Wii Fit
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Campaigner calls Wii exercise in schools 'another gimmick'
It seems the school is still the eminent source of name calling, as the Wii, which has managed to shrug off all the "little fad" comments thus far, has been subjected to yet another "another gimmick" label. This time, however, it's in relation to the UK Department of Health's endorsement of an in-school "active" games scheme designed by the Droitwich and Worcester City School Sport Partnership. Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, was unconvinced by the program's weight-loss merits, saying, "Pupils would be far better doing serious competitive sports and games than this sort of thing." Channel 4 reports that this sort of thing has already been implemented in five schools in Worcestershire as "virtual PE," with the hopes that active gaming would lure children to participate in other physical exercise. Seaton, however, believes it "looks like another gimmick," one that's "pandering to the views of the physically idle." The Department of Health argued that the Wii makes for a good "first step" towards other forms of exercise, though failed to mention the benefits of the many, many steps required to excel in the physical strenuous Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party. Mind you, the embarrassing view of the physical idol in school would likely result in even more nasty name calling.[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 1/14-1/20
We already know that the Wii is doing well in Japan. How has the hardware and software been shaping up against other consoles and games, though? Let's take a look at last week's sales to find out.The Wii continues to flip-flop positions with the PSP, this time ending up on the more favorable side of the coin. Regaining the second place spot with 76,000 units sold, the Wii only dropped 6,000 units from last week's numbers.Wii software continues to do well, too -- at least concerning "Wii" and "Mario" games. Wii Fit sales in Japan were even greater than DS handheld sales. Super Mario Galaxy also ended up back in the top ten, in part because of consistent sales, and in part because a few DS games lost steam. Some other Wii games didn't make the top of the charts, like Trauma Center: New Blood (which sold 3,100 copies last week in its debut). Check out the actual sales numbers and rankings for hardware and software after the break.
Wii sales surpass 5 million in Japan
Japanese publication Famitsu (via MCV) is reporting that the Nintendo Wii has surpassed the 5 million mark for hardware sales. As of January 20, Nintendo sold 5,019,337 units in just less than 14 months since the console's launch. Total sales for the Wii in the United States were 7.38 million as of the end of 2007, according to NPD data released last week.The top five best-selling games in Japan are, perhaps unsurprisingly, all from Nintendo -- two Mario games and three titles geared towards the casual market. If the list is accurate, then the Wii only has four platinum-selling titles and Mario Galaxy hasn't yet passed the 900,000 threshold. Check out the list after the break.[Via GameDaily]
Wii Fit shipping Stateside Q2 2008, says Nintendo
Alright America, you've got yourself some prep work to do: Nintendo's about to foist this whole nefarious "exercise" paradigm on you, in the form of the Wii Fit, and we know how you fell for that whole "Wii" fad a year or so back. The thing has a 300 pound weight limit at the moment, though it's unclear if Nintendo is going to "upgrade" that for American users, but you'll just have to risk it. We figure a few dozen Twinkies a day, on top of a couple potlucks a week, and a few barrels of Pocky to keep it cultural, and you should have yourself out of contention for silly balance exercises and hula hooping tomfoolery by the time Q2 rolls around, Nintendo's promised ship date. Crisis averted.
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 1/7-1/13
Sales for all systems predictably tumbled last week as Japan's holiday shopping season came to an end. That's not all that dropped, though; the Wii also slipped to third place, while the PSP claimed the second spot. Although the hardware sales reflect Japan's portable-mania, the software sales once again scream Nintendo.Since we already knew about Wii Fit's million accomplishment, there wasn't much surprise in the software charts. Super Mario Galaxy, however, finally fell out of the top ten as it makes it way toward the million mark.Hardware: DS: 103,000 PSP: 84,000 Wii: 82,000 PS3: 34,000 PS2: 15,000 Xbox 360: 5,500 The software sales are listed after the break.
Wii Fit US release scheduled for Q2 2008
Perhaps a sign that America is finally getting its obesity scare under control, Nintendo has cautiously scheduled Wii Fit for a Q2 2008 release. Despite last week's rumor, today's announcement is the first official word from Nintendo that its latest balancing act is being prepped for the US. Whether that means the board's 300-pound weight limit is being increased to accommodate US standards or Nintendo is simply gambling that Americans will have shed a few pounds by next quarter (to prepare their summer beach bodies, 'natch) has yet to be confirmed. So how's your body mass index loookin' for the Q2?
