February 22, 2010 – Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE) has released its annual report for 2009 for Nintendo’s WiiWare and Virtual Console services. FADE estimates that the two platforms combined for $125 million in revenue in 2009, with the holiday rush just giving Virtual Console the edge over WiiWare ($66 million to $59 million).
While WiiWare grew by over 30% in 2009 compared to its launch year, Virtual Console slid almost 25% in 2009, leading to an small overall decline of 6% year-over-year. The main factors for the decline in Virtual Console revenue are an overall weaker and less numerous release schedule in 2009, combined with a promotion by Nintendo to give away a free NES game to Wii owners who had purchased the Wii Internet Channel – leading to over 500,000 free downloads.

Red Steel 2 creative director talks hardcore Wii sales, feelings about the first game

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments

The Official Nintendo Magazine recently conducted an interview with Jason Vandenbergh, the creative director of Red Steel 2. You can check out the full interview here, but we’ve posted two interesting quotes from the interview below.

ONM: There’s are quite a few hardcore games for Wii though – Madworld, Dead Space etc…

JV: They sold nothing, right? In each case we’ve seen so far we have other circumstances that have to be taken into consideration. I don’t know, I’m no statistical marketing expert. I’m an expert on player emotion. But you look at Madworld. If you make an ultra violent game where you’re shoving signposts through people’s heads as a core mechanic – I have no problem with that. I played it and I had a great time but if you do that you’re going to sell 10%. You’re cutting out 90% of your sales because that offends 90% of gamers.

ONM: What did you think of the first game?

JV: I was really excited about the first game. As a game developer, it was hard to play. I could see the team’s experience. Even before I knew the team I was like ‘Oh God… these guys just needed an extra three weeks.’ They were right there. There were issues with the controls schemes and it just wasn’t done. It wasn’t really finished. They didn’t need much time but they had to do it for launch so the ship date was the most important thing. They did a great job getting it out there. It was popular and it set us up for this. It was a nice introduction to the Wii – it was a little disappointing on the swordfighting front.

NGamer going hands-on with Super Mario Galaxy 2 for next issue

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments

“Finally! We go hands-on with the sequel the galaxy’s been gagging for.” – NGamer

Sounds like there’s a good chance that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be featured at Nintendo’s media summit. Nintendo Power and the Official Nintendo Magazine may have been teasing the same game for their upcoming issues as well.

Source

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announces Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 1 Comment

Hit Animated Series Brought To Life on Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ for Kids and Families to Play Together
BURBANK, Calif. – February 23, 2010 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, on behalf of DC Comics, announces Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame, an action-adventure videogame based on the popular animated series, available this fall for Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. In the game, fans play alongside Batman and many of his allies in the DC UNIVERSE to take on dozens of popular villains.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame fully immerses fans into the vivid animated world of the successful TV series where kids can play as Batman or together with family and friends in two-player co-op mode. Players can choose from iconic characters ROBIN, GREEN LANTERN, BLUE BEETLE, along with drop-in heroes such as AQUAMAN to help solve puzzles and fight foes.

Famitsu review scores

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News, Wii | 3 Comments

Pokemon Ranger 3: Hikari no Kiseki (DS) – 9/9/9/9
Bioshock 2 (PS3/360) – 9/9/9/8
.hack//LINK (PSP) – 9/8/8/7
Nobunaga no Yabou Tendou (PS3/360) – 9/8/7/8
Keroro RPG: Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku (DS) – 8/8/8/7
The Eye of Judgment: Shintaku no Wizard (PSP) – 8/7/7/8
Armored Core: Last Raven Portable (PSP) – 7/7/6/6

Nintendo Voice Chat podcast summary (DS 2 rumors, media summit talk)

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News, Wii | 1 Comment

DS 2 rumors

– Nintendo, like other technology companies, are always working on new hardware
– Rumors happen every year
– Craig says that when rumors usually come out of Japan, you should sort of listen since it happened with the DS Lite and DSi
– Doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll announce something
– Craig thinks Nintendo will keep the DS name
– Also rumors of stylus rumble from a patent
– At GDC last year, old IGN editor (works for Pelican or some other company) showed Craig what they were working on, it was a rumbling stylus (plug in cartridge that sends signal to stylus, similar to Nintendo’s patent)
– Scott believes the next DS will be on par graphically with the PSP
– Nintendo sees that devs don’t want to put a lot of money into handheld development
– Technology created for the GameCube can be moved over to the next handheld, saves them money and dev time
– Craig has heard from a few sources that the nVidia graphics chip rumors are false

WiiWare/DSiWare downloads – block sizes

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News, Wii | 0 comments

WiiWare

Family Go-Kart Racing – 231 blocks
GhostSlayer – 111 blocks
Mouse House – 87 blocks

DSiWare

Flight Control – 59 blocks
Flipper – 59 blocks
Faceez – 45 blocks
Aura-Aura Climber – 38 blocks

Updates to the Nintendo Channel

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News, Wii | 0 comments

Videos

Nintendo Week 2/22
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 Info Video
Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth Gameplay Video 3
Rooms DS Teaser Video
Trauma Team BTS – Voice Over Recording
GhostSlayer Info
Mouse House Info Video
Family Go-Kart Racing Info Video
Flight Control Info Video
Flipper Info Video

Demos (Expire 2/28)

Deca Sports DS Cheerleading Demo
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Deca Sports DS Ping Pong Demo
Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth
The Princess and the Frog
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games – Alpine Skiing
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion