On Wednesday, Nintendo announced that they will no longer be holding large press conferences at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the game industry’s biggest trade show, instead opting to use Nintendo Direct to reach out to fans and journalists.

This is heartbreaking.

I do enjoy the Nintendo Directs. They’re easy, they offer a steady stream of first-hand news throughout the year, and they’re fun. They are one of the better ideas to surface out of Nintendo recently. But the company’s departure from years of memorable E3 presentations also feels eerily bittersweet. It’s akin to the emotions you feel when moving away from home — there’s that optimistic look to the future, but it’s simultaneously offset by a melancholic awareness that a significant part of your life is about to end.

But while I and other old Nintendo fans continue to sob over Nintendo’s announcement, it’s still a good choice for the company. Yes, it’s isolating itself from the standard console market and culture to which we have all grown accustomed. Yes, it is choosing to blaze its own path. Hell, it might even be doing this because it thinks its announcements won’t compare to Sony and Microsoft’s.  But you know what? Isolation is exactly what Nintendo should do.

Nintendo took a huge risk with the Wii. The company bypassed the standard upgrade in hardware to focus on a low-price point and a unique experience, and it subsequently isolated itself from third-party developers and a major portion of the gaming population. Despite this isolation, Nintendo has still sold more Wii systems than any other game console on the market.

The Wii U, though, won’t have the same league of soccer moms and casual gamers to support it as the Wii did. Much of that demographic has moved on to smartphones and tablets, so Nintendo will need to do something else. But what?

Well Nintendo has already done it, and that’s happening now with the 3DS handheld.

The 3DS is kind of an enigma. It — along with its predecessor, the DS — is unlike anything else in the market. Many of its features sound like gimmicks. Like the Wii U, the 3DS doesn’t even match the competition’s hardware. But that still hasn’t stopped the 3DS from selling nearly 26 million more units than its big black counterpart, the PlayStation Vita, on top of gaining leagues of third-party support and basically defying everything that we would usually expect. In other words, the 3DS is an isolated anomaly of success. Would it be as popular if it conformed to the hardware and controls present in the Vita? No.

Of course, nobody buys a 3DS because it has a novel 3D effect, and, of course, no one buys it because it has two screens, and so on. People buy it to play new Zelda, Pokémon, Mario, and Metroid games. They buy it to play the unique third-party games. It’s the Nintendo experience they are after, which is something you can’t find anywhere else. But the Nintendo experience has now evolved to include these innovations that have changed the games we know and love in new and exciting ways. It is now an experience defined by isolation and its effects.

The problem the Wii U faces is that Nintendo is isolating itself but isn’t producing this unique experience. Or if Nintendo is, it’s not doing a very good job. Yes, the Wii U’s lack of success is largely due to the console’s newness, but I fear that it may actually be part of a larger trend from what I saw on the Wii. That console didn’t offer the Nintendo experience as much or as well as it should have, with Nintendo releasing too many underwhelming games (Wii Music, anyone?) as well as iterations of its in-house games that haven’t really advanced much (Skyward Sword is excellent , but it’s not radically different from the more-than-a-decade-old Ocarina of Time).

Source: Nintendo

Hm, this looks familiar … .

Maybe E3 will change this. I certainly hope it does. But so far, Nintendo hasn’t taken advantage of its isolation as it does with its handhelds. It needs to refocus on developing games that don’t just employ the innovations of its system alone as gimmicks but also are fun and deep games by themselves. This means developing more games like Super Mario 3D Land — a platformer that uses the 3DS’s 3D in a way that enhances an already-fun experience full of depth (pun intended) — and less like Nintendo Land, which, though fun, focuses too much on showcasing the Wii U’s features and lacks the magical experiences found in primary Nintendo titles.

The Wii U could not realistically use a secondary tablet-screen with a console that matched Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming hardware and still sell for a reasonable price. Nintendo knew this. It also should know that by isolating itself, the company will in effect bypass the hardware-intensive games that other next-generation consoles will have, such as future open-world games. But the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox will also have near-identical experiences, providing Nintendo with the opportunity to distinguish itself in a way that only its isolation can.

So come on Nintendo, you have the talent and the resources. You’ve even done it with the 3DS already. Show us why isolation is your trump 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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Check out the Earthbound Wii U trailer and others right here.

In news that will please many Nintendo fans, company president Satoru Iwata announced that the SNES classic EarthBound will arrive on the Wii U Virtual Console later this year.

Iwata didn’t go into detail about the release during this morning’s Nintendo Direct streaming show, simply saying “the game’s creator, Shigesato Itoi, and myself are happy about this as well.”

Released in 1995 toward the end of the SNES’s run in North America, EarthBound plays like a traditional Japanese RPG. But its modern setting adds a twist: Weapons include baseball bats and frying pans rather than swords and maces.

The only sure bit of information Iwata gave is that Nintendo will announce a release date later this year. While announced for rerelease on the Wii Virtual Console, Earthbound never showed up on that system.

At least longtime fans know that years of asking Nintendo for this classic have finally paid off.

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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 the Wii U out on the market and Sony’s recent reveal of the PlayStation 4, there is no doubt that the next generation of consoles is already here. Along with that is all the talk about technology and specs that will (hopefully) open up new avenues of interactivity and gameplay. Early adopters pick up a console with the promise of fantastic games down the line, but most consumers have to be convinced to purchase a new system. With many gamers satisfied with their current consoles, the major players are going to have to convince them to break away from their outdated boxes.

Since all three systems (the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3) have a robust library of games, the only way these companies are going to attract new customers is with fresh offerings — not just the latest Call of Duty or the best-looking game in existence, but ones that present completely new experiences that people cannot get anywhere else.

It is uncertain what each of the new systems’ must-have games will be, but the titles below are what made me buy each of the current-generation consoles. Today, I look back on the three games that sold me on the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3, in the order that I bought them.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I will admit that I was one of those people who cried when I saw the reveal of Twilight Princess (LoZ:TP) at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2004, weeping in happiness in front of a 20-inch television screen as Link strode across the Hyrulean landscape in what appeared to be the darkest Zelda game to date. It was slated to came out on both the Wii and GameCube, and while I owned the latter, I was blown away by the thought of playing a Zelda title with motion controls — swinging my arm like a sword to cut down enemies and shooting arrows just by pointing at the screen. Even the fishing minigame looked to fun with the Wiimote as a rod. There were also rumors that the Wii version would be the superior version not only control-wise but also graphically. (It’s true. The Twilight Realm in the Wii version looks significantly better.) I grew up a fan of Nintendo, so I knew I would get the Wii one day. Twilight Princess convinced me that I had to have it day one.

It’s the reason why I was outside Costco at 5:00 in the morning, waiting with my friends and other fans, playing Mario Kart DS, and chatting about what games we were all going to play first. My friends and I ended up playing Wii Sports and Excite Truck together the first couple days — so caught up in the excitement of beating each other up in boxing or crashing into each other’s cars. I was also scared to play LoZ:TP. What if, after the excruciating wait and all the hype, it was bad? I did not think I could bear having my spirits crushed.

When I popped in the disc on the third day, my worries were unfounded. Playing LoZ:TP with the Wiimote, swinging it around, and becoming engrossed with the characters and the dark tone of the story is still one of my favorite memories as a gamer. It showed me just what the Wii was capable of — an experience I couldn’t get on any other console. It is debatable whether or not the Wii was successful in that regard, but it still is a console I had immense fun with.  LoZ:TP ranks as one of my favorite Zelda games of all time as well as one of the best launch titles I have ever played.

Dead Rising

I was not sold on the Xbox 360 at first. In middle school, I was a part of a small club of podcasters for a while. We had a segment dedicated to video game discussion, and one day, the topic was about the recently released Xbox 360 and whether it was worth buying or not. I clearly remember saying, “Yeah, it’s good if you want to pay a lot of money to play the same games you can on the Xbox with shinier graphics.” At the time, it was a good observation. Most of the games that launched with it were just prettier versions of the same games you could get on current consoles, and the rest were not very good. Even when The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out, I could play it on my PC, so what use was a 360 to me?

My mind was changed a year after the 360’s launch with the release of Dead Rising. I have been a zombie fan since the day my father sat me down with him to watch Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, so when I played Dead Rising at my friend’s house, I was floored. It was exactly how I imagined a video game based off that movie would be like. You could fight hordes of zombies with anything you could find (everything was a weapon), explore an enormous mall, save survivors (or kill them), be a hero (or not), snap photos (sacrificing survivors was perfect for those achievements), and unravel a conspiracy.

I don’t remember how I convinced my parents to buy me a 360 — it must have had something to do with how good my grades were — but under the Christmas tree in 2007 was a box with a copy of Dead Rising in it. It still remains one of my favorite games to this day. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record for the PC is a go-to-game for me when I am feeling down, but if Microsoft were to rerelease the original for the PC, I would snatch it up again in a heartbeat.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

I never owned a PlayStation 2, but I had played through the entire Metal Gear Solid series with a friend. Despite not owning the three main games, I adored the franchise. There were so many rumors that MGS4 would eventually come out on the Xbox 360 because of the slow sales of the PS3, but my heart sank when Konami squashed the possibility of that ever happening. If I wanted to play MGS4, I was going to have to buy a PS3 or else I would never get to experience the end of Solid Snake’s story.

Thankfully, I was working a job when Sony announced that it was discontinuing the 80GB model of the console. It was the one I wanted because it had backward compatibility for the PS2, something that the future models were not going to have. I did not have nearly enough to pay the $600 price tag of the MGS4 bundle at Fry’s, so I convinced my mom to pay for half because it was a Blu-ray player we could all enjoy.

