Super Mario Bros. has been Dethrowned as #1 Game Title in the World

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Source: Yahoo

According to game-tracking website VGChartz, sales of Nintendo’s pop-culture phenom Wii Sports have surpassed those of legendary platformer Super Mario Bros., making the breakout Wii title the best-selling video game of all time. And it only took two years and two months to do it.

The data is based on cumulative worldwide sales figures ending the week of December 27, 2008, which indicate that lifetime sales of Wii Sports have exceeded Mario’s staggering 40.24 million units.

Shocked? Don’t be. Unlike most video games that can be bought at retail, Wii Sports comes bundled with the Wii hardware in every territory other than Japan and Korea. In other words, if you bought a Wii, you bought Wii Sports whether you liked it or not (chances are, you liked it). With over 45 million Wiis sold worldwide to date, it’s only logical that Wii Sports would start smashing records sooner or later.

And before you brand Wii Sports a false champion due to being bundled with hardware, consider that Super Mario Bros. was also sold as a bundle with the original Nintendo Entertainment System during its mid-80’s heyday. Plus, Wii Sports has been a major hit even in non-bundled form, topping Wii sales charts in Japan at over 3.2 million copies sold in 2008 alone.  A new version of the game, Wii Sports: Resort, is due out later this year.

SONY Looking to Break-Even on Playstation 3 Consoles

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via WSJ

Sony Corp. is closer to breaking even on its new-generation PlayStation 3 videogame console because it costs 35% less to make than the previous model, according to technology-research firm iSuppli Corp.

The electronics giant is locked in a battle with Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 for control of the videogame-console market. The cost cuts could help stanch the hardware red ink at Sony, which sold the previous-generation PS3 at a significant loss, making up for it with game-title sales and royalties.

Integration and key changes in components has brought the latest PS3’s cost down to $448.73 from $690.23 for the first-generation model, said iSuppli.

The PS3 sells for about $399 in the U.S., at least $150 more than Wii and Xbox 360. However, the PS3 accounted for 16% of global videogame-unit shipments in the second quarter of 2008, second only to Nintendo’s Wii, which accounted for 54% of the market. Continue reading →

Wii-Controlled Robots Made for Combat

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via Discovery

Dec. 19, 2008 — For kids, a new way to control virtual characters is all fun and games. For soldiers, more intuitive controls for robots could mean the difference between life and death.

Using the controller from the popular Nintendo Wii gaming system (the “Wiimote”) scientists from the Idaho National Laboratory, working with engineers from the U.S. Army, Foster-Miller, and iRobot, are developing novel ways to control military robots.

“If a soldier wants to find a bomb [with a robot], 95 percent of their attention has to be focused on the screen,” said Doug Few, an engineer at the Idaho National Laboratory working on the project. “Using the Wii remote reduces the work load on the operator and also extends the numbers of domains that the robot can be used in.”

The current laptop interface that controls the military robots can have up to 50 hard buttons and requires a soldier to place all attention to the monitor, a potentially deadly distraction in a war zone.

Nintendo Releases Game with Racial Slur

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via MTV

Video game companies send me games: not surprising. Yesterday, Nintendo sent me a game they played for me: say what?

In my mailbox yesterday was a copy of 2005’s “Animal Crossing: Wild World” for the DS out of the shrinkwrap and accompanied with a letter on Nintendo stationery written in the voice of the game’s Mayor Tortimer, encouraging me to use this copy of the game to import all of its unlocked items and its character to “Animal Crossing: City Folk” on the Wii.

Nintendo must have known that I’m terrible at “Animal Crossing” and thought I’d need help. So they unlocked a lot of content for me. They appear to have quite accidentally gotten a bit hip-hop about all this. Whoever played this game for me back at Nintendo trained at least one of the characters to greet me with the line [censored here]: “How are you, N—a?” Continue reading →

Hotels Planning To Include Wii & XBox To Rooms

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[Source: Joystiq]

Hotels across the US are aware that they are competing for a diminishing pool of duckets so they are incorporating new incentives to become patron’s choice of destination. Including Wii Sports and Guitar Hero is not a bad start. Hotels are clamoring over themselves to collaborate with Nintendo and Microsoft to lock down customers eager to entertain themselves while away from home. One hotel is even proposing a XBox Live network that will allow guests to play one another for free. Another hotel, Hotel Monaco out of Seattle is even hosting a Guitar Hero night (think Karaoke) at the bar which I’m sure keeps the tap flowing. Ingenious move for the Hospitality Industry, don’t ya think?

Wii Will Give You A Raincheck…

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Nintendo has tried to satisfy its customers by offering rainchecks to those who cannot get their hands on the elusive Wii, argubably the holiday’s hottest item(that hasn’t been recalled). Customers have been going crazy trying to find the hottest video game player since the PSP. Check out the full article…

Update: Smash Bros Smashes Records

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Nintendo has broken records with the recent release of their mega hit Super Smas. Bros. Pushing 1.4 million copies the first week in North America alone. Nintendo states via their press release, that this is the “fastest selling game” in their history. This certainly great news for Nintendo after the recent resurgence of PS3 which had been selling considerably less than the super popular Wii.
Full story and pics@ Joystiq

Confirmed: Mario Kart Wii Releasing on April 27th

Recently Nintendo of America has confirmed the release date of Mario Kart Wii as being April 27th… just a mere 16 days after the European release.
CVG has some information on why the release dates are so staggered…

Previously Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime cited the reason for a staggered release schedule on a disc duplication issue, claiming that it would be unfeasible to produce enough discs to meet international demand.

The same production problem is what’s keeping Nintendo from confirming an SSBB release for Europe… so with this same staggered logic.. should European gamers expect SSBB by the end of March, since it was released in the U.S. at the beginning of the month?

So, should Europe be seeing Brawl shortly all powerful Nintendo?

(Via CVG)

DEALERSHIP USES WII TO SELL CARS

[via Go Nintendo]

Heck, we can’t think of a smarter way to market your product. With the Wii being the hottest item on the planet, this is sure to bring some folks in, with the hopes that they’ll hit some homers and knock the price of their car down