As you begin to contemplate your Thanksgiving meal, your family gathered around you, your loved ones embracing you, please be thankful you are not Sal9000.
Sal appears to be a man with very idiosyncratic needs, which he has attempted to satiate by marrying his favorite video game character.
Perhaps you think I have finally lost my last marble. However, please examine this footage. Courtesy of the radical realists at BoingBoing, this video shows that Sal married Nene Anegasaki, a character in the Nintendo DS game, Love Plus.
These unique nuptials were apparently broadcast on the Japanese video sharing site, Nico Nico Douga, a place where many strange things occur for, no doubt, extremely sound psychological reasons.
I don't wish to so much as broach the topic of marital consummation. However, I can tell you that attending the wedding, which was held, naturally, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, were the bride's virtual video game girlfriend, a live audience and, yes, a real religious priest.
I cannot find record of where the happy couple might be honeymooning, but I have an indelible fear that it might be in a very small, dark apartment somewhere in Tokyo. I trust they will have a large and healthy family.
The new metallic blue DSi with five titles.
(Credit: Nintendo)Starting on Black Friday, Nintendo will offer two new DSi bundles featuring metallic blue or white Nintendo DSi systems, plus more than $20 in DSiWare games, the company announced on Monday.
The new bundles will come with different games, depending on the DSi customers buy. The metallic blue version of the DSi will come with five Mario DSiWare titles, including Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again; Dr. Mario Express; WarioWare: Snapped!; Mario Calculator; and Mario Clock.
Nintendo's white Nintendo DSi comes preinstalled with Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters; Brain Age Express: Sudoku; Brain Age Express: Math; Clubhouse Games Express: Card Classics; and Photo Clock.
Nintendo said the DSi bundles will be available as long as supplies last, though a company representative wouldn't divulge how many units will be shipped. Nintendo also pointed out that although the white DSi has been around for a while, the Metallic Blue color is new. So far, Nintendo hasn't responded to my inquiry about whether or not it will offer a Metallic Blue DSi as a standalone unit after the bundle runs out.
Both the White DSi bundle and the Metallic Blue offering will be available in stores on Friday for $169.99, the same price as the standalone DSi.
See also: Be prepared for Black Friday tech deals
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Correction at 4:50 a.m. PDT November 18: Cammie Dunaway incorrectly described Wii's October sales figures compared with other next-generation game consoles. Wii sales were nearly the total of its rivals combined.
Stung by lower Wii sales and a couple of down quarters, Nintendo may be a bit off its game this year. But Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, keeps focused on the company's strengths and positive numbers.
The recession and a paucity of blockbuster titles have taken a bite out of the overall video game industry this year, with revenue down from record levels in 2008. Nintendo certainly hasn't been immune. For the first half of the year, earnings fell about 50 percent from 2008, while Will sales dipped.
In the midst of this atmosphere, I spoke on Thursday with Dunaway, known to many video game buffs for her high-spirited appearances at E3.
Though I asked Dunaway about the company's revenue decline, lower console sales, and potential competition, she continually championed Nintendo's assets, including its Wii and DS consoles and recent popular games like Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus, as well as new titles like Super Mario Bros.
Dunaway's optimism about Nintendo may have been borne out by the latest results. Though overall video game revenue fell in October, the Wii bounced back to recover its spot as the top selling console, according to NPD.
Last month, Nintendo sold 507,000 Wiis, compared with 320,600 Sony PlayStation 3s and 249,700 Microsoft Xbox 360s. Coming in second in video game hardware sales was Nintendo's portable DSi and DS Lite, with gamers scooping up 457,000 units.
Four of Nintendo's titles also did well in October, finishing in the top 10. The company sold 232,000 copies of Wii Fit Plus alone, and 209,000 of Wii Fit Plus bundled with the Balance Board. Wii Sports Resort scored with 179,000 copies sold, while Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the DS found 169,000 new customers.
I spoke with Dunaway by phone before before NPD released the October sales figures. But she certainly knew ahead of time that the numbers would look good for Nintendo.
Q: The question on everyone's mind is Nintendo's performance this year. For the first half, earnings were down about 50 percent. Sales for the Wii have dropped. Your president, [Satoru] Iwata, recently admitted that sales of the Wii have stalled. What do you pin as the reasons for this downturn, both for the company and for the Wii itself?
Dunaway: Let's talk about the U.S., and let's break it down into the separate platforms. So, speaking first about the Wii--what's important to understand is that in 2008, we sold 10 million units of the Wii, which was a record for any console ever in history. And so it's a high mark.
