Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Coming in at over 50% of platform sales for the Month of December, Nintendo's handhelds and consoles kicked butt all over Europe this holiday season. The information comes via Chart Track, who also say that Nintendo's DS was the top selling platform for all of 2006. For those with a keen eye, this means that Nintendo's dual-screen handheld is the top-selling game system in every major gaming territory (with the other two being the US and Japan, natch).

How many of you in the region picked up a Nintendo product over the holidays?

Dave Karraker, recently appointed as Sony's new senior director of corporate communications, took the time to take a knee with Gamasutra and gab gaming. At least, gaming from his company Sony's point of view. Important to people like us with the Nintendo logo etched into their underwear, however, is Mr. Karraker remarks concerning the Wii:

GS: A lot of people feel that's Sony's way of taking on all comers – who do you feel is your main competitor right now?

DK: I would say that if you asked any gamer, our main competitor is the Xbox 360, just because the target demographic that we're going after is similar. That being said, I think in regards to Nintendo and the Wii, it's easier for us to go after the hardcore gamer first, as that's kind of always been our target, and if we want to expand from there to the more casual gamer, it's probably easier for us to do than start with the casual gamer, and try to go up to the hardcore gamer. It's an easier message for me to deliver.

GS: Are you worried at all about Nintendo taking any marketshare from the PS3, or do you really feel like people will buy one HD console and the Wii?

DK: Yeah, for us it's apples and oranges when you compare the PS3 with Wii. They've done a great job of saying exactly who they're going after, the casual gamer, the hardcore gamer, and we've said exactly who we're going after. And you can't, when you put the systems side by side technologically, and even price-wise, they just don't compare to each other.

So let's get this straight: by "price-wise" he meant that for a system including a HDD and Blu-ray player, there is no comparrison in cost to the Wii? Well, if we wanted to put a Blu-ray player and HDD into a Wii, we imagine it would cost us a bit more than $600.00. Side-by-side on a retail shelf, however, is a different matter. Besides, who says Nintendo-lovin' gamers aren't hardcore? I killed a shark with my bare hands once!*

* - This is, in fact, a lie.

For how quirky and unique a game Katamari Damacy is, I find it odd that its creator is not interested in the Revolution at all. When conversing with Gamasutra's sister-publication Game Developer at GDC, Keita Takahashi claimed "So, there's nothing I really want to do with it right now." He went on further to say "I'm not really interested in it. I don't think a controller should have that much influence on the enjoyment of games."

Don't you think he's kind of missing the point? Isn't it not so much that the remote influences the game, but more that it adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay? Red Steel isn't a brand new type of game forced to compromise to the remote's characteristics, it takes the unique properties of the remote and aims to mix it with conventional first-person gameplay to create something new. How can you possibly not be interested in that?! Of course, comparisons to Red Steel aren't all that valid since noone has tried it, but you get the point, right?

Yannis Mallet, the recently-promoted Ubisoft Montreal Studio CEO, conducted a small Q & A session with Gamasutra. Most concerning the upcoming Nintendo Revolution was the allusion to Ubisoft working on more titles for the platform aside from the already-confirmed Red Steel. When asked about upcoming games for the Revolution, Yannis said "I can say definitely, as any other developer, we are looking at this magical platform, and we want to be part of the adventure. You know already that Red Steel is made public in Game Informer. That's an exclusive Ubisoft title, made in Ubisoft Paris. And I'm pretty sure we'll see other Revolution games from Ubisoft. And some of them, I'm sure, will be made from Montreal."

Gamasutra scored an interview with Pandemic's Josh Resnick, the second Pandemic member to speak their opinions on the Revolution. While more focused on the joining of the two distinct development houses, there is some talk of the Revolution. In asking about the difficulties the Revolution presents from a developer's point of view, Josh said "I don’t think it’s going to be as easy to take a product from one console to the Revolution, and so I think we are going to be looking to see how we can tailor our products to that platform. But we do that also with other platforms as well, it’s just that the Revolution may challenge us even more."

One of the initial concerns after the Revolution's remote was shown was just how third-party titles would be ported over to the console, something Nintendo stated would be easy provided a shell was acquired by the user. Josh's statements show a bit of reluctance toward porting over their established franchises to the Revolution and instead reaffirm the belief that the Revolution will see fresh titles, exclusive to the platform, from development houses.

Gamasutra reports that Nintendo HQ has adopted a new software management solution in Aldon Lifecycle Manager. What this new program allows the bigwigs over in Washington to do is maintain a high level of awareness throughout different development projects (such as all upcoming Revolution titles) as they go through their lifecycles. Now, apparently, it won't be the impossibly difficult task of walking over to the development area and asking the Project Lead where they're at currently. It's now only a mouse click away. Let's hope it helps those at Nintendo who've been having problems with their TPS reports, also.