We rarely used it for Blu-rays because they were so expensive, though. What it was used for was games. I was finally able to experience all the PS2 games I missed out on, like Kingdom Hearts, Shadow of the Colossus, and the Devil May Cry series. For a while, I had more PS2 games than PS3 games, but it all started with MGS4.

Arguments aside about the length of the cutscenes, the game is a technical marvel and, in my opinion, flawless. The gameplay was perfectly balanced between sneaking and gun fights, and you could play any way you wanted. The story tied up everything wonderfully. The presentation was beyond stellar, from the set pieces to the cutscenes and the boss battles. Very few games have satisfied my needs like MGS4 has, which is why I am afraid to play it again in fear of ruining all the amazing moments I had with it. But I know I have to again one day.

Was it worth it, and what’s next?

For one or two games, buying a whole system is never worth it. You always have to look at the complete package and think about what you are investing in. However, there will always be that one game that makes you need the console, and that will open up the door to a plethora of experiences you could not get anywhere else.

I have not regretted owning all three consoles. The Wii has provided me with excellent titles and unique games that took advantage of the hardware, like MadWorld and No More Heroes. The Xbox 360 introduced me to the world of online gaming with the Halo series. Although I no longer pay for Xbox Live, I have to thank Halo for showing me how much fun it is to play with friends and strangers online. I don’t use the PlayStation 3 for online play but rather its amazing single-player titles like Heavy Rain, Uncharted, and HD collections of games I missed in the last generation — not to mention the backward compatibility that I am grateful for every day.

I bought a Wii U on launch day and have already gotten a taste of what the future holds with ZombiU, which was what sold me on the console largely because of the GamePad. I have also had a load of fun with Ninja Gaiden: Razor’s Edge, which proves that traditional titles work wonderfully on the system. I am not fully sold on the PlayStation 4, nor do I think I will fall in love with the next Xbox at first sight. It will take a good game to do that — one that shows me that yes, the next generation of gaming is here. I look forward to it.

What have been some games that have made you want to buy a console and why? Leave comments, criticisms, and concerns down below. Thank you for reading.

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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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Every few weeks, Nintendo digs out enough downloadable content from its virtual warehouse to put something new on all four of its online-enabled systems. Of course, that usually means something cool for the 3DS and Wii U and something weird/dumb/boring for the Wii and DSi, but not this week! Yes, for the first time (and let’s be honest, probably last time), one of the more high-profile releases is for WiiWare, but you can still find the usual cool stuff on the Wii U and 3DS and a game with a weird title on the DSi. So not everything is different.

First up is the Wii U, which gets full and demo versions of Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, the sequel to autoscrolling platformer Bit.Trip Runner. Like the rest of the Bit.Trip series from developer Gaijin Games, Runner 2 boasts a hip techno soundtrack timed with your actions that makes it feel more like a rhythm game than a straight platformer.

History has shown us that, prior to 2010′s Lords of Shadow at least, the 2D side-scrolling Castlevania games are usually the only ones worth paying attention to. Will Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate carry on that legacy? You can find out for yourself today in its new demo, or next Tuesday (March 5) when the full title is available on stores and on the eShop.

If whipping vampires to death isn’t your thing, you can get a pair of new eShop games: Coaster Creator 3D, which lets you design and enjoy your own thrill rides, and Mahjong Mysteries: Ancient Athena, a mahjong game. Also, two-screen action title Fractured Soul is on sale for $7.99 (down from $11.99), and this week is your last chance to download the Champions of Yore 1 DLC for Fire Emblem: Awakening. So, get on that.

Thankfully, the much-hyped (by me) new Wii release is not a Virtual Console port of a game you forgot about 10 years ago, but it is a WiiWare port of a game you might have played a few months ago: Retro City Rampage. The faux 8-bit Grand Theft Auto-style shooter is essentially “References To Things You Like: The Game,” and the WiiWare version includes the new ROM City Rampage mode, which envisions how it would work if played on a Nintendo Entertainment System. For now, ROM City Rampage is exclusive to the Wii and PC versions, so you can hold that over anyone who bought it on Xbox 360, PS3, or Vita.

Finally, on the DSi, Easter Eggztravaganza takes hidden-object and spot-the-difference games to their logical conclusion with an actual Easter egg hunt. It’s not the same as the real thing, but at $4.99, it is certainly cheaper.

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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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Follow our PlayStation 4 coverage

Forums are igniting with discussions. Twitter is rife with speculation. And hardware rumors old and new are popping up across game blogs and news sites. This can only mean one thing.

Happy new console day, everybody!

At least, that’s what we think is going to happen. Sony Computer Entertainment is only a few hours away from its big announcement at 3 p.m. Pacific in New York City. Though it hasn’t said anything about it, the leaks and teasers of the last few weeks clearly point to the coming-out party of the PlayStation 4 (or whatever Sony is going to call it).

But console reveals are tricky. Lofty promises are often made and then broken by the time of the actual launch. Games depicted in promotional trailers may not represent the final product, and in some cases, may never see the light of day again. The company obviously wants to show its fancy new system in the best possible way, but if experience has taught us anything, it’s that we should view these momentous occasions with a healthy dose of skepticism.

That’s why we decided to dig through the past three PlayStation reveals — PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 — and remind you of Sony’s track record of preparing its new consoles for launch. Some things it did were funny, other decisions left us scratching our heads, and a few choices were just plain weird.

PlayStation

Announced: October 1993
Release date: 9/9/1995 (U.S.)
Launch price: $299
Number of launch games: Eight

A new challenger appears: 

In the early ’90s, Nintendo joined forces with Sony to create the Play Station (with the space), a console that featured the cartridge-based Super Nintendo Entertainment System combined with a CD-ROM drive. But that didn’t work out.

In short, Nintendo wasn’t satisfied with the business terms of its partnership, so during the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show, it announced that Philips, a Sony rival, would be the one developing a CD-ROM expansion to the SNES. This came a day after Sony publicly revealed its Play Station plans.

Sony executives were understandably furious. But at least two of them, a former Sony engineer named Ken Kutaragi — often called the “father” of PlayStation — and president Norio Ohga, didn’t want to scrap the project. After facing some internal strife, Kutaragi spearheaded the creation of a standalone 32-bit system to compete against both Sega and Nintendo. It re-branded the project simply as “PlayStation,” which made a big splash at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 1995. At the time, the PlayStation was the scrappy underdog in a market dominated by giants.

Fun facts and broken promises:

• During the U.S. rollout at E3 ’95, Sony said “20-Plus” launch games would coincide with the console’s release (at the 4:50 mark in this clip). It delivered less than half that amount.
  
• Early marketing in the U.S. labeled the PlayStation brand as a lifestyle, not just a product or toy. Its TV ads featured such cryptic messages like “U R Not E” (You are not ready) and “ENOS Lives” (Ready Ninth of September). In the U.K., advertisements proclaimed the console was “more powerful than God.”
• The disembodied head known as Polygon Man was the first PlayStation mascot. But disagreements about marketing led to the poor guy’s quick demise prior to launch. About 17 years later, developer Superbot Entertainment brought him back as the final boss in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
• On 9/19/00, Sony released a new, petite PlayStation model called the PS One for $99. This set the precedent for a slimmer line of systems during the latter part of a console cycle, as we saw with the redesigned versions of the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.

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It’s Valentine’s Day, and you foolishly spent all of your money on a fancy new video game console instead of a romantic getaway for your significant other. Now what? Well, Nintendo has your back with this week’s Wii U eShop update. But if you’d rather spend the day alone and hunched over a handheld, it has you covered for that as well.

First up is the Wii U, which is getting its own version of Google Street View today with the Wii Street U app. While it may seem like a straight port of the global satellite imaging service, the twist in this is that you’re able to use the GamePad to view full 360-degree panoramic views of whatever exciting destination you couldn’t afford to visit in real life.

Meanwhile, the 3DS eShop won’t let you go on imaginary vacations, but you can download a demo of animé side-scroller Naruto: Powerful Shippuden and the full versions of Rabbids Travel in Time 3D (which ditches the former Rayman-vehicle’s minigame roots in favor of an action-focused platformer) and Petz Fantasy 3D (in which you dress up fantastical creatures and learn to love them as if they were real pets). Wrapping things up for the 3Ds is a port of the arcade classic Dig Dug, a title that upholds the classic gaming tradition of killing cute enemies in the most brutal way possible (this time by inflating them until they explode).

The only update for the DSi this week is Moke Moke, which, according to this YouTube video posted by the developers at G-Style, appears mildly Balloon Fight-esque in the way that it has wacky characters flapping their arms in order to fly around and grab things.

Finally, the lone update for the original Wii’s Virtual Console is World Heroes 2 Jet, the sequel to World Heroes 2 (which Nintendo added to the service early last month).

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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 may not be planning on cutting the Wii U’s price anytime soon, but if it wants to get more crazy tablet controllers into people’s homes it’ll have to do it by continuing to support the system with extremely exciting eShop updates. Of course, the more exciting updates are almost always on the 3DS, but at least the Wii U is getting some new content this week.

The main addition to the Wii U’s eShop this week is liquid-based puzzle game Puddle (previously available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Vita, and PC), which comes with some new enhancements specific to the console’s touchscreen capabilities. You can also get a demo version of Double Fine and Ron Gilbert’s newest adventure title, The Cave, the full version of which came out last week.

As stated above, the end of January (and beginning of February) are a bit more exciting on Nintendo’s latest handheld. Starting today, the 3DS eShop gets a port of Ikachan (a formerly PC-exclusive underwater action game from the creator of Cave Story), Ice Climbers (the NES classic that you only remember because its characters are in Smash Bros.), and two more full retail games: Witch’s Cat and Bloody Vampire, the latter of which is a platformer with role-playing game elements about someone who is half-human and half-vampire, so it’s basically Symphony of the Night. Basically.

