GAME CONSOLE OWNERS STREAMING MEDIA USAGE INCREASES SIGNIFICANTLY

New data from Nielsen suggests that console owners are using their Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii game consoles to stream video content more than ever before. “Streaming now represents a reported 14 percent of Xbox 360 time, 15 percent of PS3 time and 33 percent of Wii time,” Nielsen said Wednesday. The market research firm explained that the growth in time spent streaming was driven by services such as ESPN 3, Netflix, MLB Network and Hulu, but that time spent using consoles also increased overall. Console usage during the first half of 2011 jumped 7% from the same time period last year. Nielsen said gaming is the most popular activity on Xbox 360 (34% of usage), the PS3 is most used for DVD/Blu-ray viewing (22% of usage) and the Wii is used most for offline gaming (55% of usage)

NINTENDO Wii U LAUNCHING Q2 2012

In a recent interview with Forbes, Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer Reggie Fils-Aime was asked how his company will market the new Nintendo Wii U console — given that the existing Wii will still be on the market. Fils-Aime responded by noting that the console will not launch until after April 1st of next year — a date we hadn’t heard yet — and that, historically, Nintendo has sold multiple devices side by side. Fils-Aime pointed to the launch of the Nintendo DS alongside the Gameboy Advance, and also said that the Wii was on the market at the same time as the Game Cube. He also discussed cross-platform play, which could allow users to play against one another using different Nintendo machines “We have one key developer with a very strong relationship to Nintendo, the same developer who created Smash Brothers, that is envisioning a Smash Brothers experience that will be cross platform between Wii U and 3DS,” Fils-Aime said. Nintendo took the wraps off of the highly anticipated Wii U during the E3 tradeshow early last month, but has yet to announce a price for the console.

REDBOX RENTING GAMES FOR PS3, XBOX 360 AND WII

Exactly as promised, Redbox is today inaugurating a new branch to its media-renting venture with the introduction of video game rentals at $2 a day. There's a pretty rich and fresh selection on offer, including the likes of Duke Nukem Forever, Dirt 3, and Brink, and you can reserve your copy online before moseying down to your nearest Redbox kiosk to execute the transaction. About 5,000 of those crimson encasements have already been partaking in the testing of this service, but now Redbox is flipping the switch on the other 21,000 across the US and making things officially official.

NINTENDO PRESIDENT TALKS ABOUT THE Wii U

Nintendo took some inspiration from the TV remote for its Wii controller, and it apparently thinks its new Wii U controller could well be the "TV remote of the future." That's just one tidbit from All Things D's sitdown with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who also talked more broadly about the Wii U's new role in the living room.

As evidenced by E3, that will include catering to more hardcore gamers than the Wii did, but Iwata says the Wii U is also an effort to take some of the couch time back from folks playing games on tablets, smartphones or laptops. To that end, Iwata says that Nintendo's mission is to "shorten the distance between people and gaming" and remove some of the barriers involved with console gaming, further adding that it's also trying to "reach out to the people who are not interested in video games."

Though it's not saying much about it, Nintendo's no doubt hoping to win back a few investors as well. As you may have noticed, the company's stock slipped significantly following its E3 announcement and, while it's bounced back a bit since, it's still well off its Wii-fueled heights of recent years.

NINTENDO UNVEILS NEXT GENERATION Wii AT E3

Nintendo just announced the new Wii U at its keynote presentation from the annual E3 conference. As the rumors suggested, the Wii U controller features a 6.2-inch touchscreen centered between a d-pad and an analog stick on the left side and a second analog stick and buttons on the right side. The controller also features a microphone, stereo speakers, a camera, an accelerometer, and even a gyroscope — in fact, the controller can act as a console itself!

Moreover, the controller becomes a second window into the game being played, showing different views of the current scene, plays and options in sports games, items in a players cache. The device looks like a tablet and allows users to play games either on a television or on the controller itself.

Nintendo also stated that all current Wii games will work with Wii U and the new Wii U controller. The console supports High Definition gaming, online gaming much like the solutions offered by Sony and Microsoft, and even social networking integration. Nintendo states that the goal of its Wii U console is to serve the avid gamer and casual gaming communities alike, with a single console. From the look of things, they might just be able to pull it off. The Wii U console will launch in 2012 and pricing has not yet been announced.

