It’s not every day that one hears a young boy takes a family car, drives off to visit his grandmother, and eventually explains that video games taught him how to do such an act. However, that is exactly what one child did. Following reports of an unmanned car, a police officer found the 9-year-old in a store parking lot. The boy said, “It’s my first time driving, but I learned from watching dad and playing at the video arcade.”

The boy was able to drive the car “by sitting at the front of the seat and clinging to wheel.” The parents were warned to watch over their car more carefully in the future.

Nintendo News: Experience Nintendo at a Mall Near You

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Nintendo News
Experience Nintendo at a Mall Near You
Nintendo’s nationwide mall invasion continues in full force. Already thousands of people across the country have seen and experienced the wide variety of Wii™ games available for the holidays. And later this month, Nintendo will give weary mall shoppers a break with massages, a relaxing atmosphere and fun Nintendo DS™ games.
Since Oct. 31, malls nationwide have included a nine-screen Wii presence featuring game demos and interactive game play. The Wii area helps people get the scoop on all the cool Wii games for the holidays and beyond, including Wii Music™, Wii Sports™, Mario Kart™ Wii, Mario™ Super Sluggers, Wario Land™: Shake It! and Super Smash Bros.™ Brawl. The Wii experience will be available through Dec. 29 at the following malls:

Rickrolling in style

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Link becomes Leon in Resident Evil 4 with a mod

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 7 Comments

A new mod allows Link to replace Leon as the controlling character in Resident Evil 4. Pretty neat, huh?

Ubisoft no longer a part of Heroes publishing deal

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

A few months ago, it was announced that Ubisoft would be handling a Heroes game, based on the popular TV show. Well, that deal seems to have dissolved as of now as Ubisoft confirmed that they will no longer be in charge of creating the game.

“The rights to the ‘Heroes’ video game have reverted back to NBC Universal. Ubisoft will no longer produce a video game based on the TV series.” – Ubisoft PR director Jaime Cottini

Source

Verdict Research: Video game spend surpasses music & video

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

There has been a huge shift in consumer attitude towards the entertainment market says Verdict Research in its latest reports – UK Music & Video 2008and UK Video Games & Consoles Retailing 2008. In the 12 months to the end of 2008 Verdict predicts that the buoyant video games market will have grown by a massive GBP1.37bn – at a time when the combined music & video sectors have stagnated, with growth of just GBP0.03bn between them. This will see the video game retail market overtake music & video, to become the largest entertainment sector in the UK.
Despite the digital revolution, times are torrid for music & video retailers
Though the music and video sector has enjoyed a boost from the rapidly growing digital download market, general trading conditions remain challenging. Music is suffering from piracy, a continual onslaught of price deflation, intensifying competition and the ongoing decline of physical format CD’s. While the DVD market has shown robust volume growth, value growth is impaired by falling prices and heavy discounting. With the high street consolidating and online becoming increasingly fragmented, competition is intensifying at a time when overall growth in the market is grinding to a halt, at just 0.8% over the last 5 years.

Boy found dead, parents blamed Call of Duty and video game addiction

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 65 Comments

Brandon Crisp, a young boy, had been missing up until today when he was found dead. Brandon ran away from his home after his parents took away his Xbox 360. His parents took possession of the console after they decided Brandon had become addicted to Call of Duty 4. Initially, Brandon’s parents believed that the boy’s disappearance was somehow related to his addiction to video games. It was only after investigators analyzed Brandon’s Xbox 360 analyzed that the link between video games and his disappearance were no longer tied together.

“It’s still being analyzed a little further, but at this point we have no reason to believe there is any connection to date between the Xbox and his disappearance,” Sgt. Goodbrand

Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family commented on the situation and strongly states that video game companies do not want to address video game addiction.

“I don’t think want to touch addiction with a 10-foot pole. It raises all sorts of liability issues for them. And my interpretation is that their strategy is to ignore it and hope it will go away. If you talk to front-line counsellors in places like universities they’ll tell you that this is a huge issue. The way people are viewing this is changing quickly.”

Iwata not a price drop believer

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments

“This is my personal thinking, but when the model’s price-tag drops over time, manufacturers are telling consumers it’s better to wait, and I’ve always thought that was a mistake.” – Satoru Iwata

Source

Nintendo: More work still needs to be done

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Since the release of the DS in 2004, Nintendo has attracted new gamers remarkably well with casual games. A ton of people have began to play video games, something which was never thought to be possible. Even with grandmas playing video games, Nintendo’s David Yarnton feels as though the company’s job is still not complete.

“We really have only scratched the surface in terms of the number of potential users still out there. As long as there are still people who do not play video games, then we still have a lot of work to do…We’re doing all we can to ensure we get as much stock to as many stores and into the hands of as many people as possible this Christmas.”

Nintendo engineer teases two hardcore/secret projects

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Gamers know that Punch-Out and Sin and Punishment 2 are on the way. But does Nintendo have anything else up its sleeves? The answer seems to be yes if mysterious words from Nintendo software engineer Peter Watts are to be believed. Watts recently stated, “I am not allowed to specify the game titles we’re working on, as it is still confidential until it is revealed to the general media through the appropriate channels. There are two main titles being developed at the moment, which is all I will say.The projects we are working on at the moment can all be deemed as ‘hardcore’ really.” Kirby for Wii? The new Pikmin Miyamoto was referring to? Who knows, though as long as Nintendo has any say in the development of these two titles, we can be left assured that they will impress.