“But enough talk. Have at you!”

Also, Sparkle Snapshots 3D gets a pair of DLC packs that might interest you more than you think, so don’t just ignore this paragraph because you’re “too cool” for Sparkle Snapshots 3D. Both sets, “Mario Core” and “Mario Kart 7,” allow you to pretty up your 3DS photos with Mario decorations, which is cool. So there.

The final 3DS update is surely the one that most people are excited about, even if they’ll have to wait a few extra days for it: Fire Emblem: Awakening, which GamesBeat’s own Mike Minotti referred to as “one of the best games Nintendo’s released for the 3DS yet” in his review. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until Monday before you can download it from the eShop.

On the DSi, the only new thing for its stalwarts to download this week is 99 Moves, a game in which you must escape areas using only, you guessed it, 99 moves. It boasts “incredible enemy patterns” on Nintendo’s official site, so that’s something.

Wrapping things up is the original Wii, which gets one measly Virtual Console title: Metal Slug 4.

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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 reported a third-fiscal-quarter profit today for the three months ending on Dec. 31, 2012 as it struggled to regain its footing in a difficult gaming market. But it sold a respectable 3 million units of its Wii U video game console that launched on Nov. 18 in the U.S. and shortly thereafter worldwide. The Wii U sales pale in comparison to sales of Apple’s latest iPads, but the numbers are quite respectable for a video game console launch, which is typically held back by a shortage of components.

The results are very mixed. In terms of the outlook, Nintendo slashed its forecast for sales dramatically but said that its profit would actually be higher than it forecast previously on Oct. 24. Nintendo slashed its Wii U sales forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 4 million consoles from a previous forecast of 5.5 million. It also cut its 3DS sales estimate to 15 million units compared with the 17.5 million it had predicted earlier. And it cut its DS sales expectations to 2.3 million from 2.5 million. None of that was good news.

Nintendo said its portable 3DS gaming hardware sales were up 11 percent and 3DS software sales were up 41 percent. But those gains were not enough to offset lower sales of Wii and Nintendo DS hardware and software. The yen’s value against the euro was contributed to a 2.4 percent decrease in overall sales in the first nine months of Nintendo’s fiscal year.

A favorable foreign currency exchange rate enabled Nintendo to report a profit in the third fiscal quarter. Nintendo did not break out its third-quarter results. But for the nine-month period, it reported net income of 14.545 billion yen, or $159.9 million, compared with a loss of 48.351 billion yen, or $531.62 million a year earlier. Revenues for the nine months were $5.970 billion, compared with $6.115 billion a year earlier. Nintendo’s operating loss was narrower at $64.4 million for the nine months, compared to an operating loss of $180.4 million a year earlier.

Nintendo said that its sales for the full fiscal year ending March 31 will be 670 billion yen, or $7.366 billion, down from its earlier forecast of 810 billion yen, or $8.905 billion. Nintendo now forecasts an operating loss of $219 million, compared to a forecast of an operating profit of $219 million earlier. Net income is expected to be $153.9 million, compared with an earlier forecast of $65 million.

Nintendo said that it will release “a cavalcade of strong, fan-favorite software titles for both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS” starting in March and continuing through 2014. Nintendo will release games based on well-known franchises including Mario Kart, Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, LEGO City, Wii Fit, and Pikmin. Those games “will help Nintendo regain momentum for Wii U,” the company said.

During the nine months ending on Dec. 31, Nintendo shipped 21.45 million hardware units and 126.57 million units of software. During those nine months, the Nintendo DS sold 2.15 million units, reaching lifetime sales of 153.67 million. Software sales on the DS were 30.24 million, reaching lifetime sales of 930.55 million. Nintendo 3DS sold 12.71 million units, reaching lifetime sales of 29.84 million. 3DS software sold 39.56 million units, reaching a total of 84.99 million units. Wii hardware sold 3.53 million units, reaching a total of 99.38 million units. Wii software sold 45.08 million units, reaching a total of 863.53 million units. Will U hardware sold 3.06 million units and 11.69 million units of software. That means Nintendo sold 3.82 games per Wii U console.

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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 leaves its last-generation systems behind this week — with no new content coming to the original Wii or the DSi — but at least you will soon be able to play your Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Virtual Console purchases on the Wii U’s fancy tablet controller. At this point, Wii and DSi owners should probably just take what they can get (which, odds are, will be an old SNK game or something that is barely a game at all).

Moving on to more relevant platforms: Nintendo announced yesterday that it plans to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the NES by offering a big discount on a Wii U-optimized download of a different classic title every month until July. The party officially starts this week with the latex-themed air-combat sim Balloon Fight, which you can get now for only 30 cents. Wii U owners can also download the Double Fine adventure game (no, not that one) The Cave and the full retail version of wacky strategy/puzzler Funky Barn.

On the 3DS’s eShop, you can now download the retail version of strategy-focused shooter Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, a demo of Brain Age: Concentration Training, and a variation on the classic Breakout arcade game called Cocoto Alien Brick Breaker. Also, just in case you need more ways to play NES titles, you can get Contra sequel Super C, which is already available on the Wii’s Virtual Console. So once you transfer it to the Wii U, you can play it on three systems at once. Technology!

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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 president Satoru Iwata announced the company’s plans for the Virtual Console on the Wii U.

Nintendo will add Virtual Console functionality in the spring after its next system update. Gamers will be able to play the games on the TV or on the Wii U GamePad. The publisher will also sell Game Boy Advance games for the first time on a home Virtual Console.

But what about all those classic Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo games you bought on the Wii? Well, you can “transfer” those, as Iwata said, but it will cost you a fee.

Instead of the $4.99 to $5.99 range for NES and $7.99 to $8.99 for SNES, people who bought the games on the original Wii can basically rebuy the titles for $1 (NES) and $1.50 (SNES).

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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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When the Wii U was officially announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2011, Nintendo shared its hopes of winning back the hardcore gaming community by taking its up-and-coming console back to basics, compensating for the alienation caused by the Wii’s motion controls. While the Wii holds the record for the most sales of seventh-generation consoles as of Q1 2012, there was still a large number of gamers who had lost almost all interest in the console. It was painful for many longtime video game enthusiasts to witness the once dominant Nintendo promptly dethroned.

Eventually, details about Nintendo’s successor to the Wii began to surface. The Wii U would come equipped with a new and revolutionary “GamePad” in place of a traditional controller. It would use an additional touch screen similar to the Nintendo’s DS handhelds and could be put to use in ways that would allow the player to feel more immersed within the game. This seemed to be the main marketing point for the console as Nintendo showcased its ability to innovate and bring more interaction to games. The GamePad generated quite a bit of excitement among the gaming media and community, who were looking forward to experiencing what the Wii U and its new tablet-like controller had to offer.

There was, of course, a rather tight niche of critics and gamers who looked to the GamePad with a sense of anxiety rather than optimism. From this point of view, it seemed as though the expectation was for the controller to unintentionally facilitate the Wii U’s downfall. If gamers felt alienated by the Wii’s motion controls, which prompted Nintendo to revert back to a more traditional setup, would the GamePad really do the job? Or would it have been more beneficial to trust in the tried and true style of controllers similar to those used by Nintendo’s competitors? It was difficult to predict at the time, and the majority of spectators sat in waiting.

The Wii U finally released in November of last year, kicking off to an immediate success in sales. The new console also went over well with critics, who praised its audio and visual specs as well as its GamePad, debunking any doubt in the controller’s potential.

So where is the Wii U now? For the first month or so after the console’s release, it thrived on success and positive publicity. Now, early into 2013, the buzz of launch has worn off for most, and it appears as though the console has almost gone dormant at such an early stage in its life span. Why is this?

First of all, aside from the handful of successful launch titles — including New Super Mario Bros. U and Scribblenauts Unlimited — the console’s catalog has largely fallen flat. Since the initial release wave, various other titles have come out for the Wii U, but most of them are already available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (Darksiders II, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and a handful of others). Apart from these few, there seems to be almost no sign of any major releases in the near future, much to the dismay of those who spent their hard-earned cash on the console. This is similar to what happened with the Wii.

A display of the optimism targeted toward the Wii U upon release.

That brings us to the upcoming Bayonetta 2. The highly anticipated title has been announced as a Wii U exclusive, sparking outrage among gamers: those who are without a Wii U will be unable to play the game on their PlayStation 3s and Xbox 360s, like they did the original.

This may point to the number of gamers who passed on the Wii U and are still without ownership of one. Even with all of the publicity and praise, it’s possible that many people felt little need to spend their money on a new system when their existing ones were viable for another year or so until the next round of console launches. The fact that the Wii U’s release was early in comparison to what Microsoft and Sony may have planned also works against the Wii U to a certain extent. To some, a year may not seem like a long enough time to be salvaging every last bit of life out of seventh-generation consoles, but in this day and age, a single year of saving money makes all the difference.

I’d like to point out that I personally have no hatred toward the Wii U and was in fact anxious to see what became of it upon release. Unfortunately, since then, the gaming community hasn’t heard much of anything from Nintendo’s new console. It’s almost as though it has fallen off the face of the Earth.

Many may be disappointed by the lack of attention shown to the Wii U, and it really seems as though many developers are unwilling to take their chances and release games for it. Others may have already seen this coming. For one reason or another, the Wii U might have failed to capture our attention beyond its first few steps out the door, much like with the Wii.

For those who were uninterested to begin with, this situation may likely fly past their radars undetected. But for those who feel let down, we can only hope that the Wii U will make its deserved comeback in the near future. After all, it’s still early, and it’s never too late.

