All in all, a lot of people in the gaming community, including game developers are starting to adopt the idea that piracy should simply be ignored. With all piracy there is this mistaken idea that everyone who download a pirate copy would go out and buy it if it weren’t available to download. I, and many other industry professionals, are starting to realize that this isn’t the case. People who pirate have a large, large collection of things to pirate. Just because one games isn’t available doesn’t mean they are going to go out and buy it, in fact, most likely they won’t even hear about the game if it isn’t available. So, all you’ve done by choking down on piracy is limited that person, who may become an advocate for your game, from playing, even though there is no monetary gain. Some people think that it is ‘fair’ that he/she not be allowed to play if they don’t pay, whether or not that will make them buy the game. But companies tend to be more practical than that. They aren’t looking at what is fair, they are looking at what brings in revenue. And people are starting to realize that hassling pirates is losing them money.

Big interest games, like SSBB or Mario Cart are an exception to the rule, because if they are interested, people are going to go out and buy the game on launch day regardless of whether or not they pirate. Thousands of people with modified Wiis bought SSBB. Is this because they couldn’t download it? No. In fact, it turned out that they couldn’t run the retail version and had to download it. People went out and bought the game because they wanted an original copy. Because they wanted to support Nintendo.

In addition, hunting down pirates and making things difficult for filesharers often hurts sales and ostracizes customers. It also generates a lot of negative press, like all the stuff about Super Smash Bros. Brawl not working. So, all in all, I feel that gaming companies, and many other industries, should take the stance that pirates should be ignored. They can’t be converted to customers, and going after them generates negative press and hurts customer relations. Maybe Nintendo doesn’t agree, but I think sooner or later, everyone will come around.

Ignore the pirates, if piracy becomes so prevalent that you can’t make a profit, then it is time to switch gears and find other methods of revenue. In that case, you start giving the games away and selling downloadable content or financing the game and console with advertisers. If it works for radio and TV, I bet it could work for games. I’m not saying that the gaming industry should do these things not, I’m just countering the argument “but if no one buys games, who will make them”. If no one buys games, there will still be many avenues of revenue available, so no worries.

I don’t know what Nintendo is doing as far as piracy. It is possible that both the SSBB fiasco and this Mario Cart stuff is completely unintentional. The Super Mario Galaxy update was obviously a jab at piracy (that didn’t work). At least Nintendo isn’t going around suing thousands of people like the movie and music industries are. In any case, while I firmly support supporting games, leave the pirates alone, they aren’t hurting anyone.

Tags: super mario brothers, nintendo game, nintendo wii news, wii review, nintendo wii

Those of you who might have been planning to get the Pal version of Mario Cart and get it running on your Wii using Wii Freeloader, think again. Apparently, Nintendo has struck again with more copyright protection goodness. Which bring up an important question, should Nintendo be fighting with people who have modified Wiis at every turn?

On one hand, Nintendo is looking at things like this: 1) Hacks like the Wii Freeloader let people download games without paying for them. 2) Paying for games gets Nintendo money, and keeps third party developers happy. 3) If you could download games with no hassle from Nintendo, surely everyone would. 4) If everyone downloaded games, instead of buying them, third party developers wouldn’t invest in making good games. 5) Without third party developers, the Wii will probably flop like the GameCube.

On the other hand, lets examine these 5 points. 1) Hacks like this also allow us to make backup copies of games and play games we may rightfully own, but happen to be from a different region. 2) No matter how rampant piracy gets, there will still be a very strong market for games. 3) There will always be people that want to own the original, or support the game developers. Most people buy games legitimately when they have the money, and the ones that don’t aren’t going to buy the games no matter how hard you make it to pirate. 4) The PS and PS2 are to of the most thoroughly hacked consoles in history, but both of them sold tons and on top of that both of them have hundreds and hundreds of third party games. 5) True, but if you sell the most consoles, you’ll lure the third party developers, and like it or not, the fact that people can pirate games on your console is a selling point. The Playstation sold many, many more consoles than the N64 and one of the main reasons for that if because the Playstation could be hacked to run burned CDs while the N64 could never be hacked thanks to the cartridges.

