Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Well, we're all familiar with this sight. Nintendo is on top again, with the NPD numbers for March reporting that the Nintendo kicked ass with the Wii and, you guessed it, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. We won't do any further introducing of the sales figures, as that's what you're here for anyway.

Hardware sales in the U.S. for the month of March were:

- Wii: 721K 289K (40%)
- DS: 698K 110.4K (15.8%) [Update: Fixed typo in growth number]
- PSP: 297K 53.9K (18.1%)
- Xbox 360: 262K 7.4K (2.8%)
- PS3: 257K 23.8K (9.3%)
- PS2: 216K 135.8K (62.9%)

Well, well, it looks like Pachter was dead on about the hardware figures. Head on past the break for the software sales.

'Cross the sultry plains of Elmer'terath Plains, a cold dust blows at the feet of the barbarian, Golgawii. He sniffs the air, reveling the fresh scent of blood. He did not think much on it, though, for he was a barbarian, and muscles are always inversely proportional to intelligence.

He had just traversed the ultimately inconsequential Amriel mountains range in the far north of the Dractonian lands, in which the Eighth War of The Ages of the Third Rule of the Kings of Men was waged between the elves, ocrs, dwarves, dragons, faeries, gnomes, trolls, ogres, and various other creatures found in Shrek. It totally ushered in a new age.

Golgawii grasped his magical pendant, which contained supermegaawesome power. He received it after trading in his magic ring carved from the Stone of Ancient Wisdom using the Blade of Strength in the ...

Will Tolkien's soul stab us after this? Maybe. The Wii triumphed in an upset victory over the top seeded PSP, which is excellent, and the disqualified DS Lite predictably demolished any possible competition. Enjoy the remainder of the (real) tournament, everyone!

- DS Lite: 121,471 12,959 (11.94%)
- Wii: 67,070 22,575 (50.74%)
- PSP: 43,769 12,406 (22.08%)
- PS3: 21,635 10,480 (32.63%)
- PS2: 13,321 1,264 (8.67%)
- Xbox 360: 2,910 423 (12.69%)
- Game Boy Micro: 727 85 (10.47%)
- GBA SP: 557 122 (17.97%)
- Gamecube: 367 127 (52.92%)
- DS Phat: 159 40 (33.61%)
- GBA: 9 4 (30.77%)

[Source: Media Create]

Ubisoft has shown perhaps the staunchest third party support for the Wii, previously pledging a ridiculous eight games at launch. As if that wasn't enough, the go-get-em' developer has stated in a recent financial report that they will be releasing no less than fourteen games by March 2007. Since Ubisoft has announced no other games then those coming at launch, the additional six are completely unknown.

Though we may not know much, apparently one of the six is a "non-announced new brand", implying an original IP. Are the others, then, mere sequels, ports, and remakes? Well, the more the merrier, we say. A particularly sad detail, however, is that the report specifically mentions only seven games at launch, which means one of the original eight may not be on the streets come November 19th after all. Which is it? Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII, and GT Pro Series are the likely candidates, though we won't know for sure till close to launch time.

Now remember, kids, say your prayers for love, peace, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 every night, and maybe one will come true. You know which one we want.

[via Joystiq]

Sony's announcements this week about PS3 delays were certainly big news, though they can't really be called surprising. Dark rumors of manufacturing troubles have haunted the company for weeks. What with outcries over advertising campaigns and their less-than-stellar showings at the trade shows, Sony's problems have cast a pall over their entire year. Regardless, confirmation that there were delays, that the number of consoles at launch would be cut to only 500,000, and that launch would be delayed for months in Europe -- until March, in fact – almost seems like the nail in the coffin of their image.

Now, just to clarify -- while we may trade jibes with the other fanboys from time to time, in the end, we're all in this together, bound by a mutual love of games. Any true gamer appreciates a good game simply for its goodness; we savor smooth controls and smoother heroes, mouth-watering graphics and addictive gameplay. And we salute Sony, because they have brought us some of our most cherished gaming experiences. Sony isn't home, but it's a nice place to visit now and then.

But having granted that we bear Sony no grudge, it's impossible to ignore the fact that the news of the week will affect Nintendo, and so we have a stake in the fallout.

Scott Steinberg, VP of Sega's marketing division, recently spoke to GameDaily about the next generation of consoles. There was a good amount of Wii-speak, including a reaffirmation of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz at launch and a tentative release date of March for Sonic Wildfire. From the interview:

"There's a bit of a design, creative learning curve on how to fully exploit the nunchuks and Sega is already thinking about its second generation software. So if they're not already here, they probably weren't on board at the beginning and the companies are going to have a harder time thinking about ways to innovate and Sega's already thinking second generation."

Sega's quite a supporter of the Wii, but Scott does comment that he hasn't seen a metric ton of Wii games in development from third parties, contrary to the raving Nintendo fanboys. Hopefully, games like Banana Blitz and Wildfire can create a large enough install base to make those third-party games worthwhile for developers. More delicious interview in the link.