What's also important to understand is that the pacing of our software this year was quite different than it was in 2008. In 2008, our big titles were released early in the year. And this year's huge title, released a few weeks ago in October, Wii Fit Plus, is doing quite well. And then arguably, the largest title of the year, New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, only releases Sunday [November 15]. So we believe that going into the holiday season, consumers will continue to look for the products they see as representing the best value and the most fun.
Now on DS, we also had a record setting year last year, selling over 10 million units, and we are actually 16 percent above that pace year-to-date in 2009. So the combination of DS Lite and our new product DSi is really resonating with consumers.
Then on software, here in the U.S., our software for both Wii and Nintendo DS is actually up over a year ago. So despite the fact that our big titles are yet to come, we still have had a good year overlapping a tremendous year with our software.
Can you talk about some of the new titles Nintendo has in store for the holidays and next year? You mentioned Super Mario Bros. is a key title for the holidays. Are there others?
Dunaway: Looking to some of the additional titles for the holidays, New Super Mario Bros., for the first time enables four people to play a Mario game together. And it is going to be something that provides tremendous challenge to experienced gamers, and something a brand new gamer can jump in with their friends and family and enjoy. So that one will be a monster hit.
We also on the DS side have a new Zelda title--Zelda Spirit Tracks--coming on December 7. And Zelda titles are always strong performers, and it's a franchise that loyalists look forward to, line up to get copies of. And it's a title that we also think expanded market consumers will enjoy because of its heart. It's really about solving puzzles and going on an adventure, which is something that really anyone can have a good time doing.
Then as we go into next year, while we haven't announced timing, we have announced that we'll be launching a new Pokemon Gold and Silver, which has broken all records on its launch in Japan. [We're also launching] a title that will be great for loyalists called Sin & Punishment and a title called Endless Ocean that really provides a wonderful family experience on the Wii.
... Read moreSinking sales and a price cut for the Wii knocked Nintendo's first-half earnings by 52 percent.
On Thursday, the game maker reported a profit of 69.5 billion yen ($767.8 million) for the six-month period ended September 30, compared with 144.83 billion yen for the same period last year.
Sales for the period also tumbled, falling 34 percent to 548 billion yen.
Nintendo blamed the shortfall on weak sales of its Wii combined with its recent price cut for the game console. In September, the company trimmed the cost of the Wii in the U.S. by $50 to $199.99. Nintendo said it sold 5.75 million Wii machines globally during the first half of its fiscal 2009, a huge decline from the 10 million units that flew off the shelves for the same period last year.
The Wii continues to face competitive pressure from both Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox, which have benefited from their own price cuts.
Nintendo was also hurt by a lack of hot new games for the Wii and portable DS game console. For the Wii, the company's only major releases were Wii Sports Resort in July and Wii Fit Plus in early September. As one of the few bright spots, Wii Sports Resort has enjoyed brisk sales.
The weak earnings fell short of Nintendo's earlier estimate of a 100 billion yen profit for the first half and prompted the company to lower its forecast for fiscal 2009. Nintendo now expects annual earnings to fall to 230 billion yen, lower than its May estimate of 300 billion yen, and down from the 279.1 billion yen it earned in 2008. This would mark the first annual earnings decline in six years.
Nintendo also slashed its sales forecast for the full year, now expecting revenue of 1.5 trillion yen, down from its prior estimate of 1.8 trillion yen, an 18.4 percent drop from 2008.
The game maker is hoping for a brighter holiday season when gift-seeking shoppers may take advantage of the Wii's lower price. Nintendo is also eager to see whether its upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii game proves to be a hot seller.
Reports have even surfaced that the Wii may follow in the footsteps of Sony's PlayStation 3 by offering a Netflix streaming option.
(Credit:
Smarty Pants)
Kids may gobble up junk food, but it seems they love playing with Nintendo devices even more.
Out of the 100 most loved brands for America's children and tweens, the Nintendo Wii and DS scored the first and second spots, according to a report by research firm Smarty Pants.
The survey "Young Love" found that even tempting snacks like Oreos and M&Ms trailed behind the Nintendo gear, taking the third and fifth spots in the list, respectively. Other techie items loved by 6- to 12-year-olds included the iPod at number 12, Sony's Playstation at 14, YouTube at 36, and Microsoft's Xbox at 42.
Kids participate in more than $500 billion in consumer spending each year, according to Smarty Pants, and their parents consider their favorites when buying everything from snacks to entertainment, both of which popped up heavily on the list.
