News written by Matti Robinson (December, 2006)

The extremely interesting year of 2006 is coming to an end, and the games industry has given us a lot to smile about, but also a lot to frown about. The year was definitely the year of consoles, both home consoles and hand-helds.

2006 started off with bold estimates of 7 million PS3 shipping in the first 90 days and record-breaking DS became the fastest selling video game machine in Japan. Few weeks later the rumors around PS3 launch delays became public, as Sony announced their trouble getting hardware.

In March, the journey of PSOne ended, the production was shut down after over 100 million units sold, and the original PS3 worldwide launch was announced. Revolution changed its name to at first controversial Wii and the E3, or Electronic Entertainment Expo, was held the last time as an expo.

The end of first half of 2006 introduced us to a few innocent lawsuits, that started a boom. The second half however wasn't all about law and order, analysts predicted every single scenario that could ever happen during the next-gen console war during 2006.

"Eyes to Live", Xbox 360 Live Vision launched in September and Sony announced the disappointing European PS3 delay. In October, Nintendo reported a $459.5 million profit for the first half and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division reported a $96 million loss for the first quarter.

In the first seven days, 600,000 Wiis were sold in the US, 400,000 in Japan the first thing in the morning, and 325,000 in Europe in less than two days. G4tv.com has now reported the sales figures for the first five weeks, a whopping 3.19 million Wiis changed owners and the triumph of Nintendo seems to go on.

Eight days ago Sony announced a million milestone for PS3, while Wii had earlier surpassed the two million mark. The pace hasn't slowed down, Wii is quickly catching on Xbox 360, which is currently enjoying the market share lead, due to year lead over PS3 and Wii. The current statistics at VGCharts.org show the Xbox 360 leading the market share of next-gen consoles with 7.90 million sold, Wii is second with 3.54 million, and PS3 waiting to launch in Europe with 1.21 million units.

Source:
G4TV.com
VGCharts.org

Nintendo has released a free beta of upcoming browser for Wii. The Opera powered browser can be downloaded from the Shop Channel, Wii Software section. Both the beta version and the full version of Internet Channel that will be released in March 2007, are free, but if you'll wait until July 07 to get it, it'll cost you 500 Wii Points ($5).

The Opera browser includes favourites and zoom features, and the point-and-click interface is controlled by "Wiimote" using the A-button to click and B-button to scroll. The browser is flash enabled so you can view YouTube and such content as well.

Source:
Press release

The class action lawsuit filed earlier this week, concerning the broken Wii wrist straps was condemned by Nintendo. The Japanese company found the lawsuit meaningless and has now come forward with an official statement:

"We believe the lawsuit to be completely without merit. Nintendo has a long tradition of delivering high-quality products and excellent customer service, and we take all reports from our customers seriously.

At the time we became aware of the lawsuit, we had already taken appropriate steps to reinforce with consumers the proper use of the Wii Remote and had made stronger replacement wrist straps available. This suit has had no effect on those efforts."

American law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of Wii owners against Nintendo of America claiming that the defective "Wiimotes" are contradicting with the warranty of Wii. The class action lawsuit didn't quite get an echo, as not only Nintendo seems to find it ridiculous, but Wii users as well.

Source:
FiringSquad

The much debated Wii wrist straps have spawned another shadow on Nintendo. A US law firm, Green Welling LLP, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of Wii owners against Nintendo of America.

The class action lawsuit seeks justice for Wii owners who have broken their wrist straps while using the "Wiimote" as instructed, and tries to discontinue Nintedo's "unfair or deceptive business practices" and make them "provide a refund to the purchaser or to replace the defective Wii remote."

Nintendo has already promised to replace all broken wrist straps and provide new enhanced and less vulnerable straps to customers. The Japanese company is not concerned about the lawsuit and believes it won't go anywhere.

Source:
Kotaku

Phil Harrison, Sony's President of Worldwide Studios, has made a bold statement that no game in the future will use the full capability of Playstation 3. The topic that is commonly used to brag the newest and most advanced game on the market, has been turned upside down, Harrison claims that the current generation of PS3 games use barely half of the consoles potential.

"Nobody will ever use 100 percent of its capability," said Phil Harrison in an interview on MTV, referring to firmware upgrades and diverse use of Sixaxis controller. He is also worried that the PS3 games are categorized as "video games", while Sony wants fun games with serious content, "I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as 'video games,' and games are supposed to be fun. Games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses."

Source:
1up.com

Nintendo has promised to compensate broken Wii wrist straps, which has already become an Internet phenomenon, by replacing all the broken straps for free. The company has received a surge of complaints from customers who have broken not only their "Wiimote" wrist straps, but various home entertainment devices as well.

Despite the obvious disclaimers in the manuals of Wii and games, people have been successfully breaking their Wii Remote wrist straps causing the controller to go airborne, breaking TVs, windows, etc. The angry customers have addressed complaints toward Nintendo. Now the company has promised to replace the broken wrist straps and add new, less vulnerable straps to consoles on production.

Nintendo recommends that people wanting a wrist strap replacement should visit Nintendo website and seek country specific information.

Source:
BBC

Nintendo announced the Wii European launch figures, 325,000 consoles were shipped in the first wave all over Europe, and during the weekend, or two days, every single Wii had been sold, which made it the fastest selling home console in history.

The first fanatics formed queues three days before the launch date to get their very own Wii, and after the weekend there are still many who await replenishment to their local retailers. Nintendo's own The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was sold with three out of four consoles, a total of 240,000 copies, and 50 percent of Wii buyers also bought Wii Play, which includes a Wii Remote.

Nintendo is assuring that tons of consoles will be shipped before Christmas and 2007, "For those who were unable to buy Wii during the launch weekend, rest assured more stock is already on its way and we are doing everything possible to ensure that a steady supply of Wii units is shipped to stores across Europe throughout December and into 2007,” said Marketing Director for Nintendo Europe, Laurent Fischer.

Not only Wii sold on a record-breaking pace, Nintendo DS sold more than 515,000 units in Europe during last week, bringing the handheld's European sales to 8,5 million units.

A proven Christmas smash hit, Nintendo Wii arrives in Europe tomorrow, December 8. The imminent success of the console is expected to continue on the European soil with pre-orders selling out in record times. The console retails for an estimated 250€ (approx. $332) and £179 (approx. $351) in the UK and includes Wii Remote and Nunchuk, Stereo AV Cable, the sensor bar, and Wii Sports.

In the United States Wii sold 600,000 units in its first week, in Japan 400,000 consoles changed owners the first day, and considering the fact that the pre-order at Amazon.co.uk were booked in seven minutes making it the fastest-selling pre-order ever listed, the demand will quite surely exceed the supply also in Europe. Some of the retailers will open their doors midnight tonight to cope with the customer traffic.

Nintendo tries to respond the demand by shipping more than 4 million consoles worldwide by the end of the year accompanied with 24 games plus an additional 36 Virtual Console games. The games include already hundreds and hundreds of thousands sold Nintendo title The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as well as Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids from Ubisoft, Call of Duty 3 from Activision, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz from SEGA and Need for Speed Carbon from EA.