WiiChat Weekly 1: Wii News Roundup

James Temperton

The world of Nintendo is a fast moving place, so to help ease the pain of keeping up with it all we’re going to be taking you through the ups, downs, trials, tribulations and every little thing that has happened in the world of Nintendo during the last week. So, let’s dive in...

On Monday the LA Times reported that the president of IGDA Japan (International Game Developers Association) stated that more and more third parties are turning their attention to the Nintendo Wii. We’ve already seen quite a bit of this in the Western development and publishing market. THQ have been vocal in their support and both EA and UbiSoft have also given the Wii a lot of attention. The simple reason for this is the Wii is very cheap to develop for and games on it are selling very well indeed. The market is there and a lot of companies are looking to exploit it. Somewhat predictable ‘news’ then.

The football season is coming to a close and Nintendo UK are looking to promote Mario Strikers Charge like crazy here in Europe. They’ve signed up Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ian Wright to feature in upcoming promotions for the title. The pair will line up with Mario and ‘friends’ in a series of TV adverts that you should start to see on the box already.

They will be airing during the Champions League final (and they did air during the FA Cup on Sky apparently) and also during Corronation Street, Grease is the Word and Big Brother in an attempt to lure in the family market. The campaign will emphasise the online elements of the title, which is the first Wii title in Europe to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi connec-tion. They’ll be making an appearance at GAME on Oxford Street, London, to promote the game further from 9am on May 25th. So if you’re in the area on Friday, be sure to take a look.

In the wonderful world of rumors, the Internet has been speculating about a Nintendo press event that is taking place in the USA on the 22nd and 23rd of May. This is all based on a posting on the neoGAF forums and also some hinting on IGN. There certainly seems to be truth in what is being said, so stay tuned for some exciting updates (hopefully). Ac-cording to the reports, both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Metroid Prime: Corruption should be on show along with some third party and other Nintendo related news. Exciting stuff.

In Japan, sales news once again showed Nintendo on top:

Software Sales From 7th-13th May.

1) Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War (PSP, Square-Enix) - 154,891 - NEW ENTRY
2) Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (NDS, Square-Enix) - 38,003 - 421,333
3) Wii Sports (Wii, Nintendo) - 30,180 - 1,573,776
4) More Brain Training (NDS, Nintendo) - 27,930 - 4,266,115
5) New Super Mario Bros. (NDS, Nintendo) - 21,332 - 4,440,924
6) Super Paper Mario (Wii, Nintendo) - 20,670 - 330,851
7) Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo) - 20,498 - 1,299,628
8) Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii, Nintendo) - 20,063 - 117,487
9) Momotarou Dentetsu DS: Tokyo & Japan (NDS, Hudson) - 18,547 - 143,189
10) Yoshi's Island DS (NDS, Nintendo) - 17,423 - 808,555

Hardware Sales From 7th-13th May

Hardware - Week sales - Last week - Total 2007 sales - Lifetime sales

1) Nintendo DS Lite - 163,785 - 285,123 - 3,050,213 - 10,188,414
2) Wii - 52,544 - 101,320 - 1,504,716 - 2,424,359
3) PlayStation Portable - 34,433 - 35,172 - 873,828 - 5,405,957
4) PlayStation 2 - 10,414 - 14,815 - 335,018 - 20,489,877
5) PlayStation 3 - 8,839 - 12,974 - 425,895 - 883,453
6) Xbox 360 - 2,105 - 3,205 - 95,655 - 360,357
7) Game Boy micro - 408 - 340 - 17,946 - 587,687
8) Game Boy Advance SP - 343 - 302 - 15,848 - 5,941,573
9) GameCube - 315 - 394 - 7,078 - 4,176,546
10) Nintendo DS - 39 - 69 - 1,934 - 6,974,463
11) Game Boy Advance - 18 - 11 - 598 - 8,542,631

Utter dominance for the Wii and DS once again. The Wii has seen steady success in Ja-pan both in terms of software and hardware, and with stock increasing Nintendo are gradually selling through more and more units.

More fun-tastic sales news, and the NPD figures for the month of April in the USA are out.

Hardware - April 2007

1.) Nintendo DS - 471,000
2.) Wii - 360,000
3.) PlayStation 2 - 194,000
4.) PlayStation Portable - 183,000
5.) Xbox 360 - 174,000
6.) Game Boy Advance - 84,000
7.) PlayStation 3 - 82,000
8.) GameCube - 13,000

Top 10 Software - April 2007

1.) Pokémon Diamond (NDS, Nintendo) - 1,045,000
2.) Pokémon Pearl (NDS, Nintendo) - 712,000
3.) Super Paper Mario (Wii, Nintendo) - 352,000
4.) Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo) - 249,000
5.) Guitar Hero II (360, Activision) - 197,000
6.) Guitar Hero II (PS2, Activision) - 142,000
7.) Spider-man 3 (360, Activision) - 117,000
8.) Spider-man 3 (PS2, Activision) - 105,000
9.) God of War II (PS2, Sony) - 101,000
10.) MLB '07: The Show (PS2, Sony) - 79,000

