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French court reverses DS flash cart ruling, Nintendo smiles
Nearly two years ago, a French court dismissed a lawsuit that Nintendo filed against a group of vendors accused of illegally selling DS flash carts. At the time, the game-maker argued that sales of the cartridges should be halted on the grounds that they could be used to illegally pirate software, but the presiding judge thought differently, countering that the R4-like devices could be used to develop homebrews or other DIY projects. Last week, however, the Paris Court of Appeals overturned the ruling, in a decision that Nintendo has met with understandable delight. In a statement released today, the company confirmed that Divineo SARL and five other flash cart retailers must pay a total of €460,000 in criminal fines, along with €4.8 million in damages to Nintendo, as ordered by the appeals court. Details behind the ruling remain vague, though Nintendo hailed it as a "strong message to French companies... that such activities are illegal and will not be tolerated," and that convicted vendors will "risk prison terms, face substantial fines and obligations to pay damages." Sail past the break to read Nintendo's statement, in full.
Memorex intros Nintendo DS game-changing case, other not-so-game-changing accessories
The Nintendo DS line has had many redesigns up to the present 3DS, but one thing that hasn't changed are the tiny, easily lost cartridges. Enter Memorex's $20 Universal Game Selector Case, announced as part of its gaming accessory lineup for E3. The UGSC stores up to three games and hooks up to the cartridge port on any DS, letting you swap between them using a signal routing switch. We've seen cases similar to this in the past, but Memorex's take is the first to support 3DS titles as well. Based on the renders, the unit looks to make for a weird fit and some noticeable extra thickness (10.5mm to be exact), especially on the DSi XL, but hopefully we'll get a better idea of how it feels in hand at E3. From a functionality perspective, the case does seem rather useful for those with forgetful tendencies, if a bit underwhelming for anybody else. Memorex will also be displaying its new third-party PS3 and Wii motion controllers at the E3, which are viewable in the gallery below, and there's a press release with details after the break. %Gallery-124348%
Keepin' it real fake: a Nintendo DS Lite that gets it (mostly) DS right
The death of Nintendo's DS Lite getting you down? Good news: it may have long ago been eclipsed by the DSi and 3DS, but the svelte portable system is still being made -- by someone, somewhere. And you can get a pretty good price on the thing, if you don't mind a few flaws -- like the above bootleg picked up a 1UP editor who though he was getting the real deal from eBay. As soon as the thing arrived in a corrugated cardboard box with pixelated text, it was clear that he had been KIRFed -- hardcore. On top of the aforementioned packaging red flags, the portable has some minor cosmetic flaws, like discoloration, a pockmarked surface, and uneven rubber pads. What's really amazing about this DS, however, is what its manufacturers got right -- it plays DS and GBA games, including, fittingly, pirated titles. The police have reportedly called Wario in for questioning.
DS Lite discontinued at GameStop
We caught wind of an internal GameStop memo this morning announcing the discontinuation of Nintendo's DS Lite. The memo (pictured above) asks employees to remove displays of Crimson, Black, and Metallic Rose models, once they've burned through their stock -- we've since confirmed the fact with an employee of the gaming chain. Not a huge shocker, of course, given the fact that the five-year-old system has since been eclipsed by 2009's DSi and, more recently, the company's glasses-free 3D portable, the 3DS. We have reached out to Nintendo for comment on the matter and will update this post with official word once received. Update: We heard back from Nintendo, receiving the usual "Nintendo doesn't comment on rumor and speculation."
