One step closer towards making Wii U homebrew a reality. This console could be used as a PC + Drawing Tablet combo. Perhaps a Skype client, given that Microsoft is a rival company and most likely never make an official one (I know Miiverse has a video chat functionality, but ~95% of my skype contacts don't have or use a Wii U). I'm looking forward to hearing more advances on this topic. Kudos to all those guys who make this possible without asking any money in return. Thanks to NL for this info, too.

I also reiterate that I condemn any and all attempts, successful or otherwise, to play pirated games using homebrew.

Oh and, guys? That you don't care to understand why any average Joe would want to know how the Wii U works doesn't mean that nobody should care. Not to mention this requires a lot of technical expertise, time, patience and effort.

I don't want to buy the same thing again just to play (all over again) in (pixellated) 1080p and with 1/3 extra content. So, as much as i liked the original, no thanks.

I see this getting published in tabloids, stirring up debate in some countries and irreversibly damaging some people's perception of Nintendo being a family friendly VG company.

For less greater debates have arisen.

Yeah Nintendo, keep it up.

My guess is that it'll be a Sylveon 3DS LL (XL).

Pretty "meh" update for my tastes.

"Even worse, their pride gets in the way, preventing them from learning from overseas developers. As a result, they end up staying in the domestic market rather than going global."

Sounds familiar? Or is he just joking?

Ha, nice one NL!

I'm still saving up for Fire Emblem and Harmoknight and Luigi's mansion come out on sunday. First, there weren't any games for 3DS... Now i can't keep up...

Hopefully something similar will happen to the Wii U.

@sak904: Sadly, the two are often together and the conversation can leap from point A to point B any moment. Even if one can use them to make texture mods (like Mario 64) or some other hero-swapping mods we have seen here on this very same site, some use them for running unauthorized-by-nintendo, still being sold on new consoles (only some of them though), old-cartridge-memory-flash dumps, the so-called ROMs.

Being the emulator disguised as a legit application, and being it the Apple Store, i'm surprised these kinds of mistakes still happen to them. We're not talking about dissasembling the code or something, but this could have been effectively avoided by something as simple as checking the file size. Didn't they suspect anything when it's just a name generator? Assuming the emulator was downloaded along with the ROMs and not until the secret interface was acceded, Either A) Someone was not doing their job properly or B) Apple's App Store mods are just elitist snobs.

Ditto. I will redownload nintendo video, then. Even when it's free it's been a while since there was new, interesting content in there. Add in the fact that the extra data takes up good space on the stock 2GiB SD card, and it resulted in me wanting to delete it every time i opened system settings until i finally did it - Not that i have a better content to replace it, though, it's just to free up the space and stop downloading the same content i have already viewed many times before.

@Slapshot First of all, I recognize this text is sightly biased against micro-transactions. But I also think you completely missed my point.

Apps that cost little are given that price tag because they will have more revenue later, and with ads the income will arrive regardless if the user downloaded a free app or paid pocket money for it, and that's a legitimate business model. However, by paying $60 I expect a full game experience, not an incomplete or excessively hard one that can be just easened, and nothing more, by paying even more money. I'm not necessarily applying those labels to DS3 since I have played it and have seen they are completely optional. It's the approach titles like Angry birds took where like i said, if the user pays the game pampers them, that could make micro-transactions dangerous to players' perceptions: "I can just buy my way through any game". It might be also dangerous to the creation of original content since, and i'm quoting EA, they just can sell a truck, a gun, or whatever it might be for more, easier profit.

You also seem to have conveniently dismissed the rest of my text, where i give my thoughts on why the DLC and online multiplayer fees approaches are a lot better IMHO. But maybe you're right, EA can, must, should and will have all the greed it wants just because it means money and more money, and this is what is certainly damaging their image with, at least, some commenters on this site.

What does the US government have to do with Spain, Mexico, Brazil and China? The recommendation was to the US government to these countries to follow? Really? Like... Really? Is the United States government the fairy grandmother or something?

Put in very simple terms: WT*.

EDIT: Oh, and this: "Possibly the most bizarre thing about this is that many of the recommendations have not even been carried out on US soil. While copyright holders are demanding illegal sites be blocked in foreign nations, people in the US can gain access to these sites without any issues."

"...there's something a little worrying about a concept originally conceived for the smartphone/tablet space being increasingly shoe-horned into the conventional gaming market. "

This. Thanks, Thomas, for getting the point across. You can't begin to charge on 60 USD games what you charge on 5 or 10 or freebie, ad-supported, smartphone ones. Like Angry Birds, so can now customers buy their game-through experience? So nowadays,for EA, if they pay a lot the game pampers them, just because casual gamers are the latest trend shout?

