Wii sales have surged in Japan during the festive run up to Christmas putting Nintendo’s console firmly ahead of the pack.
Sales of the Nintendo Wii have skyrocketed in Japan with sales of nearly 136,000 units, followed closely behind by the PlayStation 3 on 75,000 and the PlayStation Portable third on 71,000.
A new study conducted by the University of Mississippi has concluded that three months of Wii Fit use produced no significant changes in daily physical activity, muscular fitness, flexibility, balance or body composition for families as a whole.
During the six-month research, University of Mississippi team followed eight families in the Oxford area who were loaned a Nintendo Wii Fit to use for three months.
The study was broken into two parts so that each family’s physical activity was charted during three months without a Nintendo Wii Fit in the home and three months with the game system in the home.
Each family was evaluated through a number of different fitness measurements, including aerobic fitness, balance and body composition.
Lead researcher Scott Owens, UM associate professor of health and exercise science, found that three months of home Wii Fit use produced no significant changes in daily physical activity, muscular fitness, flexibility, balance or body composition for families as a whole.
In addition, daily Wii Fit use per household declined by 82 percent, from 22 minute per day during the first six weeks to four minutes per day during the second six weeks.
Owens concluded that the Wii Fit had little impact on daily fitness and that that “modest amounts of daily Wii Fit use may have provided insufficient stimulus for fitness changes.”
The European trademark database has revealed that Nintendo have issued a trademark for “Wii Relax”.
Whilst nothing is currently known about the title, rumour and speculation has lead many to believe that the title will support the forthcoming Wii Vitality Sensor which is due for release later next year.
Nintendo have implemented some extremely impressive retail kiosks in Japan which are equipped with state of the art touch screens and cameras enabling users to find more information about DS and Wii products.
If you’ve got plenty of disposable income then you may want to consider purchasing one of these ultra-expensive 22ct gold Nintendo Wii consoles for a rather cool £299,995 ($486,000).
John Koller, Sony’s head of PlayStation marketing, believes that both Nintendo and Microsoft will have trouble competing against Sony’s proposed Motion Sensing device.
“I think the areas that are going to be really critical to our success will be family games, as well as shooter and sports games. Those are going to be the areas that will really define success because they’re areas that, quite honestly, I think Project Natal and the Wii are going to have trouble matching from a differentiation standpoint.”
- John Koller, Sony
Nintendo have revealed two new Nintendo Wii remote colours that will be available for purchase, February 14th.
Whilst the two new coloured Wii remote’s will be available for consumers early next year, Nintendo has yet to comment on whether we will be seeing pink or blue Nintendo Wii Consoles in the future.
Zelda series director Eiji Aonuma recently sat down with the Official Nintendo Magazine to discuss the highly anticipated Zelda game for the Nintendo Wii.
According to Aonuma development on the game is already well under way and the Nintendo team are hopeful that they will be able to show off the fruits of their labour at next years E3 gaming expo.
Eiji Aonuma said that the firm was already in the process of creating “scenarios, dungeon-making and so on”.
He added that the game was already working with MotionPlus and that his team had “already got a very solid response” from the technology.
He said: “You may be under the impression that we are still only in the early stages of development – [but] in fact we are well into the making of the game…
“Our team has been working on making the building blocks regarding the action – the scenarios, dungeon-making and so on. We are well underway.”
He added: “I hope that we can show you something at the E3 show next year and it is something we are hopeful will be surprising.”
- Official Nintendo Magazine
Nintendo critically acclaimed New Super Mario Bros Wii scooped the accolade for best Nintendo Wii game at this years Spike VGA awards in Los Angeles, California.
Nintendo’s latest two dimensional offering was pitted against Sega’s MadWorld, Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! And Nintendo’s brilliant, Wii Sports Resort.
Akitoshi Kawazu, a respected developer for Square Enix, has spoken out about the often-speculated HD enabled Wii, stating that the console would ultimately be boring for consumers. His point clearly shows that High Definition gaming for the Wii just wouldn’t be enough to win those without a Nintendo Wii over.
“If the only difference really in the Wii 2 is only SD to HD, that would be really quite boring.”
- Square Enix developer, Akitoshi Kawazu
