Time Magazine has released an article about the Nintendo Wii console, A time’s reporter was allowed to try the new wii controller and play some game demos.

Here are some important aspects of the Article:

“the industry is deeply troubled. Fewer innovative games are being published, and gamers are getting bored. Games have become so expensive to create that companies won’t risk money on fresh ideas”

“Here’s Microsoft’s plan for the Xbox 360: faster chips and better online service. And here’s Sony’s plan for the Playstation 3: faster chips and better online service. But Iwata thinks that with a sufficiently innovative approach, Nintendo can reinvent gaming and in the process turn nongamers into gamers.”

“Iwata has noticed is something that most gamers have long ago forgotten: to nongamers, video games are really hard. Like hard as in homework. The standard video-game controller is a kind of Siamese-twin affair, two joysticks fused together and studded with buttons, two triggers and a four-way toggle switch called a d-pad. In a game like Halo, players have to manipulate both joysticks simultaneously while working both triggers and pounding half a dozen buttons at the same time. The learning curve is steep.”

“Nintendo threw away the controller-as-we-know-it and replaced it with something that nobody in his right mind would recognize as video-game hardware at all: a short, stubby, wireless wand that resembles nothing so much as a TV remote control. Humble as it looks on the outside, it’s packed full of gadgetry: it’s part laser pointer and part motion sensor, so it knows where you’re aiming it, when and how fast you move it and how far it is from the TV screen. There’s a strong whiff of voodoo about it. If you want your character on the screen to swing a sword, you just swing the controller. If you want to aim your gun, you just aim the wand and pull the trigger.”

After playing the Wariowar minigames , he commented:

“It’s a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games, with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out. It’s almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player dissolves. The sense of immersion–the illusion that you, personally, are projected into the game world–is powerful. And there’s an instant party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But when you’re jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody’s having a good time.”

“We created a task force internally at Nintendo,” Iwata says, “whose objective was to come up with games that would attract people who don’t play games.” Last year they set out to design a game for the elderly. Amazingly, they succeeded. Brain Age is a set of electronic puzzles (including Sudoku) that purports to keep aging minds nimble. It was released for one of Nintendo’s portable platforms, the Nintendo DS, last year. So far, it has sold 2 million copies, many of them to people who had never bought a game before.”

“The name Wii not wii-thstanding, Nintendo has grasped two important notions that have eluded its competitors. The first is, Don’t listen to your customers. The hard-core gaming community is extremely vocal–they blog a lot–but if Nintendo kept listening to them, hard-core gamers would be the only audience it ever had. “[Wii] was unimaginable for them,” Iwata says. “And because it was unimaginable, they could not say that they wanted it. If you are simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them. Sony and Microsoft make daily-necessity kinds of things. They have to listen to the needs of the customers and try to comply with their requests. That kind of approach has been deeply ingrained in their minds.”

“Cutting-edge design has become more important than cutting-edge technology. There is a persistent belief among engineers that consumers want more power and more features. That is incorrect. Look at Apple’s iPod, a device that didn’t and doesn’t do much more than the competition. It won because it’s easier, and sexier, to use. In many ways, Nintendo is the Apple of the gaming world”

Full Story: A Game For All Ages

Tags: Time Magazine, Nintendo Wii console, wii controller, game demos, Iwata

    

One of Japan’s most well-known development tool providers is on board with Wii. CIR Middleware, maker of the popular ADX and Sofdec sound and video libraries, has started official support for Nintendo’s “new generation” console via four libraries: CRI ADX, CRI Sofdec, CRI Sound Factory and CRI ROFS.

Of these, ADX and Sofdec should be most recognizable to gamers, as logos for both have been appearing at the startup of games as far back as the Sega Saturn. ADX allows for at most 16 simultaneous audio streams, as well as support for the playback of streams from multiple audio files. Sofdec allows for multiple movies to be displayed simultaneously, with video streams even used for textures.

On Wii, Sofdec will compress a 10 minute, 6Mbps (megabit per second) bit rate movie to 450MB. The Wii implementation will support 60 frames-per-second progressive movie playback.

The other two libraries aren’t as well known. CRI Sound Factory is a sound authoring system. CRI ROFS is provides a virtual file system to developers.

source: IGN

Tags: Wii, CIR Middleware

    

David Yarnton, in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz about the new Nintendo WII name, and this is what David told to GamesIndustry.biz.

“I think there are a lot of words out there like that that are used for other brands, companies and things like that - words that have different connotations and so on,” he said. “I really think that if we get out of the gutter and the juvenile side of things, it’s just a word. It’s Wii. Actually, it’s not even a word, because it’s something that we’ve created from zero.”

Tags: David Yarnton, Nintendo WII, Wii

    

Nintendo Wii console Image

The new Nintendo Wii is the smallest stationary console Nintendo has ever manufactured, described by Nintendo as being “about the thickness of three standard DVD cases and only slightly longer”. The console will have the ability to stand either horizontally or vertically. The front of the console features a self loading media drive which is illuminated by a blue light and will accept 12 cm Wii game discs and 8 cm GameCube game discs.

When the Wii (revolution in that time) console was unveiled at E3 2005 the console was colored black. However, at the Tokyo Game Show 2005 when the controller was revealed, promotional material depicted a white console. Nintendo has since revealed three additional colors (platinum, lime green, and red).

