Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Video downloads for Nintendo consoles
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, has just unveiled plans for a video-on-demand service on DS and Wii. Of course, such a move is not exactly unexpected when Nintendo’s rivals have been making such big strides in the video arena recently. Nintendo stands a slightly better than decent chance of seizing the lion’s share of the console video download market from the outset too, what with such gargantuan audiences for both its home and portable consoles. Put another way Nintendo certainly has the numbers to attract the very biggest blockbusters. From what we understand the Wii will be the main hub of the new service, with DS owners then transferring video content to their handhelds for viewing on the hoof, so to speak. We’re more intrigued by Mr Iwata’s comments to The Wall Street Journal, though: “There are a lot of on-demand video services, so there’s no reason to do the same thing, so we’re going to do something different.” What’s he talking about? We’ve no idea but we can’t wait to find out - a Japanese trial of the service is touted for later this year. Meantime we’re thinking a simple software update allowing for a better display from the Wii, movies stored on SD cards, WiiMote menu navigation and the whole thing looking a bit rubbish on DS. But you never know. Much more soon, we hope…
Wii production costs halved
The estimable of Credit Suisse banking corporation Koya Tabata has told investors that the cost of manufacturing the Wii has shrunk by 45% since the console first launched. Can you guess where we’re going with this? Whether Mr. Tabata’s estimate is based on industry-sourced fact or pure guesswork remains unknown. Then again it’s supremely likely that Nintendo, having sold untold squillions of units thus far, will have worked out many ways to make cost efficiencies by now. All of which must leave Nintendo with lots of room to manoeuvre on the Wii’s actual selling price. Question is, will they? Sadly, the answer looks like being no. The Wii is already very keenly priced and Nintendo seems to have no trouble in shifting every unit it manufactures. It’s a well known fact that Nintendo makes money on every console it sells too - i.e. unlike its rivals. Small wonder, then, that Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime is moved to comment “Why would we?”. Well, er, slowing sales in the West and being beaten by the Playstation 3 in Japan are just a couple of reasons off the top of our heads, Reggie. But you’re the boss…
Silent Hill horror adventure is being re-imagined for Wii
Silent Hill horror the original adventure is being realised for the popular consoles among us. Deep chills are coming this autumn and not just from the inclement British weather. Konami is hauling Silent Hill twitching and screaming to Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) – a remake of the first and most memorable Silent Hill episode originally released for PlayStation in 1999.
It’ll carry the name Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which is apt since proceedings are said to be very different to how you might remember them. The scenario remains basically the same, but there are new clues and paths to follow. It’ll be like reliving the same nightmare but in more vivid detail with things not quite in the right place. Mo-th-er!
On Nintendo Wii the trademark torch used by hero Harry Mason in search of his missing daughter will be controlled using the Wii remote. It’ll also double as a mobile phone, which we imagine will make you look quite ridiculous but probably you’ll be playing with the lights out anyway. This mobile phone also has a camera to take snapshots for reference, but we’re not sure if this is scripted or random. Since Silent Hill is heavily puzzle-oriented the Wii version lets you pick up and examine objects to figure things out.
All three versions of the game incorporate a new ‘psyche profile’ feature, a system that allows Harry Mason to learn from his experience – sensing danger or safety around certain characters and reminding him if something seems familiar: "You've been down this alley 20 times already you dimwit!"
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is released for Wii, PSP and PS2 this autumn.