SONY PLAYSTATION 3 ADDS VIDEO ON DEMAND FROM BEST BUY'S CINEMA NOW

Sony planned the PlayStation 3 from the start as a movie playing powerhouse, but it may not have predicted so many would end up using it for Netflix streaming. CEO Jack Tretton hit the stage at the company's E3 keynote to announce it is the leading Netflix streamer, accounting for 30% of the video watched on the service.

While this is somewhat surprising maybe it shouldn't be -- consoles far outpace other TV connected streamers in install base, and between the Xbox 360, Wii, and Sony's box, the PS3 is the only one that lets you watch without an additional subscription and in HD.

Also announced is a new partnership bringing video on-demand movies from the Best Buy-owned CinemaNow service. With any luck, the retail giant will add a subscription element or partner with Redbox and make this interesting, but until then it's just another footnote on the list of providers currently offered on the PS3.

RUMOR: EA HAS NEXT XBOX HARDWARE; MICROSOFT REVEALING IT AT E3

When Nintendo confirmed E3 would be the event where the Wii 2 is being unveiled, we thought it was a clever move that would see the company have a clear run for a couple of years. Added to that the rumor it is a very powerful machine and it could leave the PS3 and Xbox 360 in the dust. But that may no longer be the case, and Microsoft could be about to cause a major upset come this June.

Develop has been told that EA is already in possession of the successor to the Xbox 360 and is doing some early development tests with it. As with all early hardware builds, the next Xbox currently takes the form of a PC desktop case, but what’s inside is the hardware that will be inside Microsoft’s next console.

The same source also believes that Microsoft is aiming for an end of 2012 launch date, which would put it in direct competition with the Wii 2. Worse news for Nintendo comes in the form of a potential surprise reveal during E3 next month.

For gamers this is great news. Two new consoles being revealed at E3 will certainly generate some excitement, especially if one clearly out performs, or out innovates, the other. Whether Microsoft planned this all along and Nintendo suprised them with a Wii 2 announcement, or the Xbox Next plans have been rethought due to the Wii 2 we don’t know. We are just really looking forward to E3 now.

As is usually the case, Microsoft and EA are saying nothing.

RUMOR: Wii 2 SHIPPING TO NINTENDO IN OCTOBER; Wii PRICE DROPS TO $150 ON MAY 15

Terry Gou’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. is said to have landed an exclusive contract to build Nintendo’s next-generation video game console. According to a report on Wednesday from Taiwan Economic News, Hon Hai could begin shipping the Wii 2 to Nintendo as soon as this coming October.

Nintendo’s Wii console had consistently been a best seller for the gaming giant, but interest has finally begun to dwindle as competitive offerings pick up steam despite their age. Nintendo’s Wii 2 is said to be a direct attack the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and it will supposedly feature AMD’s new Radeon R700 GPU for outstanding graphics performance and HD video capabilities.

With a rumored retail price between $350 and $450, the console may also be much more expensive than Nintendo’s current Wii console. A Wii 2 that lines up with these rumors would be an interesting move for Nintendo, which has found tremendous success with an inexpensive console aimed at more casual gamers compared to its competitors.

Also, Nintendo will be dropping the price of the current Wii to $149.99 on May 15th, possibly to reduce inventories ahead of the Wii 2 launch.

REDBOX TO OFFER GAMES IN KIOSKS; GAMESTOP TO START STREAMING GAMES 'EVERYWHERE'

Redbox's famous red disc-dispensing kiosks will start spitting out video games starting on June 17th, offering titles for the PlayStation3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii for $2 per day.

The new game rentals have been in testing at about 5,000 locations around the country for some time now, but Redbox says they’re finally ready to expand the program to their other 21,000 kiosks. According to the press release, video games will be introduced at the same time as Blu-Ray discs at Redbox locations nationwide. “Redbox will make discovering the latest games as easy as a trip to the local grocery, convenience, or drug store,” according to Redbox’s VP of Games, Joel Resnik.