Take fire Emblem, for example. Its DLC content is amazing and it can breathe new life on old games, but buying it all isn't an option for most people. Hardcore fans and rich people can afford that, but even if the content offered is good, a game is still just a game. There is a limit on how much a customer can spend on a game before moving on.

Things are a bit different for most people if that DLC is offered for Mario Kart 7 or similar games. Do you know what makes "those" games similar? Solid online gaming, which adds a lot of replay value. You can gather with your friends anytime and play, near or far. (But then there is Microsoft charging just for letting gamers use their servers.)

How about Nintendo begins to offer a premium Mario Kart online service offering every single track, item and character in existence for a fee? And that server is connected to Nintendo IDs, with cross-console points, times and records? Something like the pokemon global link but with Mario Kart, and paid.

But there is this problem called "people are not made of credit cards and internet money." Say i'm interested on buying something from the eShop, have enough real cash in my hands, but i'm a student and don't have a credit card. What do these international, renowned compaties wanting money and more money have to say? Greed? "I have this gold mine and must leech from it the most i can?" (Just putting a non-realistic example that never happens.)

@MathChamp:

In your third point it seems you the verb.
Also, recall that at least the PS3 was way, way pricier back then.

Better if this has an open HUB and vast worlds to explore, a la Mario 64 & Sunshine. While i really enjoyed the gameplay, I didn't like being somewhat limited on Galaxy.

@RPGShaymin Read the article and you'll find out

Following the X&Y cromosome theory, and considering the eeveelutions are coming in pairs, i think this is a female evolution.

But is so PINK... I know japanese girls like this かわいい thing and this eon probably makes them go nuts and buy merchandise. But, c'mon. This isn't even cute. It has a bow with ribbons hanging all the place, then another bow with even more ribbons hanging all around the place, and it's TOO pink even for being female (Not in japan, there is never enough かわいい it seems). And if this thing can be male, now they have done it.

And here i was thinking the gears that evolve into more gears, or a trash bag that evolves in a bigger trash bag, or an ice cream that evolved into bigger ice creams were the worst pokemon designs.They come up with a Y-shaped flying thing... A wooden squirrel thing and then... This pink thing. What follows? http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/yugioh/images/f/f3/MorphingJar2DB1-EN-R.jpg http://magiclampoon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/Inmato.jpg

I miss G/S, where new pokemon were actual animals or cool concepts, or even both (Misdreavus, Mareep, Unown... Lanturn... freaking Feraligatr...) The only fifth gen pokemon i could defend were the Litwick evolution chain... And i'm afraid the rest give me the "What's that thing?" feeling. (Excepting the obvious animal look-alikes, like Vullaby)

Note i'm not talking competitively and i know a caterpie can beat anything if certaing conditions are met, that unown is almost useless and whatnot. I'm talking about the designs.

@You maybe meant "circle pad pro support".

"Our love for the game blinded our business reasoning as it was about three times as expensive to license as a typical DS game at the time, ..."

Yeah. This statement effectively shatters all and every useless company talk.

That guy actually owns Nintendo playing card decks, and even several ones?

Four questions.

1. How much everything would cost nowadays?
2. How much everything costed him?
3. Just how much free time he has on his hands?
4. Has he played everything (Excluding, of course, some non-playable items)?

That commercial was banned and deemed misleading thanks to that "XPeria" label at the ending.

(Before someone takes this comment seriously: I know, i know. Just kidding.)

@Windy: Indeed, it would be really awesome if Nintendo accepted feedback. Make themselves a better company by providing better services for us all. It's a win-win situation, after all!

I love NintendoLife for not siding with anyone, voicing both arguments from both sides. Taking a neutral stance.

"I'm in the USA where credit cards are a first need article so i can buy in the internets all i want if i need repairs i can call by phone because they have offices in here and have then do what i want because i pay them so if you like videogames but live in Nairobi where you don't have eshop prepaid cards or even vg consoles though luck punk lol"

Ninty, make eShop cards available in Mexico. Thanks.

I have voiced my opinions on piracy several times now. My stance is pretty neutral, even if it may appear to be bad not siding with the "good guys, making stronger DRMs and more walled gardens" and not being against pirates, who "obliterate billions and billions of dollars in sales".

I believe it will help if developers are aware that Nintendo has really built self-destructing security measures into 3DS/WiiU, and that ways of running "not authorized" software on these systems ("pirated games" or otherwise) simply don't exist to date. It will help sales and will stop rants about "how easily the DS was pirated, and (I THINK) the same numbers apply to the 3DS". We're in the internet era, use your favorite search engine. I assure you it's not that hard.

