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HDGameNews.com

750k initial Wii units

It appears Gamestop alone will get roughly 750k units of the Wii once it comes out. Add that to the other gaming avenues, then Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc., and it appears there's going to be no shortage of systems out there. Bad news for those wanting to buy alot and sell them for double on eBay ;)

Regarding the hotly anticipated Wii from Nintendo, he noted that GameStop itself is anticipating receiving approximately 750,000 units in the U.S. for the Wii's launch window. He added: "We believe that probably at this point [it] could be a light number."

Here's the rest of the article

What's the trend? 360 vs PS3 vs Nintendo Wii

I ran the numbers to get a feel of how popular the keywords, 360,wii and ps3 were and the results were fairly predictable. There has been a pretty large drop in 360 inquires since the other 2 have come onto the scene. It does appear the drop has stablized though. Also, take a look at wii vs. ps3. They both had nice spikes but have since come back down, with searches for the ps3 edging out the wii! We will keep an eye on the trends between now and closer to launch time, so keep posted!..

Remember, you can click the picture for a larger view!

Wii has more buzz than the PS3 over at Amazon...

Punch Jump news is reporting over at Amazon, the PS3 is lagging behind the Wii in customer interest.

"The Playstation 3 is a notch behind Wii in popularity at Amazon Japan according to the retailer's latest research data.

Product registration data collected on Aug. 2 placed Wii in the No. 1 position, with the 60GB PS3 a notch behind, followed by the 20GB PS3 far behind.

The week prior, Wii held the No. 1 position by a slightly larger margin."

Obviously, the price on the PS3 has people a bit spooked, including the really bad press. We'll have to keep an eye on this to see if the trend stays the same!

Gundam coming to the PS3 this year

So here's the deal, it appears that Gundam is coming to the PS3. It appears it will also have a few more bells and whistles than the Xbox version.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., (August 8, 2006) – Leading video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. announced today that "Mobile Suit Gundam," the latest and most advanced installment of the popular franchise, will be coming to the PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system in 2006. A sci-fi action game with stunning high-definition graphics, "Mobile Suit Gundam" promises gorgeous Mobile Suit battles and the opportunity to participate in thrilling epic battles taking place on the futuristic Earth.

“Made possible by the immense power of the PlayStation 3 system, 'Mobile Suit Gundam' will take gamers right into the futuristic war zones, brought to life by both CG quality high-definition graphics and ultra realistic destruction physics,” said Naruo Uchida, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.’s Vice President. “Along with stylized gameplay and stunning graphics, the opportunity to experience firsthand the epic mobile suit warfare will surely excite any sci-fi fan.”

Featuring a variety of Mobile Suits from the Gundam franchise, "Mobile Suit Gundam" sets players in the latter stages of The One Year War. Players will have the opportunity to be a commander of their own Mobile Suit battalion for either the Federation or Zeon Mobile Suit Assault Force. As players move through the ranks, they will be able to gain access to new Mobile Suits and engage in battles with more capable pilots at their command.

With a battalion at their disposal, players face a number of strategic options to choose from. In order to succeed, it will be vital for players to know about specific destructible parts on Mobile Suits, vulnerable enemy facilities and whether or not to engage enemies with either short or long range combat. Teamwork will also be a key component to the survival of every mission. If players are successful, their chosen allegiance could be the turning point for the war in "Mobile Suit Gundam."

Source

Xbox 360 sells 2,246 units in Japan - Punch Jump

Wow..talking about lousy sales...those are REALLY bad...

The Xbox 360 continues to underperform in Japan on strong competition from rival video game offerings like the Nintendo DS Lite, PSP, and PS2.
Media Create Co. on Thursday reported that the Xbox successor sold 2,246 units. By comparison the DS Lite sold near 177,000 units, the PSP 42,600 units, and the PS2 26,400 units.

Xbox 360 software charted three new titles in the top 50 sales, a feat that it has been unable to accomplish in recent weeks.

The console will see even tougher competition in the fourth quarter as Nintendo drops Wii and Sony releases the Playstation 3 to worldwide markets.

Outside of Japan the Xbox 360 has seen brisk sales in the U.S. and Europe. Microsoft has shipped 5M units worldwide and aims to ship 15M by June 2007.
http://news.punchjump.com/article.php?id=2790

Real Wii Specs?