Meanwhile, GameStop's Spawn Labs' offers a cloud-powered game streaming service, enabling users to enjoy their favorite console games on connected devices with substantially less horsepower. Back in March, Spawn was acquired by retail giant GameStop — and it looks as though you might soon be playing Xbox 360 or PS3 games on your Android tablet as a result.

Joystiq has discovered several job postings which are aimed at developers who can help the company port Spawn’s player software to Android and Linux. As an added twist, GameStop is also hoping to put its acquisition of Impulse to good use when its “new consumer interface” for Spawn is ready to rock.

Impulse is a digital content distribution service like Steam, and it even sports the unsurprisingly similar domain name impulsedriven.com (compared to steampowered.com). GameStop President Ton Bartel foresees pairing Spawn and Impulse in order to offer users the ability to stream its library of 1000-plus games on-demand.

Wii 2 CONFIRMED FOR 2012; PREVIEW AT E3

Nintendo has just announced it plans to introduce a successor to its Wii console next year, a "playable model" of which will be shown off at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles coming up on June 7th. No details are available as to how the next Wii will improve on the first one, though we imagine Nintendo will be happy if it simply matches the success of its current-gen home entertainer.

Bloomberghas provided the first official hint about Nintendo's next console with a quote from company President Satoru Iwata. Nintendo will "propose a new approach to home video game consoles," though it won't be a simple move to 3D, as Iwata notes "it's difficult to make 3-D images a key feature, because 3-D televisions haven't obtained wide acceptance yet." Given that motion gaming is no longer new and 3D is off the table until 3DTVs go mainstream, we're now left facing only one potentiality -- Nintendo is planning on bringing genuine innovation to our living rooms. We suppose it also adds fuel to the rumor of a crazy next-gen controller to go with this next-gen console.

RUMOR: NEXT GEN Wii CONTROLLER TO FEATURE 6.2 INCH DISPLAY

The next-gen Wii console rumors have heated to a boil. One of the most interesting bits of tattle originates from Kotaku. The gaming site's sources claim (with impressive specificity) that the new 8-button controller features a screen pushing a whopping 6.2 inches, two analog sticks, and a camera. The new Wii console (sometimes called the Wii 2, Wii HD, or simply "Project Cafe") is said to support the new controller in addition to Wii Remote-style controllers for backward compatibility with existing Wii games -- at the moment, however, it's not clear if that implies support for existing Wiimotes. But why the giant display? Here's Kotaku'stake:

The 6.2-inch screen will receive data wirelessly from the Nintendo console and presents an array of options, from putting the player's inventory or map on the controller screen, to allowing players to combine it with the controller's camera to snap photos that could be imported into a game or even turning it into some sort of glorified viewfinder (we're unclear about whether the camera on the controller points at the player or can be outward-facing; we've heard both - maybe it swivels?).

In other words, you can think of the new contoller-plus-console combination as a modern Dreamcast system or "glorified mega-DS," as Kotakuputs it, where the TV is the top screen and the handheld controller is the lower touchscreen. If true then we'll likely hear the official first word at E3 which kicks off on June 7th.

NINTENDO SELLS NEARLY 400,000 3DS'S IN FIRST WEEK IN US

In an interview with USA Today, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, confirmed that Nintendo sold nearly 400,000 of its 3DS units in the week following its March 27th launch. That’s the same figure Nintendo sold in Japan on its first day of availability when it launched there in February. “We are very satisfied with this start and we look forward to the momentum that we will build on the Nintendo 3DS with the launch of the E-Shop, the launch of the 3-D trailers for Hollywood movies, and the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in mid-June, as well as the launch of Netflix later on in the summer,” Fils-Aime said.

Nintendo sold more than 460,000 units of its previous-generation DS portable gaming consoles, and 290,000 Wii consoles during the month of March.

RUMOR: NINTENDO CUTTING WII TO $150 ON MAY 15TH

Sources are stating that Nintendo is readying a price cut, to $150, to their popular Wii game console on May 15th. The timing would make some sense, given how Nintendo's profits have tanked for a while due to flagging hardware sales, and just last month Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime hinted that the Wii's price might be a potential variable to change that in an interview with Gamasutra.

NETFLIX AND AT&T WIFI COMING TO NINTENDO 3DS

Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo talked about the 3DS, just launched in Japan, at GDC 2011 today. Netflix will be available with the ability to pause it on the 3DS and continue watching it on your Wii (or Xbox 360 or PS 3 we assume).

