Amazon.com’s Friday Goldbox Sale: Wii Edition

Nobody loves a good deal like we do over here at MyWiiNews. I know that I spend so much time online looking for good deals that it probably negates any actual savings that I make when I actually buy something. Sure it might look a little silly in retrospect, but every once in a while, a great deal comes along that makes it all worthwhile. Add a little bit of surprise and anticipation to that deal, and I just might explode with happiness.

Enter Amazon.com.

Every day, Amazon has their special “Gold Box Deal” which features one product for sale all day at a discounted rate, with special “Lightning Deals” that happen at specific times during the day. This Friday, Amazon’s Gold Box has a special theme: All Wii, All Day. That’s right, every single special sale from Amazon.com will be a (hopefully) wonderful Wii game! This special Gold Box sale goes as follows:

• At 12:01 AM PST the first deal will be the Gold Box Deal of the Day. Its special discounted price will be available all day only on Friday, Feb. 22 (or until we run out.)
• Starting at 6:00 AM PST, the second deal will be featured as a Lightning Deal. This special price will be available for the following four hours.
• Each of the three remaining deals will also be Lightning Deals. Starting at 10:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 6:00 PM PST, each deal will be available for four hours after it begins.
• Discounts on each deal will be available only while supplies last.

That’s right, fellow Wii lovers! The first, and daylong deal goes on sale at 12:01am (Midnight) PST this Friday, so set your browsers to auto-refresh and get ready to checkout with some cheap Wii swag! If you miss out (or don’t care for) the first deal, check back throughout the day to grab whatever tickles your fancy. It’s all Wii all day, and you’ll be darn sure that we’ll be waiting there right alongside you. Good luck!

Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #4 - Innovation and Potential

[Over the past two weeks, MyWiiNews has presented a four-part, in-depth series on the biggest problems that face the Wii in 2008. We have been looking at the problems and offering a few tips for Nintendo & Co. to meet the challenges head on, and keep the console in first place. This brings the series to a close, but stay tuned to more exclusive content found only at MyWiiNews.com]

As this four-part series draws to a close, we here at MyWiiNews hope that you have picked up a greater understanding of the issues that are facing the Wii in 2008. For our fourth, and final, segment on the hurdles facing the Wii, we’re going to bring the last couple of qualms together to discuss two issues that will face the Wii throughout its entire lifespan: innovation and potential.

Looking at the Wii on paper, it can be difficult to immediately see what all the fuss is about. It has processing power that seems to be on par with last generation, it lacks true HD capability (or anything on par with/above 720p), and still hasn’t taken the jump to optical sound for anything past Dolby Pro Logic II. With videogame systems continually emphasizing pushing the envelope in terms of graphical presentation and power, why would a developer in their right mind put out a graphically-dwarfed system? The answer lies in the same thing that Nintendo is betting on to keep the Wii afloat through its lifespan: gaming innovation.

Innovation

The Wii has gotten off to a wonderful start so far, with overwhelming consumer demand that surpassed even the best analyst’s projections, and a handful of games that have really pushed new boundaries and used the innovative control scheme to their advantage. Even though that small handful of titles have pushed new boundaries, the underoverwhelming majority of titles released have either been ports or simple games with a little motion waggle tagged onto their package. In order for the Wii to remain on top, publishers need to realize that the Wii is more than a casual game/port receptacle. I’m as excited as the next guy to play through Okami the way that I always thought it should be played (on a Wii), but we need more titles like Opoona that are going to push things to the next level in terms of innovation and overall style.

After all, everything boils down to the games at the end of the day, and unless unless new, original content is paving the way for a unique and awesome experience like the DS has, the Wii’s momentum will start to slow, and everyone who owns a Wii will suffer. Publishers need to abandon Youichi Wada’s misconception that the Wii isn’t a games machine or is capable of having “real games.” While it’s true that next-gen titles on the Wii may not hold up to their counterparts, the idea that graphics are the only factor in a title’s success is a crazy one. What the Wii lacks in terms of processing power, it makes up tenfold in its overall potential to create innovative gaming experiences that can be found nowhere else.

