After Mortal Kombat V for the GC did okay, Midway decided to release a late port of MK: Deception (the next one) on the GC, but I don't think it sold very well... I thought after that one MK for Nintendo was done for a while, and the announcement of Armageddon as "the last current-gen MK game" and as being for just the PS2 and Xbox confirmed that... but now it's coming to the Wii also. Take that as "Wii is last gen" if you will, but I'd call it good news... MK might not be my favorite Midway franchise, but if we're getting one... how about Gauntlet for Wii (I really wanted Seven Sorrows, five hours long or not... why is it only on PS2/Xbox after the last two Gauntlet titles were on Nintendo also... :()? :) I'd ask for Rush too, but after the abysmal quality of LA Rush (not on GC? Good, keep it away! Awful game...), I don't think that's such a good idea...
Quote:August 1, 2006 - Publisher Midway on Tuesday revealed to IGN that it is planning to bring its new entry into the bloody Mortal Kombat series, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, to Nintendo's Wii console. The title will arrive for the system in the first quarter of next year, according to representatives for the company.
"We are extremely excited to be bringing the action of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to the Nintendo Wii in early 2007," said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. "Our Chicago studio, under the direction of Ed Boon, has been working extremely hard to make Armageddon stand out in a big way with the inclusion of the entire Mortal Kombat character lineup, the Motor Kombat mini-game, a new Konquest mode and several other innovative gameplay additions that help keep the franchise at the top of its genre. We're confident that Wii fans will truly appreciate the finished product when it's ready to hit store shelves."
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, expected for PlayStation 2 and Xbox this October, represents a culmination of the franchise's history, featuring more than 60 characters, a Kreate-a-Fighter mode, mid-air attacks, a dynamic fatality system, and much more. The E3 2006 demo of the game included such playable characters as Montaro, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sektor, Sheeva, Shinnok, Stryker, Taven, Goro, Shao Kahn, Fujin, Jarek, Kai, Kintaro, Rain, Reiko and Sareena.
Midway has decreased the number of fighting styles per character from three to one in an attempt to maintain balance between the greatest selection of Kombat characters in a videogame to date. However, the ability to string together mid-air combos and custom create fatalities on the fly complements a host of levels that are more interactive than ever before, with backdrops ranging from spinning fan blades to pools of acid and lava.
Midway has not yet revealed how it plans to take advantage of Nintendo's unique controller for the Wii version of the title.
We've uploaded multiplatform videos and screenshots of Armageddon to our media section as these should be entirely representative of the Wii build.
Stay tuned for more as it develops.
Here's the character select screen... 62 playable characters.
(will I get it? Nah, probably not... I keep thinking of maybe getting a $7 copy of Deadly Alliance (MK V), but just can't convince myself that it's actually really worth the money and/or time...)
Read that and the entire opinion it links to on that guy's b-log (what does the "b" stand for anyway?).
The three reasons people would mod their system are:
piracy
importing
custom applications
(actually, there's a 4th, backup games in the event the original has been destroyed)
Piracy, no one can really come up with a legitimate reason for why they should be allowed to STEAL something. "I can't afford it but I want it anyway" just isn't a very compelling excuse. "It just isn't being sold any more" is a little more compelling, but look harder. There are used copies. "It's a last gen title that is impossible to find" is more compelling still, but that has nothing to do with modding TODAY'S systems.
Importing I fully agree with, but wow this guy doesn't. His excuse? "We think a lot about what games to release in a region." So? I'm sure you did, and I can understand that, but at the end of the day if you decided not to release the game over here, that's not a national edict. I can still legally obtain the game, and you are STILL getting money from the sale. What's the problem? I seriously can't see his argument. No one suggested they didn't "think about it", it's just that no one CARES. Do you actually expect us to import a Japanese system to compliment it? You say yourself that each system sold is a loss to you, so obviously that would hurt BOTH of us. Your argument seems to be, in it's entirety "we don't want these people here playing that game so they shouldn't be wanting to play that game". Yeesh, you'd think they would actually try to work within the importing community. They might find out that they made a mistake not releasing a game in some territory after all and be able to increase profits. Sorry, that's a stupid reason to say importing is "bad".
Custom software, he actually seems to like the idea of except it has the potential to hurt sales of games they liscense themselves. Saying "and we sell those systems at a loss" is another point.