It is a sad fact, but the Playstation3 will undoubtedly get a huge boon in sales as soon as it is hacked. In fact, it might be enough of a boon to put it above the Wii when added to other factors like price drops. Sooner or later, it’ll be hacked. The longer it takes, the more people will try. Right now, since there aren’t many Blu-ray burners out there, and since Blu-ray itself hasn’t been hacked, it might be awhile. But when it comes PS3 sales will rise. If I were Sony, I’d be hoping that the PS3 gets hacked. Unfortunately, Sony has a long history of being pretty hard on copyright (despite the fact that they owe success of the PS1 and PS2 to it)

Tags: nintendo wii fan club, wii cheats, mario kart, rock band, nintendo wii game

YouTube Awards, Rock Band Hits Wii and More - ABC News

ABC News

YouTube Awards, Rock Band Hits Wii and More ABC News - Mar 28, 2008 Also, life as we know it will change forever this summer when video mega hit Rock Band comes out for the Wii. Mark our words: There will be a pro air guitar …

Source: news.google.com

Tags: super mario galaxy, nintendo wii fan club, legend of zelda, video game, metroid prime 3

So the smoke has cleared, and it looks like things are starting to become clear in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl saga. In a foreseeable turn of events, it looks like almost everyone having disc read errors are people with modded consoles.

Modded consoles are consoles that have been altered by third parties to allow them to play backup or pirated games. It is common for console manufactures to attempt to disable such unauthorized modifications. But if this was in intentional move by Nintendo, wow was it stupid. Because you see, all reports are showing that while modded console can’t seem to play the original retail version of the game, they have no problem playing pirated copies. This means that the only people Nintendo is punishing are people that actually supported Nintendo by buying the retail version.

Personally, I don’t think this is intentional action. Likely, the Wii Disc format has specification for dual layer discs that mod chip creators didn’t know about. This is plausible, because until Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there were no dual layer games out. Likely, this has caused an incompatibility with Wii Disc two layer games that Nintendo could not have foreseen or prevented. Nintendo will likely say this is exactly why these modifications are unauthorized.

So far it looks like the Wiikey and the Argon chips are affected. The argon team has stated that the problem can be resolved and that they are working on it. I have no news yet about whether the supposed ‘undetectable’ D2CKey has been having problems playing retail copies.

If you are having a read disc error, and have an unauthorized modification, then duplication the disc to a dual layer DVD, or getting an image online will solve your problem. In the United States, it is 100% legal for you to download a backup image if you already own the game.

Nintendo has set up a free repair service to “clean” your “dirty lens”. No news yet on what Nintendo will do with your console if you turn it in while it has an unauthorized modification, or whether they will accept it at all. It looks like the dirty lens issue is a real issue, effecting only a small minority. It usually results in stuttering graphics, not a full disc read error. If you have that problem, you can send your Wii to Nintendo and they’ll clean it, but a normal lens cleaning disc will probably do as much good and can be picked up anywhere (although Nintendo has told Wii owners not to attempt cleaning the lens themselves). I’ll report more news as it trickles in.

Maybe it is because thousands of people are trying all at once to get their Brawl on, but online connectivity for Super Smash Bros. Brawl is having some issues. Reports are coming in from all over of connections being dropped or unplayable lag.  It seems that either Nintendo didn’t have enough servers to cope with everyone hopping online at Read more »

Super Smash Bros. Brawl has given a handful of Wii owners problems. These problems range from stuttering graphics to a complete read disc error. Nintendo originally claimed that this was due to dirty lenses on the Wii. Nintendo asked people to ship the Wii to them for a free cleaning and also warned that people should not try to clean the lenses themselves. In an article I wrote yesterday, I dismissed several conspiracy theorist that said Nintendo was hiding something, but it looks like there really is more than meets the eye.