What exactly about the Wii lends itself to such forms of innovation? For starters, it’s low development cost. Since the Wii’s hardware is extremely similar to that of the GameCube’s, publishers are already familiar with the things they can do with the system and how to proceed to get the best results. Because of this, developers don’t have to waste as much of their resources trying to harness the system’s power and figuring out how to work with a whole new platform, allowing for more games to be developed for less amounts of money. This gives the Wii a distinct advantage over its competitors, since the titles that are created for cheaper can more easily turn a profit (since they can create a game for almost half as much as they could elsewhere), allowing for developers to take more risks and try new things. This lends itself perfectly to the innovation that the Wii is all about. As uniquely beautiful titles such as No More Heroes, Zack and Wiki, and the upcoming Opoona demonstrate, the Wii is capable of it’s own immersive style, gameplay and beauty that is not found anywhere else. All of these things come together to give the Wii one of it’s strongest aspects that must be addressed throughout this coming year: it’s potential.

Potential

Out of all three next-gen systems, I would have to say that the Wii possesses the greatest amount of potential for both developers and gamers. With such a low opportunity cost for developers to experiment with the Wii’s innovative technology, and the huge userbase willing to eat up worthwhile games (when they’re made aware of their existence), the Wii has the potential to allow developers all kinds of creative freedom not found on any other console.

The innovative controls also potentially allow new ways for developers to envision how a videogame is supposed to work. It’s important for developers to experiment and try new things with the Wii’s control scheme – simply adding a bit of waggle to a title won’t make it a groundbreaking experience. Taking a look at games that have got it right, such as WarioWare and Mario Galaxy, we find that the Wii Remote has lots of potential in many different areas. Mario Galaxy demonstrated how well that standard control works with bits of motion “flourishes,” while WarioWare was one of the first titles to really show the diversity of ways that the Wii Remote can be utilized for tasks and other innovative situations. The more that developers can utilize this potential in the control scheme and use it for more than just silly gimmicks, the better off Wii games will be.

It’s important to point out one of the biggest shortcomings of the Wii when looking at the problems it faces throughout the next year, and one of the most questionable areas for the Wii lies in its support from multiplatform blockbusters. Many larger companies who are focused on pushing the boundaries in videogames through cinematics and graphical presentation are finding development for the Wii to be a problem. How can developers “downgrade” a graphical powerhouse such as Assassins Creed or Gears of War to make it compatible with the Wii’s dwarfed hardware? And will the results be anything worth spending money on?

Both questions are some of the most pressing issues facing the Wii, especially as more and more of last-generation’s blockbuster exclusives become multiplatform behemoths. Many of these games rely on similar enough hardware and controls to make the game look and perform in the same manner on different consoles. With the Wii, neither the control scheme nor the graphical capabilities are the same, resulting in a lack of developer interest in including the Wii in their multiplatform plans. Will the Wii be able to host Resident Evil 5 if it’s multiplatform? Can Grand Theft Auto ever appear on a Nintendo system? These questions will have to be worked out by developers and Nintendo, who obviously want to reach out to the largest userbase of the current generation. It’s going to be an interesting battle, and one that can only be figured out over time.

Epilogue

As this four-part mini-series comes to a close, I would like to thank everyone for bickering about Nintendo’s situation, thus forcing me to compile this article to try and address what we here at MyWiiNews take to be the most pressing issues facing the Nintendo Wii. It’s important to realize that these problems are in no way exclusive to 2008, and many will continue to work themselves out through the system’s lifespan. Undoubtedly, the Wii will continue to struggle for quite some times with its casual game dilemma, and the third-party support hinges on more and more consumers taking a bit of a risk with the new ideas that only the Nintendo Wii will allow developers to take.

We really can’t stress enough that the Wii is not doomed in any sense of the word; if anything it has the brightest lineup this year out of any other consoles. With some of the most intriguing games to make it onto a console in some time, developers are slowly but surely learning what kinds of calculated risks can be taken with the new system and it’s unique userbase. 2008 already looks to be one of the best years for videogames in general, and here’s to hoping that many of these challenges facing the Wii are adequately addressed and worked out through the upcoming year!

Did you miss a part? Fear not! Catch up on the whole series, only on MyWiiNews:

• Part #1 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #1 - Shortages
• Part #2 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #2 - Third-Party Support
• Part #3 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #3 - Saturation of Casual Games
• Part #4 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #4 - Innovation and Potential

Homebrewers Sucessfully Hack the Wii!

