Tag: Nintendo

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Gaming Nintendo

Nintendo Wii Remote Plus Europe Launch Details Announced

Nintendo’s new peripheral for the Wii; the Remote Plus had previously been confirmed by the company’s president, Satoru Iwata where he had noted that this new accessory will integrate the Wii Remote with the Wii MotionPlus. Now while the launch of this peripheral was announced as November 11 for Japan, the launch details for the rest of the world was hitherto unknown.

Nintendo has now taken the next step with the announcement that the new Nintendo Wii Remote Plus will make its first appearance in Europe earlier than it does in Japan. According to a media release, the peripheral will be available in Europe on November 5. There are four colors to pick from – black, pink, white and blue.

“Players of games such as Wii Sports Resort and FlingSmash will be able to take full advantage of the enhanced accuracy and realistic motion control which the Wii Remote Plus offers, as every swing of a golf club or fling of Zip is reflected in real-time on screen.”

There is no word on the pricing as yet.

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Gaming Nintendo

Wii Remote Plus To Integrate Remote And MotionPlus

Rumors surrounding this have been flying around for quite sometime and has been confirmed now. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed that these speculations are in fact true and has announced the imminent launch of a new Wii Remote Plus that will bring together the Wii Remote and the MotionPlus. Iwata is reported to have said,

“For the convenience of the users, Nintendo is developing Wii Remote Plus, which integrates Wii Remote and Wii MotionPlus. We will announce the details of this controller on our web sites and through other media at some later date.”

Wii MotionPlus is an expansion of the Wii Remote that enables users to capture complex motions more accurately. The device comes with a sensor that complements the accelerometer and sensor bar of the Remote to render the actions more accurately on the screen. The announcement of the new Remote Plus is definitely a good news for Wii lovers.

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Gadgets Gaming Nintendo

Nintendo 3DS Launch Date Confirmed

Just a day after German tabloid Bild made a bold speculation about Nintendo launching their new 3DS console on November 11 this year, the official date is out. And Bild is wrong by a big margin. According to the official statement released today, the company shall be launching the new 3D-capable portable gaming console in Japan on February 26, 2011. That’s quite sometime away. The statement also noted the price of the console in the domestic market as 25,000 yen that is close to a $299 price point.

There is no word on when the consoles will make their way out to the other countries. Nintendo has said that they will make separate statements regarding the launch of Nintendo 3DS in USA and Europe and given earlier speculations, that should be close to March 2011.

The console was earlier believed to be launched in Japan by November 20 after a product designer revealed that his designs for the 3DS were launching on that day. Hopefully, the latest statement from the company has put these speculations to rest.

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Gadgets Nintendo

Nintendo 3DS Launch In Japan On November 11?

It seems like we can’t write enough about the speculations surrounding the launch date of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS. Earlier this month, a Japanese product designer had tweeted about his 3DS product launching on November 20 giving us an indication that Nintendo could be launching the device on that day. However, according to a report on the German tabloid, Bild, the Nintendo 3DS could be launching on November 11 in Japan. The report further states that the subsequent launches in the North American and European markets could happen in the end of 2010 and early 2011 respectively.

Bild is not exactly known for reliable reporting and has often been criticized for reporting on unconfirmed reports. The latest report thus needs us take the news with guarded skepticism. But it does not mind. Nintendo is expected to reveal official launch dates very shortly. The company shall be making the announcement on September 29 in Tokyo. That’s tomorrow.

Meanwhile check out the rumored features and specification of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS here.

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Gadgets Gaming Nintendo

Rumored Nintendo 3DS Features And Specifications Revealed

Though a lot has been spoken already about the upcoming Nintendo 3DS portable 3D gaming console, we are yet to hear anything official about the technical specifications. Well, that won’t happen until we move closer to the launch date, but from sources IGN spoke to, we have been able to round in on a few of the technical specifications. So these are some specs that the new Nintendo 3DS is likely to have

  • 2x 266MHz ARM11 CPU
  • 133MHz GPU
  • 1.5GB flash storage (with SD card expansion)
  • 4MB Dedicated VRAM
  • 64MB RAM

IGN further notes,

“While we were unable to determine which variation of the ARM11 processors the 3DS will feature, we now have a better sense of the system’s capabilities. Currently there are a number of devices being powered by the ARM11, including the Zune HD, a variety of Android smartphones, and prior to the introduction of Apple’s A4 processor, the iPhone and iPod touch. “

So there you go. That’s not a bad specs list and is good enough for us to want one. How do you feel about it? Tell us in the comments.

