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Nintendo DSi announced, larger screens, dual cameras, DSi Shop store

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Corporate News, Downloadable Content, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile

Nintendo DSi

Last week we talked about rumors of a new Nintendo DS, and this morning, those rumors proved to be true. CEO Satoru Iwata announced the Nintendo DSi at the company’s Fall presentation over in Japan, calling it a “third platform” for the company (where have we heard that before?). It looks fairly similar the the current DS Lite that we all know and love, but there are a few changes that make this one a worthy upgrade. First, it’s about 12% thinner, as it has given up its GBA slot. The screens are a bit larger, each being 3.25-inches in size. One of the bigger changes, though, is that the DSi features two cameras. You have one 3 megapixel camera on the outside of the unit, as well a front-facing camera on the inside so that you can take images of yourself.

The Nintendo DSi also has an SD card slot along with internal storage. You can save your photos right to the card, then put that card in your to pull it up in the Photo Channel. Nintendo is even launching the DSi Shop, an online destination for purchasing DSi software, similar to the Wii Shop. You use Nintendo Points, and content will be priced at 200, 500, or 800 points. 1000 points will be included with the purchase of the DSi. The unit will come in either white or black for the time being, and goes on sale in Japan on November 1 at ¥18,900 ($178).

Read More | Nintendo DSi product page

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Kaz Hirai Hits the Interview Circuit

Posted by Paul Hamilton
Categories: PlayStation 3, Sony

Kaz HiraiSony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai has been speaking out about the including the reported development troubles some studios have had and ’s commitment to the Japanese market.

Regarding the difficulty in development Hirai said he’s seen this before when the drew similar criticisms early in its lifecycle and that it doesn’t concern him. He said to The Official PlayStation Magazine that, in fact, he welcomes the news:

If they came back and told me, ‘PS3? We can do this in a heartbeat,’ that would be worrying because what it is telling me is that we’re not pushing the envelope from a technology standpoint.

In another interview with a Japanese website he said that developers working on cross-platform games ought to take advantage of the PS3’s extra capability to give PlayStation owners extra value. For example, “[W]ith the PS3, you’ve got the controller, or you could utilize the extra capacity provided by Blu-ray to add more levels, put on interviews with the developers or have your videos able to play in ." He said he understood why developers were choosing to work cross-platform considering the cost of making modern games.

Later in the same interview he tried to reassure Japanese gamers that they weren’t being overlooked:

Just because the foreign market is bigger than the domestic one, we don’t intend to take strategy of just making what would have been considered previously as ‘Western games’ and saying ‘We’ve got no choice but to do this’ to our Japanese users. If we did that, there’d be no point in having the Japan Studio.

Read More | Develop via Game | Life


Bloomberg: Wii Still Dominant in Japan

Posted by Steve Van Neil
Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

Wii in Japan

In what has become a regular occurrence, Nintendo’s Wii handily outsold its closest console competition three-to-one in Japan for the month of August.  However, it is interesting to note that the gap between the Wii and PS3 has lessened.  In June, Nintendo’s console outsold the PS3 six-to-one and four-to-one in June and July, respectively.

Bloomberg reported the final August numbers as follows: Wii at 245,653, PS3 at 81,541, and the Xbox 360 lagging behind at around 11,000.  The Wii’s August numbers bring the console to a whopping 3.4 million units sold in that country since its launch last year.

Read More | Next Generation

Nintendo Japan Lists 2007 Wii Releases

Posted by Christopher Sasaki
Categories: Nintendo, Release Dates, Wii

Wii IGN is reporting that Nintendo of Japan has revealed the Wii lineup for the rest of 2007. Japanese Wii owners can breath a little sigh of relief – high profile titles Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption are slated for release in 2007. North American gamers will have to wait for confirmation on these titles, but a Japan release in 2007 would seem to be a good indication that the same games are on their way to the US as well, particularly Metroid. Nintendo, more than any other hardware manufacturer, relies heavily on their first party line up to carry the console, so getting 13 first party releases, albeit with non-games like Wii Health and Wii Music will help drive demand during the holiday season. Of course, this might be moot if Nintendo can’t increase their hardware supply as they have been promising. With third parties still seemingly adjusting to developing for the Wii, Nintendo is going to be the prime software supplier for 2007.

