Stay on top of all our E3 2013 coverage here.

In a special Electronic Entertainment Expo edition of its Nintendo Direct webcast today, the Japanese publisher announced two new entries in its over-the-top fighting series in which its many beloved mascots try to punch each other into the stratosphere: Super Smash Bros. Wii U and Super Smash Bros. 3DS.

The trailer showed off a number of familiar faces, including Mario, Samus, and Bowser, before introducing its first new combatants: an unnamed villager from Animal Crossing and the Blue Bomber himself, Mega Man. It looks like Mega Man will be able to use weapons stolen from Robot Masters throughout the Mega Man series, and one quick scene showed him facing off against the Yellow Devil boss from the original Mega Man game.

Meanwhile, the Animal Crossing villager can trap people in his butterfly net. It looked cooler than it sounds.

Nintendo later announced during an event at its E3 booth that the Wii Fit Trainer will also join the roster. OK, she’s no Blue Bomber, but … new characters and all that.

Both games are set for release in 2014, and we’ll have more information as it becomes available. Until then, check out the reveal, Mega Man, and Wii Fit Trainer trailers below:

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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With Microsoft’s announcement of the Xbox One this week, the slate of consoles for the next generation has become a known quantity. Each major game console maker has revealed its strategy, and game industry veterans can now weigh in on who has the best plan. But the competition in games isn’t limited to just the consoles anymore. Mobile devices, the PC, and a host of Android-based devices are hitting the market at the same time.

We asked what some smart folks in the game industry thought about who was going to win the game platform war, now that the chips are on the table. The question was simple: who will win? Among the choices we gave them were: Nintendo Wii U, Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, Ouya, Android, iOS, the PC, and Other. Here’s some of our responses. Please comment on your own favorite and explain why. And please take the poll at the end.

The real answer, of course, is that consumers are going to win. But first, they’ll have to sort out a variety of factors that include price, launch timing, game costs, other services, backward compatibility, cross-platform play, used game rights, always-connected to the Internet, and the best games.

Chris Petrovic, former head of GameStop Digital Ventures

Of course, the right answer should be that the consumer looks best in that there have never been more compelling platforms on which to game then what we now have – just look at the list!

I really don’t see this as a binary answer. Each of these platforms can and will capture a meaningful share of consumers share of time and wallet. There seems to be general consensus in the game industry that it will continue to follow the ebbs and flows of its media brethren — movies, TV, etc. — in that the incumbent platforms will still provide the richest, most immersive premium experiences for the enthusiast while the newer platforms will appeal to the masses because they win on price and convenience.

As it relates to the competitors within each sector, Nintendo has lost the living room and should focus on opening up its IP to third party platforms. As between Microsoft and Sony, the one that has the best exclusive content will win. Free-to-play models will not work because the platforms are not conducive to indie developers and also because discovery will be a problem along the lines of what we see in mobile.

And as between Apple and Google, Google will win because of its market share and also because it has a better chance of solving content discovery.

Dennis Fong, chief executive of video game social network Raptr

The days of a gaming-only device are numbered, given the rise of smartphones and tablets as viable gaming platforms. So with that in mind, i think Microsoft is better positioned than Sony for the future. Microsoft has added some really cool features to make it a lot more useful and interesting in the living room.

That said, content is king. Since both MS and Sony have great exclusive games, neither will be going away any time soon. Microsoft did lock up some strong exclusives on the nongaming side though, such as the NFL, which should pay dividends in the future.

Ubisoft

It’s impossible to say whether Sony or Microsoft has the “edge,” as both consoles boast their own distinguishing features and will appeal to consumers for different reasons – for example, Microsoft has integrated the next Kinect technology into the console, which provides players a new interactive experience. Meanwhile, Sony proposes a seamless experience for all PS4 games in the Vita. These two different approaches will appeal to different types of gamers. And as developers, we’re excited about the potential both machines hold.

Tim Chang, managing director at Mayfield Fund and investor in game companies such as Ouya

On the record: I’m super-bullish on the new Xbox – they have so much buzz, momentum, and cool new features going for them that I think they’ll continue to pull ahead of Sony PS4. [There will be] some cool new titles for Sony PS4 for sure, but the battle going forward is going to be about connected functionality and cloud-driven services in addition to what hot new exclusive titles you can launch with and how much eye candy they pack.

iOS will keep innovating interconnectivity between phone, tablet, and TVs, so we’ll see tablet-plus connected TV gaming converging. Android will try to keep up, but the Bluetooth SW stack for native Android as well as the fragmented implementations by Samsung and other OEMs are actually a major hindrance for getting next-gen controllers to pair and communicate over BT. …

And of course I’m bullish on Ouya helping to drive a renaissance for indie developers – like the way XBLA, Steam, etc., should have been.

The promise of cloud gaming is still pretty cool, especially if it allows for great PC online titles like Eve, World of Warcraft, World of Tanks, Minecraft, etc., to be played on tablets and TVs

David Cole, analyst at DFC Intelligence

Overall, there has to be some concern that Microsoft is biting off more than they can chew. With no backward compatibility, the Xbox One is starting from scratch. Microsoft had a huge success with the Kinect, and that could be their downfall. The Kinect helped draw in a significant number of mainstream consumers. However, the Xbox brand resonated primarily with a core gaming group. Microsoft shouldn’t assume they that group will automatically stay around as they try and target the elusive mass market. Sony learned that lesson the hard way in the transition from the PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3. In the U.S., Microsoft has a major advantage but they could easily screw that up very quickly. We only need to look at Nintendo’s disastrous recent product launches for a lesson. This will be a marketing game and right now Sony seems to be winning.

Tim Merel, managing director at Digi-Capital

We believe the games market is splitting into “value” and “volume” markets. That prediction has not only come to pass but continues to accelerate dramatically. From platform, business model and geographic perspectives, we see more fundamental divergence than we did at that time. This has major implications across the entire games ecosystem (hardware, platforms, publishers, developers, enabling tech). We think that the coming 18 months will see even greater transformation than has gone before.

We continue to see the volume markets of high engagement, connected (mobile/tablet, iOS, Android, Over The Top [“OTT”]) and cross-platform (iOS, Android, OTT)/online [PC/web]) delivering long-term mass market growth. Despite (and partly because of) recent announcements, we see the value markets of console- and subscription-based MMO remaining large long term niches. [They are] till great places to operate, valuable, capable of producing great games companies and great games, but generally not on the same scale or with the same growth rates and profitability as the volume markets. Some of these value markets are trying to transform themselves into volume markets, and they may succeed in doing so despite the challenges. Naturally this is not absolute and there could be many exceptions.

Dan Fiden, partner at Signia Ventures

Nintendo is in a tough spot. They could have a terrific mobile business — now might be the time to consider building or licensing for iOS and Android.

This generation of game-focused hardware consoles will be smaller than the last, and fewer publishers will be willing to make $20 million bets on the blockbuster games that sell the hardware. Microsoft’s announcement indicates they’re not focused on insuring they retain the game hobbyist market. Their ability to retain them will say a lot about the power of players’ investment in affinity for the Xbox Live community.

iOS and Android are the most important platforms in this generation: Penetration of the hardware is outstanding, they’re generally developer friendly partners, and the tablet’s potential as a gaming device is still largely untapped. Couple that with the possibilities around AirPlay, increasing mobile development budgets and corresponding increase in quality and depth, and migration of very talented core development teams to iOS and Android. There’s an argument to be made that the winners of this generation have already been decided.

Ouya is a great story, but it will need to focus on building a brand and community for gamers — like Kongregate, or Humble Bundle combined with Xbox. The key is to become the Android game “channel” and to move away from participating in the brutal Android hardware refresh cycle. Hiring Kellee Santiago was a great move in this regard.

Jason Kay, principal at K2 Ventures

It seems safe to say at this point that Nintendo is likely to follow Sega’s lead in moving out of the hardware business and focusing on all of the amazing brands and games in their stable (Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc). It seems hard to fathom that the Wii U can ever recover, and it feels like the only portable business is the smartphone business.

Microsoft and Sony are are in a very tight race. I expect it will largely be a replay of 7th generation with both consoles selling well, and consumer choice most likely based on affinity and account transfer” rather than any one emerging a big winner. Microsoft clearly has a huge edge in the Xbox live architecture, subscriber numbers, and functionality, but but Sony looks strong and has some unique selling features like the cloud steaming system that could become game changers.”

I think that the PC will get stronger vs. the other two AAA consoles, but it probably has a ceiling because of price and the disintegrating PC marketplace vs tablet. There is an argument that tablet/laptop hybrids are going to take over. Perhaps that is true and then the line between these 3 and “mobile” below will blur quickly.

Android and iOS will continue to strengthen, with iOS in the premium segment and Android in a broader, value segment. The Android store should reach similar quality and ease of use to iTunes, if it hasn’t already, so that old advantages of a tighter payment loop of iTunes will disappear.

At some point, The ios and Android will reach dollar sales parity with the former three. Scary, but it seems inevitable. So by that measure, mobile probably “wins.” As you know, I think that happens as the games get PS3 level on tablet and the console pubs start porting down to tablet. There is a pricepoint question, though.

On Ouya: I’ve known Roy (Bahat, Ouya chairman) and Julie Uhrman (Ouya CEO) for a long time and am rooting hard for them. I think that its fair to say that I am excited for the launch and keeping my fingers crossed for great things. I think overall people want to call winners and losers way to early in the game.

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Please take the poll below.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Earlier today, Square-Enix tweeted August 27th as the release date for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on the PS3 and PC. Although current owners of the original FF XIV on PC can download the new version for free (and thus should disregard the next few sentences), new potential players on PC can take advantage of lower-than-usual list prices as well as a 20% off preorder deal on GMG.

