nintendoofeurope
Latest
Nintendo Wii's last holdout is the United States as European shipments end
The Nintendo Wii is now discontinued in Europe, joining Japan in halting shipments of the massively popular game console. North America is the Wii's final holdout, with Nintendo of America telling GameSpot, "There is no change in the status of Wii in the United States and it is available for purchase this holiday season." Of course, should you really, really want a Wii in Europe, there are still plenty of new and used options still in stores (not to mention the Wii Mini in some territories). And you could always buy a Wii U of course, which has near full backwards compatibility with the Wii. With poor Wii U sales worldwide, it looks like Nintendo's discontinuation of the original Wii is an effort to push people toward the new system. It could also simply be a question of market confusion: mainstream news outlets and late night talk show hosts have repeatedly referred to the Wii U as an "attachment" to the original Wii, confusing the GamePad for a peripheral. Getting the Wii off the market might just help with that confusion. Nintendo of course isn't saying exactly why it's halting shipments of new Wiis to Europe and Japan, and is instead pointing people toward its newest console. Perhaps that says it all.
Nintendo still trying to quench the Wii thirst
In a recent interview with Nintendo Europe's senior marketing director Laurent Fischer, GameIndustry.biz confirmed that Nintendo is still struggling to try and meet demand for their console at retail. Fischer states "We are still struggling to deliver the right numbers of hardware to cope with demand," And while we're glad Nintendo is trying, we can't say the lack of consoles at retail is excusable.Really, it's been about 6 months since the Wii has released and, even with the demand so high, isn't it inexcusable that the company is still unable to provide enough consoles to retailers? The only comparable launch, the Xbox 360, did a much better job of meeting demand for the system in a timely manner, so is it a crazy notion to think Nintendo could do the same, or better?Right now, we don't need promises, we need results, right?
VC Friday: lackluster week for downloadable games
What's this ... just Xevious? We appreciate a good, old school scrolling shooter just as much as the next fanboy, but this is a pretty boring offering when it's the only offering for the week. You can do better than this, NoE! Show us what you've got.The NES game will set you back 500 points, if you are so inclined. And here's hoping for a more exciting next Friday.
Wii UK: 50,000 units sold in 12 hours
That's one purchased every second, says Nintendo. Gamesindustry.biz now reports that the UK saw 50,000 Wii consoles fly off shelves (and straight into televisions, shortly afterwards) 12 hours after it launched to massive crowds and immeasurable fanboy delight. David Yarnton of Nintendo says the company is "delighted with the amazing response to the Wii" and that gamers are "embracing the way that we are turning the industry on its head." The official launch event took place on Friday at the HMV store in London's Oxford street where, just hours prior to the Wii's release, the seething mass of people had to be sent home for a while so as to avoid unneccesary anarchy (in the UK).There may be chaos yet, though, as Nintendo still has to face the challenge of overcoming crippling shortages and making sure everybody gets to flail their arms about this Christmas.
NoE releases updated DS game release schedule listing
Nintendo of Europe has released an updated list for DS titles up until the first quarter of 2007. Some games, as was already rumored, got pushed back, but that does not mean there is no good news to be taken from the updated list. Said list is too large to place here, so you'll just have to continue into the post to read it.
Nintendo of Europe a habitual ball-dropper?
The guys at NoE Watch seem to think so. Acting as a sort of watchdog over the activities of the European branch of Nintendo, the website is dedicated to sniffing out and latching onto the fleshy ankles of some of the injustices faced by gamers from across the pond. Did you know that Wario Ware: Twisted is only due for European release in July, over a year after its American debut? Good luck trying to blame that one on localization--last time we checked Wario Ware's level of text barely rose above that of single-word instructions.In addition to forums and publisher rankings, the site features both a "Hall of Fame", containing games that released in Europe first, and a matching "Hall of Shame", filled with games that took a really, really long time to travel across the ocean. Metroid Prime Pinball took 8 months to hit the Euro flipper. Ouch. NoE Watch further casts shame on the UK Nintendo Wi-Fi site which hasn't been updated in 5 months. That alone is worthy of a hearty "gadzooks!"Have any of our European readers experienced similar frustrations? If so, it might be worth visiting NoE Watch and making your voice and accompanying exotic accent heard. [Thanks Matt!]
