The Games News

Winning the “longest line to see a console” award at E3 2006, the lucky individuals that had a chance to experience the Nintendo Wii also decided they would tell there friends about their exciting opportunity. Since E3 and adding the fact that the Wii will be available before Christmas this year, Nintendo’s shares have risen a whopping 6.2%, Nintendo’s highest since April of 2002.

With Nintendo stealing every facet of the show at E3, making competitors like Sony’s PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360 look like unlucky competitors, the only thing that Nintendo didn’t offer to its fans was a price for the Wii. Unlike Nintendo’s competitors, Nintendo has yet to release whether the price will be around $300 or if it will be, as some are hoping, under $200. While the Nintendo Wii isn’t expected to be released until near-Thanksgiving or later, a price is expected soon to give consumers a chance to prepare to purchase a Nintendo Wii for the Christmas season.

After speculation as to whether or not you would have to purchase Linux, it would be included with the system, or it would not be available at all, Sony has announced that the Linux Operating System will be included with the PlayStation 3. A fully-functional Linux on the PlayStation 3 not only makes the PS3 even that more enticing to buy, but it opens a vast playground for all the programmers that will purchase the gaming console.

Having Linux on the Sony PlayStation 3 will also mean that the console will support almost all USB devices. With the addition of Linux and the support of the USB devices Sony is apparently loosening its chain on homebrew developers, unlike their attitude on the PSP on which with every new version of the firmware they make the life of the homebrew community even more difficult.

Planning on purchasing a Sony PlayStation3? Do you already have an Microsoft Xbox 360 or plan on buying one? Well, Sony and Microsoft also think that you should buy the Nintendo Wii while you’re at it. While both Sony and Microsoft continually take small jabs at each other over various issues (pricing being the most reoccurring issue), they both agree that everyone should buy the Nintendo Wii after they buy their respective consoles.

The biggest issue that is being discussed between all 3 companies is the price of their individual systems. With the Xbox 360 between $399-$499, the PS3 between $499-$599, and the Wii hopefully below $300 (maybe even $200), you theoretically could purchase both the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360 for the same price you would pay for the Sony PlayStation 3. Since Sony and Microsoft are having a price war right now, Nintendo can just sit back and watch the Wii climb to the top of the video game mountain.

Nintendo revealed the hardware specifications for their Nintendo Wii by adding a page in their Wii’s website. Even though some details are not properly given, it’s very informative. It has details about the size, controls, appearance, virtual console and many other features. Nintendo Wii in size is approximately equal to three DVD cases. This gives a great advantage for user as it can be added easily to the current entertainment setup. Wiimote brings leisure as one can place it anywhere according to his lifestyle. Its design makes it a natural addition and can be placed horizontally or vertically.

The Nintendo Wii contains 512MB of internal flash memory, two USB 2.0 ports and built in Wi-Fi capability. Also there is a slot for the SD memory card, enabling players to expand the internal memory. Single self-loading media bay plays single or double 12 centimeter optical discs for Wii. Also it has ability to play Nintendo GameCube discs. The CPU, code named “Broadway” is jointly developed and manufactured by IBM. It is made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process. The Graphics Processing Unit is being developed with ATI. (more…)

After going through many sources, so far some facts about the Nintendo Wii are officially confirmed. These facts relate to the shipping details, battery, virtual console, bundled remote and more. Nintendo Wii will be shipped in the same manner as the other Nintendo Console Systems. The package will include the Nintendo Wii Console, the Nunchuk and Wii Remote (Wiimote). No sign of free games. There are some rumors that there might be some built in games. The package for additional controllers will include Nunchuk as well. They were not able to give confirmations or comments on the price at the moment.

Currently, the Wiimote uses the two AA batteries. The concerned personnel guaranteed that the batteries will last for at least one week. But there are no comments on how long will the batteries will last on average. A possibility that they will include a battery recharges system as an accessory. The main feature on looks forward to is the price of the console. Some ambiguity was found among the staff on this issue. One of the worker said that the Nintendo Wii will cost between $149 and $299, but some other workers commented that it will be definitely close to $199.

It was not an easy path as far as licensing third party older titles. They faced a lot of trouble while securing some basics concepts because of complex licensing laws.The back-catalog will be released along a quarterly schedule. At the moment, they avoided to give details about how much virtual console games will be available. No comments on their prices at the moment too.