InvaderElmo

I think Dilli Gee is a bit confused. There's no risk in a message board if it is only populated by people you specifically let on.

As far as private messages goes, I don't think it will happen. It seems like part of the whole "postcards in a letterbox" idea is to make sure parents see what their kids are chatting about. That way people are less likely to be predators/potty mouths etc. I do hope they have separate accounts for the different family members so that the Play History can determine who was playing the game for X hours, or who got the high score that day. It would also be nice to have individual accounts so kids can compete with their parents for high scores, etc. From a different interview in the same series, Iwata says something very interesting: There we have it, straight from the boss's mouth. I really hope they do this, as it would probably mean releasing some sort of software development kit to the masses.

Maybe they aren't making a Mario Party this year because the online system won't really be established until at the very least Dec 2nd. I think they want the first Mario Party Wii to really be a blast since people are getting tired of the series (or at least reviewers are). Plus it seems like half the games coming out this winter are just collections of mini-games.

I think it is a gesture of goodwill toward third parties that Nintendo is only releasing one must-have at launch. Letting the other guys in on the launch dollars is a good way to pay them back for supporting Wii from day one.

While I agree that the price is not exactly "mass market" yet, I think Nintendo played their cards very, very well. Price: Why set a mass market price if you don't have any of your non-games ready yet? The first 6 million units or so will go to the hardcore/early adopters that would buy it anyway. The extra $50 x 6 million units = $300 million! It also helps keep demand a little lower so that any shortages aren't as bad as the other two consoles experienced/will experience. Bundling Wii Sports: This is good (for Nintendo) for several reasons- it allows them to raise the system price, and it gets millions of copies of Wii Sports out into the wild where unsuspecting non-gamers can play it and get addicted. Face it, if it were priced similarly to other games rather than being bundled it wouldn't hold a candle to Zelda, Rayman, or many other most of the other games out there. Plus this gives cheap parent the option of not buying their kid a game because "it already comes with one." Delaying Metroid et al.: By claiming Metroid as a launch title, as with Smash Bros earlier, Nintendo built a whole lot of hype surrounding the launch. A lot of people were buzzing about just how many AAA games were going to be coming out in "Q4." It built up a Reality Distortion Field that made Wii look even better. Of course, it wouldn't be smart to release all those titles at once, and Nintendo probably never planned to, since it would destroy 3rd party sales. Nintendo seems to keep things "just around the next corner," as it keeps our interest up. The Non-Gamer: I think that Nintendo plans to bring on the "mass market" appeal of the Wii just as hardcore gamers slow their purchasing. The general public is finnicky. Launch period shortages would dampen their spirits and kill Nintendo's strategy. Nintendo needs several ingredients before they grab the casual/non-gamers: -plenty of units -two or three killer non-games -a solid online service -mass market console price -lots of exposure This will probably happen next year about this time. Nintendo could change out the bundle and/or drop the console price (since Xbox will probably a price drop then, too). They would have had time to refine their online service and perhaps add another channel or two (video chat, etc.). Competitions similar to the "coolest grandparent" would get the Wii name back into the news, and new non-games would probably hit the popular magazines/Oprah etc. in time for their "best gifts of 2007" editions. As for this Christmas, I think Nintendo will leverage the DS Lite as their mass market offering. There are a ton of great cheap games out, and all the good press could make it the top selling game system over the holidays, despite the 4 million Wii systems that are guaranteed to sell.

While it is true that "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross" is an American television show, I was more interested in the possibility of a painting "non-game" coming out for the Wii console than the association with Bob Ross. The concept could turn into another Brain Training-type phenomenon if done correctly, or it could just be another cheaply made licensed piece of crap. Since that mostly depends on the skills of the developers, I was personally hoping that this title would pass on to a more experienced team, rather than a group headed by an ex-EA quality assurance guy with no development experience.

