Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Do People Still Play With Analog Toys?
11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: CES Eats My Soul Ah, we’ve got an intern. Moar, we need moar! Spending all day covering video games and playing them should make one jaded. You know, about simple things. Games are so techy! This afternoon, the kid and I went to go fly a kite. Kite flying is more of a New Year’s kinda thing in Japan. I haven’t flown a kite since I was, geez, 8? 9? My last memories of flying a kite are fuzzy at best. Don’t remember if I like flying a kite or not. But geez, flying that kite today was seriously fun. Great fun. While we were flying the kite down by the river, an old man on a bicycle passed us. He must have been in his late 60’s or early 70’s. The man got off his bicycle, and stood and watched as I coached my son on how to control the kite. My kid kept running round and round in circles, not watching the kite. Laughing. The old man smiled — even after Mini-Bash lost control of the kite, causing it to swoop down and almost hit him in the face. What you missed last night Split screen with no split screen Fugly, Real Wii60 Trance vibe in Rez HD Paramount, HD DVD, Blu-Ray blah blah blah Early Dragonball movie images More »
Wii Speakers Look Like Wii (After Marriage And Kids)
11:20PM Luke Plunkett | This is 4Gamers’ 2.1 speaker setup for the Nintendo Wii. As you can see, the product carries the Official Nintendo Seal. It’s also crafted to look like a Wii, with two Nunchuk speakers and a subwoofer that…somewhat resembles the console itself. In much the same way Britney circa 2007 somewhat resembles Britney circa 1999. Strangely there’s no mention of it on 4Gamer’s own neglected, outdated site, but advertisements for the set are starting to pop up here and there, so we’ll go ahead and presume they’re real and that 4Gamers really do intend to sell them to you. Sometime. Somewhere. More »
What is NCsoft Up To?
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Lineage, City of Heroes and Guild Wars publisher is staying hush hush about its upcoming project. Rumors started circulating last week when it was noticed that NCsoft Europe was hiring and had put a buncha concept art on its website. As MMO site Massively points out, the concept art has a mystical-meet-militaristic vibe to it. NCsoft Europe is looking for a bunch of new recruits, so this could be part of the company’s Sony deal to bring online games to the PS3 and the PSP. When asked what it was up to, NCsoft Europe replied, “No comment.” Figures. NCsoft Europe’s New Project [Videogamer.com] More »
Horrible Haruhi Figurine
10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | Jaw meet floor. This shockingly bad figurine of popular anime/manga/game character Haruhi Suzumiya has gotten the face right (very important!), but those joins are hideous. Sure, it’s supposed to be a posable toy, but couldn’t they have tried to raise the bar above freakazoid. This looks like those posable wooden statues for sketching with a Haruhi head stuck on it. So sad. Fugly Haruhi [AmiAmi via Danny Choo] More »
Iwata Wants Increased Wi-Fi Capabilities For DS
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | Nintendo aren’t sitting on their collective asses with this DS and its inherent wi-fi capabilities. Speaking with Japanese news site Asahi, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata says he’d like to expand the device’s non-gaming capabilities. Like how? Like say you’ve got your DS, you get off at a train stop and don’t know where you are. He’d like you to be able to whip out your handheld, download a map, get your bearings and turn geographical adversity into triumph. Sounds great to us, but we also know any such service would launch in Japan and stay in Japan. 任天堂社長「ゲームの敵だったお母さんが買ってくれれば」[Asahi, via DS Fanboy] More »
Wii Promoting Internet In Japan
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Remember when we brought news that Japanese telecom company NTT was getting its Wii on? NTT is offering a cut-rate broadband sign up deal that provides online access as well as on-site set-up for Wii users. Here’s the first fresh of that NTT/Nintendo marriage, complete with online SSBB battles, eggs and actress Masami Nagasawa. An online provider using the Wii to promote the internet. The irony. More »
“Iron Chef” Game Announced
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | TRUE STORY: When the Wii Remote was first shown off, the first thing I thought of was an Iron Chef game. It seemed like the perfect way to make me very happy and make anyone who made it millions of dollars. Fast forward to 2008, and here we have an Iron Chef game! For the Wii! Except…it’s for some bullshit reality TV show that’s not really Iron Chef. No no no no no NO. You can put any mug on the cover you like, if there’s no Takeshi Kaga, there’s no Iron Chef. This has now officially overtaken Sega Superstars Tennis as the most soul-crushing game announcement in recorded history. United Media Licensing [via Go Nintendo] More »
News
Square Enix Calls Japanese Core Market “Weak”
9:25PM Brian Ashcraft | Square Enix could always depend on Japan to snap up its seemingly endless RPG flow. Company president Yoichi Wada (on the left) has noticed a dip in core Japanese gamers. He points out about Japanese market growth: …when it comes to games for core gamers, it’s quite weak. Sooner or later core gamers will become impatient, and there’ll be a point where ‘real’ games will resume growth, but it’s not happening at the moment. However, for core games, the European and American markets are growing at enormous speed. To capitalise on this expanding market, Square Enix is actively starting to look West, hoping to “develop a strategy to equal the moves made by Sega and Capcom, or maybe exceed them.” Our advice: Mix up the genres, put out new IPs and go multi-platform. That means for everything. Wada Interview [Games Industry] More »
Gaming Sales Behind Online Shopping Boom
9:25PM Luke Plunkett | 2007’s holiday season saw Americans set new records while shopping for gifts online. While stay-at-home shoppers spent $US 24.57 billion between November 1 – December 31 in 2006, during the same period last year they spent $US 29.17, a 19% rise. Who’s to blame for all that spending? Videogames, which were the fastest-growing sector of the market. Total sales of hardware and software were up 129% from 2006, according to market researchers comScore, so all you lazy-ass holiday shoppers, give yourselves a pat on the back. You just made history. [comScore] More »
