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

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

Nintendo Wii is the most expected console at E3 over the Sony playstation 3 and the already in the market Xbox 360.All that in a poll realized by gameinformer askig to their visitors:

Which platform are you most excited to hear more about during E3 2006?

Sony	37%
Microsoft	20%
Nintendo	41%
PC	2%

This are the results unlit now with more than 3100 votes.

This was expected, with the impact of the new Nintendo’s console Name WII , leting behind their codename Revolution. This new name is polemic for some people some others love it, but the truth is that the marketing of nintendo for the E3 has been good enough to get the people waiting for more info on the Nintendo Wii at the E3.

More About: Nintendo Wii, E3, Sony, playstation 3, Xbox 360, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, Revolution, Wii

Call of Duty 3 for Wii has been anounced by Activision

Activision have announced that the war epic series, Call of Duty, will be heading to all next-generation videogames consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, WII).

More About: Call of Duty 3, Wii, Activision, videogames

Ubisift Gets public their Next-Gen Game titles that will present during the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) May 10–12, 2006, For the Nintendo Wii they will present RedSteel.

Press Release:
SAN FRANCISCO – MAY 3, 2006 – Today Ubisoft announced its lineup of titles for the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) May 10–12, 2006 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Ubisoft will showcase its titles at booth #924 in the South Hall.

“Our E3 lineup demonstrates Ubisoft’s profound commitment to the next-generation of video games,” said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer of Ubisoft. “Ubisoft is very excited to be introducing ground-breaking new intellectual property and showcasing how we bring innovation to our best-selling franchises. Our award-winning development teams are pushing the limits of what can be achieved and leading the industry into the future.”

Ubisoft lineup for E3 2006:

1. Assassin’s Creed™: Experience the power of a feared Assassin in the game that will redefine the action adventure genre for the next generation. Players’ actions will throw the immediate environment into chaos and shape events in this pivotal moment during the Third Crusade.
2. Brothers In Arms Hell’s Highway™: Gearbox Software’s critically acclaimed squad-based WWII shooter launches into the next generation of gaming with amazing graphics and cutting-edge game play features powered by Unreal Engine 3 and a completely redesigned online component. As Matt Baker, lead a squad of real soldiers who think, relate and fight together through the brutal trials of the dramatic Operation Market Garden.
3. Dark Messiah™ of Might & Magic®: Discover a new breed of PC game that will redefine the Action-RPG genre. Powered by an enhanced version of the Source engine from Valve, the second chapter in the new Might & Magic® franchise allows players to experience ferocious combat as an expert warrior, mage, or assassin using a vast array of devastating weapons against vicious creatures in a captivating fantasy environment.
4. Enchanted Arms™: The first RPG developed exclusively for Xbox 360™, this epic adventure created by FromSoftware in Japan is arriving for the first time in North America and Europe. Enchanted Arms allows players to escape to a fantasy world filled with beautiful cinema-quality graphics, unique characters and bizarre creatures.
5. Game to be Unveiled: Experience the next-generation project from Ubisoft and Free Radical, the developers of the critically-acclaimed Timesplitters® series for the first time at E3.
6. Open Season™: Team up with the cast of characters from Sony Pictures Animation’s feature-length CGI film Open Season coming in September. It’s a riotous romp in the great outdoors for kids of all ages when a rowdy brood of forest animals turn the tables on unsuspecting hunters.
7. Rayman Raving Rabbids™: Developed by famed creative director Michel Ancel, this new installment of the Rayman franchise will be the funniest and zaniest yet. Rayman’s world is threatened by a devastating invasion by the most unexpected creatures and Rayman must battle to save his world and its inhabitants.
8. Red Steel™: The only original first-person game built from the ground up and exclusively for the Wii™ launch. Red Steel takes full advantage of Nintendo’s innovative controller and provides the unique experience of combined gunplay and swordplay.
9. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent™: The best-selling Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® saga is taking an entirely new direction. In the highly anticipated next chapter, play as a double agent spy for the first time. Take on dual roles of covert operative and ruthless terrorist, where choices of whom to betray and whom to protect affect the outcome of the game.
10. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Vegas: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® makes its dramatic next-generation debut. Rainbow operatives take to the chaotic streets of Las Vegas as an escalating terrorist siege in “Sin City” threatens to take world terrorism to new heights.

More About: Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo Wii, RedSteel, Ubisoft