PS4, Xbox 720, or Wii 2 – Which next-gen console will come first?

When we talk about next-gen video game console, we no longer talk about ps3, xbox 360 or Wii. We have to look into the future and talk about PS4, Xbox 720, and Wii 2.0. Is it too early to predict the next-gen? Maybe. But it is about time we have some announcement on what is coming next from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. This generation of consoles is still very much alive and kicking, with many consumers not yet having upgraded to a PS3, Xbox 360, or Wii. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start thinking about what will come next. After yesterday urging everyone to take a look back at the history of videogames, and remember the old consoles that have been and gone (but still remain alive in our hearts, mind, and living rooms), I thought it would be fitting to now concentrate on the future, and look ahead to the next-generation consoles. In particular: which will come first, the PS4, Xbox 720, or Wii 2? The first place to look to try and predict which company, Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo will jump first is to look at what happened last generation. The Xbox 360 was released just four years after the original Xbox became available. Nintendo waited five years between the Gamecube and the Wii. And the PS3 first came available six years after the launch of the PS2. Based on that data, and the fact that Sony seems wholly committed to the 10-year-lifespan plan for every new piece of hardware, I would suggest that the PS4 is completely out of the running, and will probably be the last of the big three to launch. There’s also the fact that Sony is going to need that long to claw back the huge amount of money it spent on developing the Playstation 3 in the first place. Which leaves the Xbox 720 (hopefully not its final name) and the Wii 2 (probably accurately named) to be the first out of the traps. We’ve already heard from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata that the company is working on the next hardware release, but with the Wii still selling in huge numbers, what would the reasoning be behind planning its release any time soon? Sure, the Wii’s phenomenal sales figures can’t be sustained forever, and there will come a time when they drop off substantially, but until then, Nintendo is earning billions of dollars in profits and would be mad to make a change to the matrix. Microsoft doesn’t have that security, with sales of the Xbox 360 stalling in recent months. The company seems to be embarking on a round of endless price cuts to try and generate some sales, but if that fails to have the desired effect, what next? It’s for this reason that I think the Xbox 720 will be the first next-gen console to see the light of day, possibly with Halo 4 making it as a launch game. And when will all this be happening? It could be as early as 2010, but more likely is either 2011 or 2012.

The Ultimate Wii Guide is a brand New hot product.

A Complete Nintendo Wii Guide showing you how to  Setup Wifi, play online , use Homebrew, movie and game streaming, Wii board Fitness use and games, all the tips

& tricks you need.

Nintendo Wii is still going strong and have outranked it’s competition in terms of sales for a long time. The trend

shows that new people are still constantly acquiring this wonderful console.
Now, all these new Wii users, eager to explore the capabilities of Ninendo Wii can have a quick start into the world

of Wii.

The Ultimate Wii Guide Is All You Need to Setup Up Your Wii and Start Enjoying your console right away.
With the release of The Ultimate Wii Guide you will be
provided with the knowledge of setting up your own home
wireless network to get your Wii connected to internet
in matter of minutes.

The easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions lets even
the most non-technical beginner succeed without
contacting any expensive technical support.

However wireless networking is just a small potion of
what the Ultimate Wii Guide goes through.

Furthermore it also involves configuring the all Wii
options correctly, using Wii channels and a Online gaming
guide.

One thing that people find a bit hard to figure out is how to
connect their consoles through the internet and play against
each other. This and a list of rated online capable games are
thoroughly explained and rated in the guide.

Learning how to create your own custom Miis like Darth Vader,
to use as audience or players in games is a really cool feature
that’s included.

There’s a lot more valuable information in the guide like
all the secret tips and tricks and a homebrew chapter for hacks
like the use of the twilight hack.

One unexpected topic was the streaming video from your PC to Wii,
even if it’s not as good as the xbox functionality. It’s still
useful to know the possibilities.

In overall a well made guide packed with valuable information and
the bonuses included are also of high quality:

If you’re having trouble with your Wii there’s a great troubleshooting
guide explaining common problems and error codes.

Mario Kart & Super Smash Mario Bros. Brawl Tactic guide is another addition
that takes up the tricks to win over your friends in these popular games.