Nintendo dates Wii & DS games for first half of '08
Nintendo dumped a load of dates on us today – 148 to be exact. These dates (some specific, some general) correspond to 65 Wii and 83 DS titles that are scheduled to be released in the first half of 2008. While its obvious that many third-party publishers will continue to shovel their filth onto the systems this year, we've been able to excavate a decent collection of potential gems from an otherwise smoldering pile of manure: Okami (Wii) dated March 25 Wii Fit scheduled for Q2 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon sequels scheduled for Q2 Crosswords DS dated May 5 Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword dated March 25 Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS) dated Feb. 10 LEGO: Indiana Jones (Wii/DS) scheduled for Spring Super Dodgeball Brawlers (DS) scheduled for April Bangai-O Spirits (DS) scheduled for Q2 Rondo of Swords (DS) scheduled for April and thus far unannounced by Atlus USA [Note: we haven't listed titles with previously confirmed dates (e.g., Mario Kart, Advance Wars, No More Heroes, etc.).] The full list of releases is posted after the break. [Via DS Fanboy]
Nintendo's three GDC sessions: Wii Fit, Wii menu, and Brawl character library
For anyone headed off to GDC next month – or for those of you bashing the Reload button at home – you may want to pencil in some or all of these Nintendo sessions to your no doubt already busy schedule. First up is "Wii Fit: Creating a Brand New Interface for the Home Console" presented by project lead Takao Sawano; second up is "Planning the Wii Menu: From Pre-Launch to WiiWare" presented by team leader for Nintendo's Network Group, Takashi Aoyama; last up is "Building Characters: The Super Smash Bros. Brawl Postmortem," a postmortem for the recently delayed game, presented by developer Masahiro Sakurai.While you can bet we'll be at the Wii Fit and SSBB sessions, we're not sure how interested we are in experiencing the Wii UI if we're not clumsily trying to find something while being auditorily assaulted by the shopping channel's hypnotic jingle. Oh, who are we kidding? We'll go anywhere that jingle tells us to go, like compliant rats lined up behind Nintendo's pied piper.
Awkward Brawl postmortem, Wii Fit panel announced for GDC
Nintendo has announced that they will hold three panel discussions at this year's Game Developers' Conference. Two of the three focus on the biggest, and most ephemeral, Wii releases of the year: Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Fit. In "Building Characters: The Super Smash Bros. Brawl Postmortem," Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai will discuss the challenges of throwing so many distinct Nintendo characters into a game together, staying true to both the game design and the integrity of the original characters. This postmortem will be extremely uncomfortable if the game isn't actually, you know, mortem yet, a possibility that seems ever more likely. In fact, Brawl will not be out by the time GDC opens on February 18th, but it could still be finished if they meet their January 31st release date for Japan. "Wii Fit: Creating a Brand New Interface for the Home Console," led by EAD general manager Takao Sawano will discuss the development of both Wii Fit and the weird controller that goes with it. And Takashi Aoyama's "Planning the Wii Menu: From Pre-Launch to WiiWare" is about ... the Wii Menu. Well, and also the development of the Wii's internal programming.
Analyst predicts the Wii's bestsellers
In the most recent simExchange report, analyst Jesse Divnich had some interesting predictions about Wii software sales. According to Divinich, the top selling games will be as follows (including estimated worldwide sales for the software during the Wii's lifetime): Wii Play – 20 million Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 13.95 million Mario Kart – 13.16 million Super Mario Galaxy – 12.61 million Wii Fit – 8.73 million We're not surprised that Divinich would predict Wii Play to be the top selling piece of Wii software, since the game is constantly popping up in the top of the NPD and Japanese charts. Since two of the five predicted games aren't even out yet, and one of them is only out in Japan, it's hard to tell by trends if the rest are good choices. Still, taking our best "we're not paid analysts" guesses, we'd say that Wii Fit will have much higher sales than Divinich predicted. The game already sold one million copies in Japan, and it's only been out for a month. We do think that those are a solid top five, though, even if we don't agree on the order and total sales for all games.How about you? What are your best guesses for the Wii's top five?[Via Joystiq]
Rumor: Wii Fit into Nintendo's release schedule for May 20th?