Nintendo has officially confirmed that in “a small number of cases” the Wii’s in question have a defective reader that has to be replaced in order to read the double layer that Super Smash Bros. uses. Nintendo has stated that this seems to “mostly” happen to “older consoles, purchased around launch”. There have been reports, at least one anyway, of a brand new Wii having this problem.

This definitely answers some questions I asked in my last article, including the important question: How is Nintendo planning on stopping dirty lenses from happening in the future? People seem to be suggesting that this “cover-up” is a black eye for Nintendo, but the way I see it, it is much better for them to replace a defective lens and fix your Wii permanently then for the Wii to have some type of critical cleanliness problem.

I mean, if lenses were dirty after only a year or so, what would happen to all the Wii’s after two years, or five years. This would be a permanent recurring problem that apparently requires you to ship your console off. That would be a serious black-eye, and I actually find it comforting that it isn’t all being caused by a dirt problem. As long as Nintendo is willing to fix everything free of charge, I don’t really care too much.

One question people have been asking is what happens if they’ve installed an unauthorized modification. On one hand, the instillation supposedly voids your warranty, but on the other hand, if the unit is defective Nintendo should fix the problem, with or without a warranty. One problem that users with a mod face is this: often times, Nintendo will probably simply replace the defective unit. But replacement means that your several hundred dollars in purchase and instillation are down the drain. Nintendo might argue that this is why the modification are unauthorized and that they aren’t going to go out of there way to convenience you. Gamers might say otherwise though. Read more »

Thousands of people today, went out and bought Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Several lined up for midnight releases. And for many of them, Super Smash Bros. Brawl just doesn’t work on their Wii.

For some, the game won’t even load, for others the graphics are choppy and slow. This is, according to Nintendo, do to a dirty reading lens. Super Small Bros. Brawl is the first Wii game to use the second layer on the Wii Disc. All other games have made do with only one layer. So apparently, the disc reader is having trouble properly reading the second layer do to collected smoke and dust on the lens.

Nintendo warns that no one should try to clean the lens on their own because it is more likely that they will damage it. Nintendo is offering to clean anyones lens for free. You can get more information about that here. At the moment, they don’t say how long a repair is expected to take, but they do say that all of your data should be perfectly safe. As more and more games start utilizing the extra space available in the second layer, this problem will probably increase.

Some conspiracies have popped up claiming that dirt is not the problem, but some other fundamental issue that Nintendo doesn’t want to admit to. I for one do not believe any such conspiracy, and applaud the quick and free response Nintendo has issued. One question to ask: If a single year of use has made the lenses dirty, will the rest of us probably be experiencing problems like this in the next few years. Or will people who get a lens cleaning have to do it again when their lens becomes dirty again? Will there be a way to clean the lens ourselves in the future? Is there a permanent fix for this? Most Nintendo consoles to date have been very rugged, much more so then the competitors. A lot of old NES’s and SNES’s are still out there working (although often the cartridges would corrode). Problems like this could end Nintendo’s claim for most rugged console.

For those of us who are lucky enough to have the game working properly, so far it does seem to be all that it was cracked up to be. Another AAA title by Nintendo. Good luck to everyone experiencing problems and may your Super Smash Bros. Brawling come soon.

Square Enix’s new next-gen engine, called Crystal Tools is now compatible with the Wii. This cross compatibility is a good sign for us Wii users. Hopefully this indicates that more game producers are taking the Wii seriously and ready to give us real titles instead of cheap knock offs. On one hand, it is good that Square is including the Wii, but on the other, I hope they realize that in order for a game to be really enjoyable on the Wii, the controls need to take advantage of motion detection to the fullest.

The first game that will be using the Crystal Tools engine will be FFXIII, but don’t expect that to come out for the Wii anytime soon, this title is 100% PS3, and Sony is hoping it’ll boost sales.