Want to have fun loosing weight, use your Wii and follow a training program
that will turn your exercising into an enjoyable experience.

These are just some of the features in The Ultimate Guide.

To read more about The Ultimate Wii Guide click over the image below……

Wii Game Controller         

Technology & it’s Limitations

I’ve been to E3 five times and had no plans to go again this year, but that all changed when I found out I would get to play the with Nintendo®’s Wii first hand(DOH!). No one was more excited to check out Nintendo®’s revolutionary new controller than me, since the day it was announced eight months ago I knew that the technology was going to change the way games are played forever. So now that E3 has come and gone it’s already obvious that Nintendo® owned the show. The line to get in and play the Wii was like no line I had ever seen at E3, spanning half of the entire hall and breaking every record with it’s four plus hour wait time. The buzz is all over the net, the new controller lived up to all expectations…or did it? The last thing I want to do is get in between Nintendo®’s fans and their new console, I can see the death

“What I don’t like is that the way the Wii controller works depends a lot on how close you are to your TV. If you are five feet away it feels one way. If you are 10 feet away, it feels completely different.” – Will Wright

threats already. To clarify, I am a huge Nintendo fan, and in fact XGaming’s official stance is that Nintendo is our game company of choice. Several of the XGaming staff including the President of the company and myself even own Nintendo stock (NTDOY). We all have said all along that we strongly believe Nintendo® is going to change the way games are played forever with the Wii. Nintendo® has told us all along that this was a new technology and that ‘ the console’s controller can detect its exact location and orientation in 3D space’ with ‘pixel-perfect accuracy’. This lead me and many others to believe that this was like some sort of 3D grid in the room that the console could detect exactly where it is, and in what position it is in. That if you laid the controller on the floor and started up the system, it would know that the controller is on the floor. You might liken this to the Motion Capture technology used for animating characters in games. But after playing the new controller, it was apparent very quickly that something was not quite as I expected. It was when I stepped up to play Red Steel and the slightest left or right movement would make the cross hair jump all the way to the edge of the screen. I felt like an idiot for a moment as the guys peering over my shoulder watched me looking around erratically. But then a Nintendo® rep came to my rescue and told me to take 2 steps back and aim the controller at the sensor bar stuck to the bottom of the TV set…whoah!… that’s better. Immediately I was in control and taking down thugs with shotgun shots in their proximity. I mean it was working, but it wasn’t like I expected it to feel (like a 3D air mouse). That’s when I began asking questions, and got an idea of how it actually works. There does not appear to be new technology at work here, but rather the culmination of two existing technologies used in a new way: “The Wii controller hides beneath its glossy exterior a number of cutting-edge technologies. The peripheral uses an accelerometer and a gyrometer to measure motion and tilt, and likewise utilizes both infrared and Bluetooth technology to interact with a sensor bar (placed near a television) and ultimately to send information to the Wii console.” – IGN First you have an IR (infrared) output from the sensor bar that is seen by receivers in the front of the controller to detect where you are pointing it (photo proof: IR LED’s can be seen with a digital camera, but not seen by the naked eye). Like a remote control for your TV, so long as it is within range of the IR reader, it can tell where about you are pointing it on the screen. But if you get too far from the sensor bar (or aim the Wiimote too far away from the sensor bar, or get too close as I did with Red Steel), it will lose the signal completely. (For you projector owners out there like myself, this means that you may need to mount the reader bar in the center of your screen or on a table in the middle of the room to play it.) The second technology that brings it all together is the use of motion sensors. This could be accomplished with the use of Gyros, as Nintendo did buy a sizable amount of shares in the company Gyration, Inc back in September of 2001. But we do know it does use iMEMS® solid state accelerometers that detect motion by way of acceleration which were provided by Analog Devices, Inc. and/or STMicroelectronics. After much prying around at E3, I was told (by Nintendo’s Developer Support) that there are three accelerometers at work in the Wiimote. There are also at least two accelerometers used in the nunchuck add-on to detect motion in it as well. The Bluetooth in the controller sends the IR pointing data and motion sensing data back to the Wii console. The Duck Hunt clone demo used only the IR technology, and would in fact