The digital Standard Edition for preorder comes to $24 after coupon, while the Collector’s Edition costs $20 more. All preorders includes pre-launch access to the game servers, a Mog cap to wear around Eorzea, and a Cait Sith Doll Minion who joins your party as a pet.

Although the digital Collector’s Edition preorder omits the numerous physical bonus items associated with the DVD version, you’ll still receive the Helm of Light, a Baby Behemoth Minion, a Coeurl Mount, and even Behemoth Barding armor for your Chocobo as in-game bonuses.

Announced just two days ago, Metro: Last Light – Season Pass for PC download also has the 20% discount after coupon at Green Man Gaming. The Pass includes four DLC packs: Faction Pack, Tower Pack, Developer Pack, and Chronicles Pack. Assuming the packs will cost $5 each as they release, the final price of the Pass represents a 40% discount off what you’d otherwise pay. Accordingly, fans of the Metro franchise certain to buy the additional DLC would be wise to grab these in the Pass.

Hot deals & recent releases

Aug. 27: Final Fantasy XIV: Realm Reborn (PC Dowload) — $24 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. If you already own the original FF XIV on PC, don’t pay twice – it’s free for you to download. Otherwise, be thankful for the lower $30 list price, 20% off coupon, and preorder bonuses.

Tuesday’s release: Metro: Last Light – Season Pass (PC Download) — $12 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Save 40% off what you’d pay if you were to buy the packs individually as they’re released.

Tuesday’s release: Resident Evil: Revelations (PC Download) — $40 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. This “slighty buggy [but] fun” transition from a successful 3DS title to the bigger screen has a 75/100 Metacritic rating so far.

Yesterday’s release: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (PC Download) — $11.99 at GameFly after coupon. Pay respect to the Old West with a bounty hunting title getting solid reviews thus far. Next best is $15 at Amazon.

Wii U Console 8GB Basic Set — $239.99 at Target. Plus $6.55 shipping. Cheapest we’ve seen for the basic Wii U console, with other retailers still selling for the usual $300.

Freebie PC games at Amazon

16 Bit Arena (PC Download) — FREE. If you miss vintage graphics in turn-by-turn battles, your nostalgia won’t cost you a thing. List price is $10.
 

Stronghold Kingdoms + Stronghold Crusader HD (PC Download) — FREE. While Stronghold Kingdoms has been free for a while now, Stronghold Crusader HD is usually $10.

PC download deals

Guild Wars 2 Digital Edition (PC Download) — $39.99 at Green Man Gaming. Since its release last year, GW2 has had its up and downs, but the core community is still relatively strong.
 

Sleeping Dogs (PC Download) — $6.25 at GamersGate. A cheap safe bet for fans of open world action adventure. Next best is $30 at Amazon.
 

Space Battle Weekend Sale: Games and DLCs (PC Download) — up to 75% off at GamersGate. Includes a whopping 63 space-related games and content to download, including Sins of a Solar Empire, Endless Space, and classics like Master of Orion.
 

PC Physical DVD Preorders

June 4: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition (PC) — $49.99 at NewEgg. Don’t let MSRP be your ‘arrow to the knee’ – save $10 after coupon instead and get the base game, 3 DLCs, and other new features.
 

Last Monday’s release: Battlefield 4 (PC DVD) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. Recently announced to include the provocatively named ‘China Rising’ for free on release date.
 

Nov. 5: Call of Duty: Ghosts (PC DVD) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. First real deal we’ve seen on the PC physical since the release date announcement.
 

360 and PS3 deals

Bioshock Infinite (PS3, Xbox 360) — $39.99 at GameStop. This ties the lowest price we’ve seen. If you haven’t played yet, these solid prices are giving you even less of an excuse.

Buy 2 Pre-Owned Video Games, Get a 3rd FREE — at Best Buy. You’ve got over 5,000 pre-owned games available, and savings will appear in cart after you’ve added your choices.
 

GameFly Used Games Sale (Xbox 360, PS3) — If you don’t mind pre-owned video games, there are several solid discounts this week, including:

• Assassin’s Creed 3 (PS3) — $19.99 (cheapest new $30)
• Lollipop Chainsaw (360, PS3) — $14.99 (cheapest new $22)
• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (360) — $14.99 (cheapest new $55)

Hardware

Memorial Day deal on HP Envy dv7t-7300 Quad Edition — $749.99 at HP after coupon. Quick Specs: Quad Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 650M 2GB, Blu-ray drive, and 9 cell Lithium Ion Battery. List is $1,000. For the same processor, HDD, RAM, video card, 1080p resolution, but with a smaller screen, the HP Envy dv6t-7300 Quad Edition laptop is $849.99 after coupon (no Blu-ray in this 15.6-inch). Both are fully gaming capable in terms of config and setup.

Alienware M18x r2 1080p Gaming Laptop — $1,575 at eBay. Quick Specs: Core i7-3610QM, 500GB + 32GB SSD, 16GB RAM, and 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M. List is $2,349.

Alienware M17x r4 Gaming Laptop — $1,612 at Dell Home after coupon. Quick Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, and 2GB GeForce GTX 660M. List is $1,749.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

For those that have been eagerly awaiting the release of next week’s BioShock Infinite, you’re in luck (if you’re a PC gamer) because the retailers are in a full blown preorder bonus slug fest. 2K has given additional incentives for the digital preorder, offering additional freebie games such as XCOM: Enemy Unknown across all retailers. The best offer is currently at Green Man Gaming (best value with credit and three free games). Check the table below to compare and contrast all the pre-order bonus offers.

BioShock Infinite Preorder Bonus Comparison

All digital preorder from retailers below will get:

• Copy of the original Bioshock and XCOM: Enemy Unknown
• Industrial Revolution DLC pack (3 gear items, 500 bonus in-game currency, 5 lock picks, and the Industrial Revolution puzzle game)

Upcoming Releases

March 26: BioShock Infinite + Preorder Bonuses (PC Download) — $59.99 at Green Man Gaming. Choose between $15 Credit or $14 Cash Back and three free games. This is probably one of the better BioShock Infinite offers on the market. Compare bonus here.
 

March 26: Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (Xbox 360, PS3) — $59.99 at Amazon. Another next week Tuesday release. Like Bioshock Infiniteeverywhere seems to be charging full price but Amazon is offering the game with a $20 credit. Credit is good towards nearly everything on Amazon.
 

Recent Releases

God of War: Ascension + God of War Saga (PS3) — $59.99 at GameStop. This is a pretty stellar deal considering you’re getting GoW: Saga, which contains all previous God of War titles.
 

Dead Space 3 (PC Download, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. Thanks to EA’s “player appreciation sale” the recently released Dead Space 3 is now at lowest ever price.
 

Crysis 3 (PC Download, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. Along with Dead Space 3, Crysis 3 joins the rank of heavily discounted games. Some may say the IPs are being diluted in pricing, but we say, more discounts please.
 

Console game deals

The Amazing Spider-Man Ultimate Edition (Wii U) — $29.99 at GameStop. A pretty recent March 5th Wii U release just dropped $10 at Gamestop. Amazon decided to price match but elsewhere the game is the full $39.99 list price.
 

PC download deals

Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods and Kings (PC Download) — $7.49 at GameFly. Next best is $30 at Green Man Gaming. Thursday-only GameFly has a great price for Civ V’s Gods and Kings expansion pack. Ratings are consistently good with a 4/5 on Amazon and 80/100 on Metacritic.
 

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (PC Download) — $6 at Origin. Next best is $20 at GamersGate. The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition is one of the more notable “Player Appreciation” sale games out there. At only six bucks it’s actually cheapest ever by $4.
 

Borderlands Game of the Year Edition (PC Download) — $5.99 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Next best is $28 at Amazon. Another six dollar gem is Borderlands GOTY at GMG. It ties the previous low price only seen a month ago in a weekend sale. Otherwise the game has been around the $10-$30 mark. The current next best price online is $28 on Amazon. Game activates on Steam.
 

General sales

EA Player Appreciation Sale — More than 200 titles up to 70% off for one week only.
 

Gamefly Spring Break PC Sale — New round of deals each week, click-through to see today’s list.
 

Hardware deals

Wii U Console 32GB Deluxe Set with Nintendo Land — $349.99 at Target. Includes a $50 target gift card bnous.
 

PlayStation Vita 3G / WiFi with 8GB Memory Card — $249.99 at Sony. Next best is $280 at Walmart. Decent price for the 3G model with “proprietary” memory stick.
 

Samsung Series 7 Gamer Laptop — $1,399 at Microsoft. Model NP700G7C-S02US. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 16GB RAM, 1.5 TB 7200RPM HDD + 8GB SSD, GeForce GTX 675M, and Blu-ray. Next best is $1,600 at NewEgg.
 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 952325U Laptop — $799 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Ivy Bridge Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 650M 2GB, Blu-ray, and Windows 8.
 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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People have been talking about video game violence a lot lately, and Nintendo’s eShop update manages to hit both sides of the debate.

First up is the Wii U, which (at least for this week) is the place to go if you want video games about kicking people so hard that they explode. That’s because the only new item coming to the Wii U today is the full version of Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2, based on the long-running manga and animé series. While it’s on a disc in Japan, Ken’s Rage 2 is exclusive to the eShop in the United States and Europe.

Things get a little more highbrow for the 3DS this week. Well, it’s technically next week, because you’ll have to wait until then before you can download the full versions of Brain Age: Concentration Training (Sunday) and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 3D (Tuesday).

