*UPDATE* There have been confirmed reports from other people buying DS Lite at either Target, Wal*Mart and now Circuit City is rumored to have broken the street date.
Its only a rumor right now, albeit a very suspicious rumor. GameSpot writes: "This week, GameSpot learned that there may be more to the Apple-game rumors than mere Mac-mad daydreams. A tech-sector recruiter contacted the GS NewsDesk with an interesting story of a prospective hire that got away. Recently, when said recruiter made an offer to a software engineer, the engineer turned the offer down--saying he was being "heavily recruited by Apple."
According to the engineer, an Apple hiring manager named Mike Lampell is heading up a group inside Apple's storied iTunes division. The group is specifically hiring for "C/C++ coders with a ‘gaming background.’" The engineer says the project in question was described to him as "super secret," and Apple would not even tell him the exact nature of it until he had been hired and signed a non-disclosure agreement."
The important parts have been bolded. What do I think of this? Well,it could very well be true. I'd say keep an eye open, just don't expect too much to come from this rumor.
Famitsu reports the Wii to be 25,000 yen in Japan (about $222 in USD) says Nintendo's senior management director Yoshiro Mori. What can we expect of this stateside? I'd say expect $200.
Sounds good to me. If you look at the past console pricing (NES, SNES, N64 and GCN were all $200) it makes sense for Wii to be cheap. Note that this is not the final price.
"NINTENDO OF AMERICA ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE PROMOTIONS
Kimishima Promoted to Chairman and CEO; Fils-Aime Promoted to President and COO
REDMOND, Wash., May 25, 2006 – On the heels of the successful unveiling of the new Wii™ console, Nintendo of America Inc. today announced three key promotions at the executive level. Current President Tatsumi Kimishima is taking on the new role of chairman of the board and chief executive officer, while Reggie Fils-Aime is being promoted to president and chief operating officer from his current role as executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. Additionally, Mike Fukuda is being promoted from senior vice president of Business Development to executive vice president of Business Development. All promotions are effective immediately.
"Around the world, Nintendo DS has been steadily drawing more people into the video game category," said Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. "With the upcoming introduction of Wii, along with the strength of this new leadership team and strong executives already in place, Nintendo will continue to dramatically change the way consumers of all ages interact with their video game console on a daily basis."
Kimishima was appointed president of Nintendo of America in January 2002. He joined Nintendo at the company's headquarters in Kyoto, Japan, in 2000. He served as chief financial officer of The Pokémon Company in 2000 and president of Pokémon USA Inc. in 2001. Prior to joining Nintendo, he spent 27 years with Sanwa Bank of Japan, serving in various management positions. As chairman of the board and CEO of Nintendo of America, he will oversee the overall management of Nintendo of America and continue to serve on the boards of Nintendo of America and Nintendo Co., Ltd.
In his new role as president and chief operating officer, Fils-Aime will lead the day-to-day operations of Nintendo of America while continuing to oversee the Sales & Marketing Division as the company prepares for the launch of Wii. He joined Nintendo of America in December 2003 to lead all Sales & Marketing efforts in the United States, Latin America and Canada. Prior to joining Nintendo, he served as senior vice president of marketing at VH1. He also has held key marketing positions with Guinness Import Co., Derby Cycle Corp., Pizza Hut, Panda Management Co. and Procter & Gamble.
In his new position as executive vice president of Business Development, Fukuda will oversee corporate strategic planning and third-party publisher and licensing programs. He also will continue to oversee product development more dedicated to the North American market. He has been with the company for 12 years, joining in 1994 as director of planning. Prior to Nintendo, he worked for an international trading company and learned the video game business in the United States, working with third-party publishers during the early days of the Nintendo Entertainment System® (NES).
The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems, and upcoming Wii™ console. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 2 billion video games and more than 360 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's Web site at www.nintendo.com."
So aparrently, you can play the main game as Luigi, which is awesome. Here is a great clip that shows gameplay as Luigi in the first three stages of the game.
"Historically we’re always developing new things. We know Sony have had a lot of issues with their rumble feature and they’ve had to withdraw it – because they didn’t innovate, they copied. With Nintendo, I’m trying to think of anything we’ve copied... but I can’t."
