After being one of the initial areas of speculation following the reveal of the Wii remote all the back in 2005, and after being rumored significantly for roughly a year now, LucasArts has finally officially announced Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, a game that will be more appropriately known as ‘the Wii Lightsaber game’.
The game will naturally feature players holding their Wiimotes like the hilt of a lightsaber and wildly flailing around their living rooms in some attempt to capture the elegant and fierce rhythm of lightsaber battles found in the Star Wars movies. Naturally, fanboys everywhere are rejoicing.
Should the game mechanics be pulled off just right we could be rewarded with a satisfying realization of all the Wii’s potential. The game is being developed by Krome Studios, the same developer who is crafting the Wii, PS2, and PSP versions of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed .
The game will be set in the Clone Wars era, specifically based on the Clone Wars animated series and feature characters exclusively from the series and time period (meaning no Vader). You can find a trailer for Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (out this holiday season) below.
Last weekend the director for the marketing for Nintendo’s European division, Laurent Fischer made concerns that the Wii’s memory space was to small, later on Fischer said that only “geeks and otaku” would want more memory space on their Wii. This story can also be found on www.mediapost.com. The term “otaku” in Japanese occasionally suggests a creepy, obsessive loner who rarely leaves the house. Way to go Mr. Fischer! Later Fischer made an apology saying, “I have huge respect for those who, like me, share a common passion for Nintendo and want to make it clear that I would never use and I didn’t use this terminology in such a context or way to cause offense,” he said. “I regret that this misunderstanding has created such offense and disappointment within the community.” With this comment, it open an interesting window into Nintendo’s position in the market. We all know that Nintendo is the oldest player in the current console war and that the Wii sales are up but still the Wii console is not for the hardcore audience. The Wii’s hardware hasn’t been fully utilized yet, said from the MediaPost. These purchasing habits of the famous Wii owners don’t seem to match the number of hardcore gamers out there. Numbers show that in the last quarter of 2008 that the Wii salesfigures has been leading the other two but only three Wii titles broke into the top 10 list of best-selling games. Many Wii gamers seem to be sticking with a small library of games consisting mostly of Wii Sports.
Now knowing that Nintendo is aiming to do without the “geeks and otaku” which makes up the fandom’s of the other two consoles.
This related story can be found on www.wiicentre.com. Nintendo just gave word that there will be a new Wii in 2010. I know…I know! With the Wii still in high demand and the trucks that are coming out of the warehouse are slower then ever, why are they going to throw one out there again. It all falls down to money and well in consumer’s points of views is to keep up with the other two. Consoles come and they go through generations we have to understand that. But still with this being release, it’s not a huge leap to suggest a new Nintendo Wii. Evan Wilson, an analyst for Pacific Crest suggests a demand for new hardware around 2010. “We believe that peak industry sales will occur in 2010, given that Microsoft will likely introduce its next console that year and Nintendo will likely launch before then.” found on WiiCentre. Wilson also puts out that new handhelds will be around that time maybe even sooner. I think everyone would like to see the new design of the new DS. It’s difficult to put a finger on when this information was updated since mid last year. But one thing is for sure, gamers around the US will be screaming, begging on their hands and knees for a addition that they have been waiting for since the GameCube, a possible DVD playback which is rumored mid last year from one of Nintendo’s Co-finders. One thing is for sure that I’m waiting in line with the others to see the first outline of the new Wii. Is this to quick for Nintendo to make a new system, gamers are still today, trying to get their hands on one. But in Japan polls show that Wii is out selling the PS3. Could it be the Wii is more diverse then the PS3, true. Could it be the price with the system and the games, very true! But still people haven’t got the chance to get one and play this revolutionizing game. So ask yourself, is Nintendo biting off more that they can chew? We will see when 2010 comes around and let see what the gamers think of this move.