So here's the deal. So far, we have a slight idea of the launch date. We've heard rumors on the price. Maxconsole claims to have the lowdown and stats, and I'll pass them on!

The Wii Hardware

- Nintendo Wii’s ‘Broadway’ CPU operates at 729MHZ with a maximum bandwith of 1.9gbyte/sec.
- Nintendo Wii’s ‘HollyWood’ GPU is clocked at 243MHZ, the internal memory of it includes 3mb of embedded graphics memory and 24megabytes of high speed main memory.
- 64megabytes of GDDR3 (MEM2) as the external main memory. Just like the internal memory, it can be accessed from the CPU and GPU with a maximum bandwidth of 4gbytes/sec and can also store programs in the MEM2.
- The GPU of the Wii is identical to the GC’s but it is on average 1.5X faster.

Wii's Optical Disc Drive

- Opitcal Disc Drive (ODD) supports single and dual layer Wii disks, discs eject with software or button and the maximum read speed is the equivalent of DVDx6.
- Two main disc types supported the single sided 12cm single sided 4.7gb and the double sided 8.51 GB. Nintendo GC discs also supported. Some of the capacity of the discs are used by the system and games can not use full disc space.
- Inserting a disc will start the Wii console, even if it was already in an off state. Pressing the eject button will change the console to an on state to take out the disc also.

General Overview

- An optional wired LAN adapter that connects to a USB port is in the pipeline for users who do not possess a wireless LAN set-up currently.
- Internal non-removable 512MB flash memory used to storage game save data and downloadable content thus eliminating the Need for a memory card.
- Both Wii discs and Gamecube discs can be played via an intelligent mode swap. When running in GC mode, the Wii’s CPU and GPU will lower to the respective speeds of the GC and some of the MEM2 functions as ARAM.
- Software development environment is an upgrade to the ‘Dolphin SDK’ used with the GC; the same libraries are used so developers can get up to scratch easily as well as the possibility of ports being easier.
- The following interfaces are included with the Wii; SD card slot, Wireless controller, two USB 2.0 ports, wireless LAN, 4x GC controller ports, 2x GC memory card slots and an AV multi output jack (only an analog jack).
- Supports Wii disks (one sided 12cm) and GC discs (one sided 8cm) and console auto switches depends on what disk is inserted
- More than just the Nunchaku is planned as an extension. GC peripherals such as DK bongos can be used in both Wii and GC modes.
- Three power status, on, off and unplugged. To prevent mistaken turn offs, the power button must be held for about a second.

The Wii Control System

- The Wii controller features; Direct Pointing Device, Three axis accelerometer, Wii power button (remotely turn console on/off), buttons, wireless connectivity, indicator LED’s, rumble, battery powered (two AA alkaline batteries) and ability to connect extension unit.
- The Wii controller supports three types of operations; by itself, with a nunchuk extension or with a classic controller. Classic controllers will ship to developers during August 2006.
- The SYNCHRO button on the Wii controller exchanges wireless ID numbers when pressed at the same time as SYNCRHO on the Wii console. Wireless communications are only possible with consoles which have been authenticated.
- The rumble motor can be turned on and off and the intensity can be changed.
- The Wii remote has a pointer for fine movements as well as a motion sensor +/- 3.4G suitable for larger body movements, the nunchuk attachment has a sensor of +/- 2G
- The sensor bar must be placed above or below a TV set, the pointer measures coordinates between the ends of the bar which are about 20cm apart.
- The Wii remote has four status, disconnected, communicating, establishing connection and pairing wait status.
- The pointer can measure co-ordinates within bounds of rectangle centered upon the sensor bar, thus it can also measure points beyond the screen. It also responds to strong light sources, windows, fluorescent lamps, fireplaces, mirrors etc.
- Due to players hands shaking while holding the controller, a ring buffer allows a precise direction to be created to hold and average accelerator samples.

Thanks 'TheGuy' for the info!

Big shoutout must go out to the 'TheGuy' for this info!

*UPDATE* The dev mailed us and said he was shocked to see all these cries of 'fake', so he provided some more info to show he's not bluffing...