Of course, if you’re Veruca Salt and want your new eShop games now, Nintendo also has a few things for you. Starting today, you can download the full versions of Splinter Cell 3D and Rayman 3D, as well as a demo of the upcoming Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan and the Nintendo Entertainment System classic Mega Man II.

Wrapping things up is the DSi, which only gets one new game this week: A vertical-scrolling platformer (think Doodle Jump) called Ah! Heaven. According to Nintendo’s page for the game, you play as a soul trying to get up to heaven, and while God is willing to open the gates for you, he is forcing you to reach them on your own. I’m not sure, but this sounds like a rather literal metaphor for something.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This is one of those weeks when Nintendo is going to have to sit down with all of its consoles and remind them that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it doesn’t have a “favorite.” Just because the Wii U and DSi aren’t getting any new content this week on their respective digital download services doesn’t mean they’re not special in their own way. It’s just that they’re not as special as the 3DS (or even the original Wii, to a lesser extent).

The headliner for this week’s 3DS-centric eShop update is the demo of Fire Emblem Awakening, the latest entry in Nintendo’s long-running turn-based strategy series. You can also get the full retail versions of kid-friendly minigame collection Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue and Deer Drive Legends (which is unfortunately not an animal-driving sim but a hunting game).

Wrapping things up for the 3DS is a port of the Game Boy puzzler Kirby’s Star Stacker and Tokyo Crash Mobs, a game that proves that the DSi isn’t the only place to find totally weird things that are hard to explain. Basically, it’s a Zuma-style puzzle game where you throw people at other people in order to knock them out of line that uses a mix of live-action video and “wacky digital graphics” (according to the official site).

Finally, the original Wii finally gets an Amazon Instant Video app, so you can stream content from the online retail giant’s Netflix competitor. Hey, it’s something at least.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo completely forgot about some of its systems in last week’s eShop update, so today it’s going to make it up to each and every Wii U owner with a small amount of new stuff. You can also get another full 3DS title and a Virtual Console game for the Wii, so it’s a good week for everybody. Sort of. You’ll see.

First up is the Wii U, which does get two additions to its digital download service: a pair of demos, one for ZombiU and one for NBA 2K13. For those who aren’t familiar, the former tasks you with navigating a zombie-infested London and features permanent character deaths, and the latter is a basketball game that constantly promotes the fact that rapper Jay-Z was an executive producer on it. As Nintendo adds more demos to the Wii U eShop, maybe someday it will decide to actually make them easier to find.

The big update for the 3DS is another full retail game: Hello Kitty Picnic with Sanrio Friends. If you’ve been thinking about picking that one up and want to avoid the judging eyes of a GameStop clerk, now’s your chance to have some minigame fun with Keroppi and Badtz-Maru like you’ve always wanted. If you have no heart and don’t like Hello Kitty, maybe this week’s 3DS eShop offerings are for you: Reel Fishing Paradise 3D Mini, Wild Adventures: Ultimate Deer Hunt 3D, and 101 DinoPets 3D. The first two are self-explanatory, but the third one is about dressing dinosaurs up in hats and is “more fun than a puppy,” according to Nintendo.

Seriously, of all the fake names to pick… .

As usual, the weirdest update of the week comes from the DSi. Its only new piece of downloadable content is an app called Biorhythm that somehow tracks your physical, intellectual, and emotional “cycles.” It sounds like the dream that the Nintendo Vitality Sensor still lives on as we all hoped it would.

Finally, another old 2D fighter comes to the original Wii’s Virtual Console, and for once, it wasn’t developed by SNK (though that studio did work on it, so it’s basically the same thing): World Heroes 2, which features characters based on various historical figures like Captain Kidd and … a football player. It was the ’90s — that’s what video games were like.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The game industry is still living in compressed time. It went through more gyrations and disruptions in a year than it usually does in a generation. The revolution in games is on our doorstep, but several of the big companies trying to start it have failed to execute. They proved that ambition alone isn’t enough to take on the status quo.

But traditional game makers can’t be too smug. We saw the bankruptcy of THQ and the weakening of many of the strongest video game franchises. Social, mobile, and online forces will continue to reshape the business in the coming year, but nobody was free of trouble.

The good news is that the number of gamers continues to soar (past a billion), and, sometime soon, somebody is going to hit a phenomenal home run. That is why that, in spite of some phenomenal crash landings, entrepreneurs and investors are still going big with new game startups. Those startups aren’t raising as much money as they once did, but the entrepreneurs running them still have fire in their bellies.

We’ve gone back through the archives of GamesBeat for the past year and dug up the stories that made the biggest impact. Here’s our list of the biggest game stories of 2012.

1. Zynga goes into a free fall

In tandem with Facebook’s disappointing initial public offering, Zynga missed its second quarter earnings targets. Demand for its games weakened, and the company’s stock price tanked 40 percent in a day. It never recovered during the year, and the toll was felt by every gaming company. In the third quarter, the results were disappointing again.

The problem for game startups is that Zynga’s value fell by 75 percent, crushing down the values of similar companies in both the public stock and private markets. Game company valuations plummeted, and it is no surprise that the pace of investments slowed in the latter part of 2012. Zynga tried to claw its way back up to recapture the glory days of its IPO. It launched a spate of new titles like FarmVille 2 and moved into mid-core games via acquisition. But the payoff isn’t clear just yet.

2. Mobile goes big

Zynga tried to move into mobile in a big way, but so did everybody else. The migration was huge, since many believed that smartphones and tablets would replace consoles. Rovio’s Angry Birds soared past a billion downloads, and the franchise took off in new directions with Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars, not to mention a whole line of new Hasbro toys. Social game companies like Kabam successfully diversified beyond Facebook and invaded mobile — its Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North turned out to be the No. 1 grossing app on the Apple App Store. About 86 percent of Flash game developers expanded into mobile. Like King.com, most of them tested their titles on the web and Facebook and then moved the successful games over to mobile.

By the third quarter, mobile-game startups accounted for 42 percent of all investments in the industry and 22 percent of the transaction value, according to Digi-Capital. That meant that mobile game investments were popular, but they were also smaller since mobile-game studios are still relatively small.

But the mobile market wasn’t easy. Indie game makers could make it big, but they often needed help. Mobile marketers tried everything the could to get their products noticed, but Apple had to crack down on the methods that weren’t good for consumers. Still, mobile promised to be huge. In the U.S., 44 percent of people were playing mobile games. And mobile became the fastest growing segment in games.

3. Kickstarter launches a crowdfunding revolution

While Zynga’s crash hurt funding, developers found a new fountain of money in their own fans. Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions tapped the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to fund a new adventure game. It raised more than $1 million on its first day and wound up raking in $3.3 million in 30 days by March 13. Brian Fargo’s inXile Entertainment jumped on the opportunity and raised nearly $3 million for Wasteland 2, a sequel that no traditional game publishers would touch. Jordan Weisman’s Harebrained Schemes raised $1.8 million for Shadowrun Returns. Kickstarters for a variety of other games such as Obsidian, Leisure Suit Larry, Pitfall, and others also took off, creating a revival for mid-sized game development studios.

Soon enough, crowdfunding wasn’t just a way to run around the gatekeeper publishers. It was an agent of disruption, giving more creators control over their destinies at a time when larger game companies had become risk averse. Ouya proved that as it raised $8.3 million for its Android-based video game console.

And Kickstarter wasn’t the only show in town. Gamesplanet Lab launched its own crowdfunding effort for games. Gambitious focused on raising crowdfunding and seed investment for game studios. And Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen took off in part through web-based donation system.

4. Nintendo’s kicks off the new generation

Nintendo’s run with the motion-sensing Wii was phenomenal, with more than 98 million units sold to date. But for the past couple of years, sales have lagged and Nintendo finally got a replacement console on the market with the launch of the Wii U on Nov. 18. Nintendo aimed to disrupt gaming again by incorporating tablets and asymmetrical gameplay into its new console. It initially sold out, with more than 400,000 units sold in its first week. But that doesn’t look so good in the context of some serious new competition. Apple’s new iPhones and iPad tablets routinely sell more than 2 million or 3 million units on opening weekend. Nintendo executives put on brave faces, but critics have been bearish on the Wii U throughout the past year. Those critics, such as our own GamesBeat editor-in-chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu, point out a number of weaknesses in the console, such as the lack of a killer app. Analysts expect it to sell out for the holidays, but the questions is how long it will keep selling for. So far, the Wii U hasn’t set the world on fire.

5. OnLive’s collapse

No company held more promise than OnLive, which came on the scene in 2009 with a plan that astonished everyone. OnLive’s “cloud gaming” solution would allow people with low-end computers to play high-end games that were processed in a remote data center and then streamed as videos to the players’ screens. The cloud would allow players to log into their games from anywhere and play as long as they had a good Internet connection. OnLive beat its milestones and surprised the skeptics, launching its service in 2010. It came up with a lot of improvements, but it lost a number of big game publishers such as Electronic Arts as rivals such as Gaikai came on the scene. OnLive’s membership base grew slowly, and it had a tough time competing against free-to-play online games.

So the company kept raising money at a high valuation to keep the lights on. By 2012, the company had burned through more than $200 million in funding. It had more than 200 employees but failed to break even. It hit the wall in August, running out of money. An investor bought the company and ousted founder Steve Perlman. The company went through a bankruptcy alternative and lost many of its employees. It is trying for a comeback but in a much reduced state.

Perlman has moved on to his wireless broadband startup, but his failure to warn people about the collapse was unpopular with employees. This fall sent a shock wave through the cloud-gaming industry, and it was a case of a solid company racing too far ahead of its own revenues until it shattered its own dream.

6. Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios falls apart, forcing him to auction off his bloody sock

Curt Schilling was a baseball hero who pitched his team to a 2004 World Series victory with a wounded foot. After he retired, he started 38 Studios, a game startup with the audacious goal of creating a massively multiplayer online fantasy role-playing world that could challenge Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. He poured more than $50 million of his own money into Project Copernicus, and he hired comic artist star Todd McFarlane and fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore. It was the ultimate bet on the MMO business. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Schilling took $75 million in loans from Rhode Island in exchange for moving his company there from Massachusetts. But the company’s first game, Kingdoms of Amalur, was a mediocre success, and it ran out of money in June. It laid off more than 300 people abruptly and then filed for bankruptcy. Schilling had to auction off most of his property, including his bloody sock. Instead of killing off WoW, 38 Studios became a cautionary tale for states that provided rich incentives to risky startups.

7. Social casino games take off

Everybody loves a bubble. Speculation that online gambling might be legalized led to a feeding frenzy in the adjacent market of non-real-money social casino games, where people spent money on virtual goods but couldn’t cash their winnings out. Games such as Zynga Poker had taken off over the past five years. But when the Justice Department ruled in December that online gambling could be legal, the floodgates opened. IGT paid $500 million in January for Double Down Interactive, a social gaming company with only 70 employees. After that jackpot, the speculators moved in. Dozens of new startups received funding for their social casino and sports betting games. Analysts report that social casino games will generate $1.6 billion in revenue this year, and that will steadily grow over the next several years. Betable has cut deals with five social casino game companies to convert their titles into real-money gambling games. Zynga’s crash took some of the air out of this bubble, but many are still betting that online gambling will give a big boost to the social casino game companies and visa versa. Zynga itself is betting big on online gambling, and so is Facebook. Will the bubble pop in 2013, or will the marriage of social casino games and online gambling pay off?

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2012 saw the continued evolution of three consumer technologies — autostereoscopy, touch-sensing, and motion sense – with direct application in the gaming world.

As an analyst in the tech industry (I do this gaming stuff for fun and occasional profit), I’ve witnessed these burgeoning advancements spread from the fevered dreams of OEM engineers to vertical-market trade shows, the Consumer Electronics Show, and finally E3 and the games industry.

None of these technologies debuted in 2012, but they’ve each matured and become an indispensable part of gaming. For perspective, here’s a link to last year’s article.

Seeing in three dimensions without goofy eye wear

For those who don’t know, “autostereoscopy” is an informal term in the tech industry for glasses-free 3D – “stereoscopy” refers to the process by which combining two offset images gives the illusion of depth (three dimensions), and “auto” denotes the glasses-free component.

Autostereoscopy uses a parallax barrier to create 3D images without the need for special glasses. This differs from an active shutter system (like Nvidia 3D Vision), which, through special driver software and glasses that present alternating left- and right-eye images, presents the illusion of depth.

Most consumers are familiar with polarized 3D systems, by far the oldest and most mature of these technologies. These are the sort most often found in theaters and theme parks.

Of the three techniques, autostereoscopy shows the most promise, but the tech is inherently limiting, as the 3DS amply demonstrates. The biggest downside to glasses-free 3D is its highly restrictive viewing angles. In my own experience, it ranges anywhere from 45 degrees to 60 degrees. Move too far in any direction and it breaks the illusion. In that way, the 3DS – and its parent technology – are not dissimilar to a hologram.

When the 3D revival began in recent years, the consumer electronics industry threw all their weight behind this oft-maligned gimmick.  CES became saturated with 3D TVs, 3D movies, 3D projectors, 3D laptops, 3D gaming, and more than enough 3D to turn off consumers — which it did. Whereas the leap from cathode ray tube (CRT) to flat-screen was monumental, 3D wasn’t nearly enough to convince most people to abandon their “obsolete” LED TVs. Most consumers apparently saw it as a stop-gap solution.

OEMs lay the groundwork for autostereoscopy

I saw the foundation of the 3DS’s glasses-free 3D tech at optoelectronics events (essentially, anything having to do with displays and lighting), and a large manufacturer – rhymes with “Carp” – demoed a small form-factor display long before it did (or didn’t … shhhh) become part of a certain Nintendo handheld.

And yet, Nintendo’s autostereoscopic handheld system – which may or may not have utilized display technology from Japanese manufacturer, Sharp – faced an uphill battle due to inherent limitations with the tech, itself.

The 3DS was hobbled from the start – health reports loudly trumpeted claims that 3D was unhealthy for children, while many viewers (myself includes) get headaches and/or nausea from observing stereoscopy for too long. And up to 12 percent of the population suffers from “stereoblindness,” which prevents the individual from seeing 3D images.

But the 3DS’ biggest handicap was its restrictive viewing angles, given that its claim-to-fame was its autostereoscopy technology. On July 28, Nintendo partially mitigated this problem with the release of the 3DS XL, which increased the screen size by more than 90 percent — (top: 4.88 in [124 mm], bottom: 4.18 in [106 mm]). But was it too little, too late?

GamesBeat writer Jasmine Maleficent Rea noted that “The 3DS XL is what the 3DS should have started as.”

But she also addressed the system’s improved capabilities: “A wider viewing area enhances the 3D effect, making some games that were too blurry in 3D a joy to play. For those of us with horrible vision, larger screens are a must, and because of this advancement, the 3DS XL is a great step toward people accepting a ‘gimmicky’ feature as a viable gameplay tool.”

Most consumers still do see 3D as a gimmick, and autostereoscopy is but a fancier gimmick. But for stereoscopy to ever become part of mainstream entertainment, it must shed the clunky glasses and develop into a mature, glasses-free technology.

Pinching, swiping, and styli

Capacitive touch – which underpins your iPhones, Samsung Galaxys, Droids, and countless smartphones – has become more prominent as the platforms supporting it have eked out a bigger piece of the pie. And resistive touch – the passive cousin of capacitive – has done even better for itself, featuring prominently in the Wii U gamepad (not to mention countless commercial applications like ATMs and credit card payment machines).

Resistive touch sensing – which registers pressure via fingers, styli, and other objects – is hardly a new technology. Because of its versatility compared to competing systems (like capacitive touch), resistive touch is popular in commercial applications like ATMs.

Nintendo utilized this relatively primitive touchscreen technology for its DS and 3DS systems, presumably to save a buck and to enable the use of styli.

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Nintendo doesn’t have very many exciting surprises in its eShop updates for this week, but you can at least find something new for all four of its online-enabled systems. Yes, even the Wii!

First up is the 3DS, which, as usual, receives the bulk of the new content. Starting today, you can download full versions of Mario Tennis Open, Pilotwings Resort, Pokémon Rumble Blast, and Bit.Trip Saga. With those five additions, the amount of 3DS games you actually have to buy in a store drops even further, which is good news if you’re reading this in the Midwest, because you’re probably buried under a mountain of snow right now and may never be able to leave your house again.

Two more DLC packs come to New Super Mario Bros. 2 this week as well: The “Mystery Adventures Pack,” which sends you through a series of courses filled with hidden secrets, and the “Impossible Pack,” which claims to have the “highest difficulty ever.”

If you prefer your 3DS games more bite-sized, you can get a handful of eShop titles this week as well, including the Game Boy classic Wario Land 2, the formerly WiiWare-exclusive EscapeVektor, pixel art puzzler Pix3D, horse simulator Riding Stables 3D: Rivals In The Saddle (which is an awesome name), and a demo version of 2 Fast 4 Gnomz.

Moving on to the Wii U, its only new additions this week are full downloadable versions of the recently released Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune games, both of which are based on extremely successful and long-running shows that encourage you to yell at your TV about stupid people.

As for the DSi, it gets a holiday-themed spin on a popular slicing series with Cake Ninja: XMAS, strategy game Castle Conquerers: Heroes 2, and Anonymous Notes Chapter 3: From the Abyss. Despite that name, it’s actually not some kind of Nietzschean sexting application, but a “real action RPG with preeminent exhilaration set inside an infinitely-extending dungeon” (at least according to Nintendo), which is slightly more descriptive.

Finally, the Wii gets full and demo versions of Vampire Crystals, an isometric zombie-shooter that supports four-player co-op and looks pretty crazy based on the trailers at its official page.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s a great week for downloading games on Nintendo platforms as the various eShops are welcoming all of the usual staples today: Wii U and 3DS full titles and demos, quirky DSiWare games, another SNK classic for the Virtual Console, and even something slightly bizarre enough to make its mere existence a little funny.

But first up is the Wii U. Last week, we saw the introduction of the system’s very first demo, and today we can add two more to that list: Rayman Legends and Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. You can also get the full version of Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition. Both it and the demos are available now.

Usually, Nintendo directs most of its eShop focus at the 3DS, but things are a little light this week for the super publisher’s latest handheld, with only one full retail game and a handful of smaller titles and demos ready for download. The full game is Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!!, which is based on Cartoon Network’s impenetrably weird hit show about a guy with a sword and his crazy mutant dog. Adventure Time is also available as a demo, along with Art of Balance Touch, a physics-based eShop puzzler. You can also check out Crimson Shroud, a tabletop-style role-playing game from Level-5 (the developers of the Professor Layton series); Gardenscapes, which combines a hidden-object game and a gardening sim into something my mom would probably love; and a port of the NES title Ninja Gaiden.

Fans of SNK fighting games can once again turn to the Wii’s Virtual Console this week as Real Bout Fatal Fury is now for sale digitally. This was the fifth installment in the long-running series, and it introduced the “independent Sway Button,” according to Nintendo’s website. As someone who doesn’t follow this genre, I can only assume that is more exciting than it sounds.

