2006 was a great year for Nintendo with the launch the the Wii. No one knows how they did so great, but here are 5 brillant moves matt from be-something.com thinks Nintendo made in 2006.
1. They Stopped Thinking of Themselves as Market Leader
2. They Took Direction from Apple
3. They Refocused on the Japanese Market
4. They Took Major Risks
5. They Ignored High Definition
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DS Fanboy reports that an enterbrain poll of Japanese gamers shows that 89.4% said they play online. For results of which platform they use for online gaming, the DS tops it with 21.6% and the Wii is right behind it with 19.7%.
Enterbrain conducted a survey of Japanese gamers about their network gaming habits, and the DS came out as the console with the most frequently used network features. 89.6 percent of respondents used network features at all, and within that category 21.6 percent did so on the DS. It beat the second-place console, the Wii, by only 1.9 percent. The most-used feature (41.6 percent) was online gaming.
We don’t know if “network feature” refers only to Wi-Fi or also to local wireless multiplayer; we suspect the latter, and that the popularity of DS networking has a lot to do with the popularity of the DS itself in Japan. We imagine that many of the respondents who used networking on other consoles also owned DS systems, because everyone owns a DS.
No matter if it’s someone’s only system or just what they play on the trains, that’s a lot of Bark Mode! Stop by our next Game Night and support online DS gaming in other regions! You know, just in case someone takes a survey.
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Next-Gen Biz is running an article with some insight into what makes Nintendo so successful at what they do. Nintendo has a huge lead in the portable gaming market, and is selling out everywhere in the console market. You can safely say Nintendo knows a little about how people like to game.
Nintendo’s secret - the one that the others don’t quite get - is that it is essentially a maker of casual games. The DS’s success illustrates this perfectly, capturing that most casual of markets - portable gaming - with ruthless efficiency. Can the rest catch up? Analyst DFC Intelligence reports.
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Team Wiinja announced yesterday the long awaited release of their Wiinja Deluxe Chip for Wii. New features include imporved support for imported games, DVD RW without book type settings, an optional reset pin, a disable option, and most notably updates via DVD as well as a recovery mode for bad upgrades. While the featues boast “Supports all the WII Versions/Drive currently available” it is unclear if it actually support D2C drives.
The Full Feature list is as follows:
Non Swap / Direct Boot
Boots Own Region WII Backups Directly
Boots Own Region Gamecube Backups Directly
Boots All NTSC JAP/USA on NTSC WII
Boots NTSC Backups/Originals on PAL WII Partially
Boots PAL Backups/Originals on NTSC WII Partially
Boots Directly Gamecube Original/Backups Imports Partially
Boots All Gamecube Import Backups by SWAP
Supports all the WII Versions/Drive currently available
D2B Drive Support and Improved Read Method (No DRE)
AudioFix,Multidisc,Multigames & Viper Multigames
Easy Soldering & Remove / 5 Wires+Optional RESET
Support DVD-R/DVD+R & DVD+RW/DVD-RW without Booktype
Universal EUROPE/USA/JAPAN Wii Console Supported
Hardware DISABLE Option Using Pin3+SW2 (Poweron+Reset)
Stealth Mode
Recovery Mode for Bad Upgrade
UPGRADEABLE by DVD/ ON SALES NOW!!
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Update to: Nintendo Halts GameCube Manufacturing
GameIndustry.biz repots that Nintendo has denied reports that the company has stopped production of the GameCube and its software - stating that it still supports the console on a global basis.
Speaking exclusively to Eurogamer.net, a spokesperson for Nintendo UK said: “I can confirm hat globally, Nintendo is still continuing production of GameCube
hardware and GameCube software.”
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HarcoreWare has a piece up analyzing the power consumption of all three next generation consoles. Not surprising the Wii consumes substantially less then it’s competitors while playing games. Though in stand by it seems the Wii’s advantage depends greatly on whether or not Wii Connect 24 is activated.
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DSOrganize is a homebrew organizer application for the Nintendo DS. DragonMinded has released Ver. 2.5 and there are many improvements and fixes.
Fixes found in 2.5
*NOTE: Since the plugin architecture has been updated, please download the latest version of your favorite plugins to continue using them.
The newest version can be downloaded at:
http://www.dragonminded.com/
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Want to use REAL Classic controllers on your Wii? Mark Feldman did, but he took it one step further by making Wireless Classic NES and SNES controllers.
Connecting through the Gamecube controller ports, Mark used a TXC1 paired up with an RXB1 for the wireless transmitter/receiver combo and a PIC16F84A for encoding/decoding the controller data at either end. He also used the rechargable batteries from an iPod to power the wireless controllers. Everything fits cleanly inside the original controller cases. His website also clearly details the entire project for those who wish to attempt this mod themselves.
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The battle of the game consoles is heating up but Nintendo Wii’s outlook looks more and more promising.
According to Merrill Lynch analyst Yoshiyuki Kinoshita, the Nintendo Wii’s sales is so strong that by the year 2011, nearly 30 percent of the U.S. households will own a Wii.
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Star Pulse is reporting that on Monday, Nintendo will make The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time available for download in the Wii Shop Channel of the Wii video game system. Originally released in November 1998 for the Nintendo 64 console, the game is widely considered by critics and industry observers to be one of the greatest video games of all time.
My guess is we’ll see server problems on the 26th ;)
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