A while ago I signed on to the official Bob Ross Game Yahoo group. While there hasn't been much activity lately, something interesting came up recently: Personally, I hope Joseph Hatcher doesn't manage to get a publisher, as I would rather this game be developed by a team with at least one game under their belts. With all the buzz this title generated when it was announced I know other developers would be glad to make it happen, and I know that publishers would easily back an experienced team in such a creative endeavor. I find it odd that an email from July states that two publishers have been "aggressive in wanting to publish" the title, but it is now September and he is talking about perhaps not having a publisher by the deadline. This is the main thing that leads me to believe that the thing that is holding publishers back is the quality of the development team rather than the game's concept. Well, it shouldn't be too much longer before we have some news either way. What are you guys hoping for in a Bob Ross game?

According to the NGamer homepage that was a mistake that made it into the magazine. They confirm that both a speaker and a rumble-r (technical term) will be in the Wiimote.

If you manage to sift through the more than 550 comments on Joystiq you'll find that Robert Summa (the main Joystiq guy) says it IS about the Wii, it has nothing to do with Sega, Square, Final Fantasy or Devil May Cry. He also said that he landed an interview with one of the "major" parties involved. Add to that the fact that it can be "analyzed" (according to Kotaku) and it starts to sound very interesting.

I don't see why Nintendo would keep the DS system of using different friend codes for each game. As far as I can tell, that was necessary on the DS because there is no way to update DS firmware, so friend codes have to be stored on the game cartridges themselves. Since the Wii console will have an online strategy planned from the get-go, as well as having internal/removable storage, it would actually be simpler to have universal "friend codes" or accounts through which different people accessed everything: system preferences, Opera bookmarks/history, online stats, and perhaps even saved games. This would allow parents to mark some accounts as "all-access" and some as "minor/restricted-access." It would be the "simple" way to do things, as most people have logged into a computer at least once in their life. Personally, I'm not too worried about Nintendo's online strategy. I know that they want it to be simple and safe. They got a lot of whining about the individual friend codes used in the DS system, and despite their constant defending of their DS strategy they should know not to repeat their own mistakes. Wii is supposed to be all about applying the lessons learned over the past decade.

Even if Metal Gear does come to the DS... eventually, that doesn't change the fact that Metroid Dread will not come out before Christmas (if at all), 150 DS games will not come out in 3.5 months, Nintendo will probably never release a head mounted display, plus all those other things that have already been mentioned. You can still WANT some of these things to happen, but even if one or two of them do happen this whole thing is a pretty sad fake.

Canand, if you haven't noticed you are the only one who thinks this is real. I hope that is because you made this photoshopped travesty, or are friends with the one who did. Otherwise you are in need of some serious help. Edit: Wait a second... Canand: you said in the original post that you didn't believe this was true. Why are you defending it now? It is just to increase the post count on this topic?

From a video here, it looks like Boo is a supporting character, as well as a toadstool, dry bones, a koopa trooper and four others, so that means the silhouette we see in the main characters is definitely not Boo. Anyway, it shows Peach and Mario entering the field to battle it out. No scoring, though, as much as I'd like to see Mario score. IGN has a video with Mario scoring, but it doesn't involve the princess.

Mario is always the "average" character, with everything set to the middle point. I'm surprised that Peach's ends up with a higher average, though, since most games use the whole "start with average, +1 to x, -1 to y" type of system to keep things balanced. Maybe they figure passing isn't as important as shooting, especially for the star character. I'm disappointed by the lack of "power" or "fatigue" rating on characters. I think it would be funny to beat Peach down to the point where she could hardly hobble around for the rest of the game. I guess I'll have to be content with hearing her scream as I pound her into the electric fence.

There will be new ways to innovate based on what becomes financially feasible in the next five years. Force feedback could become directional and include variations in "rumbliness" etc. Controllers could be released featuring small OLED screens that could display data that the other players weren't supposed to see (cards in a poker game etc.) A second generation online system could feature some major enhancements as well (hopefully tiered service for those who like features vs. simplicity etc.). There would also be a new handheld released in that time, so Nintendo could further increase the interoperability between handheld and home consoles. I realize that the ideas I listed may be completely stupid, but the point was that I'm sure Nintendo has many ideas they wish they could implement, but the tech just isn't affordable/reliable/whatever enough yet. I'd expect the next Wii to have a good amount of storage built-in.