Finally, things get weird when we move on to the DSi. First and not particularly weird is Rytmik World Music, a synthesizer app that lets you create music with the included 180+ sound samples. Second and fairly weird is Zombie Skape, a game about dodging zombies on a skateboard. Yes, a skateboard. Not a skapeboard, whatever that is. Lastly, one of the coolest sounding things of all time: Chuck E. Cheese’s Alien Defense Force, in which you play as the giant mouse mascot as he attempts to defeat the evil king of Planet Cheese. Unfortunately, it does not appear to include delicious cardboard-flavored pizza or offer free tokens with a good report card.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo is once again out to prove that it is totally serious about supporting its various online platforms, as you can download new content this week for not just the 3DS and Wii U but the DSi and original Wii as well. Yep, it’s one of those “something for everyone” updates, which should hopefully help clear out the boring taste of last week’s Pac-Man port and YouTube app.

First up is the 3DS eShop, which is getting loads of new content today, including a demo of two-screen-platformer Fractured Soul, two more Coin Rush DLC packs for New Super Mario Bros. 2, a port of the NES’ Mighty Bomb Jack, and an adventure game called Murder on the Titanic. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’m pretty sure the iceberg did it.

Also, Nintendo has apparently put on its rooster hat and written “full version of Scribblenauts Unlimited” into its magic notebook, as you can now download that and the full versions of Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning, Classic Games Overload: Card & Puzzle Edition, and Lego The Lord of the Rings on the 3DS eShop.

Finally, dubstep artist Skrillex brings the wub wub to the Nintendo Video section with a video for his song Breakn’ A Sweat, which also features The Doors. I can only assume that classic rock fans are very happy about that pairing.

Moving on to the Wii U, the system gets one of its first demos: FIFA Soccer 13. Adding more demos like this should bode well for the console going forward, especially since Nintendo shows no signs of decreasing the amount of full retail games it adds to the eShop. Speaking of, this week you can download Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade, Ben 10 Omniverse, Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth, and Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game.

Wrapping things up with the DSi and the Wii, the former gets hidden object/minigame collection Christmas Wonderland 2 and role-playing game Crystal Adventure, while the latter finally gets a Virtual Console title that isn’t an old SNK brawler: the arcade classic BurgerTime. It’s still no Earthbound, but at least you get to kill pickle monsters.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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After the Wii came out, Nintendo supported it with fairly consistent Virtual Console and WiiWare releases. Then they became less and less consistent; now the only offerings are monthly SNK ports. If you’re one of the people who has already picked up a Wii U, you’re probably hoping that Nintendo can maintain updates as exciting as last week’s veritable Thanksgiving feast, when the company added nearly every launch game to the system’s eShop.

Unfortunately, the Wii U is looking a bit too much like its predecessor this week, as the only new thing for you to download is a YouTube app. But hey, it’s free, and you can watch videos on the tablet screen.

Thankfully, things look better on the 3DS (but only slightly). Starting today, you can download a port of the NES version of Pac-Man and an airport management sim/puzzle game called Aero Porter. Developed by Level-5 (the studio behind the Professor Layton series), Aero Porter tasks you with sorting luggage, customizing and upgrading your planes and airport, and, according to the official page, “avoiding security mishaps.” That last one sounds a bit stressful. Both games are available for $4.99.

Finally, a pair of new titles are available on DSiWare this week as well. First is Invasion of the Alien Blobs, an arcade-style action game in which you poke the titular alien blobs with the stylus in order to kill them, and second is Bloons TD 4, a tower defense variant of the popular series about a monkey shooting a cannon at balloons. Both are available now, the former for $1.99 and the latter for $4.99.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Nintendo Wii U is difficult to find at retail, but that doesn’t mean the console has the potential for long-term success. Publisher 2K Games’ president is speaking out to voice his confidence about Nintendo’s dual-screen home console.

“There’s nothing in my body, not a single piece, doubting that the Wii U will be successful,” 2K Games president Christoph Hartmann told MCV magazine in the U.K. “Nintendo always impresses and surprises me. The team there has so much knowledge built up over many, many years. Nintendo always finds its crowd.”

The Wii found its crowd.

That motion-controlled hardware sold around 100 million units worldwide. And while 2K Games is best known for publishing blockbusters like BioShock and Borderlands, it found major success on the Wii with a line of casual titles.

“There have been people doubting the Wii U because they don’t really understand it,” Hartmann said. “I wasn’t sure about the Wii, and I was proved wrong — [I was] proved wrong by my own people, which I like the most because we sold a lot of Carnival Games. I believe the Wii U offers something special, and we will be surprised how consumers will get attached.”

Carnival Games is 2K Games’ minigame collection brand for the Wii that sold very well. So, 2K is positive on the outlook for the Wii U, but that doesn’t mean it’ll bring its big titles to the system.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Check out all of GamesBeat’s Nintendo Wii U launch coverage.

Reviewers found a lot to love about the Wii U. They praised its high-definition graphics as well as the GamePad, which is comfortable enough for young children. As GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb reported, gamers rushed to scoop up every available console.

The major complaint they found was the lack of battery life, which typically only lasts three to five hours. Read our round-up of the first reviews here.

But a few reviewers did far more than test out the console and play a round of virtual tennis — they went ahead and took the entire thing apart to expose the logic board. Here’s a snapshot of what they found:

• The Wii U hardware is similar looking to the larger Wii. Getting inside the chassis isn’t all that different.
• You’ll need a stack of razor blades to pry off the IHS.
• It only takes half an hour to tear down the Wii U and put it back together.
• IFixit’s expert DIY team was able to improve Nintendo’s design by three or four screws and one square nut.

Check out the detailed teardown descriptions of the Wii on iFixit and Anandtech.

Top image via iFixit 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Click here for all of GamesBeat’s Wii U launch coverage.

A few gamers are reporting on forums and Twitter that they busted their Wii Us. These people lost power or their Internet connections during the long update process that enables many of the new console’s major features, and that’s left the HD device as nothing but a paper weight.

This condition is called “bricked,” and it’s something Nintendo can’t fix remotely. Users with this issue will have to send their consoles to the company for repair. This information comes direct from Nintendo’s customer service department.

“The system files are fragile during the update process,” the customer service agent told me. “If something goes wrong, it will leave the console bricked. You’ll have to send it to us.”

The term “bricked” has been around for a lot longer than the Wii U. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Some claim that the sizable 5GB day-one patch, which takes users 60 minutes to 90 minutes to download and install, increases the potential for something like this to happen. But no evidence suggests this is happening at a greater rate on Nintendo’s new machine than compared to other major hardware platforms.

Still, it is an inconvenience and a terrible first experience to have with a $300 to $350 purchase.

If you’ve experience this issue, you can contact Nintendo to start the repair process by calling 1.888. 229.3770 or online at support.nintendo.com.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Click here for all of GamesBeat’s Wii U launch coverage. 

You’ve got to give it to Nintendo: When it locks information down, it’s locked down tight. Its latest console, the Wii U, launches in five days, and we still don’t know the full picture. Hell, Nintendo won’t switch its online features on until tomorrow.

But I’ve had a week to play with the hardware itself, plus a sample platter of first- and third-party titles, and I’ve noticed a few interesting things the Wii U does — and doesn’t do.

The WiiPad has a better range than you think

For months, I’ve listened to Nintendo reps downplaying how far you can travel with the WiiPad. Players chatted excitedly about bathroom-gaming Zelda and Super Mario while on the throne only to have official statements crush their dreams. The pad won’t work through doors. Sorry.

Except it does. I own a two-story house, and my Wii U lives down in the man cave. Just for laughs, I walked away from it while playing New Super Mario Bros. U off the pad’s screen. The fidelity held together at 30 feet, so I headed upstairs … and then closed the door at the top. Still fine. Now, I couldn’t wander too much further, and indeed, putting any more walls between me and the console pretty much killed the signal. But hey, those bathroom breaks show some promise again.

The WiiPad’s touchscreen isn’t always finger-friendly

Touchscreens basically come in two flavors, capacitive and resistant. Capacitive screens, like your iPhones and iPads, register inputs when an electrical conductor (your finger, for instance) disrupts its electrostatic field. The WiiPad follows Nintendo’s tradition of using the more pressure-based resistive touchscreens, which respond better to less squishy, more pointy stimuli (a stylus, for instance).

So no, the WiiPad isn’t always as responsive as perhaps it should be when you swipe it with your finger. It works, but I frequently have to repeat inputs several times to get the desired result. That becomes an issue in several games, too. Fortunately, the pad comes with a built-in stylus — also a Nintendo tradition — that works well.

Screw SD cards

An 8GB model marks a major bump from the Wii’s storage capacity, and nobody should complain at 32GB for the Deluxe model. But if you really need more, the SD card slot does make a return to the new hardware. But screw that … this console’s got four USB ports. You can actually buy an off-the-shelf external hard drive, plug it into the Wii U, and have three terabytes of storage on that bad boy.

Go on. Do it. Just to make Microsoft and Sony cry. Until someone plugs an external drive into their consoles, anyway.

It harmonizes

While I sat typing up notes with the new Wii U menu music playing away in the background, I suddenly noticed the song playing on my television differed slightly from what came out of the pad’s speakers. The two tracks harmonized into one piece, exactly as if they were recorded in stereo (which they probably were) and tuned for a forward/back setup instead of left/right.