Alright, but if we want the game, we'll buy it. Getting content FOR FREE isn't breaking our wallets and if we are just plain more INTERESTED in whatever custom games someone might design, what does that tell you about your games? Get over it. It's the risk you take when you go with that business model. Look at it this way, you are still well within your rights to ban all modders from XBox Live. I myself have modded my PSP into a custom designed awesome that can do everything I need it to do, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Sony has nothing to fear because I have yet to play illegal PS1 games on it (and that would be hard anyway due to lack of buttons and one stick, also the massive memory storage issue). I'm still buying Loco Roco though, I can just do that and more now.
Quote:Updated: Sunday, 30 July 2006
EXCLUSIVE: E3 FINISHED
By Colin Campbell
Senior industry sources have revealed to Next-Gen.Biz that the E3 industry event, in its present form, has been cancelled for next year and the foreseeable future.
Image The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) shindig has been a staple of game industry life since the mid-1990s. However, we understand the larger exhibitors have jointly decided that the costs of the event do not justify the returns, generally measured in media exposure.
Publishers believe the multi-million dollar budgets would be better spent on more company-focused events that bring attention to their own product lines rather than the industry as a whole.
Well placed sources say the news that larger exhibitors were pulling out had prompted urgent meetings among publishing executives. They decided that, without the support of the larger software publishers and hardware manufacturers, there would be no point in continuing.
ESA president Doug Lowenstein will likely announce the news some time within the next 48 hours, possibly on Monday. It's possible that the ESA will seek to limit the damage by organizing some form of lesser event in May, but it's clear that the days of an industry event attended by all the major publishers, spending big money, are gone.
Calls to ESA staff are not being returned at present.
Yes, that's 260,000 DS Lites, versus zero X-Boxes. :D
On the other hand, the X360 has passed the falling GB Micro! Progress, right? ... not really... I think that even the Japanese have realized that the Micro serves little purpose, despite its cool looks... :) (Possible DS sales explanation: there's a new pink DS Lite out in Japan...)
2) Profits are great and rising, along with attention...
Quote:In the Game Wars, Nintendo's All Charged Up
Building on the DS's success, its Wii console—cheaper, and geared to a gamut of cool games—could rack up points against Sony's new PS3
It could be a World of Warcraft moment when Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii next-generation game consoles both hit the market, as expected, in November. True, Sony stills rules this high-end segment of the game console market, but analysts are worried about a possibly shaky debut for the new PS3, which will cost a hefty $600 (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/20/2006, "Will Sony's Pricey PS3 Pay Off?").
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At the same time, Nintendo (NTDOY) is clearly on a winning streak. The Wii looks like a strong contender as a cheaper and less feature-laden, but still cool, game console alternative to Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's (MS) Xbox 360.
Nintendo's DS handheld game-player is a runaway success. Global investors have bid the share price of the Kyoto-based company up 84% over the last 12 months. "There's really very little reason to be negative on the business," says Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst at KBC Securities in Tokyo.
SUPER (MARIO) SALES. Nintendo's quarterly results out on July 25 were stellar (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/25/06, "DS Pays Off for Nintendo"). For the three months through June, Nintendo's sales rocketed 85% to $1.1 billion while operating profit increased almost eightfold to $248 million. A weak yen helped, but a tripling of DS sales to 4.54 million units was the biggest factor behind the better than expected results.
DS sales have also taken hold in the U.S. where the game-player once lagged Sony's PSP handheld. In June, Nintendo sold 600,000 DS handhelds in the U.S.—more than any other game-hardware maker—and DS titles New Super Mario Bros. and Brain Age were the first and third bestselling games.
Small wonder Nintendo is upgrading its annual sales and earnings forecast. This year, Nintendo expects to sell 17 million DS handhelds globally—an increase of one million over earlier estimates—compared to Sony's 12 million projected units sales for the PSP. For the financial year through March, 2007, the company reckons earnings will be $715 million, a rise of 27% over its previous estimate.
REACHING WOMEN. Key to the DS's popularity has been Nintendo's knack of persuading people who wouldn't normally look at games to splurge on a DS. While the PSP, like the PlayStation2, is largely the preserve of the usual 18- to 35-year-old male demographic, titles like Nintendogs and the Brain Training For Adults series are proving hits with women and the age-35-plus gamers.