A wireless 3D video channel is coming too that will push Nintendo-selected content like movie trailers (Green Lantern's coming soon), music videos, and comedy shorts to the device. And if you want to make your own, Nintendo's enabling 3D video recording as well.

Nintendo is partnering with AT&T to give users free WiFi access to over 100,000 hotspots in the US, starting in late May.

ANDROIDIFY YOURSELF

Today Google released a fun new app called Androidify. It’s not exactly useful, but it’s a fun diversion: fire it up and you can choose from a variety of body types, outfits, and accessories to make your own custom Android robot (if you’ve ever created a Mii on Nintendo’s Wii, this should be pretty familiar). Once you’re done you can send the avatar to various social networks, change it to your phone’s wallpaper, a buddy’s contact icon and so on.

The application was created by Google’s Creative Lab in tandem with Larva Labs. You can find the app right here on Android Market (remember, this is the new web version of the Market, so you can send the app directly to your phone).

ANGRY BIRDS SEQUEL TO BE ANGRY PIGS; ADDITIONAL PLANS CITED

Speaking at London’s Virtual Goods Summit, Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka spilled the future of the Angry Birds franchise, and while the first game might have seen the player catapulting the eponymous angry birds into pigs who had stolen their eggs, the second game won’t just be more of the same: it’ll be Angry Pigs instead,

Says Vesterbacka: “We want to surprise people [with the sequel]. No one has told the story from the pigs point of view.”

In addition Rovio’s CEO also confirmed that Angry Birds will also be coming to consoles including the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

Multiplayer Angry Birds is also on the cards, being described as playing like an “old school Worms game.” Rounding things out is word of a Facebook game set in the Angry Birds universe and even a movie or television show.

NO Wii PRICE DECREASE

Nintendo CEO and president Satoru Iwata has dismissed any price cut for the Wii console.  He stated "we cannot say [a Wii price cut] will never happen, but we are not thinking of it for the near future."  For the same price as a Wii, gamers can also choose the Xbox 360.  While the new Crimson Bundle should help in the very short term, a price cut is what is really needed.

Of course the last time Iwata mentioned there would be no price decrease, we only had to wait 5 months for it. [Engadget]

NINTENDO LOSES MONEY FOR FIRST TIME IN SEVEN YEARS

Due to poor sales of its flagship products, the DS and the Wii, Nintendo has post a loss for the first half of the year.  This is the first loss in over seven years for Nintendo.  The DS slid from 11.7 million units last year to 6.69 million this year.  This is to be expected since the DS has been around for almost six years and the 3DS will be launching soon.

What is unexpected is that Wii sales have fallen off as well.  Last year 5.75 million Wii's were sold compared to 4.97 million this year.  This could be explained by the increased interest of the Microsoft Kinect and Sony Move for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 respectively.

Also contributing to the loss is the big slip in the value of the Yen.  Combining all these factors mean Nintendo's net income was down 33.7% over the same time last year and operating income was down 48% for the same period. [Gizmodo] [Kotaku]

NETFLIX ACCOUNTS FOR 20% OF PEAK DOWNSTREAM TRAFFIC IN US

Netflix, who started out as a DVD by mail service, has recently made a big push in the streaming world.  Its streaming traffic now accounts for 20% of peak downstream as more and more people take advantage of the quick access.  Not only are people's usage increasing, but the number of devices Netflix has streaming capabilities on has increased.  From the major gaming consoles, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii to having the service embedded in the television Netflix appears to be everywhere, which is exactly what founder and CEO Reed Hastings wants.  Hastings recently stated Netflix is "“primarily a streaming company that also offers DVD-by-mail.”  Netflix is expected to offer a streaming only tier in US, like Canada currently has, in 2011. [Geek]

WII NETFLIX GOES DISCLESS

First it was the PS3 to get the discless Netflix treatment, now the Wii goes discless.  North Americans will be able to download and install Netflix from the Wii Shop Channel.  Once installed users will be able to stream the growing Netflix TV and movie catalog almost instantly.

Anyone have any idea what do with the estimated three million Wii discs that are now useless? [Engadget]