Those of us too cheap to buy DVRs love that most TV networks offer their programming online -- after all, we'd hate to tell our friends that we couldn't hang out on a Friday night because we had to watch BSG. Even so, we prefer to watch TV on actual televisions rather than computer screens. The Wii seems like a perfect way to compromise this, but until Adobe releases a Flash upgrade on their software development kit, it's not going to happen.
We already know that a lot of you use your Wii's Opera browser, but what do you think of it? Are there any limitations you've noticed besides the Flash issue? What other improvements do you think Opera could make? And are there any games or applications that you find perfect for Wii browsing?
Following yesterday's news of developer Engine Software's Project Bang! being the next title to hit Wii Ware, many were wondering what was up with the blurb about Wii Ware launching in March of this year. Personally, we'd like to see the service launch in March. It's as good a time as any for us.
But, Nintendo isn't willing to confirm or deny that is the launch window for their download service. "Nintendo has not made any official announcement regarding the launch of the WiiWare service," Nintendo commented. So, with no news on what exactly Project Bang! is and no solid launch date for Nintendo's service, we're left where we started. And that place is desperately waiting for the day we can download Dr. Mario on our Wii.
Back in November when we heard about Japanese telecoms provider Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp combining forces with Nintendo to promote the Wii and its online capabilities, we weren't sure what kind of adverts would be the result. In the commercial above, we get a small glimpse at Smash Bros. Brawl, but the majority of the ad is populated by a happy woman and some kind of egg deal. What is the significance of the egg? Someone please explain the egg to us?
Forget your grandma's boring old Nintendo.com. The new Nintendo.com is extreme in a kind of way that can only be measured in Quantum Dew Units. That's right, the new Nintendo.com's most extreme nature can only be compared to cans of Mountain Dew, with a single can representing one QDU. Right now, Nintendo.com is at about 74,821.288888 QDU. In case you were wondering, that's enough Mountain Dew to choke a unicorn to death.
But, in all seriousness, Nintendo.com just looks very ... white now. There's so much white space, we're compelled to bust out a marker and draw little pictures in the margins like we did back in school. But, then again, maybe that's why we didn't graduate. Or may be are brain am broke.
Head on over to the new site and poke around. For those of you looking for the return of the Nsider forums, you're out of luck.
Before the launch of downloadable games on Wii Ware, Nintendo has decided they need to push the online features of the Wii console in Japan. So, they've teamed up with Japanese telecoms provider Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp to do just that.
As part of the deal, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp will offer up discounted internet start up packages and set-up help to Wii owners. By doing so, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp hopes to boost penetration for fiber optic internet service by hooking in some of the Wii's large user base.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp senior exec VP Tetsuo Koga hopes to have "20 million subscribers by the year ending March 2011."
A fresh press release from Hullbreach Online, that Wii Internet Channel MMO we reported on a few weeks back, states that some people have decided to give it a try. With 1,175 members, the game has grown a bit. There are now 576 different sectors that players can hyperjump to, as well as numerous quests and combat scenarios to complete. From the press release, it sounds like this thing is growing pretty fast.
While we haven't played it ourselves (darn this blogging), we love to hear about this kind of stuff. Ambition projects are few and far between, it seems, so we look forward to December. Why? Well, that's when the final release hits, which will have NPC interaction, asteroid mining and player-to-player bartering.
Has anyone given this a try? Are you finding it to your liking? Or, is it a waste of time?
Over at Go Nintendo, a reader sent in the above image, which is a hurdle that those wishing to enter the latest Nintendo Power sweepstakes need to tackle. It throws up flags in all areas, as it causes us to believe Nintendo is honestly considering providing us with some sort of demo download service. We don't like the idea of having to pay for the ability to do this, but we'll smile for the time being just at the thought that Nintendo is doing something in regards to the online situation.
Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.
When WiiWare was announced, it seemed like a godsend for the garage developer wishing to make Wii games for mass appreciation. But details on how to get your hands on a WiiWare development kit and the costs involved are not public knowledge, and the official launch of the distribution channel (on the Wii Shop Channel) isn't going to be happening until some time next year. So what's a Wii-loving, budget-restricted developer to do in the meanwhile? Making games for Wii's Opera Browser is one option.
If you have a website, you may have wondered just what you might need to do to make it Wii-friendly. Luckily, there's a great guide on Opera for the Wii available at the Opera Development Community that goes into all the ins and outs of just what the Wii's browser can do, and plenty of tips to make browsing from the sofa a little easier. The in-depth guide even looks at the smallest of details, such as what is and isn't available in the onscreen keyboard, and what kind of addresses and forms are workable on the console. For anyone looking to make the web a little more Wii-friendly, this is the place to go.
Ubisoft posted a job announcement looking for an online programmer for Wii projects. The listing states that the job is in their "Production Studio in Paris, where Red Steeland Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter games have been developed."
It seems kind of likely that this involves Red Steel 2, which was itself basically announced via job listing, but let's not get out our Jump to Conclusions Mats. Yes, slicing your friends up online would be pretty great. But Ubisoft works on a lot of games other than Red Steel, and there are a lot of things you can do online that aren't playing games, as Nintendo has ably demonstrated with every Wii channel.
So we're pretty happy with the Wii browser, and apparently you guys are too. Still, it's not a PC, and there are sites out there with whom our Opera browser doesn't play happily. It only features Flash 7.0, after all, and Java is a no-go. Still, can it handle some of the most popular sites out there? Games Digest takes the Wii browser on a spin through fifteen of the most popular sites in today's intertubes, and compares its performance with the PS3's built-in browser. We won't spoil the outcome.
We're actually quite surprised at the Wii's performance at Last.fm, essentially radio over the internet. If you've got a killer sound system hooked up to your TV, you can set the jams on high and rock out. Just like we do. Check out which sites are Wii-friendly, and which not! You might be surprised.
Will the Wii help move the internet into the living room? Some people think that Nintendo's sleek new system might just succeed at what Microsoft has been hoping to do since day one: turn the home gaming console into a media center, and thus move our multimedia experience to the sofa. The combination of the Opera browser and the Wii remote makes couch-surfing (pun intended) stupidly easy. No, you're not going to transcribe War and Peace without a keyboard, but for anyone used to text messaging, the interface and predictive text make typing far easier than we might have expected.
You guys may not have been 100% in love with the Wii browser, but one comment from yesterday's discussion really stood out: the ease of watching videos, despite some limitations with the browser and Flash support. Forget what we can't do right now; that can always be changed. Think instead about the ease of watching YouTube from the sofa with a remote control. Once again, these aspects of the Wii aren't really about us (though we can certainly reap the benefits along with everyone else). We're not going to buy a console just to browse the internet or play tennis; we're interested in lots of games on our consoles, and we have phones and handhelds and computers with which we can trade cat pictures and the always-hilarious head of Leonidas. This is about the people who never even noticed the game consoles before. It's about that 30% of households predicted to own a Wii by 2011. The Wii remote puts all of what we take for granted quite literally in the palm of their hands, and because of that, it really could change the face of the internet. Browsing from the sofa is a different experience, after all.
We'll wait and see ... but it's plausible, don't you think? Where do you see the web in three years?
Many of you perhaps saw that spectacular glow on your Wii's disc slot and found yourself hypnotized, falling to your knees and drooling out of your mouth like you had just been witness to the Hypnotoad. Upon battling your way out of hypnosis and installing the system update and checking out the Shop Channel, you might've found that the final version of the Wii's Opera browser is available for download. Well, we did and we managed to take some pictures for you (it should be noted we have no way of taking direct feed snapshots, so they aren't the greatest images).
Reuters has tossed their hat into the online argument arena, citing concerns many of us share in regards to the Wii and online gameplay. Mainly, the concern of when are we going to get to play our Wii online? And, in attempting to tackle the subject, they instead fall face first into the mud. What we found interesting about the piece was a little factoid that the article's author Kemp Powers tossed in.
He says that "more than 50 percent of Wii consoles in the United States are connected online." Of course, that means near 50 percent (as in just over) of these consoles are connected online, but can that be correct? That's a pretty big chunk of Wii owners out there and, frankly, it makes us that much more angry that Nintendo has yet to get us online and playing each other. It's really kind of embarrassing, if you think about it. But then again, that's not Nintendo's main focus, and we knew that going in.
Here's a small tidbit for anyone weeping openly about the delay of the final Internet browser: the interview with the Japanese Internet Channel team has been translated into English. That's a language we can all enjoy!
The EAD developers promise a faster and more responsive browsing experience, as well as some interesting features like integrated search (did Nintendo develop their own search engine?) and a font outline feature that allows zoomed-in text to be clear and smooth. Basically, all the features that have already been announced-- but it's nice to hear some reasoning for their inclusion!
Those of us too cheap to buy DVRs love that most TV networks offer their programming online -- after all, we'd hate to tell our friends that we couldn't hang out on a Friday night because we had to watch BSG. Even so, we prefer to watch TV on actual televisions rather than computer screens. The Wii seems like a perfect way to compromise this, but until Adobe releases a Flash upgrade on their software development kit, it's not going to happen.
