Gaming and Culture

The Wii isn't living up to its expectations.

(Credit: Nintendo)

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello didn't pull any punches when he spoke at a quarterly earnings call earlier this week. As he discussed some of the issues his company faces in today's gaming market, he singled out Nintendo and its Wii as contributing factors.

According to Riccitiello, third-party games on the Wii just aren't performing nearly as well as EA had expected. And as the Wii's sales start to slip, it doesn't seem likely that that will be changing anytime soon.

"To be honest with you, I think the Wii platform has been a little weaker than we had certainly anticipated," Riccitiello said, according to a transcript of the call published by Seeking Alpha on Monday. "And there is no lack of frustration (about this coming out) at precisely the time where we have the strongest third-party share."

But Riccitiello didn't stop there. He said EA is "reaching out to Nintendo to find ways to partner to push third-party software harder." He contended that in order for the Wii to perform up to Nintendo's own expectations, the platform needs help from third parties.

Riccitiello continued on that theme. He said his company is providing high-quality titles for the Wii, but it's Nintendo that needs to do more.

"Wii is where we are missing it," Riccitiello said on the call. "And so I really do think that the opportunity exists to find different ways to partner with (Nintendo) in this case, to sort of help establish in the minds of the consumer legitimacy of some of these other brands, when they are going out multiplatform."

But it was Riccitiello's next statement that might send the most shockwaves through the Nintendo world. The EA chief said "very, very few multiplatform titles are succeeding on the Wii so far, and collectively, Electronic Arts and Nintendo need to tackle that."

Perhaps now the question is, then, how will those two major forces in the gaming industry achieve what Riccitiello wants? Nintendo's platform has enjoyed strong sales since its debut, but the Wii is slipping. Worst of all, during the most successful periods for Nintendo, it was first-party titles, not third-party games that performed best at retail. Whether Nintendo can help change that, making it more profitable for third parties to develop games for the Wii, is very much in doubt.

What do you think? Is Nintendo really in bad shape? Is Riccitiello overstating the Wii's shortcomings? Let us know in the comments below.

Video game developer Electronic Arts announced on Monday that it has acquired social-gaming company Playfish, paying $275 million in cash and $25 million in "equity-retention arrangements." Playfish also is entitled to up to $100 million if it meets performance milestones by December 31, 2011.

EA also announced later Monday that it planned to eliminate 1,500 jobs, or about 17 percent of its workforce, as part of a plan to reduce annual costs by about $100 million.

The acquisition of Playfish falls in line with EA's desire to be more than just a developer for traditional gaming platforms, like consoles and the PC. The company said in a statement that the acquisition "strengthens its focus on the transition to digital and social gaming."

Thanks to the explosive growth of social networks and games made for those platforms, Playfish is enjoying strong performance in the social-gaming space. The company has more than 150 million games installed on several platforms, including Facebook, MySpace, the iPhone, and Android-based devices. According to Playfish, more than 60 million active players per month are playing titles. Its Facebook titles include Pet Society, Restaurant City, and Country Story--all three are among the most-popular games on the social network.

The EA Interactive division, which Playfish will join, has done a fine job of capitalizing on the trend of online and mobile gaming. That division includes Pogo, one of the top casual-gaming sites on the Web. The Mobile side of EA Interactive has captured 34 percent market share in the U.S. with the help of Madden NFL 10, The Sims, and Tetris.

Updated at 10:20 p.m. with details of job cuts.

In the public preview of the upcoming Xbox Live update that features access to Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm, users under the age of 18 aren't allowed to access the aforementioned social networks. Unfortunately for those users, that will still be the case when the software launches on all Xbox 360s later this year.

According to Microsoft spokesperson Major Nelson in a blog post, Microsoft made the decision to limit access to Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm to those 18 and older because parents won't have the ability "to use Family Settings to customize which of these applications their children can access." Microsoft is also concerned with keeping the Xbox Live environment "age-appropriate."

Realizing it will be a hot-button issue for many Xbox Live users, Major Nelson was quick to point out that it wouldn't be a lasting solution. Microsoft, he said, is working on "an update that gives parents the choice of which social applications their children can access." According to Nelson, after the update is released, children between the ages of 13 and 17 will be able to access the social networks after obtaining parental approval.

So far, Microsoft has not said when the Xbox Live update will finally launch (Nelson said "soon"). The update that gives parents control over access to those social networks will be released "several weeks" after the launch of the Xbox Live update.

Let's hear from you. Do you think Microsoft should limit child access to social networks? Let us know in the comments below.

Although several artists have been depicted in music games like Guitar Hero in the past, Gwen Stefani's No Doubt is having some trouble with its own likeness in the newly released Band Hero game from Activision.

According to a court filing obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the band sued Activision over a feature in the title that provides gamers with the opportunity to have band members perform another artist's songs.

