second shipping facility in Pittsburgh, PA. This warehouse will serve the east coast and some inland states, including “CT, DC, DE, IN, KY, MD, MI, NC, OH, PA, RI, TN, VA, and VW (sic)”. I can only assume that VW stands for Vest Wirginia.
In addition, Gamefly has been adding several other tweaks to their website, including an improved “availability” ranking in your GameQ. Items in your Q will now show whether the availability is “Now” (will ship immediately), or “High”, “Medium” or “Low”, or “Very Low”. High means there’s a 75% chance that your game will be available to ship, Medium 50%-75%, and Low 25%-50%, and Very Low 0%-25%.
Finally, Gamefly appears to be doing some work on improving their web interface. Games in your Q will now display a blue “In Q” button (instead of the standard “Rent it!” button) if a game is already in your Q. Unfortunately, the “In Q” button only shows up when you navigate to the specific game page, and does not appear on any list pages (a la NetFlix). Clicking on the “Rent it!” button for a game already in your Q still results in the annoying “This game is already in your Q!” pop-up box, but hopefully they’ll be fixing that soon.
Overall, some much welcomed improvements! Now, just find a way to ship me Guitar Hero 2 for rental, and I’ll be a happy camper 😉
Read More | GameFly.com
Gallery: Gamefly Adds Fast East Coast Shipping, More Availability Info
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Rumor: Blockbuster To Start Renting DS Games
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Rumors,
Given that the little-two-screened-handheld that could has been topping the sales charts these days, I don’t see why Blockbuster hadn’t thought of this earlier… if current rumors prove true, then the video-rental mega-chain will start renting DS games in the near future. The rental price is rumored to be $4.99 for a week, which isn’t a terrible deal compared with services like Gamefly. Of course, if their DS selection ends up being anything like what I’ve seen for their other console selections, Blockbuster might not be your best bet for getting the latest, hottest games.
Blockbuster stopped renting GBA carts years ago, due to problems with renters removing the chips inside the cartridges and replacing them with less desirable games. However, this seems like something that should be easy enough to test these days (and charge to the credit card of the offender!).
Read More | Play-Nintendo.com
Gallery: Rumor: Blockbuster To Start Renting DS Games
Nintendo Developing 45 Wii Games, 79 DS Titles(!!?)
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Rumors, Wii,
According to a report on Bloomberg that’s getting a lot of attention, Nintendo is working on at least 45 titles for the Wii (we’re assuming first-party?), and 79 titles for the DS. That’s a number that sounds pretty darn exciting.
Still, other than that, the report is VERY short on details. For instance, are these titles that are slated for release, or are they along the lines of tech demos and test concepts? Are they first-party titles, or does the count include properties being developed by second-party firms, under the auspices of Nintendo? When will these games be released… is this the one-year outlook for Nintendo first-party titles, or are they looking further ahead? And most importantly of all, why the heck hasn’t Nintendo announced some titles and/or concepts for these games in order to drum up a little excitement?
You’ll excuse us if we don’t get too excited just yet… after all, I was pretty excited after hearing about Sadness, and look what that’s gotten me.
Read More | Bloomberg.com
Gallery: Nintendo Developing 45 Wii Games, 79 DS Titles(!!?)
Nintendo Has Record Year on DS, Wii Sales
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Nintendo just announced their financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, and the numbers are huge. Revenues are up 90% to 996.5 billion yen, over $8 billion US. Profits are also up, nearly 150% to 226 billion yen, nearly $2 billion in profit.
Nintendo moved over 23 million DS handhelds, just an insane number, along with 5.84 million Wii consoles. The Wii number seems to be short of Nintendo’s projections of 6 million units—this would seem to point to a genuine supply constraint on Nintendo’s part. Some analysts had suspected that Nintendo was holding back shipments of the Wii because Nintendo had “made their numbers” but Nintendo’s results would seem to indicate that this was not the case.
Nintendo’s projections have them selling 14 million Wii consoles in the upcoming fiscal year, and 22 million DS handhelds. 22 million would seem to be a conservative estimate, given their strong sales from the previous year. 14 million Wii consoles moved, though, would seem to indicate a fairly decent ramp up in Wii production in order to meet their targets. Overall, though, the console that both Sony and Microsoft dismissed seems to be poised to challenge for the lead in worldwide sales.
Nintendo’s full press release continues below
Click to continue reading Nintendo Has Record Year on DS, Wii Sales
Gallery: Nintendo Has Record Year on DS, Wii Sales
Nintendo To Have Booth At Tokyo Game Show
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Square Enix,
Website Kotaku is indicating that in contrast to past shows, Nintendo will be exhibiting at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show. Typically the company has maintained its own separate shows, preferring to have an exclusive arena to advertise their upcoming software and hardware. This year, though, will apparently bring Nintendo to the show floor; according to Kotaku, the company is committing to this presence largely due to Square Enix showing off Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS. This huge event, apparently, is enough to overcome Nintendo’s general avoidance of the show; having Nintendo and the latest Dragon Quest at the show may mean mayhem for show attendees.