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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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The niche publisher Xseed has just made role-playing game fans everywhere extremely happy. It announced today that it’s partnering with Nintendo to bring the third and final Operation Rainfall game, Pandora’s Tower, to the Nintendo Wii this spring.

Operation Rainfall is the fan campaign that IGN forum members originally started in June 2011 to help bring three Japanese role-playing games to the U.S. When we spoke to Xseed Games in August of last year, it revealed no plans to localize Pandora’s Tower even though the company saw its biggest success with The Last Story — another of the Operation Rainfall trio, which also includes Xenoblade Chronicles.

“The Last Story is exceeding our sales expectations and is on track to be Xseed Games’ best-selling title ever,” executive vice president Ken Berry told GamesBeat at the time. But he denied any interest in Pandora’s Tower, a game where players race to save a maiden from an evil curse by exploring 13 towers and collecting the flesh from the monsters within. Japanese developer Ganbarion and publisher Nintendo released it in Japan in 2011, and it’s since come to Europe and Australia — but not North America.

“No, that is not a title that we have ever considered,” Berry said previously. “Also, I don’t think receipt of The Last Story in the U.S. will affect our decision either way. The Last Story was the one and only title we had our sights set on from the start.”

Xseed is an independently minded small company and said that it publishes games “we believed in and wanted to support” as well as those that its fans highly desire “as ultimately we’re servicing them.”

So what changed the team’s attitude toward Pandora’s Tower? Xseed didn’t get too in-depth in its answer, but the reason may be obvious.

“Thanks to the great fan support and success of The Last Story, when the opportunity presented itself to publish Pandora’s Tower, it was an easy decision,” Berry told us today. “We knew it was a fun game from having played it, and regardless of where the Wii may be in its lifecycle, we believe that fans follow the games they want, so we have faith it can still sell well on that platform.”

On behalf of the Operation Rainfall staff, Richard Ross told GamesBeat, “We here at Operation Rainfall are extremely grateful for everything Xseed Games has done and will ever do. Picking up Pandora’s Tower to publish is the cherry on top of an already delicious cake. As always, we encourage everybody to show their support for Xseed Games by purchasing Pandora’s Tower; you can bet we will!”

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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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I fell in love with Xenoblade in 2012. I’ll never forget its endless landscapes with towering mountains and vast oceans. Xenoblade just gave me so much beauty that I had to honor it as my game of the year.

I’ve played my share of Japanese role-playing games. Many of them had their own set of problems, such as bad voice-acting and goofy motion-capture animations. Xenoblade makes up for all those painful moments with tons of amusing side quests to complete for other villagers. I wanted to play through every single one of them just to build social bonds with these characters.

I took occasional breaks to try other games over the course of 2012 because Xenoblade’s massive landscapes can take days to explore. I thought about trying the newfangled blockbuster hits, but I always returned to Xenoblade. It offered me a phenomenal amount of content on one disc. Unlike other modern RPGs, I didn’t have to pay extra to download anything else.

The story is also far more dramatic than all the stilted cutscenes in The Elder Scrolls or Fallout 3. Xenoblade starts off as a simple journey to avenge the death of a girl. After the plot twists halfway through the game, the whole quest becomes even more complicated. One particular development is as shocking as the part in the film The Empire Strikes Back where Darth Vader reveals he’s Luke Skywalker’s father. It changes the main hero’s own mission as he struggles to understand.

Xenoblade is also a swan song for the Wii. Although the console had its issues, I respect it a lot more than I did when Nintendo first released it. It was one of the last systems that didn’t need a constant Internet connection; it had plenty of downloadable games that didn’t require long periods of installation. Xenoblade reminded me of everything I loved in the old days of gaming.

The game has so many touching moments that brought back all my favorite memories of JRPGs such as Final Fantasy VII. The soundtrack evokes many of the emotions that I’ve missed. The “Thoughts to a Friend” song, for example, plays a part in one of the most touching moments I’ve seen in a long time, and the delicate violin solo actually made me cry tears of joy as a flashback montage showed precious moments of a character’s life. (In case anyone is wondering, I’m trying hard not to give away spoilers.)

Xenoblade is like a long-lost reunion with the glorious adventures of the past. I’m not sure why other publications haven’t given this game top honors because it delivered one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve ever had from a current-generation game. Hopefully, everyone will remember this legendary game long after it disappears from store shelves.

Do you think Xenoblade deserves more recognition? What are some of the titles that you consider the best of 2012? Share your thoughts in the comments 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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Nintendo said today it has sold more than 890,000 Wii U systems to date in the U.S.

The new game console debuted on Nov. 18 and sold more units than the original Wii did in its first holiday season in 2006. Nintendo sold more than $300 million worth of Wii U hardware in the U.S after 41 days on the market. That beats sales of the Wii by $30 million for the comparable period in its first season, Nintendo said. However, the Wii U is priced higher than the original Wii, so the unit sales may not actually be better.

In December alone, Nintendo sold 470,000 Wii U systems.

“While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation,” Scott Moffitt, a Nintendo of America’s executive vice president, said in a statement. “The demand for the Deluxe SKU, which was essentially sold out at retail this holiday, and the strong attach rate of New Super Mario Bros. U show that we have the value and the games to drive momentum in 2013. We look forward to offering great new experiences and bringing smiles to millions of new faces throughout the year.”

Nintendo sold more than 2.65 million hardware units in the U.S. in the month of December. The Japanese company said that 2012 marked the 11th consecutive year that Nintendo has sold at least 8 million hardware units in the U.S.

The New Super Mario Bros. U has now sold more than 580,000 units, an attach rate of more than 65 percent. Nintendo sold more than 1.25 million units of the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming machine in December and sold 7.7 million units in the U.S. to date. Nintendo sold 475,000 units of the Wii in December, outselling the Wii U, and more than 40.8 million units to date in the U.S.

Ubisoft’s Just Dance 3 became the tenth Wii title to sell more than 5 million units life to date.

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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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When the Wii launched in 2006, Nintendo struggled to keep up with demand. The motion-controlled console flew off store shelves as word of mouth drove the system’s popularity off the charts.

By comparison, at least based on appearances, Nintendo’s follow-up console isn’t re-creating that frothing demand.

“At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn’t as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told Reuters. “But sales are not bad, and I feel it’s selling steadily.”

Iwata didn’t provide specific numbers. When the company launched the Wii U, it established a goal of selling around 5.5 million units by March.

The tablet-controller-based system sold 400,000 units in its first week.

Nintendo is facing a vastly different landscape compared to the launch of the Wii. Apple’s iPad has stepped forward as a major competitor for holiday dollars. Much of the audience that found themselves interested in the Wii have moved on to the iOS devices.

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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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When Zoink Games debuted its trailer for WeeWaa in 2009, eyes lit up. This was the next great kids’ game for the Nintendo Wii that even adults would want to play.

In Justice’s song “D.A.N.C.E.,” which played over the video, Zoink found the perfect tagline: “The way you move is a mystery.” The words nailed what WeeWaa was about: The magic of transforming an ordinary Wiimote into a stuffed toy, which kids could hold and move around to control a matching onscreen avatar.

Time passed, and WeeWaa dropped off everybody’s radar. Nintendo released a new console, the Wii U, in November — without WeeWaa in the Wii’s library. It even slipped our minds last month when we ran down the list of Wii games that never were. But as proof to how effective Zoink’s choice of song was, all it took was to hear “D.A.N.C.E.” again for us to wonder, “What happened?”

Klaus Lyngeled, the owner and creative director of Zoink and the creator of the project, told GamesBeat that the game is indeed on hold. WeeWaa earned praise for its innovative design after appearing publicly at Gamescom in 2010, but that wasn’t enough to secure its future.

“We did finish the game for Wii, and the tech and gameplay [were] working really good,” said Lyngeled. “But the investor and publisher didn’t go through with publishing it since the Wii market wasn’t strong enough. It was a very big disappointment to us, too, since we had worked with the project for many years. We even designed the plush toy ourselves and set up the full production in China.”

Why exactly did the investor and publisher pull out? “It was mainly because they didn’t see any third-party games selling on Wii,” he said. “The kids angle worked really well on Wii. At the beginning, we had deals lined up with both Walmart and Toys ‘R’ Us. They loved it, but then the market changed, and third-party games just didn’t sell.”

So Zoink took the assets and designs for the story, characters, and universe and recycled them into a mobile game for iOS and Android called WeeWaa RockOn!.

“It’s also exactly the same 3D models and characters from the Wii game,” said Lyngeled. “The gameplay had to be redesigned from scratch [as] the original was designed around playing with the plush toy in innovative, fun ways. The new game is designed for touch. It’s a pick-up-and-play experience. It’s a much more focused game design. The game is about WeeWaa and his magic guitar, which with music can lift and throw bad Groompas around. It’s actually quite simple and fun.

“We just test-released WeeWaa RockOn! in Canada and Australia and hope to roll out a full release in the U.S. [in] early January. We would like to put the original WeeWaa plush-toy game on Wii U, but we really need a strong partner to make that happen.”

Bringing WeeWaa to Nintendo’s new console would be simple enough. “The new game is developed with Unity 3D, and as you know, the Wii U [supports] Unity 3D,” he said. “So it would probably be easy to get it up and running. Also, the Wii U is still using the same style Wiimote [that] our plush toy was designed to work with.”

Zoink has a few ideas for optimizing WeeWaa exclusively for the Wii U, too. “Another great feature would be to incorporate the GamePad with its screen into gameplay. I could easily see the extra screen becoming a customizable toy for WeeWaa, his backpack, his camera, or use the pen for a coloring/drawing toy. Look at how Toca Tea Party uses the tablet as a table for plush toys.

“I have to mention, we also had thoughts about bringing the plush-toy game to the tablets, but that meant we had to develop our own electronics for the plush. And we just don’t have the ability to pull that through on our own.”