Nintendo 3DS sales affected by iPod touch and iPad, says IHS iSuppli
Nintendo recently launched the 3DS, and the portable gaming device is selling strongly. Despite this burst of early sales, IHS iSuppli predicts the 3DS will not reach the high sales numbers of its predecessor, the Nintendo DS. iSuppli predicts Nintendo will sell 70 million 3DS gaming systems by 2015, a figure that is 21 million less than the 91 million in sales racked up by the original DS at the same point in its sales cycle. The DS was developed and debuted during the non-Apple years when the iPhone and iPod touch were still on the drawing boards within Apple's Cupertino campus. The DS climbed rapidly to the top of the portable gaming market and remained in that position for years. Even the PlayStation Portable could not dethrone the DS from its throne as king of the portable gaming devices. The 3DS, according to iSuppli, is launching in a market that is increasingly losing market share to Apple's iOS devices and Android smartphones. Folks carrying an iPhone have access to a plethora of iOS games and do not need a dedicated gaming device. The 3DS includes several notable features, including 3D graphics effects, camera, video support and always-on Wi-Fi connectivity, but these features are not compelling enough for the average user to give up their iOS device and pick up a 3DS. Any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch gamers care to chime in and let us know if you intend to buy a 3DS? Or does your iOS device meet all of your portable gaming needs? [Via Electronista]
Switched On: Pen again
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Last week's Switched On discussed how some next wave notions from a decade ago were trying to reinvent themselves. Here's one more. Surging smartphone vendor HTC is seeking to bring back an input method that many wrote off long ago with its forthcoming Flyer tablet and EVO View 4G comrade-in-arms: the stylus. A fixture of early Palm and Psion PDAs, Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile handsets, slim, compact styli were once the most popular thing to slip down a well since Timmy. Then, users would poke the cheap, simple sticks at similarly inexpensive resistive touchscreens. After the debut of tablet PCs, though, more companies started to use active digitizer systems like the one inside the Flyer. Active pens offer more precision, which can help with tasks such as handwriting recognition, and support "hovering" above a screen, the functional equivalent of a mouseover. On the other hand, they are also thicker, more expensive, and need to be charged. (Update: as some have pointed out in comments, Wacom's tablets generate tiny electromagnetic fields that power active digitization, and don't require the pen to store electricity itself.) And, of course, just like passive styli, active pens take up space and can be misplaced. The 2004 debut of the Nintendo DS -- the ancestor of the just-released 3DS -- marked the beginning of what has become the last mass-market consumer electronics product series to integrate stylus input. The rising popularity of capacitive touch screens and multitouch have replaced styli with fingers as the main user interface elements. Instead of using a precise point for tasks such as placing an insertion point in text, we now expand the text dynamically to accommodate our oily instruments. On-screen buttons have also grown, as have the screens themselves, all in the name of losing a contrivance.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: Sony's Jack Tretton says Nintendo makes 'babysitting tools'
Sony does what Nintendon't? That's the general sentiment from a brief interview that PlayStation chief Jack Tretton gave to Fortune this week, in which he talked up Sony's strengths and played down (some may even say belittled) its competitors, and Nintendo in particular. That began with the relatively tame assertion that Sony's decision to go high-end with PlayStation 3 is just now beginning to pay off while the other consoles are "starting to run out of steam," before he took aim at Nintendo's handheld business. According to Tretton, Nintendo's handhelds all offer what he calls a "Game Boy experience," something that's great as a "babysitting tool," but that "no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those." Yow. Any self-respecting twenty-somethings beg to differ? Let us know in the comments below. [Thanks, Robert C]
Activision and Sega show off Wappy Dog dogbot / Nintendo DS game at Toy Fair 2011
Toy Fair 2011 isn't quite as big a deal as say, CES or MWC, but it still has its fair share of nifty plaything gadgets. One jewel of the show is Sega's Wappy Dog toy that interfaces with Activision's Nintendo DS title of the same name. In what amounts to the logical evolutionary conclusion of the artist formerly known as Tamagotchi, Wappy Dog allows folks to communicate with their digital pets not only via the DS, but also by playing with and training their pooch's robotic doppelgänger. After playing with DS Wappy, the game automatically syncs up with the toy bot to keep it from developing multiple personality disorder. Though currently a prototype, the toy can dance (hopefully with a little more flava than its iDog cousin), whine, and bark in response to your child's interactions, and is slated for a release this fall at an unknown price point. No need to thank us for finding your next family pet.
Nintendo 3DS may have region-locked software, continue an unfortunate trend
Once upon a time, when handheld game systems were thicker and Nintendo was entirely without peer, the company deigned to allow us to import games without fear. On Game Boy of all shapes and sizes, as well as the Nintendo DS, a Japanese cartridge would let you experience portable wonders years before they hit Europe and the US. Starting in 2008, however, Nintendo made DSi-specific titles region-locked -- and that's the same fate that will likely befall games on Nintendo's new 3D handheld as well. "There is the possibility that Nintendo 3DS software sold in one region will not function properly when running on Nintendo 3DS hardware sold in another," a company statement reads, though it's important to note that region locks are typically a two-party affair -- if game publishers choose to make their stereoscopic software region-free, it might work on your handheld anyhow. So yes, you might still have a chance to get your date sim on.