work without the motion sensing technology at all (I confirmed this with Nintendo’s Developer Support at E3). The only difference is that the original NES light gun in a sense took a photo of the screen when you pulled the trigger to see what you had hit, whereas this new IR light gun technology uses the IR LED’s to determine where you are aiming. This allows it to work on projectors, LCD’s, Plasma displays, and even VGA. It could even work with no TV at all, though you could not see what you were aiming at. The LCD TopGun uses this exact same IR technology, and works on all displays. If you are in the market for a light gun for your XBOX, Playstation 2, or PC (works with MAME!), I highly recommend it. The racing game Excite Truck and the Airplane demo at E3 used this motion sensing technology exclusively, and will work even if you unplug the IR sensor bar completely. This technology is by no means new, accelerometers were used in a product in 2001 that XGaming used to sell called the Cyberstik (or VRJoy), and back in 2000 Microsoft had a big failure of a product with the same tech called the Sidewinder Freestyle Pro. Accelerometers are quite inexpensive at around only fifty cents each, so there is no reason that Wiimotes should cost any more than any other gamepad on the console front. (UPDATE: $60, ouch!). They also work quite well for tilt sensing. Both of these technologies could move a mouse curser on the screen in any direction. The difference is that the accelerometers are not accurate enough be used for pointing alone (or play an FPS game with.), they only measure acceleration. The IR aspect however picks up this task for aiming on the screen. When you put these two technologies together, for example in Red Steel, the IR tech is being used to aim and, look with the Wiimote. But when you get to the sword parts of the game, the IR tech stops working and the accelerometers now detect the direction you move your hand to swing the sword. Those of you fortunate enough to have played it may have noticed that in Red Steel you could only slash the sword in eight directions, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, there was a screen explaining this in the game. I’m not so sure that true free-hand 1:1 sword fighting is even possible with just accelerometers, except as seen in Star Wars Trilogy arcade light saber fighting, by tilting only. We’ll see. While the IR tech can aim relatively well, it is not as pixel-perfect accurate as a mouse. This means that FPS games will not likely be better played with the Wiimote than a mouse for accuracy, though being able to point and shoot at an enemy may still be better overall. And while the accelerometers can detect motion, it cannot tell exactly where the controller is in 3D space nor exactly how much you have moved it. This means you will not be able to control the next Fight Night on Wii by punching like a real boxer in real time. Alas, virtual realty has not arrived to this extent just yet. (UPDATE: Or has it? On May 11th (the day I was asking Nintendo® all of these questions at E3!) a new alliance with PixArt Imaging Incorporation was announced that will provide “sensor tracking for Wii Controller”. “PixArt’s Multi-Object Tracking™ engine (MOT sensor™) technology can track multiple objects in an unbelievably quick and responsive way. As a result, Nintendo® can enable its new gaming controller to interact with people by tracking the movement of the Wii Remote.”) I am not saying that the Wii will not be awesome, I still believe that Nintendo will win this console war. But it is clear that the Wiimote cannot ‘detect its exact location and orientation in 3D space’ with ‘pixel-perfect accuracy’ with the technology it was using at E3. UPDATE: “The Wii controller hides beneath its glossy exterior a number of cutting-edge technologies. The peripheral uses an accelerometer and a gyrometer to measure motion and tilt, and likewise utilizes both infrared and Bluetooth technology to interact with a sensor bar (placed near a television) and ultimately to send information to the Wii console.” And on technology difference between the nunchuck attachment as opposed to the Wiimote: “It’s pretty simple, really. The nunchuck features motion sensory capability, but it lacks the Wii-mote’s added pointer precision.”- IGN UPDATE 2: Nintendo’s official Wii site has opened with more info on the controller. They confirm the use of accelerometers in the Nunchuck: “The Nunchuk controller and the accelerometer contained within it are the next leap in gaming.” That being said, they also state that: “Both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers include a three-axis motion sensor.” This would lead one to believe that both the Wiimote and the Nunchuck use the same sensors, confirmed as accelerometers. They also have a visual breakdown of the different functions of the Wiimote controller, notice that the “Wave” and the “Point” are two separate functions. Also of interest is the use of the word “Wave” to describe the movement portion of the controller, the way the sword-swinging worked at E3 could best be described as reading fast waving movements rather than true freehand control.

