wii

The annual Game Developers Conference, which attracts tens of thousands from the gaming industry, had all of the usual players this year: Nintendo, Sony, EA, Activision, etc. But they weren't the only players in town this week at GDC.

There was plenty of buzz about Ouya, the new $99, Android-based gaming console that broke Kickstarter records like Adrian Peterson breaks tackles.

Now, before the serious gamers out there savage me, let me be clear: The Ouya isn't going to be displacing the role of traditional consoles like the PlayStation or the Wii (although the Wii U has gone nowhere). … Read more

GameStop reported its earnings yesterday, but perhaps the biggest news came from its earnings call, in which it said that demand for the PlayStation 4 is already showing signs of strength.

According to GameStop President Tony Bartel, "nearly 900,000 members have already signed up for the PlayStation 4 First to Know List." That list provides all of the latest details on the PlayStation 4 to customers and is usually a strong indicator of the number of people who might preorder the device when it goes on sale in the fourth quarter.

Bartel went on to tell investors … Read more

The video game industry once again had a down month as console and software sales slipped.

Total industry sales hit $810 million in February, representing a 25 percent drop compared with the same period last year, market researcher NPD said yesterday. Hardware sales were down 36 percent to $244.2 million, and console and portable software sales across the physical retail channel could only reach $352 million -- a 27 percent drop compared with February 2012.

The Xbox 360 once again led the hardware market, earning the top spot in console sales for the 26th month in a row. According … Read more

Nintendo's Wii U might be in deep trouble in the U.S.

In a research note to investors today, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said that he believes Nintendo sold just 80,000 Wii U units in February -- the same number of original Wii units that sold. What's worse, the Wii U's sales were about half of the 165,000 PlayStation 3 units sold last month and far behind the Xbox 360's 225,000 unit sales, according to Pachter.

Although Pachter is not the final word on game industry sales -- NPD, which plans to release … Read more

It's been weeks since the PlayStation 4 event underwhelmed many people. Myself included. But as time has passed, my mind's become clearer as to why, exactly, I was so disappointed. It's a challenge for the PlayStation 4 to overcome, but it's also a challenge of all "next-gen" consoles.

I hate the term "next-gen" as much as anyone else, but that's what happens when you have one piece of hardware sit out on the market for six or seven years while you anticipate what the Next Big Thing will be. "Next-gen&… Read more

Nintendo's Wii U could benefit from a price reduction, a Ubisoft executive director says.

Speaking to Edge-Online in an interview published yesterday, Alain Corre said that his company "always" likes to see a hardware company cut the price of a console.

"We always want the hardware to be at a low price because we want as many fans as possible to afford to buy our games, so that's for sure," he said in response to a question asking if he'd like to see Nintendo cut the price of its console. Corre is Ubisoft'… Read more

Sony PlayStation 4 The current hot topic in console gaming, the just-announced PlayStation 4, is still largely an enigma. We don't know how much the PS4 will cost, when it's being released (beyond "holiday 2013"), or even what it looks like.

For now, it's still the next-gen hardware to beat, and what little we do know sounds impressive, with an entirely new system architecture based on an X86 AMD CPU/GPU that should make the PS4 easier to develop for and more flexible (and, frankly, more PC-like).

But 2013 will take the traditional three-way console … Read more

Nintendo's Wii Mini is on its way to the U.K.

The company announced today that it'll start selling the smaller Wii on March 22. It did not divulge any price details. Nintendo unveiled the Wii Mini last year, and at the time said that the $100 device would be available only in Canada.

The Wii Mini, which is a smaller, redesigned version of Nintendo's original Wii, allows gamers to play over 1,200 Wii titles. However, the console does not support backward compatibility with GameCube games. The original Wii, on the other hand, supports GameCube titles. … Read more

The PlayStation 4 is Sony's last great hope in keeping control of the gaming industry. It's also the best chance at turning the PlayStation Vita into a more relevant piece of gaming hardware.

At last night's PlayStation 4 event in New York, many hew tidbits of hardware magic were discussed, and a good handful of them involved the Vita: as a remote-play device and additional controller like the Wii U's GamePad, and maybe even as a functional second screen. It's encouraging, but not surprising. I bet it would happen long before last night's event … Read more