Home

    Wii News

    Nintendo shares drop following Wii sales slowdown

    April 17, 2009 - 4:10pm

    Nintendo shares on the Osaka Stock Exchange dropped 6.6% today, closing at 26,180 yen ($265) following the release of the March NPD sales data, which shows a 17% drop in Wii sales compared to March of last year. "The severe sales result in the U.S. prompted disappointment among investors," said Shigeo Kikuchi, an analyst at Takagi Securities. "Nintendo had been perceived as one of the winners." Never mind that the Wii outsold every other console in March, with the DS in second place -- it failed to beat a past version of itself, and thus is a loser now. The major difference between March 2008 and March 2009 in the US? Last year, Super Smash Bros. Brawl launched in March.[Via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Crystal Bearers site bears new content

    April 17, 2009 - 1:50pm

    The Japanese Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers site has opened in earnest, free from all the teasing nonsense. The new site features new screens, character portraits (the Yuke, Amadetelion, doesn't look nearly as comical as Yukes used to!), cool video clips that play when you load any page, and a statement from producer Akitoshi Kawazu.According to a translation from NeoGAFfer RPGn, Kawazu draws a line between the very first Final Fantasy and Crystal Bearers, saying that as he initially thought Final Fantasy was "the way you make an RPG." He hopes Crystal Bearers will end up being as iconic for Wii. Or something like that.Along with the site announcement, Famitsu posted some gorgeous screens of the open-world-ish RPG.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    MadWorld sells 66K in March, Sega oddly pleased

    April 17, 2009 - 12:50pm


    Call us crazy, but we always thought that the idea behind making games was to sell tons of copies. Not so for Sega, as it seems weirdly satisfied with MadWorld's lackluster sales, based on comments to Gamasutra. Debuting early in March, Platinum Games' over-the-top brawler managed to move 66,000 copies, despite generally positive reviews.Sega's other M-rated title on Wii, House of the Dead: Overkill, also managed to have a sub-par debut, selling 45,000 copies during February. What does this say for The Conduit, the third of Sega's big games for Wii? Could Sega's gamble on the mature audience of Wii gamers been a poor move? All signs are pointing to "yes" right about now ... but Sega seems to disagree!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Pirates vs. Ninjas (vs. Mushroom Men) Dodgeball coming May 12

    April 17, 2009 - 12:00pm

    SouthPeak just announced a release date for the retail Wii version of its XBLA sports/fighting/party game, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball. Obviously the game didn't make its winter release, but finally, on May 12, Wii owners will be able to pit internet memes against each other, in order to determine, once and for all, who can take a hit to the face better. With the Wii version, naturally, you'll be able to use motion control to deliver those hits to faces.According to the game's official site, the Wii version allows you to pick between the following teams: Pirates, Ninjas (of course!), Zombies, Robots, Aliens, Monsters ... and Mushroom Men. We missed those guys!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    DSi sold 435,000 during first week in US

    April 17, 2009 - 11:10am


    Nintendo claims to have sold 435,000 DSi units during the first week of the handheld's availability in the US. Edge notes that it's almost double the 226,300 DS Lite systems sold during its launch, approximately three years ago, in Los Estados Unidos.Nintendo had previously announced that the DSi sold 300,000 units in both the US and Europe in its opening weekend, with GFK-Chart Track giving specific date for the UK, which bought up 92,000 during launch weekend. It pretty much goes without saying that Nintendo has another hardware hit on its hands, huh?Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    First round of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits tracks revealed

    April 17, 2009 - 1:00am


    And the Guitar Hero games keep on coming! The latest, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, culls the cream that has risen to the top of each Guitar Hero game and injects them into one über Guitar Hero. Instead of throwing all of the tracks out there for one and all to see, Activision held open voting to see which of the previous games' included tracks would be revealed first (gee, thanks!). The winner was the original Guitar Hero.Head past the break for the first list of tracks, along with some links to YouTube videos for your sampling pleasure.

    Continue reading First round of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits tracks revealed

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    GTA: Chinatown Wars sells 89K units in March

    April 16, 2009 - 10:30pm


    Proving the analysts wrong, GTA: Chinatown Wars launched far below their prognostications in March with a mere 89,000 units sold, NPD has confirmed to Joystiq. The game was expected to show that a high-profile M-rated franchise like GTA could perform well on Nintendo's handheld. With a mere 0.3% of the 29.3 million DS units sold in the US rocking the crime drama, that could be interpreted as not being a good sign for more big M-rated titles on the system.Despite incredibly solid reviews, it appears that Chinatown Wars has quite the hill to climb towards analyst projections. Perhaps only having a half-month of sales is the issue, with the crime caper releasing March 17 ... maybe next month will be kinder.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Ask Joystiq Nintendo: Donkey Kong Generation Gap Edition

    April 16, 2009 - 9:00pm

    This week in Ask Joystiq Nintendo, unfortunately, is all about stuff that just isn't going to happen. The DS might have gotten a browser update with the DSi, but the update wasn't in the area people really wanted. In the process of discussing your questions (which you can send to us by email at asknintendo AT joystiq DOT com!), we also reveal that I am a fossil.

    Continue reading Ask Joystiq Nintendo: Donkey Kong Generation Gap Edition

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    ESRB rates Ghostbusters, two other Atari DS titles for DSi

    April 16, 2009 - 6:10pm

    The DSi category of the ESRB's database is currently pretty small, containing only eight games, including some of the current first-party DSiWare (not all of the existing games are visible yet), a few Gameloft games (Brain Challenge, Real Soccer 2009, American Popstar Road to Celebrity), and ... three Atari games. Specifically, Ghostbusters, N+, and The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity, all of which are now listed as both DS and DSi games. These are the only games in the whole database to have such a distinction -- and the only DSi-listed games that aren't downloads. Unless they are!We don't want to be rumormongers, and we don't want to jump to conclusions, so we'll lay out the possibilities that have occurred to us, from most exciting to least exciting:

    1. Atari is planning to digitally distribute DS games via DSiWare, starting with Ghostbusters and extending into its back catalog.
    2. The publisher will release special DSi-enhanced cartridge versions of the games.
    3. The updated listings are a mistake.

    Atari PR had the following to say in response: "Unfortunately, no official word from Atari. We'll let this stay a rumor for now ;)" Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Analyst: US Wii sales 'steady' despite Japanese decline

    April 16, 2009 - 5:00pm

    Last week, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata described the Wii's sales status in Japan as "the most unhealthy situation since its launch in Japan." According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, the situation is significantly healthier in the US. "With recent data from Japan indicating a slowdown in Wii hardware, our checks in the U.S. still indicate fairly steady sell-through," Sebastian said. Any perceived drop in hardware sales is attributable to normal "seasonal sluggishness."Even better, production increases mean that, for once, there is enough supply to meet the steady demand. Sebastian reports that Wii hardware is "widely available at retail." If Wii Sports Resort is expected to fix the "unhealthy" situation in Japan, we may expect hardware supply to dip again worldwide when that comes out.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments