Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Free stuff is one of the many reasons we wish we had gotten to go to the Nintendo Media Summit. Like most industry events, those in the press who were lucky enough to attend also walked out with swag.

Game|Life's Chris Kohler took this picture of his bounty: not an epic E3-sized haul by any means, but it includes some exclusive items, like the giant Wii bottle (he already covered the joke) and the light-up Wiimote keychain. Attendees also got a free Wii Points card and a Wendy's giftcard, so they can download Blazing Lazers and live Burgertime. By which we mean "eat burgers," not "assemble giant burgers by walking on them while avoiding animated food."

This morning, at the Nintendo Media Summit, NoA President and resident badass Reggie Fils-Aime had some interesting statistics on the Nintendo juggernaut. While a lot of it may not be the best news for the hardcore gaming contingent, the massive revenue increases indicate that the wider potential market may well be what powers the industry in the coming years. One particularly telling statement backed up the figures: "We don't consider Sony and Microsoft as our only competitors. We're competing with other leisure time entertainment. If people stay at home and play Wii bowling instead of going to the movies, we win."

It's not all gloom and doom for the hardest of the hard, however. Reggie had some interesting things to say about this summer's highly anticipated Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It "will reinvent the control scheme for a first person shooter. It's the closest you can get to PC control in a [console] game." A lot of people hoped Red Steel would pull that off for the Wii at launch, but leave it to Nintendo to really show us what the Wiimote and nunchuk combo can do for the FPS.

Reggie also added that the DS continues to print money, just in case none of us knew.