The developer also just finished a game for Cartoon Network but isn’t able to share details about that yet. Zoink is working on a separate title for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PS Vita called Stick It to the Man, “a super-creative mind-reading game — all our own creation,” said Lyngeled. “This is done together with Ripstone, which is a new publisher run by the producers of LittleBigPlanet.”

Stick It to the Man will be available around August of next year, according to Lyngeled.

Additionally, Zoink is releasing a game with major mobile publisher Chillingo on Jan. 3 called Swing King (pictured left and right, video here). Lyngeled says it’s a “physics-puzzle game that has a really fun design.”

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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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“Blasphemy!” I hear everyone cry. “Nintendo has made some of the best systems ever!” And I have to agree. Who can forget playing Tetris or Super Mario Land on the Game Boy or the technically impressive Rogue Squadron, an exclusive to the little purple lunchbox called the GameCube? And dare I say that the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super NES are tied for the best retro console ever made as both hold some of the best video game libraries known to humankind. Nintendo has formed many a childhood memory, and I’ll be the first to say that all gamers should own at least one of Nintendo’s consoles, but I’m beginning to think that they shouldn’t have to.

It’s a joke that the only reason to own a Nintendo system is to play first-party games, but it’s becoming increasingly unnerving just how true that statement is. The last three generations have seen some amazing experiences — many of them developed or published by Nintendo — but how many great third-party titles can you name without searching Metacritic? How about just decent? Mediocre? Therein lies my complaint.

Nintendo has always had a very unique approach; no one can fault the company for a bland design philosophy. Whatever it offers, whether a game or a system, is sure to have a spark of creation and innovation. Even in its greatest failures, Nintendo manages to turn a loss into a learning experience, with the Virtual Boy being the prime example. From one of the most awful “portable” gaming systems ever, Nintendo spawned a game franchise (Mario’s Tennis) and an idea for a later system (the 3DS).

No one questions that Nintendo is clever, inventive, and persistent. The problem is that the company’s persistence tends to dip into pure pigheadedness. Nintendo knows what Nintendo wants best, and developers be darned if they don’t conform. Whether it was the lockout chip on the NES, the 3DS’s lack of a second circle pad, the GameCube’s underwhelming specs, the Wii’s very underwhelming specs, or its infamous censorship policy, Nintendo seems to be hell bent on screwing over everyone else.

It makes me wonder, “Why is Nintendo even doing this anymore?”

Nintendo clearly dislikes playing with others, so before this point, making its own hardware was the most logical way to distribute its games. But that’s not the case anymore. New ways of distributing games are available, and although it’s hard to imagine Nintendo ever working with Sony or Microsoft, Nintendo hass no reason not try its hand at online distribution. We’ve already seen that on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS, but buying virtually has been woefully underused due to hardware and software constraints.

The Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Store have become standout features on their respective consoles, yet simply speaking the word “WiiWare” will bring more sighs of disgust and confused responses than enthusiastic reactions. Nintendo continues working on improving its public image in the online space, but with the exception of the Virtual Console, their efforts have all failed. Choice after choice has been dedicated to catching up on features their competitors implemented years ago. Online marketplaces, usernames, and multiplayer are all welcome features, but the fact remains that everyone else has had them for years.

As sobering as the thought may be, the Wii U is the perfect example of Nintendo playing catch-up. I’ll be the first to say that I think the console has potential, but as Bitmob community writer Ryan Perez has expressed already, the Wii U hasn’t been distinguished enough from the Wii. Nintendo has again come at the problem of sales from another angle, but the approach has been eerily close between the consoles. Nintendo has a new gimmick and some additional features, yes, but this time the new gimmick isn’t quite so unique, and many of the new features are already available elsewhere. Did it really take Nintendo this long to realize that people don’t like memorizing multiple 12-digit Friend Codes?

Nintendo just makes bad choices — much like Sega used to — and while everything has always worked out in the past, that may not always be the case. Others like them once dominated the market, and one by one, they all fell out of the console race. That’s why my wish this holiday season is for Nintendo to abandon their hardware development.

I’m aware of how drastic a change this would be, but Nintendo wouldn’t be the first company to redirect its focus. Atari, Sega, SNK, and even Midway all made gaming hardware at one point or another, and while their successes in doing so were nowhere near Nintendo’s, the games industry eventually benefited from their failures. Each has had its share of rough patches, which was unfortunately too much for Midway, but the rise of online distribution has allowed many companies to rethink the way they do business.

Nintendo has been able to consistently make innovative, dependable systems, yet it always comes at a price. Peripherals and new methods of play, though interesting in the beginning of a system’s lifespan, drag the system down as the majority of developers will fail utilize the features properly. Both the Wii and the DS were hotly anticipated because of the new possibilities they brought, but the more time that passed, the more gamers realized that only a handful of developers were actually exploring these possibilities.

It’s enough to ask, “Why isn’t Nintendo strictly a software developer?” With Nintendo out of the console race — and possibly even the handheld race — it’d be free to make games for any system it wanted. Perhaps Nintendo could experiment with Sony’s Vita — I can only imagine what could be done with dual touchscreens or the HD graphics. Opportunities abound on iOS devices, as Nintendo could no doubt deliver some brilliant bite-sized titles without needing to worry about spending too much time or capital. And with Steam’s popularity only increasing, it would be a perfect place to begin developing games for the PC.

Nintendo has always been an innovative company, but it’s usually come at the expense of everyone working with them. Maybe it’s time that they stopped requiring others to deal with its choices and instead devoted its vast resources to exploring what other companies’ systems have to offer. One could argue that such a move would be unlike Nintendo, but I suppose that’s why this is only a Christmas wish.

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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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Apparently oblivious to the jokes that initially surrounded the Wii’s name, Nintendo just announced the Wii Mini — a budget console that offers fewer features than the original Wii but is much cheaper.

The Wii Mini will sell for just $100 when it’s released in Canada on December 7. For some reason, Nintendo is keeping the console exclusive to the country for this holiday season, and it isn’t saying anything about availability elsewhere.

To make the Wii Mini so cheap, Nintendo had to chop out many features, like networking capabilities and compatibility with GameCube games. The Wii Mini will only be able to play Wii game discs (Nintendo says there are now more than 1,400 disc-based Wii games available). The console comes with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller, and it’ll offer all of the motion gaming capabilities the Wii is known for.

By stripping out extra features and focusing on a core experience, Nintendo is clearly aiming to extend the life of its existing Wii hardware. And given that the new Wii U console starts at $300, Nintendo may be able to tempt some budget buyers who somehow missed out on the original Wii with this smaller console.

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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. 

Hello, Wii. You’re 6 years old, but it’s time to say goodbye. Your successor, the Wii U, is here. You had a good run, but things slowed down near the end. We may see a Black Friday sale here or there, but our days with you are numbered. It seems it wasn’t all that long ago when I sat in line at my local Wal-Mart awaiting your midnight release, but it’s already been six years.

You tried so hard to please everyone, but you left many of those hardcore gamers disappointed. It’s hard to argue against that. Many of the games fans expected were cancelled completely, or just never brought Stateside. Sure, games are cancelled all the time, but in many of these cases, it was because Nintendo wanted to focus on its so-called “expanded audience,” in others, it was a matter of hardware limitations. Let’s take a moment to remember some of these games, and hope that some of this doesn’t happen again.

Project H.A.M.M.E.R.

Developer: NST

Why it mattered: Project H.A.M.M.E.R. was a brawler. You played as a guy with a big-ass hammer, and pounded the living crap out of anything around you. It was a new intellectual property (IP), which naturally made it a bit more interesting for gamers. It was also announced before the Wii’s launch. The prospect of playing a new property on an upcoming system naturally makes people excited. It’s also rare for Nintendo to publish a game that can be considered a bit less cartoony, such as the Mario and Zelda games.

Why it was cancelled: Nintendo cancelled the game and had developer NST shift focus to the casual market. This was where the Wii was seeing much of its success. Some reports said that Nintendo had simply delayed Project H.A.M.M.E.R., and it may return at some point. While the news wasn’t entirely reassuring, it, combined with a little wishful thinking, gave fans a bit of hope.

Chance that we will ever see it again: Project H.A.M.M.E.R. is most likely gone for good. That’s not to say its will never happen. Nintendo could one day decide that the game is better-suited for the Wii U.

Sadness

Developer: Nibris

Why it mattered: Sadness was another prelaunch Wii announcement. It never went beyond the status of teaser trailer. Regardless, Wii owners were interested. Sadness had the potential to be genuinely creepy, and it looked as if it would make full use of the system’s motion controls. Nintendo fan sites and message boards hyped this one up quite a bit, and that contributed to much of the excitement surrounding this game.

Why it was cancelled: Developer Nibris couldn’t get anything done. Aside from the sporadic updates on its status, Sadness never went anywhere. It experienced many hold-ups and was eventually cancelled. The developer apparently didn’t have a clear direction, and that was the end of Sadness.

Chance that we will ever see it again: Sadness is dead, and Nibris closed its doors long ago. It’s doubtful that we will ever see it in any form.

Animales de la Muerte

Developer: High Voltage Software

Why it mattered: Animales de la Muerte was for WiiWare, Nintendo’s downloadable game service. In all honesty, looked pretty average. It was about two kids running around a zoo in Mexico killing zombie animals. The game itself wasn’t what mattered. It was the reason for the cancellation that became a problem, and signaled a problem that would plague the Wii for the rest of its life.

Why it was cancelled: Animeles de la Muerte was killed off as a direct result of the limitations of the Wii hardware. Nintendo’s WiiWare platform could not support the game, thanks to the size limitations of WiiWare downloads. High Voltage decided that it would be better suited for retail, and possibly even Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) and the PlayStation Network (PSN). Animales de Muerte never released because the Wii was underpowered compared to the competition.