"From Crayola to iPod, kids' most loved brands are familiar, iconic brands that delight kids and parents with variety, value, family-friendly content, and simple pleasures," Smarty Pants President Wynne Tyree said in a statement. "Interestingly, the top brands are not traditional 'for kids only' brands; in fact, many are not marketed directly to kids."
To compile the report, Smarty Pants questioned 4,700 American kids and their parents online over a period of nine months. Covered in the survey were more than 260 consumer brands across 20 different product categories.
The brands that kids liked most, said SmartyPants, were the ones that offered high-quality family time, age-appropriate content, parent-approved indulgence, variety/choice, "cool" accessibility, and chatter-worthy advertising.
Nintendo gamers anxious to grow Spores will find relief in October.
Electronic Arts announced Monday that its Spore Hero for the Wii game console and Spore Hero Arena for the Nintendo DS handheld will reach store shelves in the U.S. on October 6 and international outlets on October 9.
In Spore Hero, players can transform into heroic alien creatures on a mission to save their home worlds from certain destruction. By battling evil forces, solving puzzles, and collecting clues, heroes evolve over time. And using the Spore Creature Creator, gamers can build their heroes with assorted alien body parts.
In Spore Hero Arena, gamers can trek throughout space in a battle to defend planets from the galactic bad guys. Players can create their own heroes, combat aliens, and unlock special abilities to give themselves a fighting chance to save entire worlds. The game also lets people play with up to three friends in person or over a Wi-Fi network.
"Players' heroes take center stage as both games, distinctly tailor-made for its Nintendo platform, infuse creativity, combat and adventure to create a unique gameplay experience on the Wii and Nintendo DS," said Lucy Bradshaw, vice president of Maxis, a subsidiary of EA
The popular Spore game was originally available only on the PC and Mac. Last September, EA unveiled Spore and another variation, Spore Creatures, for the Nintendo DS. In May, EA announced a fall release for the Nintendo versions of Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena but hadn't revealed a specific date.
A scene from Spore Hero, a new variation on Spore designed for the Nintendo Wii.
(Credit: Business Wire)Aliens beware. Nintendo gamers will now be able to transform into galactic Spore heroes with the release of two new games for the Wii and DS.
To be unleashed this fall by Electronic Arts game studio Maxis, Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena, are new additions to the Spore universe created exclusively for the Nintendo platforms. Spore transports players to a virtual galaxy in which players create entire civilizations, explore new worlds, and befriend or battle alien creatures.
In Spore Hero, created for the Wii, players take on the role of hero to defend their planet from a dark alien force bent on worldwide destruction. The game includes a Wii-enhanced Spore Creature Creator, which lets players design their own aliens from over 200 different body parts (tentacles included).
Earlier this month, EA said that gamers had concocted more than 100 million Spore creatures.
In Spore Hero Arena, for the portable Nintendo DS, players create a gladiator-type hero trekking from one planet to the next to complete missions and vanquish dangerous aliens. Spore Hero Arena offers a multiplayer feature for use by up to three peoples locally or with one person over a Wi-Fi network.
"Whether it is the stylus-driven action of the Nintendo DS or playful controllers of the Wii, the massive Nintendo audience is the ideal home for Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena," Lucy Bradshaw, vice president and general manager at Maxis, said in a statement.
The Spore franchise has grown in sales and popularity since the first Spore game was released last year. A recent addition to the franchise is Creature Keeper, a kid-friendly version of Spore. Another new game, Spore Galactic Adventures, will be unveiled in June for the PC and Mac.
(Credit:
Nintendo)
Gamers and geeks, step aside. It's Mom's turn to jump on the gaming bandwagon. On Monday, Nintendo announced a new DS Lite bundle, clearly tailored to the interests of middle-aged women.
At the usual $149.99, the bundle includes a lime green console, a matching carrying case, and Personal Trainer: Cooking. Those who tend to buy into gender stereotypes can already preorder the bundle just in time for Mother's Day on Amazon. Don't forget to add on My Weight Loss Coach and Imagine: Babyz while you're at it.
In the past couple of years we've seen a Nintendogs bundle for kids, a Brain Age bundle for the old timers, and other age-specific packages in between. As with all tech toys, every newly designed DS makes the last seem so passe. The lime green console itself has "geek chic" written all over it and--though I'm not a mom--I may just have to grab one for myself.
The bundle will be available at all retail locations on May 3.
- prev
- 1
- next
