The Wii U, announced in April and unveiled at this year’s E3 game conference, continues Nintendo’s focus on innovation in the way games are played. Nintendo’s first Wii console, which launched in late 2006, constituted a significant shift in the so-called console wars. Before the Wii, Nintendo had been engaged in a game of one-upsmanship with Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s Playstation 2, both of which sported comparable technical specs and a game library more geared toward older, more hard-core gamers. With the Wii Nintendo altered its entire strategy: instead of perpetuating the graphics and processing arms race with Sony and Microsoft, they chose to pursue a more unique and intuitive control system, targeted at the casual gamer market that the Xbox and Playstation had all but ignored.

The strategy worked well. The Wii enjoys a significant lead over the competition in global market share (though Microsoft is top dog in the US). What’s more, the Wii brought motion control to the world of gaming, as Microsoft and Sony have since developed their own unique versions of the concept (Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move, respectively).

The Wii U is set to launch sometime in 2012, and is expected to be HD compatible (like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, but unlike the current Wii). Many details are still unknown – pricing for the console, pricing for the app store, and a more specific release date chief among them. Whenever it launches, though, the Wii U looks to be an exciting addition to the gaming world. Check out the console’s E3 trailer below, and let us know what you think in the comments.

[Source: The Daily]

Now, Peter Vesterbacka, business developer lead for Rovio (of Angry Birds fame), has come out to make the bold statement that mobile gaming is causing console gaming to die. He made the statement during the SXSW Conference. Do the numbers back up his statement? Is the 100 million downloads Vesterbacka claims Angry Birds drew in enough to send console gaming the way of the dinosaurs?

Let’s take a look at the cold hard data. For our two samples we’ll look at the immensely popular Angry Birds, and Call of Duty: Black Ops to represent console gaming. Black Ops was the top selling console game of 2010.

We’re going to take the 100 million downloads Rovio is boasting with their title and match it up against the console sales for Black Ops. According to VGChartz, Black Ops sold 11.95 millions copies on the Xbox 360, and 9.6 million copies on the PS3.

According to my handy computer calculator, here’s how the numbers stand against one another (Black Ops sells for $59.99).

Angry Birds revenue – $100 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops revenue – $1.29 billion

Of course the real tell-of-the-tape is with their profit, but unfortunately we don’t have production and publishing costs for both games. However, I would be extremely surprised to learn that Black Op’s production cost so much it earned less than $100 million.

As a gamer for going on two decades, I would have to call Vesterbacka’s words at the very least, reaching, at the most, hyperbole. There’s a good chance Vesterbacka was simply posturing to the crowd, and wanted to create some controversy to attract attention to his game. If so, it worked, I am writing about what he said.

Mobile gaming has definitely changed the landscape of not only gaming but the way we value media. However, the mobile gaming platform isn’t going to cause anything to “die“. It has simply provided us with another way in which to enjoy gaming, and to allow more people to join in on the action.

Different forms of technology will be around as long as they’re useful; after all, I can still go out to my car and listen to the radio.

Since it’s European debut in March 2010, as part of the Nintendo DS range, the Nintendo DSi XL has sold over 3.6 million pieces of hardware globally, taking the total number of Nintendo DS range of consoles to over 132 million systems. In addition to the stylish wine red and dark brown consoles still available in stores, players will be given a wider choice of colours to choose from as yellow, green and blue join the offerings!

The latest iterations of the Nintendo DSi XL will offer the same functionality as the wine red and dark brown consoles; featuring the same glossy sheen on top, matt finish on the underside that provides extra grip, bigger screens and wider viewing angle. It will still continue to be pre-loaded with two Nintendo DSiWare software: A Little Bit of…Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: Arts Edition and Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function, as well as the Nintendo DSi Browser, which enables you to easily access the internet wherever a wireless Internet connection is available

The yellow, green and blue consoles will arrive just in time for players to enjoy some enjoyable new software on offer this season.  Join the supreme puzzle master Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke, in their brand new engaging adventure ‘Professor Layton and the Lost Future’ when this launches for the Nintendo DS family across Europe on 22^nd October. Players can attempt to solve more than 165 brand new brain teasers, riddles and logic puzzles guaranteed to challenge and delight both newcomers and fans of the Professor Layton games.

Players with a Nintendo DSi XL will be able to experience the adventure with added comfort on a 93 percent bigger touch screen than the Nintendo DS Lite and with the larger pen like stylus which comes with the Nintendo DSi XL, and now in your chosen new colour!

So get ready to be presented with a colourful choice this autumn, when the new Nintendo DSi XL in yellow, green and blue launch across Europe on 8^th October 2010. It’s a bright future ahead of colours for Nintendo!

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Yes, this is the official announcement from the Google Team about a maintenance process, this Saturday. The AdWords login console and the API will be offline between 10am and 2pm Pacific Time.

“We’ll be performing routine system maintenance on Saturday, January 10 from approximately 10:00am to 2:00pm PST. You won’t be able to access AdWords or the API during this time frame, but your ads will continue to run as normal.” -Jeffrey Posnick, AdWords API Team.

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