Sunday, October 28, 2007

Nintendo to sell Wii in China


Nintendo Co Ltd said it aims to launch its Wii game console in China and South Korea next year, helping accelerate its break-neck growth and cement its recent lead over Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp.

One day after the three game makers' earnings announcements, Japan-based analysts said Nintendo looks well positioned to win the race for top spot in the current-generation videogame console market due to a strong software line-up and low hardware price.

"New game hardware comes around once in every five, six years. So, making a good start is crucial," Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Koki Shiraishi said.

"Since the Xbox 360 was launched one year ahead, it is roughly on par with the Wii in total sales. But if you take a look at current momentum in net growth, the Wii is well ahead."

In July-September Nintendo sold 3.9 million units of the Wii, which features a motion-sensing controller that allows users to direct on-screen play by swinging it like a racket, three times as many as Sony's PlayStation 3 sales and twice as many as Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold during the same period.

"We suffer a global shortage of the Wii. Our responsibility now is to deliver as many consoles as we can to existing markets," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a news conference.

"But next year, I think we can bring the Wii (to China)."

Iwata also said he has no plan to cut the Wii price in response to recent console price cuts by Sony and Microsoft.

"We are in a situation where we need to focus our effort on satisfying demand. I am not at all thinking about price cuts."

Sony recently announced PS3 price cuts and the launch of a low-priced model to ignite demand and win back game maker support in the run-up to the critical holiday season.

However, the lowest-priced PS3, which goes on sale on November 11 in Japan for 39,980 yen ($350), will still cost 60 percent more for buyers than the Wii.

Sony loaded the PS3 with its cutting-edge technology such as a Blu-ray high-definition DVD recorder. But advanced components have driven up the price for buyers and made it difficult and time-consuming for game creators to develop PS3 software.

In a major coup, Nintendo said earlier this month software publisher Capcom Co Ltd would develop the latest version of its blockbuster "Monster Hunter" action game for the Wii.

The game had previously been developed for Sony's consoles and the switch to Nintendo has fed speculation that support for the PlayStation franchise may be slipping.

CASH PILE

As a key software for this holiday season, Nintendo will launch a "Wii Fit" home fitness game on December 1 in Japan featuring a pressure-sensitive mat that allows players to "head" virtual soccer balls and imitate ski jumping.

Wii Fit' is probably going to appeal to light gamers and it will be helping Nintendo to win more users.
Posted by wii-play at 5:54 AM
Labels:

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Battalion Wars 2



For some baffling, perplexing reason, Nintendo refused to let journalists on hand at its recent Media Summit event play the single-player mode of Battalion Wars 2.

In Battalion Wars 2, you can play against friends or in random matches against opponents. There's also a cooperative mode, although its specifics are still guarded.

When you enter Wi-Fi Connection, you will see your profile, which details your total wins in the three different gameplay types, including assault, skirmish and cooperative mode. It also details your losses for the three modes. In addition, it lists your friend code -- yes, another game that clings to these codes. Finally, your profile shows you how to unlock the next assault, skirmish and cooperative missions. For example, you might need to simply play assault two more times to open the next area.

After you choose to play against a friend, it shows the status of your buddy online. After you connect, you're able to choose the play type (again, assault, skirmish or cooperative) and select a level. In the demo we were shown, we could only play skirmish and we could only choose one level, but there were six available, including Melee, Exchange of Fire, Border Patrol, Sand Castles, Donatsu Island and Battle Stations. Finally, we could select to play as the Solar Empire, Iron Legion or, if you just don't care, "whichever."

In skirmish, the goal is simply to kill as many enemies as you can, for which you earn more and more points. The person with the most points when a timer runs out wins. The stage takes place in a war-torn environment that, like the first level from the single-player affair, looks like the aftermath of a major battle. There are dead trees blanketing the landscape, a fire-streaked sky, and browned grass (individual blades in a few spots), all surrounded by giant stone mountains. The visual style looks altogether a little more realistic and grittier than the original game. It's all presented in progressive-scan and 16:9 widescreen, and the action moves along at 30 frames per second.

Otherwise, it plays like the original Battalion Wars with a new controller. If you've never played the series before, it's very well done and a lot of fun. You take control of a full military unit, organizing and deploying different groups within, but unlike your traditional real-time strategy game, you're still able to exact individual control of characters. Thus, you can command your heavy tanks to take down the enemy, but you can also personally man a grunt, firing off his automatic weapon and circle strafing around opponents.

The Wii remote doesn't revolutionize the experience. You select different units, located as icons on the bottom of the screen, with the D-Pad, and then tap the A button to send them into action. You could point and aim at on-screen targets with the Wii remote, but it's much easier to simply lock-on to them the traditional way and then deploy your armies.

As gamers who loved and highly recommended the original Battalion Wars, can safely state that Nintendo's multiplayer mode does the franchise little justice, as you're forced to engage in a last-man-standing battle with your Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection opponent -- usually a war devoid of strategy.

In terms of completely new Wii controls, you're able to jump by flicking the nunchuk up and you can dodge left or right by motioning in the same direction with the attachment. These additions don't really up the immersion factor or enhance the experience in any way, but they are functional.

Battalion Wars 2 looks a little better and, with the addition of naval units and a full-blown multiplayer component, is sure to best its predecessor in every way.


Posted by wii-play at 7:32 AM
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)