Nintendo cuts profit, 3DS not ready for Christmas

By YURI KAGEYAMA (AP)

CHIBA, Japan — Nintendo shares tumbled Thursday after the company said its 3DS game machine, packed with glasses-free 3-D technology, won't be ready to go on sale for Christmas, crushing its earnings forecast by more than half.

Nintendo now expects 90 billion yen ($1 billion) in profit for the year through March 2011, down from an initial projection of 200 billion yen ($2.4 billion) profit.

The 3DS will go on sale in February in Japan, and March in Europe and the U.S., missing the year-end shopping season which is a critical time for game-makers to rake in profits.

Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. had promised the 3DS for sometime before April next year, and so the announcement is not technically a delay. But its forecasts had assumed the machine would on be on sale sooner.

Nintendo said on Wednesday that the strong yen, which reduces profits from overseas sales when brought back to Japan, and the timing of the 3DS launch were behind its decision to lower projections for the fiscal year.

Its shares dived 9.2 percent to 2,120 yen in Tokyo trading.

For the year through March 2011, Nintendo expects to sell 23.5 million DS machines, including 4 million 3DS, down from its earlier forecast for 30 million. It sold 27 million DS machines the previous fiscal year.

The latest revision shows that even Nintendo, which has stood up fairly well among Japanese exporters in hard times, is getting battered by the surging yen. Nintendo had counted dollar trading near 95 yen. The dollar has recently dived to near 83 yen.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said 3DS will cost 25,000 yen ($300) in Japan, where it will hit stores Feb. 26. Overseas prices and specific dates will be announced later.

Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Enterbrain Inc., a major Tokyo game-industry publisher, said he was surprised by the release date because of widespread rumors the 3DS would hit stores in time for year-end and New Year's — a booming shopping time in Japan because children get cash gifts from relatives during the holidays.

He said Nintendo is likely taking time to perfect the technology, as well as giving more time to outside software developers to come up with games.

"There is an element of awe in 3-D that's really important for games. They are all about entertainment," Hamamura said.

The portable machine looks much like the DS machines now on sale, and has two panels. The top panel shows 3-D imagery, giving players a relatively immediate illusion of virtual reality — such as a puppy licking the screen that appears to live inside the machine.

The 3-D games don't require the special glasses that are needed for 3-D theater movies or 3-D home-console games like rival Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3. They also don't need 3-D TV sets.

Iwata said the drawback for 3-D technology was that the appeal of the feature can't be conveyed easily in TV or magazine ads.

Fears have also been growing about the health effects of too much 3-D as some people have gotten sick looking at 3-D movies or playing 3-D games.

"We are not taking the success of the 3DS for granted," Iwata told reporters at Makuhari Messe hall in this Tokyo suburb. "The value of the 3-D experience can be understood only by getting people to try it out."

Nintendo said that several 3-D games were in the works including its trademark Super Mario games and "nintendogs + cats."

Outside game developers were also preparing products, such as a 3DS "Biohazard" from Capcom Co.

The 3-D handheld version of "Metal Gear Solid," from Konami Digital Entertainment, shown to reporters on the machine as a demonstration movie, but not in playable game form, presented vivid animation of jungle scenery, buzzing bees and a warrior's hands, all in 3-D, inside the tiny screen.

The 3-D feature is adjustable by a button at the side so players can choose the amount of 3-D razzle-dazzle they want.

Nintendo said that wireless technology packed in the 3DS will allow owners to automatically communicate with passersby who also have 3DS, allowing them to trade avatar figures and combat each other in fighting games.

Nintendo did not disclose details of the wireless technology, but Iwata said it was beefing up connectivity for 3DS at Japanese fast-food chains, train stations and other spots for social networking as well as gaming.

Nintendo was among the earliest developers of 3-D technology. Its Virtual Boy, which went on sale in the 1990s, bombed, partly because of the bulky headgear required as well as the image being all red.

Iwata acknowledged that failure but said the company had learned from past mistakes.

"Players will be able to move freely around in virtual gaming space with our new 3-D," he said.

Source:http://www.google.com

Cloud Computing: A Paradigm Shift For Gaming

by Chris Morris, CNBC.com

As Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo promote their upcoming hardware innovations and try to extend the life cycle of this generation of consoles, a burgeoning company called OnLive sits on the show floor of the video game industry’s trade show, sending out the message that dedicated game machines could be a thing of the past.
The idea behind OnLive is simple: Games are stored and played on its centralized servers (the "cloud," in tech parlance) and pushed to users via a broadband connection. When you press a button on your controller at home, that action is transmitted virtually instantaneously to the game and reflected on screen.

On the surface, it sounds like a just another delivery method—but what makes OnLive and other upcoming cloud-based gaming services interesting is their ability to transform almost any screen into a high end gaming system.

Core PC gamers spend thousands of dollars to put together systems loaded with RAM and bleeding edge graphics cards to get the most out of their games. But with cloud gaming, a $300 netbook or low-end desktop will be able to play games just as effectively, with optimized graphical and other gameplay settings – since all the processing is done remotely. OnLive will soon launch a peripheral for television sets as well, letting you play in your living room.