Broadway CPU

Broadway is Wii's CPU. Broadway functionality and specifications are as follows.

• Operating speed: 729 MHz
• Bus to main memory: 243 MHz, 64 bits (maximum bandwidth: 1.9 gigabytes/sec)
• 32-kilobyte 8-way set-associative L1 instruction cache
• 32-kilobyte 8-way set-associative L1 data cache (can set up 16-kilobyte data scratch pad)
• Superscalar microprocessor with six execution units (floating-point unit, branching unit, system regis
ter unit, load/store unit, two integer units)
• DMA unit (15-entry DMA request queue) used by 16-kilobyte data scratch pad
• Write-gather buffer for writing graphics command lists to the graphics chip
• Onboard 256-kilobyte 2-way set-associative L2 integrated cache
• Two, 32-bit integer units (IU)
• One floating point unit (FPU) (supports single precision (32-bit) and double precision (64-bit))
• The FPU supports paired single floating point (FP/PS)
• The FPU supports paired single multiply add (ps_madd). Most FP/PS instructions can be issued in
each cycle and completed in three cycles.
• Fixed-point to floating-point conversion can be performed at the same time as FPU register load and
store, with no loss in performance.
• The branch unit supports static branch prediction and dynamic branch prediction.
• When an instruction is stalled on data, the next instruction can be issued and executed. All instructions
maintain program logic and will complete in the correct program order.
• Supports three L2 cache fetch modes: 32-Byte, 64-Byte, and 128-Byte.
• Supports these bus pipeline depth levels: level 2, level 3, and level 4.
Reference Information: Broadway is upward compatible with Nintendo GameCube’s CPU (Gekko).

Hollywood GPU

Hollywood is a system LSI composed of a GPU and internal main memory (MEM1). Hollywood is clocked at 243 MHz. Its internal memory consists of 3 megabytes of embedded graphics memory and 24 megabytes of high speed main memory.

Hollywood includes the following.
• Graphics processing unit (with 3 megabytes of eDRAM)
• Audio DSP
• I/O Bridge
• 24 megabytes of internal main memory
• Internal main memory operates at 486 MHz.
Maximum bandwidth between Hollywood and internal main memory: 3.9 gigabytes per second
• Possible to locate a program here
Reference Information: Hollywood is similar to Nintendo GameCube’s Flipper and Splash components.

External Main Memory (MEM2)

Wii uses 64 megabytes of GDDR3 (MEM2) as external main memory. Like internal main memory, MEM2 can be accessed directly from Broadway and the GPU at high speed and has a peak bandwidth of 4 gigabytes/sec. Programs can also be placed in MEM2.

Reference Information: Nintendo GameCube ARAM is used as auxiliary memory for the DSP. The CPU and GPU did not have direct access to it.

The Source! MaxConsole

XBox 360 is be Profitable Next Year

It appears Microsoft is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I just can't believe it took so long ;)

REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft's (MSFT - commentary - Cramer's Take) money-losing Xbox 360 will become profitable next year, says the company's entertainment czar.

Moreover, the entire Entertainment & Devices Division is headed for "sustained profitability" in the same time frame, Robbie Bach, the unit's president, said at the company's analyst day on Thursday.

That profit will have been a long time coming. The Xbox 360 and its predecessor have consistently lost money on a per-unit basis, and game software sales have not been strong enough to pull the group into the black. In the fourth quarter, for example, the Home and Entertainment group, responsible for the Xbox 360, grew revenue strongly, to $1.14 billion from $587 million the year before. But the unit also doubled its loss to $414 million.

Bach also made it clear that despite persistent rumors to the contrary, the company is not planning to cut the price of the Xbox. "We're comfortable" with the current pricing, he said. Industry sources say that Sony (SNE - commentary - Cramer's Take), maker of the upcoming Playstation 3, faces manufacturing problems that will likely keep the new version of console in short supply when it debuts later in the year.

Given that, Microsoft would rather keep the margin then cut prices to build share.

Bach disappointed many of the people attending the event here by failing to give many more details of the Zune, Microsoft's answer to Apple's (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) popular iPod.

He did say that the Zune, expected to debut by the end of the year, will not be profitable for the next few years, and he indicated that marketing will be a major expense.

Source: TheStreet