Good news, everybody*! Nintendo expects to make even more money during its 2009 fiscal year than it had previously anticipated. And it had previously anticipated quite a bit.
According to VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi and Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, Nintendo has raised its financial forecast for the six months ending Sept. 30, 2008, as well as its expectations for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. Thanks to phenomenal Wii and DS sales and improved foreign currency exchange rates, Nintendo now expects to shift 30.5 million DS units in the full fiscal year, along with 197 million DS games, 26.5 million Wiis and 186 million Wii games.
Projected fiscal 2009 revenue? Two thousand billion Yen. That doesn't even sound like a real number!
*Particularly those obsessed with the financial wellbeing of emotionally detached megacorporations.
Sony CEO Howard Stringer has rightfully conceded that Nintendo has executed a winning business plan. "Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone," Stringer observed in a recent interview with WELT Online, adding that the competitor's strategy "may be a superior business model, but the Wii is not succeeding at our expense -- it is not hurting [PlayStation 3]." No, PlayStation 3 is hurting PlayStation 3. When questioned about the possibility of recouping the $3.32 billion loss attributed to the console's launch, Stringer joked, "Not for as long as I live." Wait a sec, was that a joke?
In the final part of X3F's interview series, Silicon Knights President Denis Dyack said that the question of who owns the Eternal Darkness IP is, "a complicated question with a complicated answer," while at the same time confirming that Nintendo is still a "silent partner" with the developer.
"That's a question we've never answered," he said. "At the end of the day, it's not time to even talk about those things for various different reasons. You know Nintendo, who's still our silent partner, a lot of people don't know that, we have a great relationship with those guys. It's not time to talk about Eternal Darkness 2." Dyack went on to say that, despite some reports to the contrary, SK has never announced ED2 to be in development.
Dyack also discussed his one console theory, and how the consolidation of the developers and publishers support his claim that the industry is moving towards a one-console future, adding that Silicon Knights is not opposed to being acquired by a publisher. He also said that the company's next game will be "very different" from Too Human, declining to elaborate further.
Mario steps up to bat on the Wii and ... well, doesn't strike out, but doesn't hit a home run, either. That's the consensus (minus the baseball terminology) on the latest mascot-ified sports title from Nintendo, Mario Super Sluggers. Mario Strikers Charged was the last, and scored (both a gaming and sports term) a bit better overall. We're just excited to finally see the Wii Sports baseball mini-game fleshed out into something that will (we'd hope) have us playing for more than, oh, two minutes.
1UP(B): "Super Sluggers succeeds and fails as most Mario sports games do. Its quick, arcade-style action is easy to get into and plenty fun, coming at the expense of the nuances – and balance – you'll find in a sim."
GameDaily(80/100): "What it lacks in innovation and online play, Mario Super Sluggers makes up for with its robust modes, fun controls and multiplayer options. If you're a fan of either the characters or the sport, you owe it to yourself to round these bases."
Game Informer(55/100): "Multiplayer is amusing in that hanging out with your friends is fun anyway, but the single-player content is truly terrible. A series of boring one-off challenges punctuated by simplistic exploration and the occasional full game makes up Mario's quest to foil Bowser Jr. via baseball. Yes, it's as insipid as it sounds."
IGN(74/100): "We wouldn't go as far as to say this is Nintendo-made shovelware, but there's very little that has changed in the three years between Mario Superstar Baseball on GCN, and Mario Super Sluggers on Wii.
Right, so the Mario Bros. remake below the jump -- by former Joystiq writer Jared Rea -- might be just the slightest bit offensive (and not in a NSFW way). But, it's also very funny, which has always trumped offense in our book. He says it's the result of a Twitter joke gone too far, but in our book it's gone just far enough.
Mr. Rea does provide some additional explanation for the gag on his blog, but we hope you don't need it (you're not that removed from the outside world, are you?).
We haven't cut Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian's picture out of Analyst Tiger Beat to tape onto our lockers yet, as unfamiliar as we are with his services. So take it with a grain of salt when we tell you that Sebastian thinks Nintendo's next consolemay release sooner than the others and could be a souped-up Wii with DVD playback capabilities.
...Yeah, that kind of seems like a gimme, but Nintendo has proven itself a notoriously hard company to predict. Let's just say that if he nails this ... we might be able to make some space for his mug between the Jonas Brothers and Billy Pidgeon.
How nice of you to join us. Do you have any idea what time it is? We were expecting you weeks ago! Well, no matter, go and take your seat with the rest of the Virtual Console class so we can begin.
Samurai Shodown 2 (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points): SNK's 1994 follow up to Samurai Shodown finally slices and dices its way onto the Virtual Console this week, bringing back most of the original's weapon-wielding cast, as well as several newcomers vying for the opportunity to skewer anything that moves with a pointy blade and sharp Engrish wit.
Ys Book I & II (TurboGrafx 16 CD-ROM, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Nihon Falcom's enhanced remakes of the first two titles in the Ys saga finally levels up for the US Virtual Console. Offering roguelike-style combat and music we still find ourselves humming at the dinner table, this is a download not to be missed by role-playing fans with eyes for the classics.