I won’t pretend it’s balanced audio, or that the pad’s speakers aren’t a little tinny, or that serious audiophiles will be amused in the slightest. But it’s really a rather neat effect. I can see a savvy developer using that two-channel sound feature to their advantage — say, in Silent Hill-style horror game, where people on the TV tell you one thing and voices on your WiiPad tell you something very different.

It’s the best universal remote ever

I’ve tried a number of universal remotes over the years, and not a single one could sync to my Sharp HDTV (in fairness, it’s so old that I could get three bigger LCDs today for the same price I paid for it way back when). The WiiPad did it in 10 seconds. All I had to do was press the “TV” button on its face, identify the manufacturer, and we were in business.

That said, while we’re told you can use the WiiPad as a remote without leaving the Wii U on full-time, I couldn’t get it to work. Pressing the “TV” button on the pad supposedly does the trick, but it’s not happening here. We’ve reached out to Nintendo for clarification.

Update: After checking and re-checking everything, it looks like the problem was with my older-than-dirt TV. A few solid kicks solved everything, and the feature works as advertised now.

But that’s not all. Oh, no, that is not all.

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That’s when I said to myself, “Who is going to save Nintendo?”

New IP the lifeblood of kids media

Be it games, films, cartoons, or characters, a kids’ media company needs to continuously create new IP to connect with each new generation. What no one ever brings up when discussing Nintendo is that they have not created a breakout IP or character in over 20 years. Their hit games are rehashes and different variations of Mario Bros, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda. This appeals to people like me who grew up on these titles. We fanboys, turned fan-parents, endlessly debate about which Zelda is the best and argue how Nintendo messed up with Metroid: Other M. We anxiously await  each new release as everyone now does for Apple products.

However, our kids could care less. They have no connection or legacy to Mario and Luigi. This was reinforced on a recent trip through Times Square. Kids were lining up to take pics of someone in an Angry Birds costume while Mario and Luigi dejectedly looked on.

Games can no longer live on one system

Nintendo’s adamant stance on only allowing their characters on its own hardware is just making it dig its own grave. Who cares how good the Nintendo 3DS is if the new generation has no exposure to Nintendo’s IP. Kids 2 to 8 aren’t playing the Wii or DS; they are on iPods, iPhones, and iPads. If you want to attract users to your hardware, you need more software from third-party developers. Game developers have ditched Nintendo and gone for more open mobile platforms like iOS and Android. The only draw for Nintendo’s hardware is its own games based on its own characters. Again, this only appeals to Nintendo fans who are 35 and up, hardly the group to build a kids brand around.

Generational evolutions of WWE and Disney

This strategy of Nintendo targeting fan boys who grew up on its product is interesting because it actually relates to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), who came to prominence at the same time as Nintendo in the mid 1980s. The 10-year-olds back then grew up on Hulk Hogan and the cartoonish side of wrestling (it was also called the World Wrestling Federation then). But in the 90s, these kids got into their 20s, and the WWF started faltering. Vince McMahon and co. took notice and made their product appeal to a young adult audience by introducing them to Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. The Attitude Era essentially saved the WWE. Then that audience entered their 30s, had their own kids, and got too busy to watch WWE. Once again, WWE took notice, toned down their product and went PG to get the new generation of 10-year-olds.

Disney Animation is also a good example of what could happen to Nintendo. In the late 90s, Disney’s films became stagnant and failed to produce lasting breakout IP. Fortunately, Pixar came along and created new, refreshing characters everyone loved. Disney’s own IP became so dated that 5 year olds today are surprised when they see Mickey Mouse in a cartoon. They just see him as a logo. Go to any Disney store or theme park and it’s Pixar’s IP that the kids are latching on to. If Disney hadn’t bought Pixar, its entire Animation division could very well be closed. And without new IP, it can’t sell merchandise, books, and clothes that really keep the House of Mouse growing. Its stock prices tell a great story. Since Disney’s purchase of Pixar in 2006, its stock has gone from $30 to over $50. Since the peak of the Wii and DS in 2008, Nintendo’s stock price has gone from $71 to $15.

Can Nintendo find its own Pixar?

But Nintendo is stubborn and will not acknowledge their weaknesses. If it did, it would have gone and bought up some of the studios that were creating hits on the mobile platforms. Everyone knows how hard it is to find and nurture talent, so when it comes available, you should grab it.

Nintendo needs to sell more hardware in order to keep selling the old IP that made it rich. But you need new IP to grow and attract new kids to buy the hardware you sell. But without new IP, your hardware and old IP becomes irrelevant. It’s going to be interesting to see the consumer response to Nintendo’s new console, the Wii U. If it fails to connect, Nintendo may need to find its own Pixar or reinvent itself as the WWE did.

Pavel Bains is a former chief financial officer/chief operating officer with 10 years of experience delivering top games for Disney, EA, Activision, and Atari. He now is the CEO of Storypanda, a 500 Startups-backed iPad publishing platform for children’s books. 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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That made us wonder which console was the best bargain — and which was the worst bargain — in all of video game history at the time of launch. Fortunately for us, the folks at Statista like doing math. They calculated the launch prices for video game consoles throughout history, and then they adjusted the price for 2012 dollars based on inflation rates. And here are the results. The Neo Geo turns out to be the most ridiculously priced system at the time of its launch, coming out in 1990 at $650, which is $1,146 in today’s dollars. 3DO, which debuted in 1993, was close behind at the outlandish $699 price, or $1,114 in today’s dollars. The cheapest console was the Nintendo GameCube, priced at $199 (or $259 in today’s dollars) back in 2001.

Sure, we know that adding bigger storage and more accessories will make some of these systems priced below more expensive, but we’re measuring the base system cost.

By comparison, the Nintendo Wii U is coming out at $300 on Nov. 18. That price will make it the fifth most-reasonably priced console in video game history. Here’s a link to Statista’s research on game consoles.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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NEW YORK CITY — Nintendo has finally given hard details on its upcoming Wii U game console, with a U.S. launch date of Nov. 18 and a base price of $300.

As we learned late last night from its Japanese launch event, the Wii U comes in two editions — a “basic” white version with 8GB of storage and a “deluxe” black version with 32GB of storage. The basic version costs $300, and the deluxe version runs $350.

It has 1GB RAM for “game memory” and 1GB RAM for “system memory.” Wii U owners who own games for the Wii’s  WiiWare and Virtual Console services may transfer those games to the new system.

Onstage at the launch event, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime did not reveal which games would be available at launch. He did say that “50 games” would be available in the “launch window” between November 2012 and March 2013.

Unlike the Wii’s motion-sensing gameplay, a touchscreen tablet controller drives Wii U games. With some, you can play on your TV and transfer the picture to the tablet screen. Other games use the touchscreen as primary input method while you look at your TV screen. Still, others provide a unique multiplayer experience with one person using the tablet controller and others using Wii Remotes.

The Wii U debuted to mixed reactions at 2011′s E3 gaming conference. Those reactions have remained decidedly mixed throughout this year as Nintendo readies for its big launch. An executive from Electronic Arts even recently told us that Wii U was not in his “top five priorities.”

While the Wii U has easily noticeable foes in the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, it also faces stiff competition in the casual gaming department from tablets, smartphones, and social networks. Future consoles could be challenging to compete with as well. The Wii U appears to have the power of a 360 or PS3, but that almost certainly won’t stand up in the next-gen console offerings from Microsoft and Sony.

The Wii U will have a tough time living up to its predecessor, as Nintendo has sold 96 million Wiis to date.

Let us know in the comments if you plan to buy a Wii U.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo’s next console is a bold step for the company. The Wii U embraces social networking in a way completely divergent from the clumsy friend codes on the Wii.

Miiverse uses a Twitter-like messaging interface that lets friends connect with each other through in-game notes. In a larger view, the Miiverse menu shows a sea of icons with Miis surrounding them, indicating which applications and game are popular.

In-game messaging works a lot like notes in Dark Souls. You can leave messages for other players, bragging about your accomplishments or just offering helpful tips. Satoru Iwada, president of Nintendo, said in his  Miiverse announcement video that the company is looking into a way to thwart spoilers in notes, but we’ll see how well that works.

But the biggest departure for Nintendo is expanding its social aspects outside of the Wii U. Players can access the Miiverse messaging system from mobile phones and PCs.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Hey, everyone. Everyone. Hey. Did you know that the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show is next week? It’s kind of a big deal. We’ve written an article or two about it.

Just like every year, the week before E3 is when the Internet explodes with wish lists of what everyone wants to see at the show. It can get a little cluttered, but the good news is that we’ve compiled a list of some of the biggest rumors for your convenience, along with their level of truthiness as of this writing (on an arbitrary scale of zero to three).

New Xbox and/or PlayStation hardware

Truthiness level: 0 out of 3

Both Microsoft and Sony have explicitly denied that they will be showing off any new hardware this year. It could be because we’ll already be hearing a lot about Nintendo’s Wii U, or it could simply be that they have nothing to show off yet. We know that the next PlayStation will use discs instead of going full-on digital distribution, and we’ve heard reports that the next Xbox might use a Wii U-style tablet controller, but don’t expect to hear any of those things from the console makers themselves next week.

A revamp for Sony’s PlayStation Plus program

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

Sony’s premium subscription offering has had trouble convincing gamers of its value, especially considering that, unlike Microsoft’s Xbox Live Gold service, people can play games online whether they are members or not. Current rumors suggest that the company will announce an overhaul to Plus during its press conference on Monday; new features will include full Vita support (including cloud data management) and free “top tier” games.

A $350-$450 price tag for the Wii U

Truthiness level: 1 out of 3

Nintendo has already said it won’t be announcing the price of the Wii U at E3, but some possible leaked specifications for the new system suggest something similar to what the Xbox 360 cost when it launched seven years ago. If those specs line up with what Nintendo actually announces at the show, however, it may lend this rumored price point some credibility.

