Industry
An open letter to Nintendo regarding video game prices
Dear Nintendo, Jack here again. Happy holidays and that crazy Japanese New Year thing where everyone gets as many (if not more) presents than we Yanks here in the States. Lucky bastards. Anyway, just a quick thought from my lips to your ears in Kyoto in the wake of all this negative Nancy news about the economy, and what it might mean for video game sales in 2009. Remember that flexible video game...
Shorter vintage Sega ad: Low-powered systems are for idiots
Over at 1up they’re running a bunch of atrociously bad video game advertisements from the now defunct magazines of yesteryear. Actually, most of the products are defunct too. Having a quality that matches the marketing will do that to you. Funny thing is the Sega Game Gear ad bashing the Game Boy and the people who played it is eerily familiar. The ad is from February 1993 (ancient!), but th...
Wii Resale Price Finally Drops to $250
Man, the economy sure is experiencing some tough times. Developers are crashing, malls are hurting, and the Wii’s resale price has, two years later, aligned itself with retail pricing. Finally, we can retire the “Will it fade?” tag here at Infendo. It’s all over!
GameStop drops anti-social vibe for casual comfort
Well would you look at the new GameStop! Gone are the particle board counter tops stuffed to the brim with strategy guides, up-sell tchotchke trinkets and fast food stains from the workers’ lunch hour. In their place? Hard wood floors, comfortable seating and ample lighting. Nintendo products will no doubt remain in their prime front-of-store position. And that’s fitting too, consideri...
Liquor, games sales thrive during recession
More than half a million Americans lost their jobs last month. If sales trends reflect reality, most coped by getting drunk and killing aliens. As vehicle manufacturers and major banks crumble amidst the worst economic environment since the Great Depression, U.S. sales of video games and alcoholic beverages have increased by record amounts. The video games industry is on pace to total a record $22...
Irony alert: Core gamers will save the industry, analysts say
How’s this for some Friday morning irony? Analysts, who at first said the casual audience was a fad, then changed their tune and said they were the future of gaming, have again decided to prove their irrelevancy by saying in these tough economic times it is the core gamer that will save the industry.
Morning note: No turning back now (snap react to NPD numbers)
Memo to third party developers: The Wii install base is officially “there” now. Critical mass achieved. You ignore the system and its portable cousin at your own peril. Those of your who continue to phone it in with lazy tripe will go away in 2009. Those of you who understand that in this day and age innovative controls and strong art style are going to trump glossy visuals and hand-ho...
PeTA on Cooking Momma
So with Thanksgiving right around the corner, the only way PETA could get their point across about the pointless slaughtering of turkeys, was to try and defile an small iconic video game character. Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals is actually a pretty well made flash game, based on the Wii and DS versions of Cooking Momma, with the added bonus of actually killing animals. It is a good thing that c...
What’s Nintendo Playing?
Imagine you’re working in Nintendo of America’s marketing division in Redwood City, California, and it’s been a long week. Maybe you’ve had trouble organizing a promotion, or maybe you’re up against a deadline ”“ whatever the reason, you wonder how you’re going to make it to the end of the day. A co-worker snaps you out of your trance, “Hey, what are you sti...
Punch-Out!! going to the Next Level on Wii
Rocky, Pelé, what’s the difference? IGN is reporting the upcoming Wii revival of Punch-Out!! is being developed by Next Level Games. The Canadian studio is best known for its Mario soccer games: Super Mario Strikers on GameCube and Mario Strikers Charged on Wii. The new version of Punch-Out!! is tentatively scheduled to release in the first half of 2009. The most recent game in the classic ...
Game Development defined through Parties
Recently Infendo reader Olas contacted us and asked us a really good question. For the past few months I’ve heard a lot about parties, how originally Nintendo had great first party support and week third party support, and how now it has stronger third party than first party. And my question is… What about second party? What is it? Who is it? Why don’t people ever talk about it?...