Nintendo 3DS good for only 3 to 8 hours of play time per charge
Remember those all-night Mario Kart DS and Advance Wars marathons? Looking to recreate the magic with the 3DS? Bring a wall charger. Nintendo's just unveiled its best-case scenario figures for the 3DS' battery life, and compared with its predecessors, it ain't pretty. The official numbers are three to five hours playing per game, or five to eight if playing an older DS title (and up to three hours 30 minutes to fully recharge). So... three to eight hours under the most ideal circumstances. Let's look at the family album: the DS is 10 to 14 hours, DS Lite 15 to 19 hours, DSi 9 to 14 hours, and DSi XL 13 to 17 hours (all figures also from Nintendo). Can't say we're entirely surprised; Haus of Mario Chief Satoru Iwata's own words back in October were "it is inevitable that Nintendo 3DS will be a device which requires more frequent recharging than Nintendo DS." Think of it as an extension of the warning label. You can never be too careful, you know.
id's Carmack talks Rage HD, iPad's power, and future iOS games
Rage HD for iOS is a seriously gorgeous game -- well worth the $2, if you ask us. Now that he can look up from his monitor, id Software's technical wizard John Carmack is making the interview rounds -- let's see what we can glean, shall we? On the subject of Rage itself, expect the first patch to add Game Center support as well as some bug fixes / minor tweaks to prettify the game further. And if you picked up the SD version, consider yourself among a more exclusive crowd: sales have been majorly lop-sided in favor of HD. "If it's that big of a difference," he told TUAW, "we probably won't offer the low-end, standard def version [in future games]." We already know Carmack's thoughts on the iPhone vs. Nintendo DS / PSP, as they've been echoed before once or twice, but here's one new to us: "You should be able to do something that's better on an iPad than anything that's done on the Wii," according to the John that spoke with Kotaku. That's all purely theoretical, as it's really up to the developer as to how much power it takes advantage of, and even with the tablet in question, "we're nowhere close to maxing out what could be done on an iPad." Oh, and Android? There's work being done for the Little Green Platform as well, but via TUAW John, "there's a lot of things with how the distribution platform works and the diversity of the platforms that you have to target, where things are still much, much nicer on the iOS world." As for id's next foray in the "iOS world," Joystiq learned that a driving game based in the Rage universe is in the cards, and perhaps something inspired by Quake Arena: "maybe focusing on the lightning gun, and call it 'Lightning Arena' or something, that would be a full roam-around FPS game." When asked about his resemblance to one Kevin Bacon, all reports indicate Carmack vanished behind a green-tinted smoke cloud of 1s and 0s, leaving in his wake a three-foot tall statue of Commander Keen made from old shareware discs.
Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime dishes cumulative sales numbers for current console generation
Rather like Nokia and its market share obsession, Nintendo just can't seem to stop talking about its hardware sales lead. The company's US chief, Reggie Fils-Aime, recently dished some NPD data detailing the specific advantage that the Wii has over its competitors in the US since the current console generation launched: Mario's team has managed to sell 30.4 million units of its hardware, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360 at 21.9 million and Sony's PS3, which lags somewhere far behind with 13.5 million total sales. On the more mobile front, DS sales have ratcheted up to 43.1 million, more than doubling the PSP's 17.7 million shipments to the US of A. Nothing we haven't heard before, really, but it's always good to get a statistical update for the sake of keeping flamewars as informed as possible.