Read More | Kotaku
Gallery: Nintendo To Have Booth At Tokyo Game Show
March NPD Data Hits, DS, PS2, Wii Lead Sales
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360,
The NPD sales data for March has been released, and Gamasutra is reporting on the sales numbers. Overall, the sales data pretty much seemed to follow expectations. The Nintendo DS again showed strong sales, moving over 500,000 units in March. Sunday’s release of the latest in the Pokemon series might have the potential to even spike this further in April and May. The PSP sold 180,000; this month’s price drop would seem to ensure an increase for April. Of the non-portable consoles, the PS2 continues to have legs, moving 280,000 consoles and outselling all of the current generation platforms. This was probably helped a bit by the release of God of War II, which sold over 833,000 units.
Within current generation platforms, rankings stayed the same. The ever-supply-constrained Wii moved 259,000 consoles; Nintendo has promised more supply, but this may not happen for a few months. The Xbox 360 continued to hold on, with 199,000 units sold, and Sony’s sales numbers held relatively steady at 130,000 units.
Read More | Gamasutra
Gallery: March NPD Data Hits, DS, PS2, Wii Lead Sales
Pokemon Preorders Top 500,000
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Wireless,
Coming this Sunday April 22, Pokemania will officially hit the US again. The fourth generation Pokemon game, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl is set to be unleashed on the gaming public, nearly nine years after the first North American release. While initially considered a fad, a generation of gamers has literally grown up with the Pokemon franchise. Today Nintendo revealed that the two games have received over 533,000 pre-orders, twice those of the previous release. Early feedback seems to indicate that the games balance the tried-and-true battle gameplay of the originals with appropriately updated graphics and strong Wi-Fi support. Expect this title to easily hit one million sold, and continue to drive the DS juggernaut in the US.
Read More | Reuters
Gallery: Pokemon Preorders Top 500,000
EA Canada Vets To Develop Wii, DS Titles
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories:
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that former EA Canada employees have banded together to form a new development studio, Jet Black Studios that will focus on developing titles for Nintendo’s Wii and DS consoles. The new team states that they will be working on original and licensed titles; hopefully this focus will allow development of game software particularly suited to the capabilities of Nintendo’s unique offerings. While the members of the development team at Jet Black have decent pedigrees, coming from FIFA, Need for Speed and James Bond franchises, their partner Flashman Studios seems to be mainly responsible for the release of second tier licensed properties.
Read More | GamesIndustry.biz
Gallery: EA Canada Vets To Develop Wii, DS Titles
Pac-Man Vs. Heading to DS via Namco Museum
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Namco, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, Party Games,
OK, OK, so Pac-Man Vs. may not have been Nintendo’s most stunning E3 announcement ever… in fact, it will probably live on in infamy as one of the most disappointing Nintendo surprises ever. That said, it was actually quite a fun party game if you happened to have a Gamecube, GBA, GBA-to-Gamecube link cable, and 3 other controllers.
Well, if you’ve never had a chance to play this gem, there’s good news - as part of the most recent Namco Museum cart for the DS, you’ll be able to enjoy the classic and (thanks to the DS) with nary a wire in sight. Pac-Man Vs. will be included with Namco Museum and for about $19.99, you’ll be able to enjoy the game wire-free (AND, with only one cartridge for up to 4-player gaming), coming this summer.
Click the jump for the full press release…
Click to continue reading Pac-Man Vs. Heading to DS via Namco Museum
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Gallery: Pac-Man Vs. Heading to DS via Namco Museum
“Exciting Witch Trial” DS Japanese Website Up
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Corporate News, Nintendo DS, Party Games, Politics,
Add some more fuel to the ethics in video games fire… Remember those somewhat subversive DS advertisers in your local mall? The ones that consisted of cute girls wearing shirts proclaiming that “Touching is Good”? Well, the DS has just taken the pervyness to the next level, courtesy of SNK. In a new Japan-only game Doji Doji Majo Saiban (roughly translated as Exciting Witch Trial) you’re encouraged to find out whether or well-endowed nubile girls are witches or not. We’ll let you guess how you find out… or you could click this link(somewhat NSFW) and skip some of the guesswork.
We can only guess that this game is NEVER going to make it stateside… I think several public interest groups’ collective heads would explode. So all you folks interested in the “artistic style” and “dialog” in this game are going to be stuck importing and learning Japanese for now.
Read More | DokiMajo.com
Gallery: “Exciting Witch Trial” DS Japanese Website Up
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