As you may well know, the original Nintendo Wii is based on fundamentally the same CPU as Nintendo's previous home system, the Gamecube. That's an IBM PowerPC chip known as "Broadway," which is essentially the same thing as the PowerPC 750CL. It's a 32-bit CPU that runs at 729 MHz, and is a very close relative to the...Read more...
NVIDIA and Nintendo have announced something this week that will make retro gamers very happy (at least in China). Coinciding with the launch of the NVIDIA SHIELD in China, some remastered old-school Nintendo video games are being added to the console. The games are from the Wii and the GameCube eras and include New...Read more...
Nintendo has been fighting a legal battle in Texas against a company called iLife since 2013. The patent infringement case brought forth by iLife involves Nintendo's use of its patented technology in the Wii controller. When iLife originally filed a patent on the tech, the company had no thought of using the...Read more...
There has been a lot of uncertainty leading up to the retail launch of Nintendo's hybrid Switch console, a game system built for both living room gaming and mobile game play. Would the market be receptive to such a dual purpose device, especially since it doesn't have the hardware chops of the Xbox One S or...Read more...
It seems these days that we’ve learned more about what Nintendo’s upcoming NX console can't do, rather than what it can do. Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime claimed in mid-June that virtual reality just isn’t ready for mainstream adoption, while Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto chimed in with a “think of the...Read more...
To paraphrase David Letterman, we wouldn’t give Nintendo’s troubles to a monkey on a rock. Amid a terrible sales performance that only got worse over the first quarter of this year (Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took a 50% pay cut over the the Wii U’s awful sales back in January) and a mini-scandal when word emerged that...Read more...
Nintendo said it's planning to disconnect its Wi-Fi Connection service for Wii consoles and DS handhelds on May 20, 2014. That means no more online play, matchmaking, or leaderboards for many Wii, Nintendo DS, and DSi games. In addition, users will no longer be able to share their own generated content, exchange...Read more...
It's common knowledge that game console and game sales have been in a serious slump this year. According to conventional wisdom, this is part of the console refresh cycle -- sales of older hardware falls off as customers await new products, even when manufacturers are publicly committed to long life cycles for current...Read more...
We really wanted to love the Wii U. Everyone did, really. The original Wii was a huge product, and in a lot of ways, it shaped the future of the home console. Both Sony and Microsoft followed the motion gaming trail with Move and Kinect, but the original Wii Remote was what pioneered that. The Wii U, sadly, missed the...Read more...
It's pretty tough to sell gaming consoles when major game developers are shunning your system, and Nintendo is actually facing such a threat with the Wii U. Facing tough reviews, half-baked software and general confusion on whether the Wii U is simply a spec-bumped Wii, Nintendo found out in May that Electronic Arts...Read more...
Not all dreams go on to become reality, even in the world of video games. Avid gamers may recall a Wii accessory announced many moons ago -- it's the sensor you see here. The Vitality Sensor was supposed to be another step towards making the Wii the go-to fitness console. After all, the Balance Board gave gamers...Read more...
As Nokia and Microsoft know all too well, stellar hardware is nothing without stellar software. And in the case of the Wii U, even the hardware is lacking. The last time a batch of new game consoles were launching, pundits doubted the Wii's staying power. It was weak, it was odd, and it used a new control paradigm...Read more...
Shortly after saying goodbye to a number of online services associated with the original Wii, Nintendo has flipped the switch on a number of other online services catering to the new Wii U. Soon after reviews began hitting the Web, Nintendo promised a future update that would address a number of concerns: namely, slow...Read more...
Sad times ahead for Wii users who aren't planning on upgrading to a Wii U. While the Wii managed to gain Amazon Instant Video streaming capabilities after the Wii U was announced, it now looks as if things are sliding downhill from here on out. As consoles (and software / hardware of any description, really) begins to age, OEMs traditionally...Read more...
Most of our console coverage tends to focus on hardware, rather than software, but with Sony's PS4 unveiling just weeks away, we want to consider the greatest threat facing the console industry: mobile gaming. Console sales (hardware and software) have tumbled for the second year in a row, even as game purchases...Read more...
If you're still hanging on to your original Wii, or you managed to pick up a Wii Mini on a recent trip to Canada, you may be in luck. If you're an avid viewer of content from Amazon's Instant Video library, you'll be delighted to know that original Wii owners can now stream those movies, documentaries and TV shows...Read more...
Nintendo took a lot of risks with the Wii U. It bet on the second-screen controller becoming a major draw, that the console's relatively limited hardware wouldn't be an issue, and that it could spark the same kind of meteoric sales volume a second time around. It's the first time Nintendo has ever tried to launch such...Read more...
About six years ago, Nintendo completely changed the way the world viewed console gaming. The Wii remote (affectionately dubbed Wiimote by most) was a brand new paradigm in gaming control, and it ushered in a wave of motion-based gaming that forced Sony to follow suit with the Move, and Microsoft to do likewise with Kinect... Pundits seemed...Read more...
History has a funny way of repeating itself, and the more things change, the more they stay the same. Nearly six years ago to the day, Nintendo completely changed the way the world viewed console gaming. The Wii remote (affectionately dubbed Wiimote by most) was a brand new paradigm in gaming control, and it ushered in a wave of motion-based...Read more...
The Wii U launched last week, to general acclaim and positive responses; Nintendo sold some 400,000 Wii U's in North America. That's not quite equal to the Wii, which moved over 600,000 units in 2006, but it puts the next-generation console well ahead of the PS3 and Xbox 360 when those consoles debuted. Nintendo is...Read more...
Black Friday was kind to quite a few companies and retail outlets, Nintendo included. While the Wii U launched in earnest a few days prior to the famed shopping day, it's clear that a lot of people waited until last week to make their move. The company sold 400,000 Wii U consoles in America last week, while it moved...Read more...
As with any new console launch, the recently launched Wii U system is in short supply. It's shaping up to be this holiday season's hot item, but it might not be the only console Nintendo launches before the end of the year. Rumor has it there's a Wii Mini slated for a December launch. Citing a release schedule from a "major retailer," Nintendo...Read more...