At the Reuters summit, Reggie Fils Aime has stated that they are on track to meeting their target, of 4 million Wiis shipped globally before the year’s end.
“All systems are go for reaching the 4-million target we have in our financials by Dec. 31,” Reggie said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York. “We will sell everything we make so now it’s simply a manufacturing thing.”
Strong Nintendo sales figures have already been released, with over 600,00 consoles sold in North America, eight days after launch. Nintendo made and estimated $190 million during those 8 days. If Wii console sales continue this way, coupled with strong sales of the DS Lite, Nintendo will be having the best financial year in history.
Read (Reuters)
H3Enterprises has announced that they will be doing a “Gaming Console Challenge” in Harlem, New York, at the Apollo Theater. The competition will take place on H3’s revolutionary H3TV, the only high-definition flat screen that allows players to simultaneously compete on both gaming systems through split screen cyber television technology. The H3TV is a 46 inch LCD Flat Screen. Adrian Walton, H3Enterprises chief communications officer, had this to say. “The H3TV Challenge gives all of us the chance to witness the same game being played on the same monitor at the same time on competing video gaming systems.” No word on what games will be played, but Walton did say that the event would be “decisive in determining whether Xbox 360 or PlayStation3 rules the cyber sports world.” Of course at this point it stinks a bit too much of PR and marketing for H3, but we’ll see how things turn out.
Read (Teamxbox.com)
The N-Gage, a console/phone hybrid developed by Nokia hardly gets a look in nowadays. The launch of the console was disastrous, and sales were were even worse. Nokia boss Jaakko Kaidesoja has been talking in an interview about the next-gen N-gage. He states that 5-7 phones will be able to play the games at launch.
“We are planning to support something like 5-7 devices when we launch,” he says. “Some of them are already being sold today, in fact. So if you have one of those devices, you’ll just have to go to our website, download the application to your phone. It’s like any Series 60 application, and it works.”
He didn’t mention which phones will support the games, however he did talk about how connectivity is a key part of the next-gen N-Gage system.
“On N-Gage, the N-Gage Arena community was one of the early success stories,” he says. “There was a handful, well, a small amount anyway, of people who really loved that. And now if you look at Web 2.0 and what’s going on there, more and more people are sharing different kinds of experiences with each other – photos, videos, blogging. So why not games?”
Read (Pocket Gamer)
PC maker Shuttle has just released a rather Wii-looking ultra small PC, named XPC X100. The shape and size is a lot like the Nintendo Wii, and it even features the same type of CD/DVD drive. The PC is powered either by an Intel Celeron M or the more powerful Core Duo CPU, up to 2 GB RAM and a standard hard drive. The graphics are powered by a Radeon X1400, so all in all the X100 is far more powerful than the Wii, but it will set you back anywhere from $800 to $1000.
More info on the official site.
Despite Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s best efforts, his newest bill aimed to ban the sale of mature games to young people was deemed unconstitutional. Blagojevich attempted to appeal the ruling, but this was also shot down. According to the local radio station WIFR,
the US Court of Appeals in Chicago examined the appeal’s merit, concluding the bill “was not written carefully enough” and upholding the previous decision.
In a related, and somewhat ironic set of events, the Entertainment Software Association has taken Blagojevich to court over legal fees related to fighting the previously proposed legislation.
Read (1UP)
Because of the massive PlayStation 3 shortages, sales of PS2 and PSP units are rising, according to Sony’s David Karraker. He said that the top five retailers have been reporting of PS2 sales increase of 115% over the Thanksgiving period, while PSP sales were up a whopping 280% during the same period. On the software side, PS2 game sales rose 120% while PSP game sales were up 168%. Regarding the PS3, no sales figures were released by Sony, although Karraker added that all PS3 units are sold out (big surprise) and that more are on the way (even bigger surprise).
Via GamesIndustry
It may have taken over a year, but it has finally happened, a gamer named “StripClubDj” has achieved over a 100,000 point gamerscore on the Xbox 360. How do you achieve a 100,000+ gamerscore? Simple, play lots and lots of games, 144 of them to be exact.
“StripClubDj” has completed the entire list of achievements in over 100 games and has played at least 144 games, including different region versions of the same game and Xbox Live Arcade games.
There have been complaints that “StripClubDj” is not actually a singular person, and is instead a group of people working towards the highest gamerscore. However, these accusations are currently unproven.
You can view “StripClubDj’s” gamercard here
Read (Gamespot)
If you (like many) found the use of controllers for FPS games on consoles, you will be able to hook up a keyboard and mouse to you Xbox 360 and start fragging. The XCM XFPS 360 makes it possible to connect a USB or PS/2 keyboard and mouse on your Xbox 360, as well as a PS2 DualShock controller, if you prefer those. Only downside is that this is probably not an authorized peripheral by Microsoft, and it will probably be banned for giving an unfair advantage to those with a keyboard and mouse.
Via TeamXbox
Many people camped out this November for a chance to snag a PS3 or Wii only to sell on eBay for a large profit. Today, eBay has released the official stats of just how many consoles were sold during launch week.
According to eBay, 14,675 PlayStation 3 consoles were sold between November 17th and November 24th, with the average price of a new PS3 being $1,186.39. Keep in mind that number does not include pre-order sales. If those are taken into account, a total of 28,233 PS3s were sold, with the average price of $1,369.90 apiece.
The Wii also had a strong showing on eBay, with 26,708 systems sold during the week of November 19-24th. The average price for the Wii was $412.53.
Read (Gamasutra)
Hudson and Sega have announced today the release of three more virtual console games for Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console platform. The games are Super Star Soldier, a vertical shooter, Ecco the Dolphin, and Golden Axe, all previous SEGA Genesis games.
Nintendo has promised new Virtual Console games every week, totaling 30 games by the end of this year. No games have yet been announced for 2007.
Read (1UP)