Chance that we will ever see it again: If High Voltage truly had any desire to continue work on this project, they would have released it for retail or a rival platform by now. Don’t count on it ever happening.

Shadows of the Damned

Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture

Why it mattered: Shadows of the Damned was announced in 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The fact that Goichi Suda, aka Suda51, was behind it was enough to entice many gaming fans. The funny part about this one is that we never knew it was a cancelled Wii game until Suda said so. As with Animales de la Muerte, the reason for the cancellation is what was truly bothersome for fans. In the end, Shadows of the Damned arrived on every console but the Wii.

Why it was cancelled: We can’t say with 100 percent certainty why Shadows of the Damned never made it to Wii. Suda said that he could not comment on the matter. What we do know is that it was ultimately released for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. It ran on Epic Game’s Unreal Engine 3, which was unavailable for the Wii. In fact, when asked about how he planned to make Shadows of the Damned work without Unreal Engine, Suda could not comment, either.

Chance that we will ever see it again: Shadows of the Damned was released, just not for the Wii. There’s always the slight chance that it could be reworked for the Wii U, but that’s up to publisher Electronic Arts (EA), and it’s not likely the game will ever see a re-release.

Pikmin 3

Developer: Nintendo

Why it mattered: In 2008, Nintendo received a lot of criticism for not pleasing its core fans. During the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo announced Wii Music. This, as far as gamers were concerned, meant that the game company had forgotten its core audience. Pikmin 3 was announced by Shigeru Miyamoto later that day. It gave those core fans something to look forward to. Furthermore, Nintendo first-party games tend to be system sellers. The Pikmin series turned out to be a hit when it was introduced on the GameCube, and the real-time strategy (RTS) element was well-suited for the Wii’s controls. It was also a nice alternative for those Nintendo fans who didn’t want to see yet another Zelda or Mario.

Why it was cancelled: Pikmin 3 was originally in development for the Wii, and it was eventually shifted over to the Wii U. Miyamoto and his team felt that the HD graphics and GamePad would enhance the experience. In this case, we have a game that was never released for the Wii, because it was reimagined for a newer, more powerful platform.

Chance that we will ever see it again: We will never see Pikmin 3 on the Wii. It’s being developed for Wii U.

Farewell Wii. Hello Wii U

Look, Wii, we definitely shared some good times. I’ll never forget watching my grandparents play Wii Sports. Thanks for those memories. Still, you lacked in a few very important areas.

While Pikmin 3′s switch to Wii U was ultimately good news for fans, games Like Project H.A.M.M.E.R. will probably never be spoken of again to an official capacity. Other games, like Animales de la Muerte and Shadows of the Damned, were cancelled, to the best of my knowledge, because the Wii hardware could not support the developer’s vision. Nintendo has finally caught up, in terms of graphics power, to the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Sure, graphics aren’t everything, but they make a heck of a lot of difference when they limit what’s available on your platform. Maybe that will all end with the Wii U.

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You may be sleeping off a tryptophan-induced coma later, but Nintendo isn’t taking a break from updating its various digital download services. This week, it’s even getting into the Thanksgiving spirit by offering something new for everyone. Well, everyone who owns a 3DS, DSi, Wii, or Wii U at least.

First off is the Wii U, since literally everything on its eShop is new this week. Most of the system’s launch games are available digitally, like ZombiU, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, but you could also download the Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, or ESPN Sports Connection apps if you need to entertain any family members that haven’t left yet. Here’s the full list of Wii U eShop items:

• Amazon Instant Video
• Chasing Aurora
• Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
• ESPN Sports Connection
• Hulu Plus
• Little Inferno
• Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition
• NBA 2K13
• New Super Mario Bros. U
• Nintendo Land
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Trine 2: Director’s Cut
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
• Assassin’s Creed III
• Darksiders II
• FIFA Soccer 2013
• Game Party Champions
• Just Dance 4
• Madden NFL 2013
• Nano Assault NEO
• Netflix
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
• Rabbids Land
• Sing Party
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition
• Warriors Orochi 3
• ZombiU

The 3DS is hosting a few new titles as well. The big names this week are Crashmo and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The former is the sequel to Pushmo, which our own Jeff Grubb referred to as “the secret best 3DS eShop game,” while the latter is best remembered as one of the few times Nintendo did anything radically different with the Zelda franchise. Both are available now, Crashmo for $8.99 and Zelda II for $4.99. Also new today is 3D Mahjongg, which is pretty self-descriptive, and a new episode of the Meat or Die video series.

The DSi brings a pair of new titles this week as well, though they’re technically just different versions of the same one: Spirit Hunters Inc., which comes in Light and Shadow variants, is a Pokémon-style augmented-reality game in which you capture and battle hidden spirits. Both types have a few exclusive monsters that you can’t find in the other, so you could buy both if you’re a completionist, but keep in mind that they are $7.99 each.

Finally, the Wii refuses to die, as yet another old SNK game comes to the Virtual Console. This week, it’s a Neo Geo fighter called Ninja Master’s, which includes an oddly placed apostrophe and a special move called the “Super Death Blow,” which sounds awesome.

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Long lines at the mall, cold weather, Christmas music sapping your will to live, and the unbridled terror of visiting family … the holiday season can be extremely stressful.

But I also have plenty to be thankful for that doesn’t include the words “happy New Year” or “welcome to the official start of summer.”

In honor of this most American of holidays – in which we cherish what we have by camping out for doorbuster sales – I’d like to share what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.

A bonanza of new games

Once I’m done cramming my mouth with turkey, stuffing, pumpkin bread, pie, and several other plates that will increase my pants size, I’m in no mood for small talk or listening to Uncle Joe’s ramblings about globalization while I slip into a food coma.

Not pictured: Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders

This is the perfect time to escape the assembled masses and play some honest-to-goodness video games. Luckily, this season has been good to us: Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Hitman: Absolution, Assassin’s Creed III, ZombieU, Resident Evil 6, Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion … not to mention my huge backlog of shame.

The industry has provided even the most persnickety among us an alibi to excuse ourselves from our dinner tables.

Wreck-it Ralph

It’s not based on a real video game, but that doesn’t matter. Hollywood has fumbled every game-based film attempted since the infamous Super Mario Bros. (and the dancing goombas that, to this day, give me nightmares), and some creative folks are finally getting the message.

It turns out that the best way to do a video game movie is to pay tribute to the burgeoning medium instead of fighting a losing battle trying to adapt something with a paper-thin story. Think: The Wizard and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Wreck-it Ralph is born from a love of all things video games yet still recognizes the limitations of the source material. It’s at once funny, engaging, and extremely nostalgic. Everyone should see it and thank Disney for bestowing this gift upon our industry.

The Consumer Electronics Show

Held each year at the beginning of January, CES is the premier stage for the latest emerging technologies, consumer gadgets, and gee-wiz entertainment devices. While Apple never shows up and Microsoft bowed out last year, nearly every leading electronics manufacturer makes an appearance, and you can usually see the bread crumbs of cool gaming technologies (the 3DS’s autostereoscopy or glasses-free 3D, for instance) at CES before anywhere else.

And the show is in Las Vegas, where Insert Coin(s) (a gaming-themed bar/nightclub) just opened last year. Most people go to Vegas to play video games, right?

The Wii U

Hear me out. Nintendo’s latest console has been highly divisive even amongst the GamesBeat staff. Some fans – enamored with the big N’s first-party properties and the opportunity for an HD Nintendo console – sucked it up immediately. Others decry its relative dearth of original ideas, new games (that aren’t rereleases), and odd controller design.

Either way, the Wii U is an extremely important piece of hardware for the industry. It’ll either crash and burn or perform averagely (which, for Nintendo, will feel like crashing and burning), and the ensuing shakeup will cause the Japanese gaming giant to rethink its strategic vision. And let’s face it: After the cultural zeitgeist that was the Wii, anything short of earth-shattering will reverberate far and wide.

Or the system will find its footing, reconnect with hardcore gamers, and recapture a bit of the ‘80s and ‘90s Nintendo charm we all fell in love with. It’s win-win for all.

Family, friends, good cheer … peace on earth and goodwill toward men

Just kidding. That stuff sucks.

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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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Until now, it’s been a mystery who was providing the video-conferencing technology in the Wii U. It turns out that Vidyo, the same company that powers Google Hangouts, helped Nintendo deliver living-room teleconferencing.

Vidyo is “disrupting” business-to-business video conferencing with a fairly radical price point — free — and is now looking to expand its reach in business-to-consumer, via the living room.

“We’re trying to bring video-conferencing to the world,” Vidyo chief executive Ofer Shapiro told me last week. “We want to carry it to the masses.”

That’s not because Vidyo wants to display Skype for simple person-to-person video communication. Rather, it’s because it sees a whole new consumer platform based on simple, high-quality, living-room teleconferencing capability.

“Imagine the yoga teacher doing online yoga to 50 people,” Shapiro said. “Think about an audience of 100 million people … for instance buying a subscription for an online Zumba class.”

People have that capability now, Shapiro admits, on devices such as laptops, tablets, and netbooks. But when it’s in the living room, on the big screen, it’s different, he argues. Different enough to create a new way for content creators, teachers, coaches, speakers, and others find and build an audience for live video content.

“The big screen,” he told me,” is more social. You can move around … certain things are better in that environment. Also some people are still more fearful of computers — this reduces the barrier. It’s a market expansion.”

The first uses of Vidyo’s technology, of course, are the in-game experiences and the video chat built into Nintendo’s Miiverse. It’s a software-based solution that runs on Wii OS and does not require any special hardware, Vidyo’s senior VP Amnon Gavish, told me.