For further information about the controllers have a look at the images here and above.

Japan Gets Its Hands on Sexy Black Wii

August 1 14th July09

Although I was all over the white gadget craze awhile back (and still kinda am), I gotta say, you can never go wrong with a sexy black gadget. Or in this case, a sexy black Wii console. And guess what, you guys totally agree. Finally getting a Japanese release date of August 1, the black Wii comes with the standard nunchuk, and a bit more mystery with the darker hue. Also, I think the glowing blue light looks amazing against the shiny black console. Although I’m smitten, I don’t know that I’d throw down for a whole new gaming console since it’s essentially the same product, just in a different color. But I guess I should hold my tongue until they hit the states — you may just see me waiting in line like the gadget hound that I am.

16th July 09 Nintendo is releasing a whole new Wii, it’s far far different than the old Wii. This one is shiny, new and all black. None of that bright white will be featured on this Wii, it’s gotten a bit of a makeover. They’re probably trying to make it appeal to the hardcore gamers, because everyone knows jet black consoles are far cooler. There’s probably some scientific reason behind it, I hear even the Xbox plays better when it’s painted black. Alright, so that’s all bull, but you have to admit, the Wii is looking pretty good covered in all black. Not that the pearly white didn’t look good, but it’s a refreshing change. This black console is being released in Japan actually, as of the first of August. They had mentioned they would eventually be releasing this black console, but now that it’s getting closer they’re showing off the new packaging. There isn’t a release date for the rest of the world though. Actually, they aren’t really saying much of anything about whether or not they’ll ever release it so that the rest of us can buy one too.

A general overview of Wii Fit.

Wii Fit was thought to be a wonder product when it first came out, it was the first of its time, and of course everybody wanted one. I must admit that I was among those people who yearned for one. When I first tried it out, I was in awe, I could do loads of really cool activities. There was LOADS of yoga poses to try out, and I spent the first week of the summer holidays constantly doing the same poses, and practicing muscle building exercises. But after that week I had unlocked all of the poses, games and aerobic activities the novelty started to wear off. I was bored, and now there was nothing much to look forward to. My wii fit age was younger that I was, and really there was no reason to do it anymore. The exercises that are meant to help you burn fat don’t tire you at all, so you begin to wonder, why did I spend £125 for diddly squat? Once all of the yoga poses have been mastered you can do them in another room, and there is no need to bother going to the sitting room and doing them on a ballance board. The same goes for the muscular exercises. The advantage of Wii fit is that some of the exercises are relatively fun, and you can do some exercise when you are watching T V. you can pick 10 minutes, 20 minutes or a maximum of 30 minutes to do some ‘Free Steping’. You just keep doing some assorted steps from the step aerobic class. You can alter the pace, which a beat sound comes out of the remote. You can do the same thing for jogging, but however this will not burn off as many calories as simply using an exercise bike whilst watching the television. If you are only want to get fit, I would recommend using the money that you would spend on this on either a treadmill or a good exercise bike, and cycling or running instead. The results of this are also much more obvious. Wii Fit is a good way to have fun with some friends, and the yoga can be done with some friends, so if you’re looking for a fun time, I would definately recommend this product, but I would not recommend it if you want to shed some extra pounds or get fit, spend the money on a gym membership or a good exercise machine!

Brain Fitness with Wii: Alzheimer’s treatment?

In Central Florida Nintendo Wii is not just being used for fun.  Sure kids play all the typical video games on the now ubiquitous console, but adults are taking more and more interest.

Get fit on Wii fit, lose weight, get in shape tone your body.

One of these adults is Walter Braun.  He is experiencing early memory loss and is using Wii Sports as a means to stimulate his brain.  The game controllers are not left or right specific, so Walter can switch hands while playing and challenge both sides of his brain.

Peggy Bargmann is the coordinator of the Brain Fitness Club in Winter Park, Florida.  Many members are seniors who have Alzheimer’s or early onset dementia.

Could this be part of a new holistic form of treatment for patients afflicted with memory loss?  Nintendo is certainly hoping so.