So yet more success for Nintendo in the USA. The DS has sold through a stupid number of units off the back of the release of Pokémon Diamand and Pearl. 1.7 million copies of the two titles flew of store shelves during its first week or two on sale, which is quite re-markable really. The Wii is the best selling home console, outstripping the XBOX 360 and the PS3 (which loses out to the GBA) by quite some considerable margin. And Reggie was understandably pleased with everything:

Our final piece of interesting Wii related news for this week comes from Capcom. Gamasutra recently interviewed Christian Svensson, Senior Director of Strategic Planning & Research at Capcom. They talked about lots of Nintendo-related topics, one of which being the potential for downloadable content on the Wii.

Capcom's Christian Svensson, Senior Director of Strategic Planning & Research, was recently interviewed by the good folk over at Gamasutra about numerous Nintendo-related subjects, such as Resident Evil 4 and the topic of new downloadable content on Wii. Svensson also stated that he believes the Resident Evil 4 on the Wii will be the best verison of the game, which has also been released on the GameCube, PS2 and PC.

The most interesting part of the interview relates to downloadable content on the Wii. More Virtual Console offerings are on the way, which will be good news for fans of Capcom’s retro classics. Capcom are also looking for unique content for download on the Wii, but are still waiting for Nintendo to launch the service. From the interview: “We're still thinking about ways that we can get that content to them, perhaps not downloaded, but perhaps with a consolidated retail SKU. We're still just tossing around ideas in our head.” So hopefully we’ll get some original downloadable content from Capcom sooner or later.

Another quick excerpt from the interview:

Gamasutra: But downloadable original content is possible? It's been hinted that it's possible, but it's still not coming yet.

CS: It's possible. I think you'll have to talk more to Nintendo about that. It's not a technical limitation thing, though. We're certainly going to be able to deliver. It's really more of them getting their process in place for approvals and their pipeline in place.

I know they have loads of people who want to make content, but I think it's a matter of some people turning on the spigot. We've been asked about bringing our stuff over. It's going to happen. Once that spigot is opened and the floodgates are unleashed, I'm sure you'll see loads of it.

You can check out the full interview here: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=13987.

We’ll have more news round-up for you next week.

Foxy 

Good report, at last a wiichat weekly like i suggested a while ago

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lee.jarratt

Wiichat weekly, How cool! And very good report, interesting to read

Sovieto

wouldnt it be better to make it
WiiChat Wiikly?

or are the Wii in words thing getting old?

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Everything in this signature except for this text was made by Wiired, he is my creator and almighty.

James Temperton

Glad y'all like it, hopefully it will come in handy.

King Wiired 

Nice article - though I may not post in these articles every week, I do, however, always read them :] good stuff.

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Wiily Good

Yeah I hate the Wii in words thing. Just don't look at my user name.

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BapFap

HEY THANKS! I love it when people remind me that that the GBA is OUTSELLING THE PS3!!! YOU SIR HAVE MADE MY DAY!!!

u get good rep for that!!!

E7ernal

It's good, but we need a UK/EU version too.

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Strikers: 017280 524282

tommy

i agree with e7ernal

mark84

Mk Ii

James Temperton

It is kind of an international version. I can't publish the UK charts as that goes against copyright (you have to get permission from Chart-Track) the article actually have a UK/Euro centric piece (Wright/Wright-Phillips item), it'll basically be a round-up of the key goings on with Nintendo all over the world.

Wii_Druma14

I personally like wii in words so thats a good idea. Nice article and a good topis.

Wii_Druma14

I personally like wii in words so wiikly would b a cool title. Good topic 4 an artiicle. Pretty interesting 2 read.

Brawny

Nice......article? Hope we get to see one.....every week....

Also, does anyone else want to know more about our exclusive news and article writers? such as James here, and Corey?

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WII60

quite an interesting read

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/much thanks to demonflair for the sig!/

push the green mushroom for rep, thats if i've helped you!

James Temperton

Well, my name is James Temperton, I live in Cardiff (at university here studying a masters in English Literature), for a few months a year I go back to my other home in Chichester. I've been writing about the gaming industry for the last five years, mostly for the leading Nintendo website Cubed3 (www.cubed3.com), I've been with the site since it started out and I am now Deputy Editor and the guy in charge of feature content there. I've freelanced for a number of sites covering all major formats (PS3, XBOX 360, DS, Wii, GameCube, GBA) doing reviews, news, editorials, blah. Anything else you madly want to know, let me know and I'll tap up some info for you. But that, in a nutshell, is me.

Rolex

James,

Great to have an easily accessible article to read - thanks

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---Smithy...
"This IS the difference over the other systems....graphics can make you believe you're there to some extent but motion gesture can make you believe you're doing it!"

King Wiired 

That's very impressive :] what got you into the whole editorial scene?

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cbrotherson

James does very good work... and chooses good subjects to major in, also