Wii And DS Setting Nintendo Sales Records

Nintendo of America has set a new sales record by selling more products during the Thanksgiving week than at any other time in the company’s history.

During the period November 18 to November 24, over 653,000 DS units were sold, smashing the previous record of 600,000 Game Boy Advance consoles sold in 2005.

A further 350,000 Wii home systems were also snapped up by Christmas shoppers, along with “millions of games and accessories”. Here is the full release:

In the first week of the 2007 holiday shopping season, Nintendo of America has sold more Nintendo products than at any other time in its history. This includes more than 653,000 Nintendo DSâ„¢ portable video game systems, 350,000 Wiiâ„¢ home systems and millions of games and accessories throughout the United States - and the season is just getting started.

Nintendo DS set a new all-time sales record for Thanksgiving week, eclipsing the previous mark of 600,000 Game Boy® Advance systems sold during the same period in the United States in 2005. Nintendo DS remains on track to be the top-selling video game system of 2007.

Nintendo’s 350,000 Wii systems represent the highest one-week U.S. sales total outside of its launch week one year ago. Wii has been dubbed the must-have gift of the 2007 holiday season and has been placed at the top of numerous gift lists. Nintendo has repeatedly increased its shipments and its fiscal-year sales forecast for Wii in an attempt to meet soaring demand. Wii reached 5 million sold in the United States faster than any video game system in history, after only 12 months of availability there.

Both Wii and Nintendo DS have continued their yearlong momentum into the holidays without altering their prices. And both remain attractive values for shoppers: Wii has an MSRP of $249.99, while Nintendo DS has an MSRP of $129.99.

“As shoppers look for ways to maximize their limited holiday spending money, they turn to gifts that can be used by the entire family,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “Wii and Nintendo DS offer something for every member of the family. They’re the most fun video game experiences at the most affordable price.”

With higher gas prices and fuel costs, and the lukewarm expectations for the 2007 holiday shopping season, Wii and Nintendo DS might be just what Santa ordered: Thirty-five percent of consumers said they plan to spend less than they did last year, according to a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for the Consumer Federation of America and the Credit Union National Association. Similarly, a USA Today/Gallup Poll showed that 25 percent of Americans expect to spend less on gifts this year than they did in 2006.

Note that the internal Nintendo of America numbers referenced in this release represent sales from Sunday, Nov. 18, through Saturday, Nov. 24.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

New David Bowie Rockband Tracks on Xbox Live

Three new songs from David Bowie were released this morning continuing the weekly update to the playable song list from Harmonix. “Moonage Daydream”, “Heroes” and “Queen Bitch” are now available for $2 a pop over Xbox Live or, if you want all three, you can opt to buy the three songs together for a discounted price of $5.50.  (Wow a discount of .50 thanks Microsoft)

Build Your Own RTS With the Sudden Strike Next7 Engine

Did you ever want to make your own RTS game and lack the programming skills to do so? Well now is your chance with FireGlow’s new Sudden Strike Next7 engine!

Fireglow publishing today announced its plans to use Sudden Strike Next7, the engine behind the upcoming Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory title. This engine will allow a variety of products to be created. Some of them will be announced soon.

Sudden Strike Next7 is a generic RTS engine to be used in subsequent games in the Sudden Strike series and other games from Fireglow. Fireglow is also developing thorough documentation in order to license the engine to third parties. The public version of the editor is being prepared and will be released with add-ons.

Here is a trailer showing how microAI works in Sudden Strike Next 7. After the Player gives the units a single command to unload, they can be left on their own to defend, supply and fight without orders from humans and without having to be managed.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Highlights:

• The editor allows to process maps in range from 250 by 250 meters up to 2 by 2 kilometres. You can specify a level of detail for the landscape.
• The editor allows bending the landscape. Objects are adjusted by the landscape’s height, unless marked by a special flag. Landscape and objects on the ground have different passability. It is taken in account in pathfinding or when destroying an object upon collision. Each object also has it’s own transparency. Together with the height of the ground, the transparency limits the unit’s sight of view.
• The editor has a built-in splines processing mechanism. It allows creating a long twisted fences, roads and trenches. Any spline can be easily readjusted, and its size or elevation changed.
• Any object may be placed at any place of the map. If you wish, you can use the Automatic Placement feature, which helps optimizing the path finding grid.
• You can quickly place a number of objects, randomly taken from the list. You can change, store, and load the lists. Any group of objects may be rotated or moved.
• Any part of the map (landscape, objects, units, or all together) may be exported, and then inserted into the same or any other map, using an arbitrary angle.
• Current parameters of any unit (or a group of units) may be easily changed. Some of the parameters are: health, experience, fuel, primary and secondary ammo, crew and passengers inside (for guns & vehicles), broken parts (tracks, turret, hull etc).
• The editor allows to create and edit surf waves of different shapes. You can specify direction and force of the wind, which blows away smoke.
• The built-in visual scripting tool with an intuitive interface (you don’t have to be a programmer to handle them) and independent AI behavior templates allow trying various gameplay ideas within minutes.
• Any object or unit has special zones that receive damage. Damage in different zones cause different consequences. Damaged tracks immobilize tank, fire in the engine compartment causes tank to loose hit points for some time.
• In the editor, you can run your mission inside the editor and test the gameplay without further ado.