If you’re anything like me, you’d probably give Wii homebrew a shot if it didn’t involve cracking its pretty little case open and testing your mad soldiering skills. To those of us who still like to keep our system’s warranties mildly intact (and free of burn holes), hackers over at TehSkeen have apparently been successful in running four whole lines of code without touching it’s valuable innards. According to the hackers in question, the process was achieved by altering a saved game for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in order to make it crash the system and subsequently load the four lines of homebrew code.

Only four lines of code, you say? As Brakken noted on the initial post, it’s only in a days work. They’ve apparently already doubled that amount within a few days and status updates are expected anytime soon. With a little luck and time, hackers should be able to get real working Wii homebrew to load on the console, enabling new games and possibilities for the tens of millions of Wii owners worldwide. Let’s hope that these guys can get something working soon, because as anyone who played a soft-modded Xbox knows, a solderless homebrew alternative to modchips is always a welcome one.

Prayers Answered: Rock Band For Wii Announced!

Musically inclined Wii enthusiasts, your prayers have been answered! Electronic Arts finally came out of the woodwork and announced that Rock Band, Guitar Hero’s biggest competition for the 2008 musical crown, will be coming out for the Wii! When trumpeting the resounding success of Guitar Hero 3 late last week, we speculated that the newcomer to the music scene would be making it’s way to the Wii sometime soon. After all, with one of the largest console rates worldwide, it only makes sense for MTV/Harmonix to bring their game to the wonderous, untapped Wii market sometime this year.

No further details on the game have been announced at this moment, but we can only hope that the masses of downloadable songs will somehow be made available for purchase for Wii owners. The poor souls who picked up the severely gimped PlayStatoin 2 version were not only robbed of downloadable content, but the bands phenomenal World Tour mode as well. That unfortunately downgraded port seemed thrown together at best, so here’s to hoping that the developers have used their extra time to work out all the kinks for the Wii version of the game.

So for those about to rock, get ready to salute by picking up your giant box of Rock Band sometime before the end of the year.

[Via Kotaku]

Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #3 - Saturation of Casual Games

[Over the next two weeks, MyWiiNews is offering a four-part, in-depth series on the biggest problems that face the Wii in 2008. We'll be looking at the problems and offering a few tips for Nintendo & Co. to meet the challenges head on, and keep the console in first place. Stay tuned to catch the whole series, only at MyWiiNews.com]

Welcome back to the third installment of the MyWiiNews four-part, in-depth feature on the four biggest problems facing the Wii in 2008. Today we continue on in the same direction as yesterday’s discussion about third-party developers and march on to discuss how two types of games are currently competing for the Wii’s spotlight: casual and hardcore.

The Wii has had a remarkable run over the past year, uniting people together through videogames in ways that many gaming purists had never thought imaginable. Extending the marketing patterns already in place with the Nintendo DS, Nintendo aimed to create a home console that appealed to different generations and types of gamers. Through their emphasis on casual games that anyone could just “pick up and play,” the Nintendo Wii caught on instantly with people everywhere and became an overnight sensation that has continued on to this very day.

While the new emphasis on casual games has influenced a wider range of people to pick up a Wii, the dangers of being such as casual console are beginning to show. On a whole, casual gamers don’t tend to buy as many games as more core or “hardcore” gamers usually do, since the casual gamers generally aren’t the ones following gaming news and waiting for the latest title to come out. The attach rate (average amount of games sold per system) for the Nintendo Wii has been approximately 5.3 titles per console, which is rather strong for a system that has only been out for a little over a year, but is still trailing behind the more “hardcore” Xbox 360’s 7 titles per system.

What does this all mean? While it’s easy to jump the gun and point a finger while exclaiming that a casual system is a doomed system, it’s a bit too early (and absolutely ridiculous) to call the Wii an eventual failure. One thing that I hope was made clear enough yesterday was how necessary it is for the Wii to have solid third-party support in order for the it to appeal to the widest range of gamers possible. Going hand in hand with this is the importance of having more “hardcore” titles on the shelves in order to keep the core gamers, who will almost always support a system more faithfully than a purely casual gamer, happy and buying.

All of this begs the inevitable question: what makes a game “hardcore” or casual? Gamers may debate this until the end of time, but roughly stated, a casual game focuses on being as appealing and easy to pick up and play as possible. Casual games are games like Wii Sports, Mario Kart, WarioWare, etc. that take little practice to be able to play and enjoy. More hardcore games cannot be enjoyed fully unless a player puts the time into enjoy them by learning about the story, exploring environments, and working towards mastering the game. This does not mean that a casual title can’t be mastered or a hardcore title cannot have a widespread audience that enjoys the game (as is evident with Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and various other games that have sold millions of copies), but simply that hardcore games cannot be picked up at whim like a casual game could.