I'd just like to post a remind of the support the Wii is getting as of right now. (confirmed games) • Animal Crossing Nintendo • Avatar: The Last Airbender THQ • Blitz: The League Midway • Bomberman Land Hudson Soft • Boxing Action AQ Interactive • Bust-A-Move Majesco • Call of Duty 3 Activision • Cooking Mama Taito • Disaster: Day of Crisis Nintendo • Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action Buena Vista • Disney's Meet The Robinsons Buena Vista • Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Atari • Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors Square Enix • Elebits Konami • Excite Truck Nintendo • Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Square Enic • Fire Emblem Nintendo • Flight Game Hudson Soft • Happy Feet Midway • Harvest Moon Natsume • Heroes Grasshopper • Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Nintendo • Madden 07 Electronic Arts • Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Activision • Metal Slug Anthology SNK • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Retro • Mr. D Goes to Town Mastiff • One Piece: Unlimited Adventure Namco Bandai • Project H.A.M.M.E.R. Nintendo • Rayman Raving Rabbids Ubisoft • Red Steel Ubisoft • Resident Evil - Untitled Capcom • Sengoku Action KOEI • Sonic Wild Fire Sega • SpongeBob SquarePants THQ • Super Mario Galaxy Nintendo • Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Sega • Super Smash Bros. Brawl Nintendo • Super Swing Golf Pangya Tecmo • The Ant Bully Midway • Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Activision • Trauma Center: Second Opinion Atlus • Untitled - New Action Game Milestone • Untitled - New Vertical Scroll Shooting Game Milestone • WarioWare: Smooth Moves Nintendo • Wii Sports Nintendo
Developers confirmed to have at least one Wii title in developement: • Activision • AQ Interactive • Atari • Atlus • Banpresto • Buena Vista • Capcom • D3Publisher • Eidos • Electronic Arts • EPOCH • From Software • Genki • Hudson Soft • Jaleco • KOEI • Konami • Majesco • Marvelous Interactive • Mastiff • Midway • Milestone • MTO • Namco Bandai • Natsume • Sega • SNK • Spike • Square Enix • Taito • Techmo • The Game Factory • TOMY • Ubisoft • Vivendi Universal • Warner Bros. Interactive
First, concerning the name. I. like many others had thought the name was a poor joke made by some guy on his blog, but to my horror it was on Nintendo's official site, with an explanation of the name in many examples of using the name as a pun of "we". Sure, lame as it is, after E3 I can't help but embrace the name. As days go by the name slowly- but surely digs itself into my consience, and I no longer look at the name as a urine joke but rather in the terms that Nintendo was originally advertising it. I believe the Wii name is mysteriously appropriate to the controller: you hear the name or see the controller and you think to yourself, "huh? is this a joke? It has to be, thats completely ridiculous!" Though deny it they may, it only takes a while for it to sink in, and after seeing the controller in action you start to understand.
I remember back at E3 05, and the big dissapointment of us Nintendo fans. Yes, we got to see the system, the virtual was [and is] awesome, but what is so revolutionary about the thing? The fan-made Nintendo On video [see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJRhQ1WOb4g&search=nintendo%20on] only fueled more crazy fan speculation days before the 3005 conference. Virtual reality? Tempature changing controller? Stereoscope? Holograms? It was all there, and everything was chaotic. After E3 we kept hearing about how Revolution is going to be the best console for FPS games, and we saw exactly why at the 2005 Tokyo Games Show when Nintendo showed us its revolution in controller form.
Red steel was announced a few months ago, confirming that there will indeed be some First Person action on the Wii. Personally, I'm excited about this title. The concept of switching between a gun and a sword is very attractive, and not to mention I'm generally stoked because of the controller. The game looks good, the trailer- though admittedly a target-render looks awesome, and the gameplay videos look promising. I can't put into words how excited I am about this title, or any title that uses the controller as a sword for that matter. Swinging the Wii-mote like a sword, and having it respond appropriately in the game, doesn't that excite you? Well it certainly excites me, its one of the games I plan to get at the launch of the console.
Now concerning Mario 128, or rather Super Mario Galaxy.. Before I say anything, I want you to watch this video.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOAOLFghpQ4)
Did you watch it? Good, now I can finally say- WOW! Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think of seeing Mario in space, or a game like that. This takes the term "platformer" to a whole new level, instead of jumping from floating block to floating block, you are jumping from plant to planet. How cool is that? It breaks the mold of what a 3D platformer is seen as, its like a whole new universe. Clearly you can see my excitement, I must admit that seeing this game brough back memories of seeing Mario in 3D for the first time in Mario 64. And reading impressions from other people has me possitively eager to get my hands on the game. Watch for this one folks, it's gonna be big.
I'm not without my dissapointments, however biased I may sound. I am dissapointed in Nintendo's plan to release The Legend of Zelda: Twighlight Princess in two different packages; one for the Wii and one for Gamecube. It looks great on the Wii, but I would prefer it if it was still on the same Gamecube disc.
The Classic controller, for playing traditional and Virtual Console games. Not sure how I feel about this one, I have always been negative towards The PS2 controller for its odd analog stick placement.