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom Goes Gold

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive action-RPG Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom has gone gold. The latest game in the Kingdom Under Fire series from developer Blueside will ship to stores in the US on Jan. 8. Here is a snip:

A departure from the action real-time strategy formula seen in previous ‘Kingdom Under Fire’ games, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom is an action-packed role playing game (RPG) that makes full use of the Xbox 360 processing power to create a revolutionary gaming experience. Players will explore vast and randomly generated maps while battling bloodthirsty monsters attacking from all directions. As the game progresses, the six heroes will find increasingly advanced and spectacular ways to defeat enemies using new weapons and abilities as they progress through six varied acts. Players will also be able to interact with one another with a full multiplayer experience and up to four-player co-op on Xbox LIVE Gold.

KWARI Walkthrough Video

The latest video for the soon to be released Kwari game is here.  It is a walkthrough that should explain all you need to know about your “Five steps to Kwari heaven”.

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Friends of Friends Coming to Xbox LIVE

Just announced, a new Dashboard update will be released next Tuesday, December 4th. One of the new features of the release is ‘Friends of Friends.’ With this new feature, you’ll be able to browse the friends list of anyone on your Xbox LIVE friends list and send anyone on the list a friend’s request.

Microsoft is making it even easier to expand your Friends network on Xbox LIVE®, starting with the Fall Dashboard Update on December 4. You’ll be able to check out the friends lists of fellow Xbox LIVE members right from the Dashboard. With this new feature, members can find old friends or connect with new ones within the community of more than eight million people on Xbox LIVE around the globe and send messages and game invites, as well as compare games and Achievements.

With the prevalence of social media websites such as MySpace and FaceBook, this type of capability has largely come to be expected from consumers as a means to relate in an online community. Xbox LIVE continually seeks new ways to better serve the expectations of its members, which often result in free enhancements made available through the bi-annual Dashboard updates.

Friends List Settings
When the Fall Dashboard update is distributed on December 4, the new default setting on Xbox LIVE will be active, enabling members to see the Friends lists of other Xbox LIVE members. If you’d like to keep your friends list private, you can take the following steps to change your settings beginning today:

Log in to www.xbox.com/fof and select one of the three options available for your Gamertag:

• Everyone (only available to members 18 and older)
• Friends only (available to members 13 and older)
• Blocked (available to all members, and automatic for anyone under the age of 13)

Asteroids Blast Onto Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday

Xbox Live has announced the release of “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” both will be available for download on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 this Wednesday, November 28 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PST).

Save the earth from a deadly deluge of asteroids and re-experience the beloved arcade classics “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Complete with re-mastered HD visuals and the whiplash inducing high-speed “throttle monkey” mode.

NVIDIA ForceWare 169.12 Beta Drivers For Vista Users

NVIDIA has released new beta ForceWare drivers for its GeForce based graphics cards running windows Vista. The drivers 169.12 apparently fix one issue, “Fixes a resume from Sleep/Hibernate issue with GeForce 8800 GT.”

Wii Virtual Console releases for November 26th, 2007

Let’s hope you all survived the long and food filled holiday weekend. Can’t get off the couch after eating leftover turkey for 3 days, do a little shopping from the comfort of your couch.

Three new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

DOUBLE DRIBBLE™ (NES®, 1-2 players, rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points):

DOUBLE DRIBBLE, the first 5-on-5, full-court home basketball game, is pure hoops action at its finest. While still a surprisingly accurate basketball game for its time, the frantic action keeps you on your toes as your players run from one end of the court to the other. Choose from a handful of teams and multiple levels of difficulty as you take on the computer alone or challenge a friend and see who has the better skills. Take the ball and sink shots from locations all over the court, or get in your opponent’s face and do your best to block the shot. Better yet, drive the lane and rock the rim to see one of the game’s trademark slam-dunk cut scenes. He shoots, he scores!

Vegas Stakes™ (Super NES®, 1-4 players, rated E for Everyone – Simulated Gambling, 800 Wii Points):

Feel like taking a road trip to Las Vegas? Let your inner high roller go wild as you try your luck at five different games-blackjack, slots, poker, craps and roulette. Start with only $1,000 in your pocket and play your way through five casinos, each with a different theme and varying limits. But no one wants to gamble alone, right? Not a problem, as you’ll be able to choose one of four friends to tag along and offer advice when you need it. Further enhancing the experience is the fact that you’ll be presented with a slew of interactions with random casino patrons. Best be careful, though-your choices in these situations could either get you closer to the millions of dollars you’re after or cost you a pile of that hard-earned cash. Roll the dice, spin the wheel, hit or stand-do whatever it takes to stake your claim in Vegas and beat the house!

Ecco Jr.â„¢ (Sega Genesis, 1 player, rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points):

The aquatic adventures of Ecco come to life for a younger generation of gamers. Perfect for kids, Ecco Jr. finds our young hero heading out to sea with a variety of tasks he must perform in order to get there. Along with his friends Tara the baby orca and Kitnee the young Atlantic dolphin, Ecco Jr. will interact with sea lions, sea horses and other aquatic life as he makes his journey to the Big Blue. Introduce your kids to the classic series of Ecco the Dolphin titles by downloading Ecco Jr. today.

The Romantics Sue Activision Over Guitar Hero Cover Song

Billboard is reporting that members of the real rock band ‘The Romantics’ have filed a lawsuit against Activision, RedOctane and Harmonix over the “Guitar Hero Encore, Rocks the 80’s” videogame, which uses a version the band’s “What I Like About You” recorded by musicians that the band claims sound too much like them.

The song was performed for Guitar Hero by the band Wavegroup Sound. However, The Romantics claim the cover version is “virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version” and as a result would cause consumers to believe that the version was recorded by the original group. (ummm DUH we consumers are really stupid)

Just admit it ‘Wavegroup Sound’ can play the song better than you, now get over it. Next time Activision needs a cover band that does not sound “too good” they can contact me here at OLGn. Because none of the songs I play sound anything like the original ones.