Nintendo announces impressive sales figures for 2010

In the US, Nintendo enjoyed another strong year in terms of console sales, with 15.5 million units shifting in 2010.

Apple gaining ground on Nintendo in handheld market

The popularity of Apple's platforms for gaming is on the rise, with new survey data suggesting it has become a serious competitor for incumbent leader Nintendo.

Animania 2010: Cosplay is a valuable resource for developers and publishers

Animania had its second Sydney leg this weekend, and walking around the exhibition, I was reminded of the raw marketing value of cosplay and value of having a strong merchandising policy - it's the kind of value marketing that few companies have fully latched on to.

In an age where social networking is king of marketing, fan-generated publicity such as cosplay is like gold.

3D virtual console on Nintendo 3DS?

Here's an interesting possibility - not only might we finally see a handheld virtual console on the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, but the games might also get the 3D treatment.

Video: Nintendo launches Metroid: Other M, shows off backstory video

In celebration of the release of Metroid: Other M, Nintendo of Australia invited a number of competition winners and media to an evening launch event.

Capcom and Nintendo post struggling first quarter financials

Both Capcom and Nintendo have reported a substantial profit drop, but for very different reasons.

Video: Nintendo launches Dragon Quest IX to Australian media

Along with the announcement that Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies will be available in Australian stores on August 19, Nintendo took the opportunity to throw a party and invited a group of journalists to come and play the game for themselves.

Feature: The five smartest games businesses

Which businesses have been the most successful at building fan bases, moving with the rapidly-changing industry, and willing to take risks?

How do the research budgets of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo stack up?

There is a vast disparity between the research and development budgets for the three major console players.

Microsoft digital revenue well ahead of Sony and Nintendo

Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform was worth $US1.2 billion in the past year, according to figures from Bloomberg.

Is Nintendo considering a Kindle-like wireless service?

Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoMoCo is in discussions for implementing 3G network technology in portable video game systems.

Aussie distributor: Wii market is 'concerning,' but there's a silver lining

Australian Nintendo and Sony distributor, AFA Interactive, has admitted the Nintendo market is ‘flat,’ but remains optimistic in the wake of E3.

Opinion: 3D will alter games marketing forever

The marketing of video games is set to receive a big shake-up with visually-unfriendly new mediums of entertainment entering the market, and a big in effective advertising techniques towards online-based platforms.

Nintendo enjoys a surprise boost in DSi XL sales

Despite concerns over the compatibility between the Nintendo DSi and upcoming 3DS’ online downloads, the DSi XL has enjoyed a massive boost in sales.

Square Enix dismisses Nintendo's future?

It was already obvious, but Square Enix has formally announced it will throw its considerable weight behind online gaming experiences.

Nintendo: the 3DS will be more expensive to develop for

The enhanced capabilities of the 3DS means that Nintendo's new console could cost as much to develop for as the Wii.

Opinion: Why Nintendo failed at E3

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way from the start: Nintendo’s presentation blew me away. The 3DS announcement has me more excited about a console than I’ve been for a long time, and the list of games that Nintendo rolled out will keep me occupied for a long, long time.

Nnooo announces new DSiWare downloads

Australian ISV, Nnooo, has announced a number of new products in its myLifeCollected series.

myDiary is a new application for the Nintendo DSi console, available for download through the DSiWare service. It will allow users to keep track of appointments, make journal entries and set alarms.

Nnooo will also offer enhanced versions of its successful myNotebook product - a basic note-taking application, also through DSiWare. The myNotebook products will allow users to create 128 'pages' of content, export their notes as photos to the DSi console's memory, and a number of interface improvements over previous editions of the software. The new range of notebooks will be available in three colours - Tan, Carbon and Pearl.

All four new products have been planned for release between July and September 2010. These kinds of simple applications have proven to be enormously successful on the DSiWare service to date, so it's no surprise to see Nnooo continue to develop products of this kind.

Move and Natal interest remains low

Sony’s PlayStation Move and Microsoft’s Project Natal might not gain the traction both vendors were hoping for, according to a report by OTX.

Just eight per cent of Xbox 360 owners plan on buying Natal, while six per cent of PlayStation 3 owners plan on investing in Move, according to the research.

It will be interesting to see if either vendor is able to get that number up, because at six or eight percent of the install base, not many developers will create games that require the use of either technology – it simply wouldn’t be worth their while, especially when compared to the Nintendo Wii whose owners are 100 per cent guaranteed to be own a Wiimote controller.

An interesting possible point of comparison could be the Wii MotionPlus add-on. Outside of a few high-profile games, there are very few games that effectively use the add-on, and even fewer that demand the player have one. I don't imagine Sony and Microsoft would be looking for such a niche user-base with their own releases.

Source: IGN

Namco Bandai disappointed with Nintendo

According to Namco Bandai, the market for software on both Nintendo Wii and DS hardware has 'collapsed.'

In an interview with MCV, the publisher's VP of sales, marketing and publishing, Oliver Comte, claimed that the average quality of games on both hardware platforms was so low that consumers' expectations were very low.

Comte also pointed out that the DS was very easy to develop for, but equally easy to pirate, and piracy was partly to blame for the DS' 'collapse'.

This is a problem that Nintendo itself seems to have acknowledged. Nintendo Europe's managing director, Laurent Fisher, claimed the whole handheld market has shrunk in Europe, with few hit games released recently.

Namco Bandai is not the first publisher to struggle to gain traction on the Wii and DS - for all the hardware sales, often it seems that only Nintendo-published titles sell on the platforms.