Gavish would not reveal the quality of the Wii U’s video-conferencing technology, saying only that it is “excellent, but not trying to have the same quality as a professional system.”

With this deal, Vidyo now has more than 25 partners including Google, NTT, Philips, and others who are bringing its technology to market. Most of those are revenue-share deals focuses on expanding the market for video-based conferencing. Now with Nintendo, Vidyo has a unique opportunity to hit the mainstream — and the living room — at the same time.

That all depends, however, on whether the Wii U is a market success or not.

Following its strategy of landing on a variety of streaming devices, YouTube today launched a brand new app for the Nintendo Wii game console.

The new YouTube Wii app means that the online video leader is now available on all major gaming consoles (Playstation 3, Xbox 360, as well as over 400 million other devices across the globe. The app also debuts just days before Nintendo launches its Wii U, which should put a greater emphasis on media consumption than previous Nintendo products.

The app lets you do all the typical things like signing in to see your saved videos, playlists, and favorites. You can also view all your subscribed channels and search for videos using your Wii remote.

The app is available for free and can be downloaded today in the U.S. via the Wii Shop Channel. YouTube said it plans to roll out the app to other regions in the near future.

Who knew the Department of Defense took operational security so seriously?

Multiple outlets are reporting that the government agency charged with protecting our nation’s secrets – the DoD – is punishing seven active-duty Navy SEALs who consulted on EA’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Four more are under investigation.

The DoD docked the SEALs’ pay for two months and placed letters of reprimand in their file. For all intents and purposes, this could end their careers.

Last month, GamesBeat reported that EA consulted with two dozen active-duty and retired SEALs and other Spec Ops personnel – including Matt Bissonnette, who was part of the Seal Team 6 team that killed Osama Bin Laden – for Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

At the time, EA spokesman Pete Nguyen told GamesBeat, “We are not aware of any rules that oblige EA to vet the game with the Department of Defense, and we don’t know if veterans who consulted on the game have been in contact with the Department of Defense.”

The latter has now been definitively settled. Apparently, the SEALs didn’t follow the normal vetting process, and they’re paying the price.

While civilians aren’t obligated to safeguard classified information – think of it as freedom of the press – military personnel are entrusted with security clearances, which entail very specific guidelines and restrictions.

And the military is very clear about interacting with the media: Service members must obtain permission before speaking to journalists. Typically, the DoD will refer the military personnel or media to Public Affairs Officers (PAOs).

I have no doubt that EA’s intentions were pure. The Medal of Honor reboot (2010) – based in part on Afghanistan’s Operation Anaconda – took great pains to honor the heroic sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. See this quote, taken from the game’s ending.

But EA forgot to bone up on OPSEC procedures.

In the interests of full disclosure, I was in the Army Reserves for three years and can attest to the fact that the military takes OPSEC (and idle chit-chat with the media) very seriously – especially after General Stanley McChrystal – formerly the Commander, International Security Assistance Force and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan – got a little too chummy with a Rolling Stone reporter, thereby forfeiting his career.

The military routinely lends technical assistance to Hollywood productions (provided the script passes DoD muster).

See: Top Gun, Transformers, Battleship, Black Hawk Down, etc.

But the DoD is especially sensitive about OPSEC concerns (the ‘ol “loose lips sink ships”), and Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty – a fictionalized account of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden – caused a recent stir.

In response to the alleged disclosure of sensitive intel, Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, said that “I am concerned about the possible exposure of classified information to these filmmakers, who as far as I know, do not possess security clearances.”

King has called for an investigation.

Given this turn of events – and the DoD’s ruffled feathers – it’s no surprise that the SEALs who consulted on Medal of Honor: Warfighter face disciplinary action.

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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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What if LucasArts never existed? What if the irascible filmmaker, beloved (and despised) the world over for his invaluable contributions to the pop-culture lexicon, had stuck to making space operas and juvenile fantasies about archeologists in fedora hats? What if George Lucas never entered the arena of gaming 30 years ago?

LucasArts revolutionized, created, or nurtured several whole genres, so its absence would’ve irreparably hindered the burgeoning video game medium. The San Francisco-based developer and publisher gave the point-and-click adventure – a heretofore obscure niche – a serious shot in the arm (and doctors everywhere an influx of carpal tunnel patients).

It reinvigorated the space shooter, redefined console RPGs, and when Jar Jar Binks took a dump on the collective geek fandom, it even reignited the ailing Star Wars franchise. LucasArts games have appeared on every major console, from early 1980s consoles such as the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision to the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, including dank parlors of teenage truancy (i.e., arcades).

LucasArts has dabbled in almost every genre in gaming: point-and-click adventures, space shooters, first-person shooters, action, sidescrollers, role-playing games, MMORPGs, and even fighting games.

Suffice to say that the forerunner of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, and Monkey Island had a significant impact on gaming.

Humble beginnings

George Lucas founded LucasArts, the gaming arm of LucasFilm, in 1982 – the same year that Lucas’ frequent collaborator, Steven Spielberg, unleashed the interactive version of his adorable, alcoholic, bipedal alien, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. While the latter nearly destroyed gaming in its infancy, LucasArts would weather the great crash of 1983 and reemerge for the medium’s second renaissance in North America in 1985.

LucasArts originally partnered with the premier North American video game company – Atari – and in 1984, produced inventive action titles like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus! for the 5200 and 7800 systems. PC versions followed a year later.

During the era of Reagan, greed, and the imminent fall of the Soviet Union (aka the 1980s), LucasArts developed a number of military simulations, including PHM Pegasus (1986), Strike Fleet (1987), and Battlehawks 1942 (1989). This was no accident.

One of Lucas’ prime inspirations for the Star Wars trilogy – especially the gee-wiz, outerspace dogfighting scenes – were swashbuckling, jingoistic World War II flicks, and he’d explore this more directly with the 2012 film Red Tails.

LucasArts would revisit combat sims years later, but under the guise of its flagship franchise – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (1998) and Star Wars: Starfighter (2001), to name but a few. They’d also return to the WWII era with 2003′s aerial-warfare title, Secret Weapons Over Normandy.

Planting the point-and-click adventure flag

LucasArts found its stride with repetitive mouse clicks and a little game called Maniac Mansion (1987). Creators Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick designed a loving tribute to B-movies, kitschy horror films, and ’80s teen flicks.

Maniac Mansion – based on Skywalker Ranch – gave the intrepid point-and-click explorer the opportunity to solve puzzles, navigate the sort of prepubescent stupidity that only exists in horror flicks, and for the budding serial killer, microwave a hamster. Seriously.

It also introduced the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM), a scripting/programming language that saw action in every subsequent LucasArts adventure game.

SCUMM was the subject of numerous in-jokes, not the least of which was the Razor and the Scummettes band from Maniac Mansion and the “SCUMM bar” in The Secret of Monkey Island (1990).

The latter, of course, established LucasArts as the premier developer of adventure games on the planet. Maniac Mansion and SCUMM alumni, Ron Gilbert, returned for The Secret of Monkey Island, and a young Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend) cut his teeth on this seminal adventure title.

Apart from Star Wars, Monkey Island is probably LucasArts’ most enduring franchise.

Teenaged pirate Guybrush Threepwood returned for four sequels, including Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (1991), The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), Escape from Monkey Island (2000), and the episodic Tales of Monkey Island (2009).

Talk about longevity – from the original Monkey Island to Tales, the series spans nearly two decades. This puts it roughly equivalent to video game stalwarts (and franchise superstars) like Mega Man, the latter of which only has about four years on Monkey Island.

Indy takes the spotlight

Before LucasArts made its bones in the adventure genre with Maniac Mansion, it dipped its toes in the water with Labyrinth, based on the Jim Henson (and Lucasfilm) fantasy movie. But that was just a taste.

The globetrotting archeologist (of the fedora hat and whip variety) also saw numerous video-game adaptations. Many of the early Indiana Jones titles were movie tie-ins (Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600, The Last Crusade for the Genesis and NES), and LucasArts didn’t publish or develop most of them.

The house that Lucas built assumed auteur duties for the point-and-click adventure game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992), a critically acclaimed genre title, and LucasArts subsequently took charge for Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1999), Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (2003), and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (2009).

Alas, I feel like I’m forgetting one particular franchise…

Wars among the stars

LucasFilm’s cash cow was a stalwart of video gaming since Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1982) for the Atari 2600 and Mattel Intellivision and the Star Wars arcade game (1983). But Lucas’ in-house development studio didn’t work on it until the X-Wing franchise.

The DOS-based space-combat sim put you in the cockpit of various Rebel starfighters – X-wings, Y-wings, and A-wings – ultimately tasking you with assaulting the Death Star itself. Lead designer Lawrence Holland borrowed a number of gameplay elements from his previous WWII flight sim, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.

X-Wing included a revolutionary 3D flight engine, the template for every succeeding space-combat sim, and won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1993.

But it was the sequel – much like with the Star Wars cinematic franchise – that ensured X-Wing’s enduring legacy.

Remember Vader’s wingmen from A New Hope (DS-61-2 and DS-61-3, if my memory serves … yes, I’m a hopeless Star Wars geek)? Ever wanted to be them (or a reasonable facsimile, given that those two chuckleheads screwed up, one collided with Vader, and essentially helped saved the Alliance)?

Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994) gave budding Imperialists the chance to play as the bad guys. This was followed by the multiplayer-oriented X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (1997) and later by X-Wing Alliance (1999).

Star Wars: Rebel Assault (1993) uses FMV cut-scenes, pre-rendered 3D backdrops, and digitized music and footage from the movies to re-create the trilogy beneath the helmet and behind the trigger of “Rookie One” (a transparent stand-in for another famous Tatooine moisture farmer who walks among the sky).