The iPhone and iPad are next logical steps—and while the company hasn’t announced any formal intention to support Apple’s products, it has shown demos of the service up and running on them, indicating plans are in the works.

“Cloud computing promises to have a marked effect on the gaming industry,” says Scott Steinberg, head of the video game consulting firm TechSavvy and founder of Game Industry TV. “It offers new ways for gamers to access and consume games over a variety of devices and you don’t have to own expensive hardware to play those games.”

OnLive isn’t the only company exploring this space. Gaming industry veteran Dave Perry is working on a similar platform, called Gaikai. And privately held Otoy is working on a software solution that would accomplish the same goal.

What makes OnLive stand out is its founder—Steve Perlman—who previous led development on the technology behind QuickTime and founded WebTV. The company also has several high profile investors, including AT&T Media Holdings and Warner Bros.

Those are noteworthy backers, as both are tied directly to cable providers. (AT&T owns U-verse and Warner’s parent company owns Time Warner Cable.) And many think the real strength of OnLive—or any cloud-based gaming company—will be when and if it aligns with a television content provider, dramatically expanding its customer base.

“How people are being served games is changing,” says Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets. “Anything that can incrementally get people to stay with an established cable or satellite service and keep paying a monthly fee would be embraced.”

The service isn’t without its hurdles, though. OnLive, which launches June 17, is untested in the open world. Still uncertain is whether games will be as responsive with subscribers as they are in controlled media demos. Many also wonder if they’ll be able to fully enjoy the service’s benefits with a typical broadband connection—or if they’ll need to pay more for faster service from their provider. And the monthly $14.95 service fee (which doesn’t include the price of games) could be offsetting to some as well.

In essence, games are becoming more accessible—but the price of admission might be too high for some. That means initially, the chief subscribers for cloud gaming are likely to be core gamers – who already have plenty of gaming options.

The potential, though, continues to turn heads. And while OnLive isn’t yet positioned to penetrate the mainstream market, independent publishers like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are getting on board early, hoping to reach new customers in non-traditional ways.

“{OnLive’s success] depends on what content is available,” says Sebastian. “If the tech hurdles are surpassed, the convenience factor is there. So it’s all a matter of making sure you’ve got the right games.”

New Mario verdict in: tricky, but could be the best yet

by Mike Smith

Planning to pick up the newest Super Mario game this Sunday? According to critics, you're in for one heck of a ride. The verdict's in: Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the Italian plumber's best-ever outings -- and considering the solid-gold quality of many of his past games, that's a tremendous achievement.

IGN was one of the first to weigh in, giving the game a perfect 10 -- their first since 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4 -- and calling it "absolutely amazing."

Particularly impressed by the way the game's structure will make Mario noobs feel at home, "It might be designed to be accessible to anyone of any skill level, but it's the hardcore completionists who really get the reward" IGN said, concluding "this is the absolute pinnacle of Mario gameplay: everything that makes a Mario game so incredibly fun is represented here."

But IGN's take on the game's accessibility isn't shared by everyone, notably CVG, which points out that, in its later sections, "Galaxy 2 is a significantly more challenging game than the first, and you're barely standing on a surface that's not moving, dissolving or swinging you in the direction of a black hole."

"We can't see many of the majority of Wii's audience making it to the end of the game," CVG said, "let alone the super-tough secret stages beyond that...good news for the hardcore then, but not necessarily for the spouses and relatives who enjoyed the original Galaxy."

Giant Bomb's Ryan Davis doesn't necessarily agree, saying "I don't think Galaxy 2 is actually that much more difficult than the first, it's just that a lot of the harder stuff ends up being part of the critical path," and also hauls out the site's highest accolade: a 5-star perfect score. Mario's latest is "as consistently exciting and inventive as ever," he says, concluding that "when [Nintendo] brings its A-game, it's still able to deliver a fun, accessible game experience that's second to none."

1UP also fell in love with Galaxy 2, awarding it an A, and saying "'more of the same' doesn't have to be a bad thing." Far from it: "this fan-service laden sequel feels just as new as the first Mario Galaxy," 1UP said, singling out the "sweeping" orchestral score and the "ingenious" level design for particular praise, saying they "[speak] to a level of craftsmanship that only comes from years of refinement and reinvention."

Looking for a dissenting voice? Beyond a few minor points of contention, you won't find one: at the time of writing, no outlet has scored the game below a 9/10, and fully half of them (including several outlets usually known for their stinginess with scores) have given it a perfect score. It's currently at an aggregate score of 97% on Metacritic.com, marginally behind its predecessor, Super Mario Galaxy, which currently remains the best reviewed Wii game ever. But scores are still coming in, and while its ranking may change over the next week or so, it's clearly among the very top tier of Nintendo's output. You won't be disappointed.

Source: http://videogames.yahoo.com