Read More | IGN

Koei Offers New Opoona Screens

Posted by Christopher Sasaki
Categories: Role Playing Games, Wii

Opoona

Koei has offered up some new details and images from their new “lifestyle RPG” and exclusive Wii title in Japan. Scheduled for release in that territory this summer, the RPG is quite a departure from the Dynasty Warrior franchise. The RPG’s look is definitely on the cute side; beyond its looks, though, appears to be an interesting gameplay system – the game is completely controlled through just the Wii nunchuck controller. The new screenshots hint somewhat at the background story and environments the player can expect, and show a few in-game combat screens. No mention has been made of a localized release, but this seems like the kind of unique title that might do decently on the Wii in the US.

Read More | GameWatch

Okami Designers Form Seed

Posted by Christopher Sasaki
Categories: CAPCOM, Corporate News

Seeds

Capcom’s Clover Studio has been responsible for some of that publisher’s most creative games; Clover’s Okami was extremely well-received by critics, but unfortunately, those excellent reviews did not translate into sales. Last year, Capcom announced that the studio would be dissolved. Now, the primary creative forces behind Clover, Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya, and Shinji Mikami, have formed a new independent studio called Seeds. No announcement has been made yet about either game titles or platforms supported, but the Game|Life blog has a translation of their introductory statement.

Read More | Seeds via Game|Life


Limited Edition Revenant Wings DS Announced

Posted by Christopher Sasaki
Categories: Culture, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Square Enix

Limited Edition Rev Wings DS

With a new release in the Final Fantasy franchise hitting the DS comes another limited edition DS bundle. When Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings launches for the DS in Japan on April 26th, a special limited edition package including a laser etched Nintendo DS and the game will be available, selling for 21840 Yen, about $180 US. So, Japan gets yet another limited quantity release of the DS tied to a highly anticipated release, while other territories have to deal with the small color selection available. Expect huge lines in Japan for this release; Revenant Wings may be even more popular than the Final Fantasy III and Nintendo DS combination.

Read More | Famitsu

Has Microsoft Turned The Corner In Japan?

Posted by Christopher Sasaki
Categories: Culture, Xbox 360

Xbox 360 Blue Dragon Microsoft has perennially struggled in Japan in the console market. The original Xbox did miserably in Japan and for the first year of its launch it seemed like the Xbox 360 was going to follow in its footsteps. However, the past few months have seen some fairly high profile titles hit the console along with some extremely aggressively priced hardware and software bundles. Gamasutra is reflecting on these releases to try and determine if Microsoft has indeed turned things around in that territory.

The site looks to the recent launch of Blue Dragon and its related hardware bundle as well as the release of Gears of War in Japan to try and find out where the truth lies. Blue Dragon was probably one of the strongest releases, but after the initial release spike, the game dropped off the sales charts fairly quickly. Similarly, Gears of War broke the top ten in sales for the week it was released, but very next week had the game dropping off the top 30 entirely. Reports in Japan had Microsoft badly undershipping the title, which would effectively kill sales, if true. But overall this seems to reflect on efforts by a company that still doesn’t really understand the culture, and this is quickly killing any temporary successes. Much of the feedback that Gamasutra received for their article seems to show a company that is badly out of sync with their target market, putting marketing money into badly conceived campaigns that fail to reach the consumer.

Read More | Gamasutra

20 GB PS3s Get Discounted In Japan

Posted by Christopher Sasaki
Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3

AkibaIt looks like 20GB PS3s have gotten temporary price reductions from some Japanese retailers; Kotaku has pointed out a post on the Akiba blogs showing some retail chains in the country reducing the price of the 20GB model by 10,000 Yen, around $80. We know PS3 sales have hit somewhat of a lull recently, so stores may be aggressively reducing price to reduce stock levels. Continued price reductions can not be sustained without support from Sony; if sales continue to languish, Sony might have to reduce the price of the 20GB system even further.

Read More | Kotaku

Japanese PS3 Shipments Hit 1 Million

Posted by Christopher Sasaki
Categories: PlayStation 3

Playstation 3 Sony Computer Entertainment Japan today announced that PS3 shipments in Japan have reached 1 million consoles, according to a Reuters report. Sony’s initial targets were to have 2 million consoles shipped by the end of the year; with today’s announcement, it looks like while Sony made its shipment targets in the US, the company missed its goals in Japan by two weeks. The announcement comes after Japanese analyst Nomura Securities indicated that Sony might miss its worldwide shipping targets by as much as 25% due to lackluster sales. Actual PS3 demand is somewhat hard to gauge, and gamers will probably have to wait for January NPD sales numbers to know the truth. Certainly the initial demand surge has slowed and finding a console has become much easier. Gamestop is trying to drive sales through a $100 PS2 trade-in offer, but still offers expensive bundles online for pre-order only.

Read More | Reuters

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