Nintendo sees Apple as bigger threat than Microsoft and Sony
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made a point in recent keynotes to mention the fact that the iPhone and iPod touch are the world's best selling portable gaming devices, well ahead of longtime champion Nintendo. Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime has acknowledged the threat and sees Apple as a bigger problem for his company than either Microsoft or Sony. While hardcore gamers generally prefer the higher-powered Xbox and PlayStation platforms, far more consumers have bought into the casual gaming approach enabled by Nintendo's Wii and DS. The high quality and easy-to-play-in-short-burst games available on Apple's handheld devices combined with their wireless capabilities have made them even more compelling than Nintendo's offerings. At first unconcerned, Nintendo's anxiety gradually grew into Reggie Fils-Aime's admission. So far, the Apple incursion into the gaming space has mostly hurt the DS, but that could soon change. The surge in popularity of the new generation Apple TV could end up taking a big bite out of the Wii. Since the Apple TV runs on iOS and has already been jailbroken, the expectation is that, before long, Apple will make an app market available for the set top device. When that happens, we are likely to see games running on it that could possibly feature Wii-style motion controls for use with the iPhone or iPod. [Via Joystiq]
Apple claims 50 percent of portable gaming market, iPod touch 'outsells Nintendo and Sony combined'
Nintendo famously called Apple the enemy of the future in the video gaming space, and by golly, it looks like the Japanese giant was right; Steve Jobs just told an audience that the iPod touch alone outsells Nintendo's DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable combined, worldwide. How many games iPod touch users actually play and for how long wasn't discussed, but Jobs said 1.5 billion "games and entertainment" apps have been downloaded -- again, on the iPod touch alone, never mind all those iPhones. Update: As many fine readers have suggested in comments, this particular statistic seems a little hard to swallow, given that the Nintendo DS alone sold roughly 132 million units -- a good bit less than the 120 million iOS devices Apple claims, and only some of which are iPod touch -- as of the Japanese company's July earnings report. We've contacted Apple for clarification and hope to be able to explain the discrepancy soon. Check out our liveblog of the keynote event right here!
Resort uses augmented reality to pair virtual girls with actual nerds
You've heard of this Love Plus thing, right? This Nintendo DS-based "dating simulator" is apparently a big deal in Japan, giving Otaku the opportunity to chat up (and kiss) girls the only way they know how: on a hand-held game console, with a stylus. To promote the latest version of the game (Love Plus +), Konami has developed an Augmented Reality iPhone app that players can take to the coastal city of Atami, allowing them to interact with their virtual girlfriends at any of thirteen romantic spots. One can even book a room at the Ohnoya hotel which, according to Discovery News, offers futon beds and a "barcode panel that allows the men to visualize their girlfriends in a flattering summer kimono." Over 2,000 virtual lotharios visited the resort town during the campaign, which began on July 10 and ends today. Check out the trailer for the game (in Japanese, which doesn't diminish the enjoyment for our English readers one bit) after the break.
Gorilla goes hands-on with Nintendo DSi XL at the San Francisco Zoo
Looks like Nintendo's DSi XL has finally found its target audience. Video after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Nintendo posts Q1 loss on strong Yen and lower DS prices
Although foreshadowed, it's hard to believe that the once mighty Ninty, a company with unshakable profits even during last year's global economic downturn, just recorded a Q1 net loss of ¥25.22 billion ($288 million) compared to a net profit of ¥42.32 billion during the same 3-month period a year earlier. Revenues dropped from ¥253.50 billion to ¥188.65 billion. Lower DS portable gaming machine prices coupled with a strong Yen (86.5 percent of its sales were outside of Japan) helped pull Nintendo into the red. Regardless, Nintendo continues to forecast a full year net profit of ¥200 billion on revenue of ¥1.4 trillion. We'll see.
UK bans R4 cards, makes Nintendo DS pirating 'double illegal'
While us Yankees are celebrating the one small victory for all that's right and good represented by the recent DMCA jailbreak exception, things are looking a little bleaker for UK gadget-heads this afternoon. London's High Court has ruled that R4 cards, which are used by homebrewers and the occasional no-goodnik game pirate to circumvent security on the Nintendo DS, cannot be sold, advertised, or imported into the UK. According to Joystiq, Nintendo claims they've seized over 100,000 R4 devices in the country since 2009. When asked for a comment, the Queen was all like, "What?"
Rock Band 3 crashing into living rooms on October 26
Look, it's summer break. What better to do than learn a little piano in preparation for the upcoming release of Harmonix's Rock Band 3? The next installment -- which promises to bring all sorts of new kit to the market -- was finally given a release date today, and not surprisingly, it'll be quickly climbing the Santa Lists of rug-rats the world over. According to the company, the title will ship on October 26th in North America, with the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions priced at $59.99 sans hardware and the DS rendition at $29.99. Hop on past the break if you're interested in learning about your wealth of pre-order options.
Amblyopic six-year-old uses Nintendo DS to regain normal eyesight
Ben Michaels was on the verge of losing sight in his right eye. The solution? Two hours of Mario Kart DS a day -- using only his bad eye -- until the condition improved. And improve it did. We wonder if using the comparatively dim original DS handheld helped... and we're dying to know what fantastic anecdotal treatments the autostereoscopic Nintendo 3DS might afford civilization at large.
