Used Wiis Blog

Betanews writes, once again just before CES week, Microsoft is claiming victory in the game console race, at least against rival Sony PlayStation 3. And once again, veteran analyst Sharon Fisher pores over the numbers. When I was a kid, I used to love word problems. You know, "Sally is 6 years older than Jane, and Jane is twice as old as Margaret. If the ages of all three add up to 21, how old is each girl?"

That's what Microsoft's Xbox 360 sales press release today sounded like.

The report said Microsoft had sold "more consoles, games and online entertainment experiences sold than any previous year," where "life-to-date unit sales of Xbox 360 systems climbed to 28 million consoles worldwide." It also expanded "the product's lead over Sony PlayStation 3 to more than 8 million units."

Did you notice that, nowhere in there, did they say how many of the things they actually sold? But taking everything into account, Microsoft would have to have sold considerably more Xbox units worldwide -- that is, outside the US -- than Sony sold PS3s, in order to make its 8 million claim true.

But there's also Microsoft's use of that elegant little word, "sold." What is "sold"? Does "sold" mean "sitting in a consumer's living room"? Or does "sold" mean "shipped to a Circuit City, where it's currently standing in a huge stack of others on clearance, soon to be returned"? Does "sold" even mean "On a pallet packed up for Circuit City, unless they cancel the order? We have no way of knowing.

Let's do the math shall we?

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.

Neocrisis: 4 new scans from famitsu.

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.

Oliver Marks of Znet writes: "Sony, putting aside the human toll of massive restructuring, is a fascinating example of the carnage happening in the business world today, and the stifling of innovation in large companies. Today's multinational conglomerate had humble origins in post WWII Japan: Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo, and was joined by his colleague Akio Morita a year later.

These two innovators built Japan's first tape recorder and went on to experiment with transistors, a new invention at the time. The resulting transistor radios and subsequent creativity produced an explosion of consumer and professional products synonymous with quality. It's hard to overstate how innovative the company was in its youth: even the name Sony - a made up word which could be copyrighted and was one of the first global consumer brands - was hugely controversial in Japan, where it was unheard of not to have a company name in Kanji, and wildly creative and attention getting in the western world.

So how did this creative dynamo deteriorate into the opaque bureaucracy that is Sony today - a company which is ubiquitous on the planet but unfocused compared to for example Apple, who claimed the next generation of personal audio - and the massively lucrative content market - after Sony's hugely successful WalkMan?"

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.

After some unexpected delays, Nintendo has finally provided GameDaily with the completed interview based on its reader submitted questions. In the full Q&A, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime talks about the company's marketing, varying tastes for gamers in Japan and North America, keeping up Nintendo quality and his own favorite games.

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.

Gamezine:

"A whole host of video games won UK sales awards in the month of December, including the PlayStation 3's LittleBigPlanet.

Last month we reported on the achievement of LittleBigPlanet reaching one-hundred thousand copies sold in the UK. The revelation was provided by ESPLA Charttrack's sales awards, which are given out monthly to video games that reach certain milestones.

Reporting on the news was meant to calm the fears of PS3 fans who believed that their beloved title wasn't performing at retail. The fears were fuelled by poor chart positions and rare advertisements from Sony.

LittleBigPlanet has now been awarded ESPLA's Gold Award."

Find out other award winners after the link.

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.

Source: Wii Blog: Nintendo Wii News and Views.

Unigamesity writes: "Let's not forget about the console wars! There are sale charts, there are fanboys slamming other fanboys' data, there are all sorts of ways to 'decide' the winner of the console wars… One of them is, of course, checking the exclusive games and that's exactly what we're planning to do now. So, the battle is on: PS3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Wii – which console has the best exclusives?"

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.

SCRAWL: "Capcom has a lot in store for us this year, with Bionic Commando, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, and Dark Void being thrown at us. However, Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi tells us that amazing line-up is nothing."

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.

Source: Wii Blog: Nintendo Wii News and Views.

WiiWare's currently better than all the other downloadable services out there, and we're looking forward to it's second year. Here's what's to come...

They have previews for LostWinds 2, Icarian, Future Nintendo games, Cave Story and Pop Up Pirate, plus their best WiiWare games of 2008.

Source: N4G.com : News Feed : wii.