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E308: Live highlights from Nintendo's private conference
Did yesterday's Nintendo keynote leave you wanting more? Well, pipe down already -- you're getting more. The company is holding a private conference, and our very own JC Fletcher is invited to the party. Since you can't be there, we'll be posting JC's highlights right here, live. We hope your F5 buttons and refresh fingers are ready, because the word on the street is that something big is going to be revealed. Of course, that could just be disgruntled fans' hopes evolving into a rumor, but we'd like to believe that's not the case. We'd hate to be disappointed by the big N two days in a row, after all.If we hear something big (or not so big), don't worry, you'll be the first to know (well, uh, after us).Update: So far it looks like the same stuff from the keynote. Katsuya Eguchi takes the floor.
E308: WiiSpeak to be sold separately for $29.99
We hope you didn't get your hopes up by thinking that the Wii's newly revealed "room-to-room" microphone peripheral, WiiSpeak, would be bundled with copies of Animal Crossing: City Folk! No, Nintendo loves making money much too much, and they have to pay for that 800-foot wire somehow.According to a press release put out by Nintendo earlier today, the WiiSpeak microphone will be sold separately for $29.99. You could buy a DS game for that kind of cash! Maybe even two DS games, if you follow our sales posts!If that price point is too rich for your blood, you need not worry about missing out on City Folk's voice communication features, as we're sure several dozen Chinese accessory manufacturers will step up and release a slew of cheaper, ridiculously shaped microphone solutions soon enough. For comparison, Microsoft's MSRP for its official Xbox 360 Wireless Headset is $59.99, and Sony's official Bluetooth PS3 Headset (bundled with SOCOM: Confrontation) is rumored to be $49.99 as a standalone product. Of course, both of those accessories boast more advanced technology than WiiSpeak, and both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have much cheaper third-party solutions.[Thanks, Kongo!]
E308: WiiSpeak brings yet another power brick to the table?
When the WiiSpeak peripheral was unveiled for Animal Crossing: City Folk, we were happy to finally get voice chat on our Wii. But, a curious slide at the conclusion of Nintendo's E3 keynote showed the device has a very peculiar brick-like adapter that the USB end's cable plugs into. Now, we're assuming this is just a power brick, but you know what your school teachers told you about assuming!At least one thing is certain: the thing has enough cable to wrap around Nintendo HQ many times over.
E308: Wii Fanboy reacts to Nintendo's keynote [update]
[Updated: Now with JC talking about things!]With so many highlights from this year's Nintendo E3 keynote, we're finding our live chat wasn't enough to cover our thoughts and opinions on what was shown. So, below, you'll find some impressions akin to what we did last year. Enjoy.
E308: Highlights from Nintendo's keynote
This year's Nintendo conference at E3 felt much too short, but was packed with some really great announcements ... like Wii Speak! But in case you missed the show, or simply prefer an abridged version, here are the highlights. Read our live reactions here, or check out Joystiq's live blog if you're feeling adventurous. Shaun White Snowboarding demonstration (with Shaun White!), and a lot of stuff we already knew about the Ubisoft title, such as release window and the fact that it uses the Balance Board. Unsurprisingly, no mention of the abhorrent graphics. Animal Crossing: City Folk! With multiplayer, auctions, Mii masks, and voice chat. Wii Speak: megatonik peripheral that adds voice chat to the Wii. Wii Sports Resort takes you to the beach ... with Wii MotionPlus. Wii Music to release this year, with Balance Board support and a metric ton of instruments. No Zelda, no Kid Icarus, no Pikmin ... how sad. But we did get voice chat, and it's hard to complain about that addition.
E308: WiiSpeak peripheral coming
Voice chat, here we come. It looks like Reggie wasn't just dangling carrots when he talked about the feature coming to the Wii at some point.In Nintendo's expected announcement of Animal Crossing Wii, the company added something unexpected: players will be able to use a peripheral known as WiiSpeak to communicate (non-locally, of course) during the game. The video demonstration briefly showed four players playing Animal Crossing on the Wii while "WiiSpeaking" to each other. We think it's about time that Nintendo got on the voice chat train, and we'll let you know more about the peripheral and how it works as details arise.