    

Controller

The Wii controller sets aside the traditional controller seen in other mainstream consoles in an attempt to appeal to a larger audience. The controller is shaped like a television remote control and is held with one hand. Due to its symmetrical nature, the Wii’s controller is able to be used by either hand, unlike other controllers. The controller can also be rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise and used like the NES controller.

he controller is also able to sense motion; a sensor placed near the television allows the computer to sense the controller’s position in three-dimensional space. Other sensors in the controller itself allow it to sense its tilt and yaw. This allows players to mimic actual game actions, such as swinging a sword or using a flashlight, instead of simply pushing buttons. An early marketing video showed actors miming such actions as fishing, cooking, drumming, conducting an orchestra, shooting a gun, sword fighting, performing dental surgery, and what seems to be, a game of Super Mario Bros. with one handed play.[9]

The controller also features an expansion port at the bottom which will allow various attachments to be added to the controller. Nintendo has revealed one of these attachments to be a unit which features an analog stick and 2 trigger buttons. It will connect to the main Wii controller via a short cord, and its appearance while connected to the main controller has led it to become dubbed “The Nunchaku”. Nintendo has stated the aforementioned “Nunchaku” add-on may be bundled with the Wii console.

Nintendo has also announced a controller “shell” which will resemble a traditional game controller called the “Classic-Style Expansion Controller”. The Wii “remote” will fit inside this shell which will allow gamers to play games using a traditional controller while retaining the “remote”’s motion sensitivity. According to Satoru Iwata, it is meant for playing “the existing games, virtual console games, and multi-platform games”.[2]

Despite the controller’s similarity to lightguns which are only compatible with standard-definition cathode ray tube televisions, Nintendo has stated the Wii and its controller will be compatible with all televisions including digital projectors.

    

The Nintendo Wii will feature parental controls, prohibiting young viewers from viewing inappropriate content. This allows parents to set the age level of the system, and when a disc is inserted, it will read the content rating encoded on the game discs; if this rating is greater than the system’s age level setting, the game will not load unless the user correctly enters a password to override the setting.
For instance, a game carrying an ESRB rating of M for Mature, which is intended for those over the age of 17, will not play on a system that is set to only allow games rated E for Everyone (six and older) and EC for Early Childhood (three and under).

This will be found in all systems released around the world; it is confirmed that the European units will use the PEGI rating system, North American units will use the ESRB rating system, units for the Japanese market will presumably use the CERO rating system, German units will use the USK system, and Australian units will use the OFLC system.

    

One of the most anticipated features of Wii is its game download service, dubbed the “Virtual Console.” .

Using this Virtual Console service, users will have the ability to download and play many or all Nintendo-produced NES/Famicom, SNES/Super Famicom, and N64 games for a small fee.
More notably, some games may offer free retro downloads as a bonus for the purchase. Nintendo has also announced that games developed for the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 consoles will be offered via the Virtual Console download service.

While the gameplay will be the same for all of the retro titles offered via the Virtual Console, Nintendo has stated that some of the games may be improved with sharper graphics or better framerates. In addition, gamers may be able to download games that were not originally released in their region, and some multiplayer games may be playable online, if it is technically possible.The Virtual Console service will not be used exclusively for retro games, however. Nintendo has stated that they are interested in using the service to distribute new, original content.

According to a Japanese press release, “all downloaded games will be stored on the 512 [MB] flash memory built into the system”. To prevent illegal copying, downloaded games will feature a proprietary DRM system

    

Processors:

• IBM “Broadway” CPU
• ATI “Hollywood” GPU

Memory:

• Unknown amount of RAM
• 512 MB built-in flash memory.

Ports and Peripherals:

• Two USB 2.0 ports.
• Support for wireless controllers.
• 4 Nintendo GameCube controller ports and 2 Nintendo GameCube memory card ports (for backward compatibility).
• Optional USB PC-compatible 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless attachment. (see Connectivity)

Media:

• Slot-loading optical disc drive compatible with both 12 cm Wii optical discs and 8.0 cm GameCube optical discs (1.5 GB) as well as standard DVD discs.
• 2 Front-loading SD memory card slots.

Built-in content ratings system:

• PEGI 3+, 7+, 12+, 16+, 18+
• ESRB EC, E, E10+, T, M, and AO.
• CERO All Ages, 12+, 15+ 18+.
• OFLC G, PG, M, MA15+

Networking

• Wi-Fi by Broadcom

Video:

• up to 480p and will work with a computer monitor as well as any TV or projector.

Audio:

• Unknown

    

Nintendo has announced that IBM has finished developing the CPU, codenamed “Broadway”. IBM had previously developed the processor for Nintendo’s current system, the GameCube. Nintendo has also announced that Canadian graphics card maker ATI Technologies is developing the GPU, codenamed “Hollywood”, for Wii. In an interview ATI’s Public Relations Manager for Consumer Products, John Swinimer, confirmed that “Hollywood” has not been developed from PC architecture but developed specifically for the Wii ‘from the ground up’.

    

Tags: Wii Connectivity, Nintendo Wii, Wi-Fi, Download Play, multiplayer, Nintendo DS