Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Even when it was called the Revolution, Crossbeam Studios decided to get their hands dirty and promote some big titles. The original three were Thorn, Midnight and Orb, and everyone was totally getting into the vibe of these promising projects.

Unfortunately, all those titles seem to be heading to the big recycle bin in the sky. The studio isn't going out of business; they are changing direction towards the PC and the early Wii projects simply aren't a priority, despite the fan following. A giant Falafelkid article on Crossbeam delves deep into the studio and its staff, which is a must-read for anyone interested in the core machinations of a smaller development team.

The games haven't been scrapped forever and ever, but you can stop thinking about saving up for any imminent pre-orders. Check out Cubed3's coverage and discussion with Greg Szemiot from Crossbeam, as well as the original dissection feature.

[Via Cubed3]

Nanostray 2 ... on Wii? Orb, Thorn and Midnight all coming this year? When they leak retail information sheets in the UK, they do it right. Wii UK got their hands on a retail list (origin and destination unknown) with few concrete dates and a lot of unexpected, and even unknown games, as well as a few old favorites we're always happy to hear about. Hit the jump for the full list, but keep in mind that these are UK titles and games ... and since there's not much source information, you might want to keep a few grains of salt handy. But it's okay to get a little excited. We won't tell anyone.

Accordingly to all reputable sources, the game-formerly-known-as-Darkness is, at the very least, still a year off from release. The survival-horror project, one of Crossbeam Studio's trifecta of titles (Orb, Thorn, and Darkness), had to be renamed due to copyright conflicts with The Darkness, a title by 2k Games. Thus, Crossbeam Studios has announced an official name change of Darkness to Midnight. Still awesome. Name changes are fine and dandy, but someone needs to let Sega know that Wildfire is still way cooler than Secret Rings.

[Update 1: Silly us ... we confused Sadness with Darkness. Fixed.]

Sorry for the delay, folks! You know how those Mac users always muck things up, them and their video editing and whatnot.

Seriously though, a very special thank you to Doug Keller, who devoted his time and effort for no real reason at all. Rock on, Doug. Expect some sillier clips from the event in the near future, but for now, sit back and enjoy the excellent and oh-so-professional reporting by yours truly. All right, so an Anchorman I'm not.

(And yes, Nintendo fanboys seem to have mysterious issues with counting down. It's weird, we know.)

And then the bad news: EB Games sold my nunchuk. The glee of bringing home a spankin' new Wii at midnight is somewhat marred by the fact that there will be no boxing in this house until at least tomorrow morning, because the guy at EB Games broke street date and sold off my preordered nunchuk. He didn't even have the grace to lie like any sane human being and try to play it off like they hadn't received them. Who wants to be he sold it off to himself or another employee?

Lame.

But the lameness is overwhelmed by the presence of Wii, in all its glory. And of course, there's all sorts of box debris. Check out a second photo after the jump.

We salute you, unnamed Target employee who leaks internal documents and places his own livelihood at risk in the process. Courtesy said nameless hero, the specific number of Wii units headed to each outlet has been (supposedly) revealed.

Instructions: head to this forum page and find your local store. Note its specific store number, then head to the previous page and cross-check your store number in the list. The second-to-last number in the line will be the number of units received by that store. The internet loves you, you know. In lieu of searching confusing forum page posts, just head here, type in your area code, and view the convenient results that spew forth from yon servers. It'll return several stores in the area, weighted by both proximity and number of Wii units available.

Some math reveals that the average number of Wii units per store is close to 46, a decent stock indeed. We know it'll be difficult come launch day, but with perseverance and and the ability to resist biting cold, you'll get your console yet.

[Thanks, Antibot and Elliott!]

[Update 1: Added better "Wii Finder" app]