Nintendo Wii News

Nintendo Releases Dates for Upcoming Games

2007-05-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

Nintendo has officially announced its summer (and beyond) schedule, and with it come a few dates to take off work, school, or just lock yourself in your room for weeks on end. With a list of causal and hardcore games, Nintendo has dated some of the hottest titles of 2007, with games like Mario Strikers, Battalion Wars, and our good friend Metroid Prime 3 leading the pack.

Here are the following release dates as stated by Nintendo of America:

Nintendo Wii Release Dates

# Mario Strikers Charged: July 30 - Nintendo
# Metroid Prime 3 Corruption: Aug. 20 - Nintendo
# Battalion Wars 2: September - Nintendo
# High School Musical: Sing It!: Aug. 14 - Disney Interactive
# Madden NFL '08: Aug. 14 - EA
# Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08: August - EA
# Space Station Tycoon: August - Namco Bandai
# Brunswick Pro Bowling: August - Crave
# Dave Mirra BMX Challenge: August - Crave
# Pinball Hall of fame: The Williams Collection: Aug. - Crave
# Brothers in Arms: September - Ubisoft
# Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal: September - Warner Bros.
# George of the Jungle: September - Crave
# Boogie: Fall - EA

With a few of Nintendo's top titles locked down it's only a matter of time until all 2007 releases are a done deal. Other major points of interest include Battalion Wars 2 with a "September" release, keeping open the possibility of a September 20th release to team with the game's original release date on GameCube in 2005, as well as the dating of two huge EA franchises in Madden NFL '08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08.

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Wii and DS dominate April Sales

2007-05-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

The NPD Group today released videogame hardware sales data for April and Nintendo's Wii and DS consoles were again the big winners, as both platforms dominated all competitors. This marks the fourth month running that Nintendo has nabbed the top spots with its respective systems on the hardware sales charts.

Nintendo DS was the overall best-selling system of April with approximately 471,000 units sold -- more than twice that of handheld competitor PSP, which managed 182,000 units sold.

Despite being in limited supply, Wii was, meanwhile, the best-selling console for the month. More than 360,000 new consumers purchased Nintendo's home console in April, nearly doubling the nearest competitor. The second best-selling home system was PlayStation 2 with 193,000 units sold. Microsoft's Xbox 360 managed 174,000 units sold and Sony convinced only 82,000 people to purchase a PlayStation 3 for the month, lower than all analyst estimates.

Nintendo was also the number-one software publisher for the month, releasing the top four best-selling games -- Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for DS, and Super Paper Mario and Wii Play for Wii. The Pokemon titles sold a combined 1.7 million games in about a week.

"Nothing is more valuable in the entertainment world than an evergreen franchise," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO, Nintendo of America. "These new Pokemon titles have cemented their place longside the most enduring intellectual properties of the book, music and movie industries. And that appeal will expand even further with the introduction of Pokemon Battle Revolution to our Wii home console next month."

Pokemon Battle Revolution is scheduled to release for Wii on June 28.

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Nintendo's Media Summit, May 22!

2007-05-17T17:22:00.001-07:00

The 22nd, this Tuesday, is the day many Nintendo fans know as the day that the all new revamped Super Smash Bros. site is revealed. But it's also the day in which alot of news is revealed for the Wii. More importantly people are waiting on MP3 and VC news which is what is supposed to come. I will be posting news on this the day I can get it.

RUMOR:Nintendo Power to shut down??

2007-05-16T11:16:00.001-07:00

Hot on the heels of the news last week that Nintendo of America was planning to move a significant chunk of its marketing and sales departments from Seattle to either San Francisco or New York, IGN has learned that the company may be planning to close or restructure its official Nintendo Power magazine. Sources close to the publication tell IGN that mass layoffs are underway and that employees are being told to look for new work by September of this year.

Calls placed to Nintendo of America for comment went unanswered in time for publish.

