“Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s new Wii video game console, considered the underdog in the console wars because it lacks the high-definition graphics and multimedia features of its rivals, is stealing the show at this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show. The wait to try out the Wii at E3 pushed past four hours on Thursday afternoon, while the wait for hands-on time with Sony Corp.’s (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) PlayStation 3 was barely 30 minutes. Both consoles will hit the market later this year, though the Wii is expected to cost much less than rival consoles,” Kemp Powers reports for Reuters. “The Wii (pronounced ‘we’) uses a motion-sensor enabled controller that looks like a TV remote and allows users to direct action on the screen by wielding it like a sword or swinging it like a baseball bat, tennis racket or golf club. ‘It’s basically a whole different thing from anything I’ve seen before,’ said Josef Faulkner, who had been waiting in line for three hours to get his hands on Wii. He still had an hour to go. ‘This is definitely the biggest thing here.'”
“‘You have to play (Wii) in order to understand what it is,’ said Don James, Nintendo’s executive vice president of operations. James said the company knew that lots of people would be drawn to Wii, but he was surprised by the sheer numbers,” Powers reports. “The enduring image of the show might end up being the enormous line, which snakes completely around Nintendo’s floor space.”
Full article here.
Nintendo gave TIME the first look at Wii here.
MacDailyNews Take: Is this Apple-related? Strictly, no. But, we tend to root for the underdog here, especially when they produce what looks like a winner. Watch out Sony and Microsoft, some people just want their games to be fun with controls that don’t require an ambidextrous murder-bent sadistic octopus with a Ph.D. to operate.
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I think you should go to talk with Nintendo… you clearly could do some great things together…
I seriously wish they do…
If anyone else feels the same post ‘here here’ and maybe Apple will get the message?
Worth a try…
APPLE has always been the leader in personal computer technology, but people tend to look at price before quality.
You mean like how Apple was the leader in personal computer technology when it took them a year to catch up to dual core processors, PCI-express, DDR2, etc…until finally getting the sense to dump the doomed G5 platform? Yes, when AMD/Intel dual core processors were readily available and high end graphics were only available for PCI express for nearly a year, Apple was still “leading” computer technology with single core G5’s, AGP 8x and 400Mhz DDR.
Or maybe you must be referring to Apple’s supreme reign in the laptop arena with its almighty G4 based Powerbook, that were the laughing stock of laptops during its time…..with a mobile G5 long promised but never delivered.
Apple is now a PC vendor since the move to Intel. None of the “computer technology” is “designed” by Apple, not even the motherboard since Intel provides the chipset.
Simple.
I think Apple would like them.
This ones definitely on my list, about 6 months in advance.
Wii don’t need no education…
Wii are the champions…
Wii’re not gonna take it…
Wii built this city…
Wii’ve only just begun…
and finally:
Wii don’t need no steenking badges…
I’ve been waiting for Mario Bros. with full human texture maps, DOT-3 bump mapping, fog, specular, stencil and z-buffering, indexed primitives, multiple streams, and high-speed blitting.
Wii? Oui.
Dot 3 bump mapping is old news…was a nice feature back in the days of the Geforce 2 / Radeon 8500 era, before programmable pixel shaders offered much superior and customizable implementations.
dem dere jagwires is foreign stuff ain’t they?
I mean….sure look all covered w/ First On Race Day features and all… Huh?
Ford makes some pretty decent trucks and cars, they actually pump tons of resources into acquisitions to keep them afloat as semi-indepenent entities.
GM makes good stuff too…except they have way too many brands and keep marketing the same product w/ different badges.
Both of them have huge acquisitions from japanese companies.
So…this JAPANESE…NEVER….LET…US_US_US_BE_LIKE_ME_IDIOT_BUY comment is over the top.
Next someone will say how they don’t hate asians, they just won’t hire any.
Get off the nationalistic high horse. If it makes financial sense it’s a done deal…unless you’re microsoft.
Nintendo is great. I’m sure I’ll get a revolution sticker for my wii…guess they copied apple in naming their product something totally lame ™:
Revolution = Wii
PowerBook = MacBookPro
*(&^)_=Vagina
wanna ruin some more words for us corporate types?
The PS3 has a huge advantage in sustainability. It’s called complete backwards compatibility. Hello…it uses OPTICAL MEDIA. Just like the PS1, and PS2. Nintendo…I got so many cartridges it ain’t funny..and paying to download something I have on a cartridge…well..it’s like buying cds to replace cassettes. This is the one time sony isn’t going to get rich on a format shift so cash it in…unless you want to hump your halobox because it’s all cool and kinda glossy white looking like that other computer manufacturer.
Wii is cool because it will be cheap, provide a few decent titles, and finally allow some good nostalgia play. It’s not going to own and it’s the lower power machine. It’s not an accurate comparison of product or company to go nintendo to APple.
This is independent in the election, all this is going to do is give more share to xbox. I was thinking of getting a PS3 but I don’t know now. Maybe M$ saw this coming and rushed out xbox and left Sony to compete with it.
I give Nintendo a lot of credit. This is very creative. I can’t help but think, pretty risky too.