The lawsuit specifically takes issue with the ability for gamers to have No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani perform the Rolling Stones' Honky Tonk Women. The suit claims that it "results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes," the LA Times is reporting, citing documents filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday. The suit also claims that No Doubt objected to the "Character Manipulation Feature," but Activision refused to remove it.

For its part, Activision says that it's not at fault. The company wrote in a statement cited in several publications, that it has a "written agreement" with No Doubt that justifies the use of its likeness in various features in the game.

"Activision has a written agreement to use No Doubt in Band Hero--an agreement signed by No Doubt after extensive negotiations with its representatives, who collectively have decades of experience in the entertainment industry," the company said in a statement. "Pursuant to that agreement, Activision worked with No Doubt and the band's management in developing Band Hero. As a result, Activision believes it is within its legal rights with respect to the use and portrayal of the band members in the game and that this lawsuit is without merit.

"Activision is exploring its own legal options with respect to No Doubt's obligations under the agreement."

No Doubt is asking for unspecified damages, as well as "a preliminary injunction and a permanent injunction against distribution of the game and for Activision to recall existing copies," the Times is reporting.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has some inspiration from Twitter.

(Credit: infinity Ward)

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 might have been designed by a capable team of Infinity Ward developers, but the company had some help: Twitter followers.

Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling told Develop Online in a recent interview that during the development of the highly-anticipated release, the developer called on Twitter users for help.

"During development, if we are sitting in a design meeting and we are arguing about something, no matter what it is, I can just turn to what is now 60,000 people and post the same question," Bowling told game developer news site Develop Online. "'Do we think players will like this?' well why don't we ask 60,000 of them and get a good representation of what we think they may like?"

But it was the next statement that might cause gamers participating in social networking to rejoice. Bowling told site that Twitter was "fantastic throughout development" and he "would recommend many, many more people adapted that into their design schedule."

Bowling also said that Infinity Ward didn't ignore any responses to its design questions. He said that developers "listened to all" of the suggestions, but filtered out those that didn't match the company's "design philosophy." Suggestions that asked for more gore, for example, ran against the company's design philosophy, Bowling said.

Regardless of whether or not Infinity Ward incorporated every idea into Modern Warfare 2, Bowling told the publication that now more than ever, gamers are getting closer to the development process.

"The average gamer is so much closer to the people who make the games than they ever were before," he told the publication. "And as a result of that they are so much more developer-aware. No longer is it an Activision game, but an Infinity Ward game, or a Treyarch game or a Bungie game. And gamers know where to go to offer their feedback."

Oh, how things have changed. When I was younger, I sent several snail-mail letters to developers asking for design tweaks in some of my favorite franchises. I never heard back. And it seemed that my plea had fallen on deaf ears.

Today, things are different. The developers of one of the most highly anticipated games to be released in 2009 were listening to gamer suggestions on a social network? Amazing. Let's hope for more of it.

The hype surrounding Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 keeps heating up.

After Gamestop announced last week a $40 trade credit for those who preorder the game and bring it back to a Gamestop store by December 13, Amazon.com has launched a competition, dubbed "The Call of Duty-est Town in America." The contest is seeking the town or city with the most preorders of Modern Warfare 2.

According to Amazon, any town or city with a population of 5,000 or more can compete. It determined population size using the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.

Whenever a person preorders Modern Warfare 2 from Amazon, the location is tallied. The goal for each location is to have the highest percentage of preorders. Realizing that population plays a role in those figures, the number of orders doesn't factor into the competition.

Amazon said on its contest page that it will give a $5,000 gift certificate to a charity that serves the winning town. If the competition had ended at the time of this writing, the winner would be Grand Forks, N.D.

The page also features some interesting information about those preorders. As of this writing, the Xbox 360 version of the game accounted for 61 percent of Amazon preorders. The PlayStation 3 and the PC versions captured 31 percent and 8 percent of the preorders, respectively.

"The Call of Duty-est Town in America" competition ends on the game's release day, November 10. The winning town will be announced that day.

I attended the Virtual Goods Summit on Friday and walked away struggling to figure what topics might be interesting to write about. My net takeaway is that not much has changed in the year that I've been writing about social gaming and virtual goods, with the exception of two facts:

1. Virtual good providers are being lauded as the next big thing to replace advertising
2. There's something weird going on with the ads and offers that have taken over the more traditional banner advertising role

There is no question that virtual goods have become an integral part of social network revenue streams. And the mainstream media has finally started to catch on.

But, I didn't realize the oddities of the way users are being monetized until I attended the event and saw the heavy emphasis not just on monetizing users but on doing so in a way that was transparent and non-intrusive. Theoretically, it's a good idea, but in practice, many of the "offer" providers are purposely or inadvertently running Ponzi schemes.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington arrived at my second point above and took the theory much further with data that shows many social gaming offers and advertising practices amount to little more than a complicated scam that gets people in the door for free only to take advantage of their lack of understanding of what they've technically agreed to in the various offers.