Price drops

Truthiness level: varies

Nintendo Wii: Nintendo will drop the price of its on-the-outs Wii console to $99, according to an anonymous tip reported at Nintendo Connect last week. The report cites a stealth picture of a price-drop list at a Kmart, but the reduction would make sense considering the company’s transition to the newer Wii U.

Xbox 360: Target’s website contained a listing for a 250-GB Xbox 360 bundled with a Kinect motion controller for $299.99 (rather than $399.99), according to a post in the forums at Cheap Ass Gamer. The item was “mispriced,” Target told Engadget. That doesn’t necessarily rule out all chances of an announcement at E3, but we’ll have to wait to hear it from Microsoft itself.

PlayStation 3: This is a “likely outcome” of poor sales, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen, but if it’s going to, E3 wouldn’t be the worst time for an announcement.

PlayStation Vita: OK, this one is more speculation than anything, but an announcement yesterday that Sony is temporarily cutting the price of its handheld by €50 in France (roughly $61.90) from June 1 to July 15 (via rebates) suggests that the company is at least open to the possibility. Never mind the fact that people have been predicting a reduction for a while.

Dead Space 3 revealed

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

We already know that publisher Electronic Arts is planning to release a new chapter in the Dead Space franchise in its next fiscal year, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising for the new game to make an appearance at E3, as some bloggers have surmised. A newly released video (below) confirms the rumors of an ice planet and a new protagonist, and the Dead Space website includes a coded countdown clock that expires next Tuesday, smack in the middle of E3.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 announced

Truthiness level: 3 out of 3

So far, developer Mercury Steam’s sequel to its surprisingly good addition to the Castlevania series is this E3′s worst-kept secret. Fans investigated the source code of publisher Konami’s mysterious countdown site and discovered references to the unannounced sequel. That countdown expires today, by the way, so this rumor might not even last until the show.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist announcement

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

It’s been two years since Conviction, super-spy Sam Fisher’s last adventure, so developer Ubisoft is probably about due to reveal the next game in the franchise. This rumor comes primarily from a post on NeoGAF, which begins, “I’ve seen the promo and Sam is looking good as always with no grey hair [ . . . ], full body suit, and his mighty night goggles, including a serious look on his face.” A second source, Twitter user Chad Trotter, also claims to know about the new game, adding that a Ubisoft representative “let it slip on accident.”

Massive Kingdom Hearts HD collection announced

Truthiness level: 1 out of 3

High-definition collections are all the rage these days, and Kingdom Hearts might be the next series to get the compilation treatment, according to a report from Dual Pixels. The set would include the first five games in developer Square Enix’s Disney-crossover role-playing franchise and be available for PlayStation 3, Vita, and the Wii U.

Grand Theft Auto V fall release date announced

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

GTA developer Rockstar Games won’t be at E3, but publisher Take-Two will. We’ve been waiting to hear more about the latest game in the blockbuster crime series (it was even rumored for last year’s E3), and with studios pushing the releases of big games like BioShock Infinite and Aliens: Colonial Marines into next year, this fall is looking pretty open. Lending more weight to this possibility (or not, depending on how you feel about the guy): Michael Pachter has predicted that it will happen.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, taking place in Los Angeles from June 5-7, is starting to look a little sparse.

While the annual trade show is usually an opportunity for the games industry’s biggest companies to announce titles, unveil new hardware, and demonstrate their questionable choices in event hosts, this year’s event is looking more notable for what we won’t be seeing. Several high-profile projects and developers will not be present at the conference. That isn’t to say that we can’t still expect some surprises, but the list of stuff we won’t be hearing about continues to grow. Things like:

Respawn Entertainment’s unannounced game

Fans have been eagerly awaiting the first offering from Jason West and Vince Zampella’s Respawn Entertainment, which was founded after their unceremonious departure from Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward in 2010. Those fans will have to wait a little longer, though, because while representatives of Respawn will be attending the show, they will not be revealing anything about their secret project. I guess we’ll have to go back to squinting at that blurry screenshot they released last year (below).

The Nintendo Wii U’s pricing and launch date

Nintendo has announced that it will be revealing the final specifications and launch titles for its upcoming high-definition console at E3, but we’ll still have to wait to hear how much the new hardware will cost and when exactly it’s coming out this fall. This doesn’t really come as a surprise considering the company didn’t finalize launch information on the Wii until two months before it came out.

Anything about Sony or Microsoft’s next consoles

Both Sony and Microsoft have confirmed that they won’t be showing off their top-secret followups to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (respectively). Sony will likely be focusing more on upcoming software for its struggling PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft will likely spend a lot of time talking about console-exclusive titles like Halo 4 and … well, we can’t rule out any surprise announcements, but Halo 4 is probably the main one.

Any Valve game containing the number 3

Developer Valve Software is going to E3, but that’s as close as it’s getting to that number. The company has stated that it will not be announcing anything new, opting to focus on previously revealed titles like Defense of the Ancients 2 and Counterstrike: Global Offensive.

BioShock Infinite

Developer Irrational Games’ latest was one of the most anticipated releases of this year until it was delayed until 2013. Unfortunately, we won’t be hearing anything at E3 about the now most-anticipated release of 2013, because Irrational and publisher Take-Two Interactive would like to put as much time as possible into, you know, making it. “Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we’re going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February,” Irrational head Ken Levine said while announcing the delay last week.

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V developer Rockstar Games won’t be at the Expo at all, which means we’re not going to see anything about its next big release. I have reason to believe that this game will have cars in it, but I suppose the speculation as to precisely what kinds of cars it’ll contain will have to continue. Rockstar’s absence is especially odd in light of the fact that rumors have it that GTAV will release this winter.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Seventy-five percent of “current gamers” are not interested in purchasing Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console, according to a poll at online discount aggregator Dealnews.

The survey, which collected the opinions of 1,551 people, also found that 64 percent of current Wii owners are not interested in the new hardware. These results do not bode well for the system’s launch this fall, and Nintendo is counting on the Wii U to help it recover from a disappointing financial year in which the weakened value of the yen, a costly price cut for its portable 3DS system, and dwindling Wii sales resulted in the console maker’s first annual operating loss in company history.

Nintendo revealed the Wii U at 2011′s Electronic Entertainment Expo, and public reactions were mixed. News that the console will only support one of its tablet-style controllers at a time (the company has since claimed it is working on that) and rely on flash memory for data storage rather than an industry-standard internal hard drive overshadowed assurances that the Wii U will have broad third-party developer support and greater appeal to core gamers than the “family-friendly” Wii.

Whether Nintendo can get fans back on its side depends heavily on its Wii U announcements at E3 in a few weeks, which will include the hardware’s final specifications but not its retail price point.

Do you plan on picking up a Wii U this fall? Make your opinion known in our poll, below.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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In his third quarter financial briefing, Nintendo President Saturo Iwata revealed that the Wii U will include Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which could be used to link games with real world items and support simple, instantaneous, micropayments. If implemented successfully, the ability for Wii U owners to instantly purchase in-game items or Wii U apps, without needing to share credit card details, could give the newly confirmed ‘Nintendo Network’ an edge over Xbox Live and the Playstation Network.

NFC technology allows smartphones and other devices to communicate, simply by touching them together, or bringing them in close proximity. Unlike Bluetooth, NFC does not require devices to ‘pair’ before communicating, with connections being established in less than 100 milliseconds. Communication is also possible between an NFC device and an unpowered NFC chip, which can be embedded in a card, sticker, figure, or other real world object.

Speaking of the inclusion of NFC functionality in the tablet-like Wii U controller, Iwata said the following:

“As many of you know, NFC is the acronym for Near Field Communication, which is a set of standards to establish radio communication in close proximity. The NFC I’m referring to here is the noncontact NFC standard that is compatible with FeliCa and MIFARE, and is expected to be widely used around the world in the near future.

By installing this functionality, it will become possible to create cards and figurines that can electronically read and write data via noncontact NFC and to expand the new play format in the video game world. Adoption of this functionality will enable various other possibilities such as using it as a means of making micropayments.”

NFC tech is widely used in Japan to pay for anything from a train ticket to a can of soda, with consumers simply ‘bumping’ their NFC enabled smartphone in order to make an instant transaction. Mastercard Paypass is now making inroads with this tech in the US, and it has been suggested that NFC will become a standard smartphone feature by 2015, creating a commerce opportunity of $800 billion.

By enabling NFC transactions on its Wii U controller, Nintendo could open the door to impulse purchases of in-game content and Wii U apps from the comfort of the sofa, without even needing to access the TV. Many consumers are cautious about sharing their credit card information with Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, with both services having experienced security concerns in the past year. By implementing a secure and instantaneous payment system, Nintendo could overcome some of the difficulties associated with getting consumers to embrace digital distribution on consoles.

From a gaming point of view, the inclusion of NFC is exciting, for the possibilities associated with linking real world items with video games. Activision Blizzard’s Skylanders game has recently shown the potential of merging real life toys with a console, giving players the ability to change character by putting a new action figure on a peripheral, called the ‘portal of power’. Players are encouraged to purchase new action figures to use in the game, which all have their own attributes and powers.

Nintendo is a company that has always seen a strong connection between toys and games, as demonstrated by the phenomenally successful Pokemon series. Looking at the Skylanders model, it is not hard to envision a Wii U Pokemon title, where real life Pokemon cards include NFC tech, and bring Pokemon straight from the foil pack to a TV screen. The purchase of action figures or cards could be used to unlock characters, levels, or special abilities in any game, and the potential appeal of such items to gamers is undeniable. This concept could open up valuable new sales channels for Nintendo, as well as third-party developers.