I love NintendoLife for not siding with anyone, voicing both arguments from both sides. Taking a neutral stance, too.

P. S. As we all are aware, NL also has some rules to follow. Thank you.

@Nibelit: No. The wii has homebrew, yet you're not spammed by WiiConnect24, are you?

Yes, it is beyond me as to why some retail downloads cost more than retail cartridges on the MX eShop.

@KawaiiPikachu: Your comment really makes me wonder if you really read the article.

First of all, what the heck is Dementium? It's seriously the first time i've heard of that.

Second. Blaming piracy nowadays is the solution for every developer's lack of money, it seems.

See Tomorrow Corporation's bold moves. Those guys didn't increase DRM on Little inferno even knowing the high piracy rate of World of Goo: 82%. Did they got angry, yelled, ranted and flailed like angry monkeys, blamed piracy, and stopped making fun, weird little games? To give this a little more perspective, those guys are no big company. (Source: 2D Boy http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/ )

And for those of you guys not following what i mean: I don't say piracy is right, developers are working for a living. But let's be realists and not just say: "If piracy didn't exist i'd make just anything and then i would be filthy rich just because." Goodbye Galaxy is taking an objetive approach.

One of the main issues of piracy is this: If you construct a wall, you get paid for that wall and that's it. But if developers make software, some of them want to profit without measure from that. (Bringing more complexity to the table, since you can copy software pretty easily: developers wanting to sell more and more, blaming piracy for the fact they lose non-existant money and customers that simply want everything for free). Tomorrow corporation, IMHO, is taking the right attitude since they are winning over their people.

(My take applies for indies. Nintendo makes a whole lot of money so they can afford more infrastructure, paying lots of security professionals for protecting said infrastructure that in turn is giving lots of more people work.)

EDIT: @AlGator: That second paragraph is a delight to read. Because of DRM i lost all my data and savegames when transferring from the stock 2GB to a 32GB card, even when every file was copied verbatim. Savegame and other exploits are a hassle to the developers, but when security measures are a hassle to end consumers compromising performance or funcionality they are useless, period. (for example, the "sandboxed" security mode Adobe Flash Player has that makes it incredibly sluggish. Another topic that could be discussed another day or googled.)

And no matter how convenient buying downloads may appear, should i lose or break my 3DS having spent over twice the handheld's price on games that i know beforehand i can't recover, based on my currently owned games, i seriously wouldn't buy another one ever again. (That's why i haven't bought or will buy in a near future retail games on the eShop, no matter how hard they advertise this to me and think carefully what eShop games i buy, aside from the fact i have no credit card). They really need a secure yet reliable account system.

End of colossal wall of text.

Bulbasaurusrex: Except that world is colossal and days aren't like in TLoZ: OOT. It would be frustrating otherwise.

A main version for Wii U. That would be incredible. Otherwise, more tries to milk people for money and I will officially hate Game Freak.

@Retrogamer22: Every region on a single game would be incredible, but a little overwhelming for the newcomers IMHO.

What is this? This isn't news! It's just some photos of a game boy ca...

Sees title screen, remembers the space-invaders like game

Sees the box (and the photos' convenient labels: Box. Back of box.)

Sees the freaking RECEIPT dated freaking 1998

...Okay.

@Tsuchiya: I really think it was about the wii emulation mode, not Wii U software. These consoles are pretty robust. Moreover, both the 3DS and the Wii U are programmed to self-destruct if you try to tamper with them, and they say it clearly on the box. And as we already know they aren't cheap.

Haters are hating. And Marcan is at work. All right.

I personally believe him at this field, so i'll take these numbers as true. Moreover, what he said about being three PowerPC 750 cores, the same as the Broadway Wii processor but with more cache memory, sounds right considering Nintendo created the Wii U stacking several Wii consoles together according to another, previous article posted here at NL.

Also, clock cycles mean nothing. It's all about resource and development kit optimization.

@Lan: For the first line, yes, the Wii U is being hacked in the sense that they are using measures not authorized by Nintendo to gain direct Hardware access. For the second and third line, well said.

@Jumpy: Let's be objetive here. Being the Wii a simpler console, how many credit card numbers have been stolen to date? And the Sony network is truly indestructible, sensitive info has never been stolen there. Oh, wait: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20058513-83.html

To all the people up there calling him all sorts of stuff, losing hope on humanity and whatnot:

I's for fame. More precisely, internet fame. It's not about destroying it. It's about destroying it, FILMING it and UPLOADING it to the internet, so people can watch it and make internet articles about the video, and then for a lot of people to comment on it, generating a lot of traffic. He's much less of an idiot when he has ads on the video. Ah, yes. Let's not forget that eBay URL.