The sequel, Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire (1995), incorporated original footage of real actors, with high production values and expert use of John Williams’ iconic score. But the clunky, on-rails gameplay kept the game from achieving its predecessor’s fortune and glory (to reference another famous LucasArts franchise).

Meatbags, Jedi, and console RPGs

By 2002, the consensus among the collective Star Wars fandom was that the franchise was overexposed. Episode I: The Phantom Menace took the series in what some perceived as a new kid-friendly direction, alienating long-time fans, and most of the games that followed in its wake were mediocre (at best).

Then along came a console role-playing game called Knights of the old Republic (2003), featuring customizable classes, witty dialogue, and a mature, multilayered narrative. In other words, it was everything that the prequel trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III) tried (and mostly failed) to be. KOTOR was an immediate hit with gamers, and PC and Mac ports followed shortly thereafter.

LucasArts published the sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords, for the Xbox and Windows PC in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

‘Block’ party

In 2005, LucasArts inaugurated the Lego video game craze with Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, an instant multiplayer classic. And since your characters could never truly die (they explode in a cacophony of cute, Lego body parts, only to instantly respawn), it’s also a family-friendly classic.

While not the first Lego-branded video game (that would be 1997’s Lego Island), it indisputably launched the current renaissance, and its success compelled LucasArts to release a slew of sequels and spinoffs, including Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (2006), Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007), a compilation of the prior two, and Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (2011).

Henry Jones Junior (aka Indiana) also got a couple titles, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (2008) and Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (2009).

Credit LucasArts for igniting the Lego gaming craze – non-Lucas franchises, including Batman and Harry Potter, rode the former’s wave of success.

Experimental phase

Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995) capitalized on the popularity of Doom and took the Star Wars franchise into the realm of first-person shooters. It spawned a sequel, Star Wars: Jedi Knight — Dark Forces II (1997) and the Star Wars: Jedi Knight third-person action series.

LucasArts dabbled in strategy with Star Wars: Rebellion (1998), Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (2001) and Star Wars: Empire at War (2006), and it ventured into the tempestuous world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games with Star Wars: Galaxies (2003) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011). While the former was plagued by bugs and an overly complex progression and class system, the latter acquitted itself much better.

In one of the most bizarre uses of the Star Wars license, LucasArts created the 1997 fighting game, Masters of Teräs Käsi, a poorly received mess.

Third-person action title Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, a multimedia craze (punctuated by the official canonical sanctioning by one George Lucas), launched with the Nintendo 64 in 1996, while the recent Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) presented an uncommonly superb narrative, even if it was mechanically flawed (and even if the 2010 sequel threw out all the nuance and subtlety of its predecessor).

The future

By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard that everybody’s favorite cartoon mouse purchased Lucasfilm (and LucasArts) for a cool $4.05 billion. What does this mean for the future of the gaming division? Lucasfilm spokesperson Barbara Gamlen told GamesBeat that “For the time being, all projects are business as usual.”

This might suggest that Disney has no plans to tinker with the forthcoming Star Wars 1313, the M-rated action-adventure title revealed at this year’s E3 (to the delight of fanboys everywhere, myself included). But considering the mass-media juggernaut’s family-friendly facade, gamers are rightfully concerned.

GamesBeat will continue to document the rich history of LucasArts as it develops and hope that a new chairman of the board subscribes to the light side of the force.

Here’s to 30 more years of quality LucasArts gaming.

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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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Just cause the Wii U is only weeks away doesn’t mean Nintendo is totally abandoning the Wii. The Japanese hardware company is working with the publishers of two of the Wii’s biggest games for a pair of bundles due out Nov. 4.

One bundle includes a white Wii and Just Dance 4 for $129.99. The other console package comes with a blue Wii, Skylanders Giants, two Skylanders figurines, and an exclusive Giant Skylander figurine for $149.99.

“These bundles give consumers a way to enjoy some of the hottest new games for this generation’s most popular console at an attractive price,” said Nintendo of America vice president of licensing Steve Singer. “Together with our third-party publishing partners, we’re delivering maximum value for families who want to get the most for their home entertainment dollar.”

Last week, Nintendo revealed its own first-party bundle that includes a black Wii and both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort for $129.99.

The brand-new Wii U console, which we explain in detail here, debuts on Nov. 18 for $299.99. Nintendo is hoping to make a few more bucks on the Wii by targeting families that are very unlikely to purchase the Wii U. The Just Dance and Skylanders franchises are still two of the biggest franchises for on the Wii.

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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 Japanese company cut the price of the Wii from $149.99 to $129.99 in the U.S. just in time for the shopping season. The new Wii bundle will be in stores by Oct. 28. It includes a black Wii console, Wii Sports, and Wii Sports Resort on a single disk, a Wii Remote Plus and a Nunchuk controller.

This replaces the Wii that comes with New Super Mario Bros. The price cut will likely give the Wii a much-needed boost in the market, as sales have lagged in recent months. But it’s not such a large price cut so as to have huge effect in the market.

“Nearly six years after it launched, people are still attracted to the pure, inclusive fun of the Wii console,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing. “A new suggested retail price and the inclusion of two great games make it an easy choice for families looking for a great value this holiday season.”

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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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I love Nintendo. I hate Nintendo. As the company that first got me into gaming and technology, Nintendo will always hold a special place in my heart. But I’ve been frustrated by its move toward casual gaming with the Wii and its past missteps with the 3DS.

Now Nintendo is gearing up to release the Wii U, its newest console. It sports high-definition graphics and a tablet-like game controller. Yesterday the company announced that the Wii U will be available in the U.S. on November 19, starting at $299 for the base model and $349 for a deluxe model with added memory and a copy of Nintendo Land. It’s also taking a stab at living room entertainment with Nintendo TVii, a unified interface for searching and interacting with media across live TV, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and other services.

At the launch event in New York City, I got Nintendo’s executive vice president of sales Scott Moffitt take on the announcements. After joining the company last year, Moffitt has become the main person responsible for creating excitement for the Wii U. And as you can see from our conversation below, he’s thought quite a bit about what makes the Wii U compelling.

GamesBeat: Can you talk about the $299 price for the base model? That’s more expensive than the current consoles, and it also doesn’t come with a game. What was the decision in terms of pricing?

Scott Moffitt: Yah many factors go into pricing. … Let me talk first about our goal with going to a two-tiered model, to have two prices and two configurations, is to give consumers choice and provide flexibility. …  That philosophy really permeated a lot of the decisions. It permeated what price point it should be but also what to pack in with each of the configurations.

The $299 price point in the basic sense allows the broadest amount of consumers access to the Wii U and all of its technologies at a really affordable price. For $299 you get everything you need to enjoy Wii U, and you have the capability to add memory as you want, and we know the price of memory is dropping precipitously. But it also allows you the choice of game…you’re not locked into a certain game.

Certainly, we think a lot of those consumers may really enjoy Nintendo Land if they choose to buy it — but they may not. They may choose to buy New Super Mario Brothers U; they may choose to buy Zombie U. We don’t know. It gives them at least one option that does not have a game, that allows them to choose a game. The deluxe set [$349] comes with added memory, a couple of added accessories, and it comes with Nintendo Land, all of which also puts it at a great value for those consumers that know they’re going to want that extra memory and they know they want that game.

GB: So Nintendo Tvii, it seems like this has been a long time coming. How exactly are you guys trying to differentiate from what the Xbox and PS3 is offering?

Moffitt: So the idea behind Wii U is first we want it to be an everyday device. We wanted it to be the entertainment hub in the living room, in the family room, and we want it to be used every day. There are many ways to do that. Not everyone has a chance to sit down and play a three-hour video game every day, but they may want to access the web every day. They may want to watch TV every day. So having an application like Nintendo TVii increases the probability that consumers will turn on the system every day, use it every day, and interact with it every day.

Nintendo TVii is a great innovation. It differentiates ourselves from other consoles in a couple different ways: First of all…the vision is you can find, you can watch, and you can interact with TV like you’ve never been able to before. Starting with “find,” the gamepad allows you a very intuitive way to search for content regardless of its source. Whether it’s VOD, whether it’s live TV, coming from Direct TV or your normal cable provider, or any recorded content that you have, it searches all possible sources and displays for you what your options are. So it makes TV for me more fun and more intuitive, and easier to find something.

Once I find something you can activate it right from the gamepad controller, you can turn on that program, and it starts displaying on your TV. Then the interesting part begins, you can interact with that content  in ways you haven’t been able to before on a gaming console. You can share thoughts about the program you’re watching, you can let your friends know about that content and if they’re not watching it at that time you can message them and say, “Hey, great show here, you may want to turn it on,” and you can chat back and forth. So it integrates the social and interactive component with TV in a way that hasn’t been possible before.

Next: Wii U as Nintendo’s tablet stab, and the mystery of the tablet gamepad’s battery life

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Nintendo entered the media battlefield today with the introduction of its Nintendo TVii service that will be included for free on its upcoming Wii U game console.

In a somewhat unexpected move, Nintendo showed off the Nintendo TVii service today in an attempt to catch up with its media-savvy console rivals, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Nintendo also wants people to use the Wii U instead of media streamers like the Apple TV, Boxee, and Roku.

Nintendo TVii streams movies, TV, and sports from your cable box and from services like Netflix, Amazon Instant, and Hulu Plus. It also connects with your social networks so you can comment on content you’re watching.

The Wii U launches Nov. 18 with two different models — one is the “basic” white edition for $300, and the other is a “deluxe” black edition for $350. Nintendo TVii is an extra that could help someone decide to buy a Wii U or at least deter someone from choosing an Xbox or PS3 because the Wii U didn’t have media options.

Check out the Nintendo TVii service in the video below.