February
20
2008
10:59 am
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Nintendo announces news that reinforces its commitment to provide entertaining and enriching experiences for veteran and new gamers alike. WiiWare™, Nintendo’s new downloadable game service, launches May 12 and expands development opportunities for developers the same way Wii™ expanded the world of video game players.
WiiWare: Nintendo’s upcoming WiiWare changes the way both developers create and consumers access video games. Through WiiWare, Nintendo hopes to offer developers a virtual laboratory that serves as a breeding ground for new games, which encourages great ideas that creators always wanted to develop. The combination of low development barriers and unique game experiences found only on Wii should enable developers to try new ideas with lower risk in a quicker, more creative and affordable way.
Meanwhile Wii owners can download a multitude of cool new games from different genres, including some that are unprecedented, which can be purchased from home at a dynamic price range. WiiWare also empowers consumers to determine with their Wii Points which games have the right stuff to become the next big thing.
WiiWare will be a repository for all types of experiences – literally, something for everyone. Early WiiWare games will come from celebrated developers like Square Enix, which is creating FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King, a simulation game for all ages. Also watch for games from up-and-coming developers like Frontier with its fresh, enchanting platform adventure LostWinds and a new episodic game series from Telltale. The first U.S. WiiWare games will be available on May 12.
Wii HD in the Future??
Nintendo Of America president Reggie Fils-Aime commented an interesting quote in a USA Today article.
“Tough choices about not including a DVD player at the start, tough choices about not including high-definition capability at the start. That’s because we wanted a mass-market price, and we believe the market will validate those decisions come launch day on this Sunday,” Fils-Aime said.
The key phrase here is “at the start.” Wiis currently cannot play DVD movies, but Nintendo has already confirmed that a new model will be able to in the latter half of 2007 (in Japan at least). If we apply this logic to the “high-definition capability” statement, it seems that this might only be a temporary setback as well.
So there could be a major upgrade of the Wii to a next-gen HD format as well as a HD firmware update of 720p/1080i/1080p support once the format war becomes more clear.
Do you need a HD Television to play your Wii on ?
You can set restrictions on games and online features on the Nintendo Wii. Just click the Wii button at the bottom of the screen. Then select Wii Settings and select Parental Controls.
The Wii’s Restrictions are based on Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings. Select the highest rating with which you are comfortable.
You can disable the Web browser and put limits on e-mail. You may also want to set up a PIN for purchases from the Wii Shop.
After you make your changes, you’re prompted to create a password. You also can specify a reminder question for your password.
Tags: Nintendo Wii, Parental Control, ESRB
This is a new video of the Opera Wii Browser
This is a video of a guy trying out a US Zelda game in his Japanese Nintendo Wii machine. Wii is Definitely Region Locked
Tags: Nintendo, Wii, Region Locked
Reggie reveals date for Wii online gaming
Promises more Wii channels, also.
Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has confirmed that Wii gamers will be able to play games online from the second quarter of 2007. Reggie’s pledge came in an interview with SpikeTV’s Game Head show (which saw the Ninty president indulging in some bowling - of both the real-life and Wii variety), where he also let slip that more Wii channels were in the works.
So far, Japan is the only region with a Wii game [Pokémon Battle Revolution - Ed] that can be played online. However, that’s set to change in the coming months, with Fils-Aime promising, “The multiplayer is coming. During the Japanese launch, there is Pokémon Battle Revolution, and that’s really the first one. There will be titles that we’ll be announcing in first quarter 2007, that’ll be multiplayer-enabled. So during second quarter 2007, people will be able to have a multiplayer experience on Wii.” In further good news for Wii fans, Fils-Aime revealed that Nintendo was hard at work developing more Wii channels, though revealed nothing about what they would involve.
He was also kept busy when it came to defending the Wii controller from accusations that it may be a tad gimmicky. “I’ve had the opportunity to play Zelda, Excite Truck, Wii Sports, a little bit of Red Steel, a little bit of Madden,” said Reggie. “It doesn’t get old. It really doesn’t get old. Wii will only become a gimmick if it’s marginalised in terms of the way the remote is used, and we have absolutely no indication that that’s going to happen.”
Aside from that, Fils-Aime also discussed the “Wii60″ phrase coined by Microsoft’s Peter Moore (”Can I endorse the 360? Honestly, no”), the prospect of Mario appearing in a GTA-style game (”You’ll never see that”) what game he thinks would be best online (”The ultimate one would be Mario Kart, on a multiplayer basis”), and generally came across as a fairly good egg.
Tags: Wii online, Wii channels, Wii
From an article in IGN:
Nintendo’s sensor does serve an important purpose. The bar itself is really nothing more than a shell for two infrared sources - one on each end. It’s the same technology commonly found in a variety of electronic devices such as television remotes. The infrared sources located in the sensor bar emit lights that can’t be seen by the naked eye, but are nevertheless plainly visible by the Wii remote, whose tip features a very basic camera that can read IR data. The Wii remote uses the IR sources as a calibration point, setting the left and right boundaries. It’s very simple tech, but it works. The Wii remote doesn’t see your television when you point at it - it sees the IR sources on the sensor bar and orients itself based on those points.
Tags: Nintendo, Wi, sensor bar
November
29
2006
11:21 am
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This is an excerpt of an article where they states that the but the hardware will not support a different TV format:
I have just checked with Nintendo’s customer support whether the Wii is, in fact, region locked or not. The Nintendo support team sent the following reply:
The Wii will not play games from Japan or America as their TV system, NTSC, is not compatible with ours. This has always been the case with Nintendo consoles and has nothing to do the accepted term of ‘Region Locking’.
This sounded promising, but I decided to ask them to clarify:
So besides the TV standard, the consoles are compatible?
What if I do not hook the Wii console up to a non-TV screen, for example to a computer’s LCD screen? Mine has composite and svideo-in. Or does this actually depend on differences in the hardware and/or software? I surely would hope this is not the case.
The Nintendo Wii Support team promptly replied to this:
The Wii will be built to play the games from the area which it will be used in. So a UK Wii will only play European games oh and Australian games as they are on PAL as well. The USA Wii will play their games and Japanese games as they are NTSC.
So it’s the official answer: Wii is not region locked, but the hardware will not support a different TV format. They did evade my question whether or not output to a non-tv would make any difference, but I seriously doubt this is the case.