One factor is that the games are relatively simple and go beyond one-person shooters and sports simulations. In Nintendogs, for example, you can teach your virtual pet tricks by calling its name, or play a game of fetch by tossing a ball with the stylus, a pen-like device that works with the touch pad. That has scored well with female gamers.
Meanwhile, the Brain Training series—Brain Age in the U.S.—which asks gamers to solve arithmetic puzzles has gone down well with baby boomers. In Japan alone, Nintendo brain-training games have sold over 4.5 million units (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/8/06, "Gamers Trained on Nintendo's Brain").
FUN TO WORK FOR. Analysts add that the DS is also more popular with game designers. That's because the DS, with its dual screens, touch-screen technology, and voice recognition, offers something different from the PSP, which in many respects is a portable version of the PS2 with games to match. KBC's Kamide says that the DS's innovations give gamemakers more room to come up with more innovative games which in turn appeal to a wider audience.
"Non-gamers are coming back because there are interesting games people want to play," says Kamide. "The PSP is a beautiful piece of kit but the games are just rehashes of what you would play on the console."
Price is another factor. The DS retails for about $120 in the U.S. while the slightly smaller and lighter DS Lite is about $10 extra. But that's still much less than a PSP which goes for around $200. Of course, the PSP can also play movies with its storage technology called universal media discs (UMD), although that doesn't seem to be a huge success. This month, retailer Target stopped selling movies in the UMD format.
IN THE BUDGET. Perhaps the bigger question, though, is whether Nintendo can replicate the success of the DS with its Wii console as it shapes up to take on Sony's PS3 and the Microsoft's XBox 360. Once again, the Nintendo offering will be much cheaper.
Sony's gadget-packed PS3 will come with a Blu-Ray DVD player, but it will be more than twice the price of the Wii, which Nintendo execs have promised won't cost more than $250. "As a budget console, we expect the Wii to find a separate niche from the PS3 and Xbox 360," says UBS Securities analyst Atsuko Kaneko.
Like the DS, the Wii will have some quirks. For instance, whereas the DS employed touch-screen technology—for example, enabling gamers to bounce a ball by tapping a touchpad—the Wii's wireless controllers can be moved through the air like swords with the movement displayed on the screen.
MORE TITLES. And as with the DS, the Wii seems to appeal to gamemakers. In a recent survey, Famitsu, a Japanese game-industry publisher, asked software creators which platforms they would most like to create games for in the future. More respondents plumped for the Wii than any other platform. DS ranked second.
Meanwhile, at its autumn games preview on July 13, traditional Sony ally Electronic Arts (ERTS) spent far more time showing off innovative Nintendo games than it did titles for the PS3. EA announced six Nintendo Wii launch titles and showed long working demos for two of those. But it offered only a short clip of a car-racing game for PS3. "Software developers are increasingly interested in creating games for these Nintendo platforms," Yuta Sakurai, an analyst at Nomura Securities in Tokyo, said in a note to clients on July 25.
Of course, not every aspect of the DS's popularity will transfer to the Wii. Families that love the handheld might own several, but are unlikely to buy more than one Wii. Likewise, the portable nature of handhelds makes them more accessible to a wider audience than consoles.
Hardcore gamers will probably prefer the raw power of PS3. And for all the positive vibes right now, the Wii isn't expected to outsell the PS3. Nomura's Sakurai says he expects PlayStation3 to sell 71 million units by 2011, compared to 40 million units for the Wii. Still, with sales and profits rising and its share price at a four-and-a-half-year high, few would disagree that these are heady days for Nintendo.
But with sales and profits down... (game sales down 30% in the last quarter, $200 million in losses -- the pre-next-gen slump and PS3 costs are killing them and that's only going to get worse)
and with statements from Sony itsself that they are sure they will make back all the money they spent developing the PS3 within five years... (that's a long time...)
Sony's got some problems on its hands, and they don't have Microsoft's infinite money pit to dig into. Oh, they're not exactly going to be leaving the console business, but it's looking more and more likely that the PS1 and PS2's level of success might not be repeated...
![[Image: 731_CharacterSelect.jpg]](http://www.midway.com/images/forum/731_CharacterSelect.jpg)
![[Image: Virtual_Console_promo.jpg]](http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2006/07/Virtual_Console_promo.jpg)