In short, these games try to get people to pay cash for in game currency so they can level up faster and have a better overall experience. Which is fine. But for users who won't pay cash, a wide variety of "offers" are available where they can get in-game currency in exchange for lead gen-type offers. Most of these offers are bad for consumers because it confusingly gets them to pay far more for in-game currency than if they just paid cash (there are notable exceptions, but the scammy stuff tends to crowd out the legitimate offers). And it's also bad for legitimate advertisers.

Though it once appeared to be a tiny sales juggernaut, Nintendo's top-selling Wii console has struggled in 2009. In July, the Japanese publisher reported April-June revenues that slid 40 percent from a year prior to 253 billion yen ($2.81 billion). Nintendo didn't fare much better during its July-September quarter, saying Thursday that sales fell 34.5 percent to 548 billion yen ($6.09 billion) during the first half of its fiscal year.

Nintendo's slipping performance has not gone unnoticed by the publisher's president. As reported by Japan's Mainichi Newspaper and translated by GameSpot, Nintendo executive Satoru Iwata told analysts and investors as part of a post-earnings Q&A that a weak software lineup has contributed to the Wii's sluggish performance.

(Credit: Nintendo)

"The Wii has stalled," Iwata said. "Games of high demand could not be continuously released and the good mood has chilled." Iwata went on to note that it will be difficult to recover from "the slowdown in demand," but he also expressed optimism over Nintendo's ability to continue selling Wiis.

According to Japan's Nikkan Sports (also translated by GameSpot), Iwata said during the conference that Nintendo misjudged market conditions as they pertained to the publisher's sales strategy.

"The mood of the market got colder than expected, and there was a difference in expectations," he said. "Now, we are preparing for next year and thinking about what to do the year after next." Iwata reportedly went on to note that Nintendo is optimistic about its chance to right the Wii's downward sales trend going forward.

Notably, reports have emerged that Nintendo is planning a number of enhancements to its console. Earlier this week, reports surfaced that Nintendo would be introducing Netflix's online video-streaming service to the console, functionality that is already available for the Xbox 360 and will soon be introduced to the PlayStation 3.

Analysts and industry insiders also expect the publisher to launch an HD version of the Wii or an all-new system in 2010 or 2011 to better compete with Microsoft and Sony's consoles.

As for Nintendo's other hit hardware, Nikkan Sports reports that Iwata downplayed suggestions that the DS was losing ground to Apple's increasingly ubiquitous iPhone. "Our presence in the marketplace is growing," he succinctly stated.

Thursday, Nintendo also took the lid off its fourth DS hardware iteration, the DSi XL. The jumbo-size DSi, which features 4.2-inch screens, increased battery life, and a larger stylus, is expected to launch in Japan later this year for 20,000 yen ($220.50). The device's North American and European launch is expected to follow during the first part of 2010.

Tom Magrino reported for GameSpot.

The DSi XL's larger screens make it significantly bigger than the existing DSi.

(Credit: Nintendo Japan)

Nintendo recently announced a new DSi model for the Japanese market. How does it differ from the current DSi, and when can gamers in other parts of the world expect to be able to buy it? Read on for the answers.

What is it?
The DSi LL (as it will be called in Japan) or XL (how it'll be referred to in Europe and North America) is a supersized version of the Nintendo DSi.

What is different about it?
The DSi XL will be almost an inch wider than the DSi, a bit thicker, and it will have two 4.25-inch screens (that's an inch larger than the DSi's screens and 93 percent larger than the screens of the older DS Lite). It will feature two different-sized styli: a traditional thin stylus and a large rounded one that takes the shape of a pen. The portable console will have a similar battery life to the DSi's, about 4 to 5 hours on maximum brightness and 13 to 17 hours on the minimum setting.

Except for the larger size and extra stylus, there doesn't seem to be any other major differences on the XL. Like the DSi, it does not have a Game Boy Advance port, so it can't play older GBA cartridges.

Nintendo DSi XL photos

Can I transfer my downloaded DSi games (DSi Ware) to it?
As of this writing, Nintendo has not said how it plans to handle this issue. That said, DSi Ware games are currently nontransferable.

Why is Nintendo making yet another DS model?
We're not totally sure about this one. The two best bets: the DSi XL's larger screens may appeal to older gamers who are visually impaired, and the larger size could be helpful to those with big hands for whom the DSi's real estate is a bit too cramped. But the obvious sacrifice is portability--the XL will no longer fit into a pocket.

When will it be available, and how much will it cost?
The DSi XL will go on sale in Japan on November 21, 2009 (as the LL) for around $220. Nintendo has confirmed that it will be released in Europe and North America in the first quarter of 2010, but the company has yet to name a price.