On a whole, it’s hard to deny how much casual titles are dominating the Wii at the moment. With simple minigame packages, ports, and other shovelware relatively cheap to churn out and make a quick buck from, many developers are using the casual emphasis of the Wii to flood it with the mindless crap that was described yesterday. The lack of emphasis on more hardcore titles will hurt the system in the long run, as gamers will eventually grow bored of the multitude of games with little to no substance. In order for Nintendo to truly appeal to all audiences and compete head to head with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the Wii needs to start focusing on developing more hardcore titles that will draw players in and make them want more.

The effects of the Wii’s stigma as a casual-only gaming machine are something that can be felt when walking down the aisles of practically any electronics store. GameStop has taken this a step further by outright eschewing more traditional core titles in favor of the casual shovelware that currently litters store shelves While this will undoubtedly have a pronounced effect on the Wii in the long run once the casual gamers stop biting, how is Nintendo supposed to manage their casual majority? Can the casual gamers become longtime hardcore fans? We think that it’s possible, and with a little bit of the work we suggest, Nintendo can be sure to remain a success for years to come.

1. Try to Strike a Balance Between “Casual” and “Hardcore” Titles

At the moment, the Wii is overrun with mediocre casual cash-ins that are discouraging publishers from making more hardcore titles. Much like our suggestion yesterday, Nintendo should start to become a more active part of the game approval process in order to focus the market on a smaller selection of worthwhile casual games and make room for more hardcore titles. Both are necessary when looking at the entirety of the system’s users, and striking a balance on the shelves will make the Wii seem like a more quality system instead of a trash receptacle.

As previously mentioned, much of the Wii’s current fan base are casual gamers that picked up the system due to its versatility and ease of use. For some of these owners, the Wii marks their first big gaming purchase, and as such, is a great way for them to get more into videogames. Creating “intro-hardcore” titles that include more “training wheels” for first time casual gamers, such as thorough tutorials, lowered difficulty, and casual options (like the on-rails arcade adventure option found in Medal of Honor: Heroes 2), would be a great way for Nintendo to tap their overflowing resource of casual gamers and help them grow into full blown gamers.

2. Balance Out Individual Titles More Effectively

Building off of the Medal of Honor example, Nintendo and third-party developers should focus on balancing out casual and hardcore elements of individual titles that are released for the Wii. Super Mario Galaxy is a great example of this. It effectively balances a main game that any casual gamer could make their way through and enjoy, while offering an extended adventure for any hardcore player that wants to collect every star in the game. Even though it isn’t quite as “pick up and play” as some might want a casual game to be, Mario Galaxy still strikes that delicate balance between being a core game that any novice can pick up, and a title that presents enough challenge for hardened players to enjoy.

Working on creating more core titles that appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers will be a challenge that Nintendo & Co. will have to work on in the coming year. Finding out the proper way to balance out individual titles will be the biggest hurdle for many developers, as finding out how to make your title appeal to both markets will obviously bring in the greatest revenue possible. More games with separate casual and hardcore elements, a la Medal of Honor’s separate arcade and story modes, will be an extremely valuable way for more casual gamers to start to see games as more than a casual diversion.

Truth be told, Nintendo’s upcoming 2008 release list looks extremely promising. With a pretty solid mix of hardcore and casual games setting the tone for the majority of 2008, gamers should have a lot to play through the year. It’s important to note that this list doesn’t include all of little titles mentioned, as further examination of the February release list uncovers a lot of the shovelware crap on the way as well. As long as Nintendo can work on focusing its resources on promoting the worthwhile casual and hardcore games, we can keep on hoping for the scene to get even brighter. Check back here at MyWiiNews next week for the exciting conclusion to our in-depth series!

Did you miss a part? Ready to read on? Catch the whole series, only at MyWiiNews:

• Part #1 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #1 - Shortages
• Part #2 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #2 - Third-Party Support
• Part #3 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #3 - Saturation of Casual Games
• Part #4 - Four Problems Facing the Wii in 2008: #4 - Innovation and Potential