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LOS ANGELES–At its press conference on Tuesday, Nintendo will officially unveil its next-generation console, the Wii. It is expected that executives will demonstrate the console’s full set of functionalities, which is known to include the now-famous "nunchaku" motion-sensing controller. The company will also likely reveal the official titles of previously announced first-party games, such as Super Smash Bros. and Metroid Prime 3, as well as possibly revealing some new Wii titles.

Today, though, some of Nintendo’s press-conference thunder was stolen when the first copies of Time arrived on newsstands. The May 15 issue of the magazine has a lengthy article on the Wii, titled "A Game for All Ages," by technology correspondent Lev Grossman.

Grossman traveled to Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto, Japan and was shown the Wii by legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. The reporter was especially impressed with the Wii’s controller. "It’s part laser pointer and part motion sensor, so it knows where you’re aiming it, when and how fast you move it, and how far it is from the TV screen," he said. "There’s a strong whiff of voodoo about it."

More importantly for Nintendo fans, the Time article revealed several key pieces of information about Wii games. First, Grossman described playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii. "Now I’m Errol Flynn, sword fighting with the controller, then aiming a bow and arrow, then using it as a fishing rod, reeling in a stubborn virtual fish," he said. While Nintendo confirmed the much-anticipated GameCube title would have some Wii functionality, this is the first official description of what that functionality is.

Time also revealed the existence of not one, but two previously unknown Wii games. First up was the first next-generation installment in the popular WarioWare series. While he didn’t give a title for the game, Grossman did describe its gameplay in detail. "In one hot minute, I use the controller to swat a fly, do squat-thrusts as a weight lifter, turn a key in a lock, catch a fish, drive a car, sauté some vegetables, balance a broom on my outstretched hand, color in a circle, and fence with a foil," said Grossman. "And yes, dance the hula."

Besides discussing how the next Madden NFL game will play on the Wii, the reporter also describes playing an unnamed tennis game. "The controller becomes a racket, and I’m smacking forehands and stroking backhands," he said. "The sensors are fine enough that you can scoop under the ball to lob it, or slice it for spin. At the end, I don’t so much put the controller down as have it pried from my hands."

via gamespot.

Nintendo said yesterday that the next-generation game console it has been developing under the code name Revolution would be given what the company believes is a revolutionary name: Wii.

Pronounced "we" — or in the French market, "oui" — Wii replaces what had always been a working title for Nintendo’s new system, which will go head-to-head with Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 console and Sony’s coming PlayStation 3.

Sony announced last month that it was delaying the release of its new machine until November. Wii is expected to go on sale about the same time.

The name was developed over six months in Japan.

A Nintendo spokeswoman said it was meant to indicate that "Wii is a platform for everyone — not just the gamer or the nongamer."

The dual "i" is intended to suggest Wii’s game controller, a tall, thin white unit reminiscent of a television remote control. Used with one hand, the controller is motion-sensitive: players will swing the remote to simulate play in a golf or tennis game, for example.

"NGage and Gizmondo are cool names," said Michael Pachter, a research analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, referring to previous products aimed at gamers. "But consumers relate to the coolness of the product, not the name."

Games for the new console are expected to be previewed next month at the Electronic Entertaiment Expo, the annual video-game trade show in Los Angeles.

via nyt.

The latest issue of PSM has revealed new details about the PlayStation 3. While CNN’s Chris Morris claims that Sony won’t announce a price for the PS3 at E3 2006, PSM says the PlayStation 3 is expected to sell for about $399 in the U.S., €322 in Europe and ¥45,965 in Japan.

The magazine also claims that the console will come standard with a 60GB, non-removable hard drive.

For those who care about backward compatibility, PSM also revealed that PSO and PS2 games will run on the PlayStation 3 in 720, 1080i and 1080p.

The magazine also confirms some info we already knew. First, all games will come in Blu-ray Disc media and there won’t be regional lockouts. Second, the launch line-up, as well as the final design for the controller, will be revealed at next month’s E3 expo.

Finally, the console will launch in the first half of November with the PlayStation Network Platform service launching simultaneously with the console and offering free online gameplay.

via teamxbox.

With 6 million subscribers, each of whom pays $15 a month, Blizzard Entertainment’s online game "World of Warcraft" has become a billion-dollar enterprise.

Now comes the hard part: Making sure WoW is always up and running. Some players are angered by ongoing server problems that have led the game to crash without warning while they were playing. Complaints have also surfaced about long lag times and frustrating waits to even play.

Despite Blizzard’s contention that it’s been keeping WoW customers informed of system problems at all times, some players contend that the company has been slow to react to complaints and reluctant to offer support when problems arise.

According to players, the problems have been especially acute since Blizzard implemented its last major patch to WoW, in late March. At that time, the company acknowledged it had some temporary server problems but said they’d resolve themselves within hours. But some players say that ever since then, they’re routinely encountered "urgent maintenance" that can result in being booted from the game at any time.

"Being a system administrator myself, I have some understanding of what goes on in a corporate data center," said Evgeny Krevets, a sometimes-frustrated WoW player. "I don’t know Blizzard’s system setup. What I do know is that if I kept performing ‘urgent maintenance’ and taking the service down without warning for eight-hour periods, I would be out of a job."

Blizzard blames some of the problems–such as the disconnection, for several hours on Friday, of players linked to several servers–on AT&T, its network provider. (AT&T did not respond to a request for comment.)

It also argues that online games like WoW that have to manage hundreds of thousands, or millions, of accounts, are simply prone to network issues.

via C|NET.