Take a look at this excerpt from GameSpot’s most recent preview of The Conduit…

“High Voltage does plan to support Wii Motion Plus add-on so we will have to see later how that will work.”

This comes from the build at PAX 2008. I don’t know if GameSpot has their information mixed up, but I would be a bit surprised if the developers wished to incorporate that technology at this point. As far as I know, most developers just recently got their hands on MotionPlus. However, The Conduit does have about six or so months before it launches if the game releases in March 2009.

Although Capcom has ytet to officially announce Street Fighter IV for Wii, quite a few company members have expressed the thought that it’s very possible that Wii owners will be able to experience it one day. However, if it does, it’s not going to be dumbed down to make it less violent or for the game to fit in with Nintendo’s strategy of appealing to both casual and hardcore gamers. Yoshinori Ono has told Game Informer that if the game ever releases on Nintendo’s console, it will not be kiddy. Yoshinori Ono has told Game Informer that if the game ever releases on Nintendo’s console, it will not be kiddy. “We’ve had a lot of requests for Street Fighter IV on Wii. Since it’s a 2D fighting game, it’s doable, but whether we’d try we don’t know. We’d have to see. If we can sell it, we might consider it. And it would be a straight-forward Street Fighter IV—it wouldn’t be a kid’s version.”

London, (29th August 2008 ) – SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. (the “Company”) announced today that the Company submitted to the board of directors of TECMO, LTD. (Securities Code: 9650, 1st Section of the TSE, “TECMO”) a proposal for basic conditions of acquisition of shares of common stock issued by TECMO (the “TECMO Shares”) through a friendly take over bit (the “TOB”) (the “Proposal”) in order to obtain consent to the TOB by the board of directors of TECMO.

The Proposal was made in order to acquire the TECMO Shares through the TOB, and is subject to obtaining consent by the board of directors of TECMO no later than September 4, 2008. Therefore, please be advised that the Company will NOT acquire the TECMO Shares through the TOB as planned in the Proposal in case that the Company receives no response from TECMO or fails to obtain consent by the board of directors of TECMO to the TOB, by the date. This Notice shall not be construed as solicitation for sales and/or purchase of the TECMO Shares.

1. The reason to submit the Proposal
Video games have been globally recognized as a major entertainment genre, and have now become an industry receiving considerable attention in terms of its market size and growth potential. In the meantime, the game industry in Japan is standing at a critical juncture whether it continues to be a center of the video game industry in the world, or not.

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“(on Bionic Commando) If I’m still alive in the next three months, we can talk,” Judd says with a smile. “Again, that opens up a whole other can of worms, which is people instantly expecting it to be one-to-one swing controls, and I don’t know if we’d be able to get it to the pinpoint accuracy that a game with this level of design requires. So you’d have to make gigantic surfaces you can swing onto rather than really tight skill-based areas, and that would shift more toward casual. And Bionic Commando has never really be a game for casual players. It’s one of those ideas on paper that’s like, ‘Yes, the Wii controller will work with Bionic Commando,’ but when you actually try to design it out it’s like maybe, maybe not. I don’t know.”

“(on MotionPlus) I’ve only heard internally what people have said, and I don’t think everybody is sold on it 100 percent. Maybe it’s one of those where the programming has to get better for us to see more and more specific uses for it.” – Ben Judd, Capcom

I would love to see the newest Bionic Commando game on Wii. I would find it a bit funny if Nintendo lets Capcom release it on the Wii, but won’t let them have the original on the Virtual Console.

Source

Nintendo Wii

North America:
1. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
3. Mario Super Sluggers (Nintendo)
4. Wii Play (Nintendo)
5. Rock Band (EA Games)

Japan:
1. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
3. Captain Rainbow (Nintendo)
4. Wii Sports (Nintendo)
5. Zero: Gesshoku no Kamen (Nintendo)

UK:
1. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
2. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (EA Sports)
3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
4. Wii Play (Nintendo)
5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega)

Nintendo DS

North America:
1. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
2. Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Natsume)
3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
4. Brain Age (Nintendo)
5. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo)

Japan:
1. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo)
2. KORG DS-10 (AQ Interactive)
3. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu No Hanayome (Square Enix)
4. Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken (Nintendo)
5. Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (Nintendo)

UK:
1. Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training (Nintendo)
2. 42 All-Time Classics (Nintendo)
3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega)
5. More Brain Training (Nintendo)

Source

Nintendo Co., Ltd. revised upward its financial and unit shipment forecasts for both the six month period ending September 30, 2008, and for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2009.

Compared with original full year forecasts issued on April 24, 2008, the company sees increases in sales by 11.1%, in operating income by 22.6%, and in net income by 26.2%. Financial revisions were the result of continued robust sales for both Wii and Nintendo DS, as well as changes in the expected foreign currency exchange rates based on recent trends in the foreign currency exchange markets.

On the same basis, new forecasts for full year global hardware and software unit shipments for both platforms increased as follows:
As of 4/08 As of 8/08
Nintendo DS hardware: 28 million 30.5 million
Nintendo DS software: 187 million 197 million
Wii hardware: 25 million 26.5 million
Wii software: 177 million 186 million

In addition, the company announced a change in dividend policy (see attached). For the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, it issued a revised dividend estimate of ¥1,680 per share, an increase of 22% over the original estimate stated on April 24, 2008.

Delivering an innovative way to experience handheld gaming, Tony Hawk’s Motion and Hue Pixel Painter utilizes the Motion Pack to feature accelerometer technology on the Nintendo DS.

In Tony Hawk’s Motion players can twist, tilt and turn through numerous skateboarding sessions and for the first time in franchise history, the game brings snowboarding to its line-up adding to the more than 20 diverse mini-challenges available including new ones like Rail Hopper and Slalom and familiar ones like Hawk-Man and High Score.

Once players finish grinding through locales like Tokyo, Dubai, Vermont and the Alps, they can switch gears and dip into the action-oriented puzzler Hue Pixel Painter. Uncovering sources of paint below the ground’s surface, players take Hue through various landscapes bringing color back to a dreary environment and defending against the Drabs who have set out to leave the world gray and bland.

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The latest EGM review scores are as follows:

Mario Super Sluggers – B
NHL 09 – B+
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – C, C, B-
Facebreaker – C-
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 – A, GOTM
Disgaea 3 – B-
Tales of Vesparia – B+, B-, C
Too Human – C-, C-, D+
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise – A, GOTM 2
Guilty Gear 2: Overture – C-
Spore: Creatures – C+
Dragon Quest IV – B+