1UP, like some other sites on the Internet, put an article up about Wii Fit's mega-awesome performance in Japan. It includes the requisite Photoshop suggesting that Shigeru Miyamoto is flush with wealth, of course. But their writeup of the news has a little something extra: a release date. If the information casually dropped in the post is accurate, we will be stepping onto and off of things as soon as May 20th.We're confused and frightened by the lack of any official release information regarding this game. Nintendo hasn't even announced a year for the North American release. Wii Fit is kind of the "next big thing" in expanded-audience Wii gaming, and thus we assume that they plan to, you know, sell it. We find a potential release date soothing. And why would 1UP just pull a date out of nowhere like that? The specificity lends credibility to the claim. Anyway, May seems as good a time as any! %Gallery-4745%
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 12/31-1/6
The Wii got a huge boost in hardware sales thanks to the New Years holiday, which is known to be big for consumerism in Japan. All system sales increased, in fact, but the gap between the Wii and PSP widened as the Wii sold almost 80,000 more units than it did the previous week. The bump in hardware sales also affected software sales, helping Nintendo regain its domination in the charts. The top twelve games were for Nintendo systems, with a lot of those games either having the words "Wii" or "Mario" in their titles. Wii Sports and Wii Play continue to bully newer titles out of the top ten, while Wii Fit nears the million mark (and according to some trackers, already reached it as of today). Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles also shows some legs by barely making the top thirty, selling 21,000 copies last week for a total of 234,000.It will be interesting to see whether Super Mario Galaxy can hang in the top ten, but regardless, it seems that the game will hit one million sales relatively soon. Also, expect a huge drop in sales all around next week, as holiday spending in Japan finally comes to an end.The hardware and software numbers are listed after the break, for your viewing pleasure.
Wii Fit breaks a million sweats in Japan
While we're not as shocked as Richie up there, we are surprised that Wii Fit has sold over a million in Japan. In little over a month, the bundle has managed to show many in Japan that it's to be taken seriously, and not the flash in the pan that some have come to think Wii Sports is. The real question is: did it inspire weight loss and healthy living for any of its adopters?Any of our readers outside of Japan planning on picking this up when a release date is revealed?%Gallery-4745%[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
Wii Fit feels the burn, sells 1 million in Japan
The Wii Fit exercise machine pressure pad has sold one million units in Japan since its Dec. 1 release. And just like the millions of gym memberships left hanging each year, we have to wonder just how many of these things have actually inspired weight loss.Wii Fit still doesn't have a US or European release date yet (we're guessing Nintendo has to figure out how to support more than 300 lbs. first), but given Wii's broad demographic, once westernized, Wii Fit could easily become the system's must-have impulse buy – and the first 'game' to actually give us guilt trips.[Via MCV]%Gallery-4815%Read - Nikkei Net (subscription required)
An avalanche of Wii Fit videos [update]
Game Informer put up a plethora of new videos, focusing on the many things one can do in the upcoming Wii Fit from Nintendo. Aside from the yoga and ski jumping going on, the title looks like it's going to have a lot of stuff to do. We're not sure it'll help us lose weight or be a more healthy person, but it's looking like we're going to at least have fun with the title. And, that's what's most important, after all.Hit up past the break for videos. And, take note: all of the videos automatically start up, so be prepared for that.
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 12/24-12/31
Normally we bring you Japanese sales charts on Wednesday, but since Japan was on vacation this week, that didn't exactly work out. It's back to work for Japan, however, which means that the sales numbers for games and hardware for the week of 12/24 were finally released.So, how did Nintendo fare? While software sales were good, the company certainly lost its dominance in the charts. The week of 12/17 had Nintendo in nine out of ten of the top spots, while the week of 12/24 had the company in only seven. (Note: When "only seven" is a bad week, that's a good thing.)To see what this means for the Wii (and to view the actual Famitsu sales numbers), check after the break.
Everybody's Nintendo Channel goes inside the Balance Board
The Everybody's Nintendo Channel keeps getting cooler, and we still have yet to hear any word about its release in other regions. We'd love to be able to check out interesting Nintendo-related programming on our Wiis. We'll have to settle for watching it on our computers in incomprehensible languages for now.Josh from WiiFolder.com posted the latest video found on the service: a trip to the Minebea plant where Balance Board components are being made, and a look at the technology insidethe board. It's relatively low-tech compared to something like the Wiimote, but still clever. The Balance Board features an electronic strain gauge in each corner; by comparing the change in force on each strain gauge, the Wii can read the movements of your bulk. Apparently (according to the video) the same kind of sensors are used in robotics to help bipedal robots stand up.It's a different approach from the Wiimote-on-tennis ball board Mike made, but we suppose it's pretty good. We do enjoy not falling and all.
