Well that took a long time but updates, done.

Quite a few new things to discuss today.

gamingeek said:

bugsonglass said:

thanks for the updates GG.  i hate the look of DSiXL.  i do want a regular DSi though so hopefully it'll get cheaper once they release that monstrosity

Since I play at home the idea of bigger screens is good to me, but not if its stretches things too badly or just letterboxes games.

Of course there is nothing wrong with the lite so I would have no reason to upgrade.

i agree, the only reason i need a new DS is because the touch screen on my Lite is increasingly off and no amount of calibration can fix it.  it's very aggravating trying to play a stylus game

robio said:

bugsonglass said:

thanks for the updates GG.  i hate the look of DSiXL.  i do want a regular DSi though so hopefully it'll get cheaper once they release that monstrosity

That's actually what I was thinking.  If the new big ass DSi comes out, the current one will get cheaper and then I may pick another one up so that I don't have to fight my son for mine.

What happened to the phat?

gamingeek said:

robio said:

bugsonglass said:

thanks for the updates GG.  i hate the look of DSiXL.  i do want a regular DSi though so hopefully it'll get cheaper once they release that monstrosity

That's actually what I was thinking.  If the new big ass DSi comes out, the current one will get cheaper and then I may pick another one up so that I don't have to fight my son for mine.

What happened to the phat?

He had been playing with it for about a year and had started to damage the hinges due to numerous drops on hard floor.  By the time he finally learned to be responsible with it, it had just suffered too much and eventually it did break.  That thing took a beating, but the power of a toddler is too great for any electronic device.  I was actually considered writing to Nintendo and sharing the story with them to see if I could get a free one out of them. After all he and that phat DS were pretty much linked together ever since my wife was pregnant with him.

So anyone think there's any validity to a Wii 2 in 2010 rumor? The specs look interesting enough:

- The Wii2 system will feature a Blu-Ray drive with a secondary aim of stopping piracy.
- 1080P and lower resolutions will be supported, for blu-ray movies and games.
- The release date is scheduled for third quarter of 2010.
- The release will be worldwide and on the same day for all countries.
- A scheme will be available in which it is possible to trade in the original Wii for a cheaper price on the new Wii 2.

Unless they've got a way to make it cheap as hell I don't buy it.  Seems too soon, particularly for a market leader, but maybe Nintendo is taking their handheld strategy to the console world.

robio said:

So anyone think there's any validity to a Wii 2 in 2010 rumor? The specs look interesting enough:

- The Wii2 system will feature a Blu-Ray drive with a secondary aim of stopping piracy.
- 1080P and lower resolutions will be supported, for blu-ray movies and games.
- The release date is scheduled for third quarter of 2010.
- The release will be worldwide and on the same day for all countries.
- A scheme will be available in which it is possible to trade in the original Wii for a cheaper price on the new Wii 2.

Unless they've got a way to make it cheap as hell I don't buy it.  Seems too soon, particularly for a market leader, but maybe Nintendo is taking their handheld strategy to the console world.

I don't buy it either. Nintendo doesn't make moves the tech-savvy gamers would love, and they'd love this.

Next thing you know, they'll be a rumor that its going support optical cables for Dolby Digital sound! LOLz

robio said:

So anyone think there's any validity to a Wii 2 in 2010 rumor? The specs look interesting enough:

- The Wii2 system will feature a Blu-Ray drive with a secondary aim of stopping piracy.
- 1080P and lower resolutions will be supported, for blu-ray movies and games.
- The release date is scheduled for third quarter of 2010.
- The release will be worldwide and on the same day for all countries.
- A scheme will be available in which it is possible to trade in the original Wii for a cheaper price on the new Wii 2.

Unless they've got a way to make it cheap as hell I don't buy it.  Seems too soon, particularly for a market leader, but maybe Nintendo is taking their handheld strategy to the console world.

There's why this is fake.  In a leak you're not coming out with that information, yet, and there's no chance Nintendo would ever do a trade-in plan like that.

Did even more updates.

Nintendo's earnings report today showed the first drop in profits the company has seen in four years. For the six month period ending September 30, the Kyoto giant's operating income fell 58.6% from the same period last year to 104.3 billion yen. The Wii platform took a major hit, its sales falling 43% from last year to 5.75 million units. Nintendo ended up lowering its Wii sales forecasts for the full year from 26 million units to 20 million units.

Mainichi Shimbun reports that Iwata, speaking at a press conference in Osaka today, said "Wii has stalled. We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool."

[NOTE: I originally mistranslated Iwata's statement as "We failed with the Wii." The above is now the corrected form. ]

Sankei Shimbun, covering the same press conference, reported Iwata as having said "We were unable to show a new game to become 'the next thing.' In the game market, once you've lost the momentum, it takes time to recover."

It does seem that Iwata has a positive outlook for the Wii, though, thanks to the September price drop. According to a Reuters report from the press conference, Iwata said of the decision to lower Wii's sales targets, "With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time. We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year." On the new 20 million target, he said, "In order to reach it, we'll have to move quite a large quantity, but it's a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning [based off the price drop]."

I'm not suprised because since 2008 when Mario Kart and Smash Bros launched there hasn't been much first party wise to excite people. They were counting on Sports Resort to push hardware, but it only appealed to people who already owned the system.

Bring on the hardcore.

gamingeek said:

DSi LL/XL - more comparison pics

Link

Thank god. I'm still using my phat red mario edition and whenever i use one of the DSLites my fingers cramp up after 20 minutes.  I like it.  I'm guessing that unless this has some killer new tech in it the XL wil be a limited edition like the Miro was?