Another lawsuit has been filed against Nintendo for alleged patent infringement in the Wii remote, according to Bloomberg. Maryland-based Hillcrest Labs filed the suit in Greenbelt, Maryland, and has also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission seeking to block imports of the Wii console and remote. Hillcrest's technology, dubbed Freespace, is reportedly used by Logitech International and Universal Electronics.
There have been numerouslawsuitsandpatentclaims on Nintendo's Wii and DS interface technology. We're wondering if any of these companies who are suing Nintendo for patent infringement will ever sue each other for the same violations. We won't be seeing the lawsuit go to court anytime soon, however, as it's been put on hold while the ITC investigates. According to Bloomberg, that could take about 15 months.
Wha? What is this? Well, to offer you a more streamlined recap of the goings-on in the Nintendo world, we've combined the DS Lite and Wii Fanboy Weekly recaps into one powerhouse, now dubbed Nintendo Fanboy Weekly. Hopefully, you'll like the new approach.
But enough of that, check out our links. They're homegrown with the finest original features and old coffee grinds.
We've just heard from our man at the Leipzig Games Convention Jem Alexander, and he's got some exciting news for fans of pint-sized rocking: Miis will be used in Guitar Hero World Tour's Wii version of the game. He didn't say how, so we're hoping that they'll play Oompa-Loompa-like minature roadies who rush onto stage and fix broken strings for the full size rockers. But we doubt it.
Oh, Jem also passed along that all versions of the game would include exclusive European tracks, which is secret code for "you'll have to buy them later through DLC."
One of the most surprising films in the sort of "Holy crap? What the heck?! This is cool!" vein to come out of SXSW film festival earlier this year was Blip Festival: Reformat The Planet. It's all about chiptune music and the performers, and is beautifully shot. It's hard to imagine Nintendo thinking people would be hacking into their Game Boys in order to create full-fledged concerts, concerts that would one day spark a feature documentary and an entire genre of music.
For one week, you can watch the impressive documentary at Pitchfork.tv. It's even broken up into bite-sized chapters for you. Give it a looksee and you'll find yourself toe-tapping along to the addictive 8-bit music throughout the film. It's beaten Wizard Rock as our current favorite geek music of choice.
According to DFC intelligence figures cited by Dave Perry, Sony has lost more money on the PlayStation 3 hardware than it made on the PlayStation 2 during its five most popular years. In pure numbers speak it's lost $3 billion on the PS3, which is about equivalent to everything it made selling PS2s during its peak years. This story would actually have a lot more impact if Carl Sagan was around to say "beelyuns."
Perry, best known for his stint at Shiny Entertainment, was speaking at the really long-named Games Convention Developers Conference, which appears to be both a Convention and a Conference, and was just using the figures to underscore how much Sony was spending on hardware development. However, the 1UP article doesn't mention until near the end that the original PS2 lost money in its first year, and that Sony (and the other console makers) does this so it can make bank on the software/games that people need to fuel their systems.
In all fairness, the article goes on to explain that Microsoft lost $4 billion on the original Xbox, and has had to spend over $1 billion replacing faulty hardware in the 360 and extending the warranty for original purchasers. So, we tend to think $5 billion trumps $3 billion. The real winner in this struggle? Nintendo. It has been churning a profit on that little Wii since it hopped out of the gate. Rassin' frassin' wand-wagglin' profiteers.
The Virtual Console just got its weekly nostalgia injection, offering fans of all colors -- but mostly blue and green -- something else to download and play as we wonder where the weekend went and why exactly there is a receipt for a Magnet Beam on the kitchen table.
Mega Man (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): With the Blue Bomber set to don pixelated pajamas next month, his freshman adventure marks this week's most noteworthy addition to the Wii's window into the past. Assuming you haven't bought the original Mega Man in one of Capcom's many other compilations, Guts Man and company are waiting ever so patiently for you to drop by.
Neo Turf Masters (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points): This is 133 megs of hot golf action right here, straight from 1996 to your living room. You don't have even to admit to your friends that you like video game golf. We'll keep your dirty little secret.
Tossing aside the standard temporal ocarina for something a little more complex, a "Flute Link" cosplayer performed on stage at this year's Masquerade show at the Otakon 2008 in Baltimore, bringing Navi in tow. It's a great performance, although it's hard to tell when she's playing live and when it's pre-recorded (for demonstrationg of her live performance, we also embedded a video of Flute Link performing Tetris with an Otaku band.
And for anyone who ever wished Navi would get her what for, keep watching until about the 4:25 mark. Video embedded after the break.
OK, so you probably would have been a little upset to find that the "Wii hard drive" you bought after reading about it on gaming and anime site NeoCrisis was, in fact, a picture of an air conditioner (sadly, the story has now been removed). But think about the plus side! Think of how your rage would just melt away when you were hit with the tear-freezing power of 3000 BTUs streaming out of the Yamazen portable air conditioner!
Honestly, the most concerning thing about this story is that Nintendo Wii Fanboy's own J.C. Fletcher spotted the fake and knew it was a model of Japanese air conditioner. What are you doing with your time, man?
According to DFC intelligence figures cited by 
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