How much money does true internet fame cost, without directly paying for ads? Money alone can't buy it. Doing this, on the other hand, can. But probably you already knew all of this.

Really, guys. Why not stop pointing out the money and his mental capacity, and notice that resulting pile of toxic waste instead? Why is the IQ and the cash only?

The first paragraph is very well worded. As a defensor of legal homebrew (media players, book readers, organizers) fair enough.

Damned freemium apps. Even if it's from Nintendo itself.

YES!!

ahem ...Sorry.

@HarmoKnight: If you are worried create another eMail just for the Nintendo ID that you don't share with others. Also, I seriously doubt Nintendo would allow brute force attacks on accounts to get passwords, not to mention they take a lot of time and resources... They will get caught before breaking in. (SOURCES: I'm currently in the university majoring in computer security.)

And... Hacked consoles that FORMAT data (do you even know what to format is)? What are you talking about? The 3DS is pretty hard to mod, i can assure you the Wii U will be as robust.

Other basic security measures can help, like a strong password: longer, upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Man, it's vital to know all that when on the internets, be it you are a "techie" or not. If people can guess your account number... Then don't put six ones as a password next time...

"It's understandable that some will say, "I don't buy a new system to play old games", which is fair enough. That said, it's surely a welcome extra. While Nintendo understandably wants to earn money from older generations via its Virtual Console (we expect GameCube on the Wii U eShop, eventually), it's an act of generosity to provide the means to play your most recent catalogue of games at no extra cost. "

Bravo. I almost cried.

If my 3DS gets stolen or it breaks, i can kiss goodbye all my eShop games. This is the strongest and main reason i will still prefer solid cartridges that i can touch, insert and play, lend, and sell. They are much more expensive than 3DSware, I can afford to lose a 3DS and one cartridge, but it will really, really hurt if i have a decent collection (I'm on my way, i have 7 different retail games, 4 of them are available for download). Think of it when IBM introduced the hard disk drive eliminating punched cards, when people was afraid to have data that couldn't be touched, but without the benefit of copying it elsewhere. (Games are tied to the 3DS they were bought, i can copy them to a hard disk but still lose them if i don't have my current handheld.)

If they make an account system that can recover my games and save data, that worry will go away and i will go digital with retail games sooner than i can say it.

Now, if that "Nintendo ID" is only meant to be used with the Wii U, and what i say will still be a reality for quite some more time, then i can happily buy more and more little, white boxes even if i am missing download codes (that by the way i'm missing anyway for they are US and Canada benefits only, thanks again for that) and whatnot.

Not paying for music is not necessarily equal to pirating. There is grooveshark, you pay for a suscription... Other cloud based services that stream your files (you know, the ones you get ripping a CD you own)... And there is also free, creative commons music. Or public domain music. My favorite. Without need of paying fees of any kind.

Question... Do these wiimotes use AA or proprietary batteries?

IMHO... The whole problem boils down to stereotypes. Boyish and girly, casual and hardcore. These words used thusly are angering people who identify / do not identify with them for whatever reasons. Erase them and try again.

Does the european shop gets updated every monday or thursday?

"...For every Angry Birds and New Star Soccer, there are countless derivative works which simply rip off the efforts of others for easy gain. It's one of the main reasons why mobile gaming leaves a sour taste in the mouths of many 'traditional' players."

+1. Pretty good statement, pretty much true.

Your regular traditional gaming vs. mobile games battle.

Oh, and talking of battles... What a uninspired excuse for making cash.

EDIT: And there is also this: "to apologize the poors grammars and the english that is because in the past from the translator by language the original". One thing is to write your awkward english on internet forums. But to write it on commercial products and sell your suckiness... With sucky products... Epic fail.

YES! This is good news, indeed! This is the only eShopgame i own (a friend of mine bought it for me since i don't have a credit card) and while it can get pretty frustrating, it is really, really polished. More levels? In my Mutant Mudds i already own and have beat? YES! Way to revive a game!

It will be kind of unnecesary to write this, but here it goes:

OH YEAH!

Such a cool box...

Well, this is minor compared to the terrible lag in multiplayer. I hope they fix it...

Uh yes. FFCC: My Life As A King DLC is really an insult.

For me, it will be actually cheaper to buy it digital. 40 USD ~= 528 MXN. At retail it's at somewhere between 750 and 800 MXN.