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Gadgets Gaming Nintendo Sony

PlayStation Move Vs. Wii Remote – Controller Location Tracking

The Sony PlayStation Move was just recently launched and folks at iFixit – the DIY repair company have already published a teardown analysis of the new motion controller from Sony. While the teardown itself makes for an interesting study, one of the more standout revelations is in the way PlayStation Move differs from Wii Remote with respect to the controller location tracking technology.

According to iFixit, the method used on both these consoles is vastly different. The Wii Remote contains an IR sensor. This is used in conjunction with the IR emitters placed near the TV so that the console can detect the movement of the Wii Remote using triangulation methods. The tracking methodology is basically two dimensional.

On the other hand, PlayStation Move tracks three dimensional movement. The PlayStation Eye camera recognizes the X/Y position of the glowing orb on the Move controller to detect two dimensional movement. In addition to this, the relative size of the orb is also tracked in order to measure the third dimension of movement.

PlayStation Move Vs. Wii Remote

In case you are wondering, Microsoft’s motion controller – the upcoming Kinect makes use of a webcam to track movements. Check out a comprehensive study of its technology here.

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Gaming Nintendo

Nintendo 3DS Launch Date Set For November 20?

We have written about rumors surrounding the launch date of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS on more than one occasion. The 3DS was, and still is, largely speculated to arrive ahead of the Christmas shopping season in the US. The UK launch on the other hand is speculated to be in 2011. Now, if we are looking for more precise dates, we may have just got one. According to a tweet posted by a Japanese product designer, the launch could be set on November 20. This comes after the designer posted that 11 of the products that were designed by him for the 3DS would launch on that day. The tweet has since then been deleted and reposted with vague details, but that only reaffirms our suspicions even further.

Nintendo 3DS is a hotly anticipated portable gaming device that can produce 3D effects without the need for special glasses. Officially, the product is scheduled to be launched before the end of this fiscal year ending March 2011.

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Gaming Nintendo

Nintendo DSi & DSI XL Prices To Be Slashed

At a time when Microsoft is learned to have raised the price of its XBox Live subscriptions, Nintendo has announced that the company is slashing down on the price of their consoles – DSi and DSI XL. Following this, the Nintendo DSi will now be available at $149.99 and the DSI XL at $169.99 in the US market. As you will notice, the new prices are $20 lower than the current selling price of $169.99 and $189.99 respectively.  The prices of these consoles in UK and Japan were already slashed in June. The new prices in USA will go into effect starting September 12.

Nintendo is expected to have an exciting few months ahead with the 3DS rumored to launch soon. However, those speculations received a jolt earlier this year when we heard that the Nintendo 3DS launch in UK has been deferred until early 2011.

Let’s hope the price drop on DSi and DSI XL is only preparation for the imminent arrival of the 3DS.

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Gaming Nintendo

No Plans For Nintendo Games On iPhone And Android Devices

A study conducted by Flurry Analytics early this year showed that iOS devices now contribute to 5% of overall gaming activity that has consequently been eating away the market share held by dedicated gaming console manufacturers like Nintendo and Sony. This growth is inevitable considering that gaming consoles have all along only catered to the hard core gamers and casual gamers are now having their presence felt with smartphone platforms like the iPhone and Android handsets.

So, will Nintendo take note of this opportunity that lies in the new platforms and launch their flagship games on the iOS and Android platforms? This question was posed by Nintendo shareholders to the company CEO, Satoru Iwata.

In response, Mr. Iwata has indicated that the company has no such plans. He further points out that the games on Nintendo were “inseparable” from the hardware and hence it would not be logical to port these games for iOS and Android.

Well technically, it is possible. Just go looking for NES emulator for iPhone to try a few games.

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Gaming Nintendo

Nintendo 3DS eReader App In The Works?

Nintendo 3DS may continue to keep its wireless connection via Wi-Fi active when the game console itself was in sleeping mode. This connection could be used to download timely news and information – This was revealed by Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata in a recent interview to Japanese newspaper Nikkei thus triggering speculations that an eReader application could be in the works for the upcoming portable console.

Nintendo unveiled its latest 3D supported gaming console at E3 recently and has tipped the device to launch during the Christmas holiday season. The device is expected to come with an onboard storage system allowing users to install games locally. The latest speculation is built over these existing speculations that will allow users to download news and other ebooks to their local storage to use the Nintendo 3DS game console as an eReader as well.

With tablet PCs like the iPad encroaching on the territories of eReaders and gaming consoles, these portable device manufacturers too have been found looking for ways to expand the horizon of their offerings to remain competitive. It will be interesting to see how this competition pans out in the long run.

[via Andria Sang]