Founded in 1988, Nintendo Power magazine has over the years faced an emerging threat from game-focused websites, which have the means to provide more timely news, previews, reviews, walkthroughs and cheats. Even so, the publication has maintained a loyal subscriber base.

Without an official confirmation one way or the other, we're still in rumor territory, but what is undeniable at this point is that the magazine is either undergoing a rebirth of some kind or is on its last legs. Some insiders have suggested that Nintendo Power will continue on, but will be published by a third party source.

IGN will continue to follow the story and update readers with more information as it becomes available.

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Super Smash Bros. Brawl Details over the horizon?

2007-05-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

The next best thing to actually playing Smash Bros. is getting new details on Smash Bros. While we're still going to have to wait some to experience Nintendo-style melee fighting with the Wii classic controller, new info on Smash Bros. Brawl may hit as early as Monday!

Nintendo has updated the official Japanese Smash Bros. site with a countdown to a site relaunch. As of this writing, the countdown reads 6 days (Japan time).

While we don't know for sure if the site update will include new info, you can bet we'll be refreshing our browsers constantly beginning Monday morning. We'll let you know if anything new is revealed.

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Wii Worldwide Sales to Surpass Xbox360 worlwide sales by end of 2007-early 2008

2007-05-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

The 360 has had a full year head start against its competitors, hoping to establish a strong foothold in the next generation battle for market share. Currently (i.e. May 11, 2007) Microsoft holds on to approximately 48.5% of the worldwide "new-gen" console market, where Nintendo and Sony represent the remaining 35% and 16.5% of the market, respectively. Having the additional year to sell units definitely provided Microsoft with a lead, but considering the current sales figures for the remaining next-gen systems, will that lead soon be lost? The biggest contender to de-thrown Microsoft is Nintendo and, if sales continue as seen over the past couple months; it may not be too long before this change in the leading console occurs. Following the recent report by TheSource stating the improbability of Wii sales catching up to 360 sales in North America, looking at worldwide figures paints a different picture – one that shows it is quite probable that Wii sales will surpass 360 sales, and that this may occur between late 2007 and early 2008.

Over the past 4 months, the 360 has sold an average of 203,872 units per month in North America. In Japan, approximately 23,712 360s are sold per month, and (determined with limited data) the 360 sold an average of 160,000 (derived by dividing the number of units sold in Other regions by the number of months since the release of the system) units per month in “Other” regions. Adding these values estimates that, on average, 387,584 Xbox 360s are being sold worldwide per month.

Over the past 4 months, the Wii has sold an average of 303,446 units a month in North America. In Japan, approximately 331,748 Wiis are sold each month, and (derived in the same manner as the 360) Other regions average 290,000 units per month. Adding these values estimates that, on average, 925,194 Wiis are being sold worldwide each month.

These results of course do not take into any increases in sales due to potential price drops, highly anticipated software releases, or any other reasons for why hardware sales could spike during some upcoming period as these are all fairly unpredictable factors. Current monthly sales for the 360 may be lower as a result of consumers holding off and waiting to buy the Elite 360 or awaiting a price drop. On the other hand, despite booming worldwide sales, it is likely that shortages may be leading to an under-representation of what the Wii could truly be selling. It is also possible for the PS3 to garner more support and sales making it more of a contender in the current race for top selling console. Since we cannot actually see into the future, whether the Wii truly surpasses the 360 cannot be said for certain; however, IF sales continue to follow the current trend, projecting into future months, we can estimate that the Wii will catch up, and acquire the majority of the console market within the next few months. Unexpected factors may extend the 360s lead into 2008; however, the possibility of worldwide Wii sales catching up to the 360 seems to be less of a possibility and more of a probability. When exactly this will occur has yet to be seen; however, although the Wii may never dominate in North America, projective results, based on recent sales figures, reveal that worldwide Wii sales will catch up to 360 sales in September 2007 and then surpass them by October 2007

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