As noted by LBD earlier, he’s at the Wii Launch this weekend, and I said I’d update this for him, so let’s see how I do. If anything, I’ll probably be much more brief, leaving LBD plenty to catch up on when he gets back.

1. In case you haven’t seen it before, Wii.com has various videos revealing various people trying out the new Nintendo system, and in particular, the Wii-mote. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, in particular, allows for many possible uses for the controller, including fishing, using a sword, riding a horse, etc. Worth a look, even if just to see what people look like when they’re concentrating on a game.
2. According to IGN, Nintendo has confirmed that it will release a higher-end Wii with DVD playback capabilities later in 2007. Those who buy the regular Wii will be out of luck in regards to playing DVDs, as any plans of software or hardware additions to allow such a function have seemingly been cancelled. It should be mentioned, of course, that the upgraded Wii has only been announced for Japan, and whether or not the rest of the world will find it locally available remains to be seen. It would appear that any previous announcements of the DVD-Wii in other regions was the result of errors in communication.
3. Of course, the Wii wasn’t the only thing to have launched this weekend: the PS3 launched on Friday, with nothing really unexpected. Long line-ups, short stores of the product, long “inspirational” speeches from Sony representatives and short appearances from celebrities marked the birth of this new console game system. The 20 gig harddrive version is selling for $500 (US) and the 60 gig version for $600 (US). The game manufacturer Take-Two is developing 20 new games for the PS3 to be released in 2007, which include popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV, NBA 2007 and NHL 2007. Oh, there was also a giant riot, driveby shootings and mouse-urine balloons.
4. As reported by IGN, eMarketer has done a survey to find out who wants to upgrade the most: Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft loyalists. It turns out that 60% of PS2 owners wish to get a PS3, 46% of GameCube owners wish to get a Wii, and 45% of Xbox owners wish to get an Xbox 360. Note that these surveys targeted gamers and not general consumers. Similar surveys for the general consumer, as expected, produced lower results. Whether this has to do with loyalty or satisfaction with the last generation of consoles is up to your interpretation.
5. Next Generation has an article about what their experience was like during the Wii launch, especially as compared to the PS3 launch. One point of interest was the lack of eBay entrepreneurs (though there was a guy trying to sell a PS3 for $5000…), and the multitude of people playing games, including the DS. Go Nintendo features a YouTube video of the lineup.
6. So … for every PS3 you buy, Sony loseWeight Exercises money?
7. Joystiq also gives their account of the Wii Launch
8. MattG of Press The Buttons reports that Captain N the Game Master will be available on DVD. Good news for us Saturday-morning-cartoon oldtimers.

And that’s all I’ll post. I guess I’m not so brief, I just post less “points”. I’m sure LBD will have a nice report about his own experience at the Wii Launch in NYC.

Delta

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 19th, 2006 at 7:50 pm and is filed under Points of Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.