TheStreet.com rattles off the big games of '08
Though we're still shaking off the gaming haze of 2007, aught-eight is under way and waiting for no man. Just when it seems like nothing could top last year's surfeit of incredible games, along comes a feature by TheStreet.com, covering 2008's biggest known releases and reminding us that we're not out of the water yet. Considering their Wall Street pedigree, it shouldn't be surprising that they concentrate mostly on the major public companies and their biggest '08 releases. First up is Take-Two and Grand Theft Auto IV, the obvious frontrunner in terms of sales for '08. Next is EA's Spore, which presents a slightly more muddled outlooks; without a franchise name to build off of, and a nebulous release date, analysts aren't sure where to put it. THQ's been hurting a bit lately, so analysts are hopeful that Saint's Row 2 (expected in '08) along with licensed games (y'know, for kids) will help pull them out of their funk. Oh, and there's some Wii Fit thing which is supposed to make "Nintendo" a bunch of cash. Or something. The last two titles on their list are PS3 exclusives: Metal Gear Solid 4 they say "will be a bigger deal for Sony than for Konami" while LittleBigPlanet could "revive Sony's fortunes in the video games industry." What other big titles should we be looking out for in '08? [Via GamePolitics]
Our New Year's resolutions: Wii edition
Now that the sun has set on 2007, it's time for the Wii Fanboy staff to start laying down some New Year's resolutions, such as resolving not to use tired metaphors about the sun setting on stuff. So, without further ado, here are each of the staff's personal goals for 2008 (Wii-related ones, obviously. It goes without saying that I'd like to try to stop having wine for breakfast, but some things just aren't appropriate topics of conversation here): Alisha: I resolve to populate YouTube with many short films of my forthcoming baby playing Wii. Of course, since he's not even gonna get here until February, you can probably replace "playing" with "lying there looking pissed while Mommy makes him hold a Wii remote." David: I resolve to actually keep my job and not fall into a shame spiral of bad hygiene and lone nights crying alone as I play nothing but Smash Bros. Brawl in February. Hopefully I'll find the courage to not be sucked into that vacuum. Mike: I resolve to not buy ten new games before beating the last one. That either means I'll be spending more time playing games (yikes!), or just buying less of them. The more games I get, the harder it becomes for me to finish any of them, and even a masterpiece like Super Mario Galaxy ends up sitting at a measly 61 star gets, princess saved, and no green overalls. JC: I resolve to make a deal with Mike that could solve both our problems. (Here's how it works: Mike continues to buy too many games, but sends them to me instead. I play them until he is ready to start another one. There are no flaws with this perfect plan.) Candace: I resolve to not laugh at my mom anymore when she plays Wii ... even though she looks really, really ridiculous. Chris: To not excitedly squeal like a schoolgirl the first dozen times I insert No More Heroes into my Wii. This will almost certainly end with abject failure. And to beat my cousin, who is LESS THAN HALF MY FRICKEN' AGE, at Guitar Hero III. The child has the fingers of Hendrix. Eric: In the Year 200ERIC, I will exercise with Wii Fit while wearing a Banana yellow suit and a huge pair of shades, singing out "Too Wii Fit to Quit" like it's going out of style. Was it ever in style? Hey, HAAYYYYYYY! How about you? If you haven't already filled us in on your resolutions for 2008, what are you waiting for?
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 12/17-12/23
The Wii did well last week in Japan, finally managing to outsell the PlayStation 3 again by five to one. Wii Fit, Super Mario Galaxy, and Mario and Sonic continued to find success in the software sales charts, while Wii Sports and Wii Play extend their quests toward spectacularly high numbers.We're glad to see that Super Mario Galaxy is doing well (the game is great, in case you haven't noticed), and are still awed by the phenomenon that is Wii Sports. Only one game in the top ten (and top fifteen, for that matter) was for a non-Nintendo system, which exemplifies the company's current dominance in Japan. Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon is mysteriously missing from the charts, however, leading some to speculate that the game sold less than FIFA 360 (which took the last place with 2,400 copies sold).Check after the break to see the sales numbers for Japan's hardware and software.