Due to the Wii’s low processing power and the younger user base, many publishers haven’t really given Wii games a good effort. The average rating of Wii games is significantly lower then either the Ps3 or the Xbox 360. It is a crying shame, because the Wiimote has so much to offer and game developers are glossing right over it and heading towards the bigger processors. As a society, I think we are reaching the point of processor saturation. That is to say that the power of are machines are doing everything they can do. Now it is up to the game designers and the graphic artists to take us to the next level. Innovation is becoming more and more important as the catalogue of existing games grows. Soon the developers will catch on, and when they do, they’ll realize that the Wii is the best medium for innovation. Square is hopefully making steps in that direction.

The Wii has really broken game developers normal chain, and while they’re still figuring things out, it has led to many low quality games for the Wii. Producers can’t just port things to the Wii, they have to take into account the unique controls and work them it. Many games would really showcase the Wii’s power just wouldn’t work on other consoles, which makes it hard for developers to justify spending time on them. I think that eventually the market will show reward for games that do take that chance, and then the Wii game market will really bloom.

Until then, we’ve still got some great titles and we’re still shaping the future of the gaming industry. Even though the Wii game’s average rating is lower than either the PS3 or the Xbox 360, the Wii has had more top rated titles (90%+) than either of the others. It just goes to show you that when they are good, they are really good, which is the reason I own a Wii.

The Wii is still running hard and strong in the next-gen race, outselling both the tech-heavy PS3 and early starter Xbox 360. Wiis have sold an estimated 20 million, while the Xbox is only around 17.5 and the PS3 limps in at around eight million. But the numbers are even more staggering if you work out how many are selling a day: The Playstation has sold an average of 17,ooo a day and the Xbox comes in at 21,000 a day. But the Wii, the Wii — despite supply shortages — comes in at a whopping 43,000 a day, outselling the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined.

So why does it matter to us gamers? Isn’t it all just some type of electronic beauty contest? Well, yes and no. The more consoles sell, the more third-party game produces will be willing to create or port a game for the Wii. The more games, the more competitive the market, and the more the gaming industry will invest in creating a really good game. The better the games, the happier the gamers. The happier the gamers, the more consoles sell, completing the cycle.

In the last generation, the Game Cube failed to compete against the PS2 and the Xbox, putting it at a disadvantage. But the real nail in the coffin didn’t come until third-party game producers started passing it up. Both the other consoles had dozens of hit franchise titles, but the Game Cube — nothing. This time around though, it looks like Nintendo has cleaned up its act, done some market research and really come up with something truly appealing.

So, can we crown the Wii winner yet? No quite yet. I think the Xbox 360 has little kick left in it. It has already showcased its biggest titles, it had a year head start and it has already had several price cuts. I don’t think we can expect any surprises here. The Playstation 3 on the other hand, still has some cards up its sleeve. The most obvious one — it packs more punch than any of the other consoles. Right now, that means it is the most expensive, which is putting a lot of people off. But give it a few years and the PS3 will be cheaper, and still on the cutting edge. Does cutting edge graphics equate to fun? No. But in the fun department, the PS3 has some potential. Their sixaxis controller gives them a chance to break into the same motion sensitive market Wii fans have been enjoying. Also, several important PS titles are still up and coming, like FFXII. The last, and possible the most important card that could effect this generation’s console war, unlike the Wii, the PS3 hasn’t been cracked yet. Game producers don’t like to hear it, but this effects people’s console decisions a lot. As soon as the PS3 is modable, expect sales to skyrocket. Especially in third-world countries where piracy is rampant.

Conclusion: the Wii is still winning, and it defenatly looks like it might take the gold, but we’ll have to wait before calling that one. One thing is clear though, the Wii is shaping the gaming industry, and no matter how you slice it, the Wii is here to stay

This is what happens when nintendo doesn’t encrypt their game consoles! Check out how easily this kid hacked the Operating System of the Wii.