Nintendo has accepted that its previous online efforts could have been better. The Wii friend codes needed for online gaming were cumbersome, and the Wii Store was clunky and unwelcoming. With the implementation of NFC tech though, and the promise of a user-friendly Nintendo Network service, the company’s online future suddenly looks a lot brighter.

That could end up being a big bummer for Nintendo when the Wii U launches. Smash Bros. Brawl was a huge hit on the Nintendo Wii. It’s partially responsible for the Wii becoming a huge success with casual gamers and a small portion of the hardcore gaming market. Including a Smash Bros. game as a launch title or a game that will be on sale in time for the holiday shopping season would be a huge boon for Nintendo.

Nintendo chief executive Satoru Iwata said the company would be releasing a Smash Bros. game for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Calif., earlier in June. The games will work together in some way, Iwata said.

Nintendo’s new console will come out sometime next year, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said. Nintendo wants to include “something for everyone” in the new console. The device features a controller with a touch screen, camera and microphone. It looks like the bottom half of the Nintendo 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable, with the screen in the center that changes with the game. The controller can display and run games when they aren’t available on the TV.

The Wii is credited with bringing home console gaming to more mainstream audiences, particularly casual gamers that wouldn’t typically go for a home gaming console like the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3. It included games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which were non-traditional titles that sold incredibly well thanks to the immersion of motion controllers and the Wii Balance Board.

Smash Bros. Brawl fit that ideology well. It’s a simple fighting game that doesn’t require a lot of technical skill. The game pits characters from most of Nintendo’s games, like Link and Mario, against each other in a free-for-all deathmatch between up to four players. There are no complicated special moves and most powerful attacks can be executed with a single button press. The game also featured a bunch of items like bombs and guns that made the battlefield more chaotic.

The first Wii was a huge success for Nintendo and started the motion gaming craze, leading Sony and Microsoft to also release motion controllers for their home gaming consoles. The Wii sold more than 86 million units total and was a smash hit with casual gamers. It has one of the widest install bases in the world and for a long time was the console to beat after it was released, with retail outlets selling the consoles literally minutes after they hit the shelves.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said Tuesday that the Wii U would not feature graphics significantly more powerful than current console generations. That’s because the Wii U was intended to strike a balance somewhere between bringing in high-definition graphics and remaining cheap and accessible for gamers, he said.

A formal price for the console has not yet been set. But the Australian price tag, which is also very early, dwarfs those of the most expensive models for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The PlayStation 3 console initially cost $600 for the top-end model with a 60-gigabyte hard drive. That price tag, seen by many consumers as expensive, was one of the reasons the Wii and Xbox 360 were successful initially.

The Wii U will come out sometime next year, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said. The company unveiled the console at the Electronic Entertainment Expo earlier this month. Nintendo wants to include “something for everyone” in the new console, Iwata said. Some hardcore gamers criticized the original Wii for lacking enough content.

Still, the first Wii was a huge success for Nintendo and started the motion gaming craze, leading Sony and Microsoft to also release motion controllers for their home gaming consoles. The Wii sold more than 86 million units and was a smash hit with casual gamers. It has one of the widest install bases in the world and for a long time was the console to beat after it was released, with retail outlets selling the consoles literally minutes after they hit the shelves.

The Wii is credited with bringing home console gaming to more mainstream audiences, particularly casual gamers who wouldn’t typically go for a home gaming console like the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3. It included games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which were non-traditional titles that sold incredibly well thanks to the immersion of motion controllers and the Wii Balance Board.

The device features a controller with a touch screen, camera and microphone. It looks like the bottom half of the Nintendo 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable, with a screen in the center that changes with the game. The controller can display and run games when they aren’t available on the TV. The controller has a 6.2 inch screen and the console is backwards compatible with all Wii devices and Wii games. But the device is not designed to be a portable device, Iwata said.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The new console will strike a balance somewhere between bringing in high-definition graphics and performance and remaining cheap and accessible for gamers, he said. The Wii was not a graphics powerhouse like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but the console was much cheaper and made its retail debut at $250. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were both at least $100 more expensive than the Wii, though the price for each console has fallen significantly since then.

The new console will come out sometime next year, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said. The company unveiled the console at the Electronic Entertainment Expo earlier this month. Nintendo wants to include “something for everyone” in the new console, Iwata said at E3. That’s probably an attempt to silence critics of the original Wii, which some said did not have enough content for hardcore gamers who were looking for good games from Nintendo’s main franchises.

Nintendo showed off the third-party games that would come with the Wii U at its press conference at E3, and the graphics were impressive. Those titles include the likes of Tekken, Batman Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed and Darksiders 2. They’re all hardcore titles that feature high-quality graphics and massive production values. But Nintendo later admitted that the demo reels the company showed at its press conference were not the graphics the Wii U would feature.

The first Wii was a huge success for Nintendo and started the motion gaming craze, leading Sony and Microsoft to also release motion controllers for their home gaming consoles. The Wii sold more than 86 million units total and was a smash hit with casual gamers. It has one of the widest install bases in the world and for a long time was the console to beat after it was released, with retail outlets selling the consoles literally minutes after they hit the shelves.

The Wii is credited with bringing home console gaming to more mainstream audiences, particularly casual gamers that wouldn’t typically go for a home gaming console like the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3. It included games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which were non-traditional titles that sold incredibly well thanks to the immersion of motion controllers and the Wii Balance Board.

The device features a controller with a touch screen, camera and microphone. It looks like the bottom half of the Nintendo 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable, with the screen in the center that changes with the game. The controller can display and run games when they aren’t available on the TV.

The controller has a 6.2 inch screen and the console is backwards compatible with all Wii devices and Wii games. But the device is not designed to be a portable device, Iwata said. The images on the WiiU screen are transmitted wirelessly from the console. Nintendo also showed off an early tech demo for the Wii U, and it looks like it has about as much graphics firepower as the Xbox 360 — though it’s maybe just a tiny bit weaker.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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You can place a controller on a table and play a game like Go and not use the big-screen TV at all. You can do video chat with it while watching a TV program. You can use it while using the Wii Balance Board for the Wii Fit game. It’s a versatile new piece of hardware that could unleash the imagination of the whole video game industry. More details will come, but it’s already clear that game makers such as Electronic Arts are going to support this touchscreen and console in a big way.

“It’s a new structure for entertainment,” said Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, speaking at the company’s press conference at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles.

Game designers can decide how they want to use the controller. It can work with the Wii U console in high-definition games on the TV. Developers can also make games that use the Wii U, the touchscreen, and older Wii peripherals as well. More details are at e3.nintendo.com. The controller has motion-sensing built into it, in addition to the touchscreen. The controller also has a number of traditional buttons.

Nintendo showed off the new controller along with videos of the high-definition graphics that the Wii U will be able to do. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said the device will “change the face of gaming.”

The company is demonstrating a bunch of game prototypes for the Wii at its booth at the E3 show. You can have “asymmetrical game play,” where one player can play on the big screen while another looks at the touchscreen’s five-inch display.

John Riccitiello, chief executive of EA, came out on stage to say that EA would publish great new content on the Wii U and its new controller.

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive game technologies and business models at our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the disruptive trends in the mobile games market. GamesBeat is co-located with our MobileBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors can message us at sponsors@venturebeat.com. To participate in our Who’s Got Game? contest for the best game startup, click on this link.

The first Wii was a huge success for Nintendo and started the motion gaming craze, leading Sony and Microsoft to also release motion controllers for their home gaming consoles. The Wii sold more than 86 million units total and was a smash hit with casual gamers. It has one of the widest install bases in the world and for a long time was the console to beat after it was released, with retail outlets selling the consoles literally minutes after they hit the shelves.

The new console will come out sometime next year, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said. Nintendo wants to include “something for everyone” in the new console. That’s probably an attempt to silence critics of the original Wii, which some said did not have enough content for hardcore gamers that were looking for good games from Nintendo’s main franchises.

“The new platform will create a deeper experience for even the most passionate gamers and a wider experience,” he said.

The Wii is credited with bringing home console gaming to more mainstream audiences, particularly casual gamers that wouldn’t typically go for a home gaming console like the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3. It included games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which were non-traditional titles that sold incredibly well thanks to the immersion of motion controllers and the Wii Balance Board.

The device features a controller with a touch screen, camera and microphone. It looks like the bottom half of the Nintendo 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable, with the screen in the center that changes with the game. The controller can display and run games when they aren’t available on the TV.

The controller has a 6.2 inch screen and the console is backwards compatible with all Wii devices and Wii games. But the device is not designed to be a portable device, Iwata said. The images on the WiiU screen are transmitted wirelessly from the console. Nintendo also showed off an early tech demo for the Wii U, and it looks like it has about as much graphics firepower as the Xbox 360 — though it’s maybe just a tiny bit weaker.

Nintendo will be releasing a Smash Bros. game, one of Nintendo’s best-selling crossover fighting games, for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS as well. The games will work together in some way, Iwata said. Nintendo is also working closely with Electronic Arts to bring games like Madden and Battlefield 3 to the Wii U.

Tekken, Batman Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed and Darksiders 2 should all be launch titles for the Wii U, according to Nintendo’s presentation. Along with other first-party titles, it looks like Nintendo is trying to make sure it gets hardcore gamers back with the Wii U. You can find a video of a tech demo for the system below.

Be sure to check out VentureBeat for wall-to-wall coverage of E3 this week.

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