The 10 Most Avidly-Played Wii Games In America (As Of March 1) [Wii]
At last, a new game on the list! Welcome back to Kotaku’s monthly look at the 10 most avidly-played Wii games, our so-called “measure of pleasure,” that charts which Wii games collect the least dust. Lego Star Wars has fallen to #11 thanks to the arrival of Harvest Moon: Animal Parade . People sure do like playing their Harvest Moon games a lot. (Click the chart to enlarge) For many months, the same games have appeared in this top 10, based on data pulled from Nintendo’s official tracking service of Wii users (full explanation of where the numbers come from below). The lack of a new entry has been disappointing, but understandable. These top 10 games each average more than 40 hours per person who plays them. Any new games have a long way to go before they reach that threshold, and some just don’t have enough content to come close. New Super Mario Brothers , for example, is only at 22 hours per player as of March 1. The surprisingly hot-selling Just Dance has been played, on average, just over five. The news this month, though, is that a new Harvest Moon, subtitled Animal Parade, has given its players enough of a fever. It cracks the top 10, with a 43-hour, 59-minute average playing time. Animal Parade knocks Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga off the list. That game ascended to an average playing time of 43 hours and 52 minutes, but was passed by the Animal Parade rocket. Expect Lego Star Wars, which continues to post steady play-time increases, to return in a few months, passing the stagnating or declining likes of Rock Band 2 or The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. Those games are hovering at close to 46 and 47 hours per player, respectively. In The Margins -One game that continues to bear watching is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition . The online multiplayer of Call of Duty: World at War has helped that 2008 Wii game to post high numbers on this chart. The 2009 Reflex edition isn’t Top 10 material yet, but in the past four months it has shot up from about 17 hours per player to 32.5, gaining 5.5 of its hours in just the past month. It has a shot of making this list someday. -Slow and steady but never successful enough to make the Top 10, Mario Kart Wii is about to reach the 37-hour mark. It hit the 36-hour mark over the New Year, making it one of the most-played games on the Wii. That is a great feat for any top-selling game, given how prone the top-sellers are to having some consumers drag the average playing time down. -No one asked, but Jeep Thrills rose from an average playing time, as of February 1, of 3 hours, 32 minutes, to, a month later, 3 hours, 35 minutes. Who even knew there was a game called Jeep Thrills? Where’s all this from? (AKA an explanation of the above chart for stat junkies only) : In a move somewhat surprising for the generally secretive company, Nintendo makes all of this data public. Any Wii owner can download the Nintendo Channel to their Wii and begin browsing for games. Any game that has been played enough times has usage stats listed for it, contributed by anyone who chose to share their data with the channel. The sample size that the channel tracks is pretty good, though it is obviously biased toward users who hook up a Wii to the Internet. We calculate that sample size by looking at Wii Sports usage numbers, which show that more than 98 million sessions of that game have been played by Nintendo Channel users as of March 1 (up 4 million in the last month), for an average of 29.66 sessions per player. That divides to more than 3.3 million Wii Sports users whose gaming has been tracked by the channel. Since almost all Wii Sports owners in North America would be Wii users, we will venture that as many as 3.3 million people have contributed stats. That is up from the 3.2 million people when these numbers were run for February 1. (October 09 data is not included on the chart due to a problem with Nintendo’s data reporting in the previous month.) See more here: The 10 Most Avidly-Played Wii Games In America (As Of March 1) [Wii]
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The 10 Most Avidly-Played Wii Games In America (As Of March 1) [Wii]
Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]
The benefits of the Wii and exergaming to patients in hospitals and elder-care facilities has been discussed nearly since the console’s release. Researchers in San Diego now say that Wii games can combat the onset of depression in elderly persons. A pilot study involving 19 subjects with subsyndromal depression – not full blown depression, but much more common, and more associated with functional disability and long-term hospitaliztion – found that participating in Wii games assisted with their symptoms. This is important because, while longer-term studies have shown that physical activity can abate one’s depression, fewer than five percent of older adults are actually capable of such activity. But playing the Wii, more than a third of the participants had a reduction of depressive symptoms greater than 50 percent. And many saw a significant improvement in their mental health-related quality of life and increased cognitive stimulation. Speaking as someone with a grandparent in an intensive assisted-living home, I can speak firsthand of the daily concern and empathy one feels for an elderly person who needs meaningful occupation or stimulation throughout the day, just as much as any adult 50 years their junior. When someone – especially someone with a lifelong love of learning – is cognizant but has difficulty seeing; and still curious but hard of hearing, giving them books or DVDs or CDs about even their favorite subjects isn’t as useful as much as it is a reminder of what they can’t do, and may not ever recover. The victories provided by video game alternatives may not be meaningful in a developmental or intellectual sense, but they can be something different, and something to look forward to. My grandfather politely declined to play the Wii at his retirement community, and now, haggling with him to try it might be a bridge too far. I do wish he’d tried it though. Knowing what I do of his physical and occupational therapy, it’s just as goal-oriented, physical in nature, and capable of reward. Video Games May Help Combat Depression in Older Adults [Science Daily via Game Politics ] View post: Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]
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Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]
Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]
The benefits of the Wii and exergaming to patients in hospitals and elder-care facilities has been discussed nearly since the console’s release. Researchers in San Diego now say that Wii games can combat the onset of depression in elderly persons. A pilot study involving 19 subjects with subsyndromal depression – not full blown depression, but much more common, and more associated with functional disability and long-term hospitaliztion – found that participating in Wii games assisted with their symptoms. This is important because, while longer-term studies have shown that physical activity can abate one’s depression, fewer than five percent of older adults are actually capable of such activity. But playing the Wii, more than a third of the participants had a reduction of depressive symptoms greater than 50 percent. And many saw a significant improvement in their mental health-related quality of life and increased cognitive stimulation. Speaking as someone with a grandparent in an intensive assisted-living home, I can speak firsthand of the daily concern and empathy one feels for an elderly person who needs meaningful occupation or stimulation throughout the day, just as much as any adult 50 years their junior. When someone – especially someone with a lifelong love of learning – is cognizant but has difficulty seeing; and still curious but hard of hearing, giving them books or DVDs or CDs about even their favorite subjects isn’t as useful as much as it is a reminder of what they can’t do, and may not ever recover. The victories provided by video game alternatives may not be meaningful in a developmental or intellectual sense, but they can be something different, and something to look forward to. My grandfather politely declined to play the Wii at his retirement community, and now, haggling with him to try it might be a bridge too far. I do wish he’d tried it though. Knowing what I do of his physical and occupational therapy, it’s just as goal-oriented, physical in nature, and capable of reward. Video Games May Help Combat Depression in Older Adults [Science Daily via Game Politics ] View post: Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]
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Study: Wii Can Alleviate Elderly Depression, Too [Exergaming]
Kotaku Originals: Rated C for Creepy [Original]
Impertinent remarks – calling Sony’s motion controller “Arc” and the ESRB’s bluntly accurate description of the activities in Dead or Alive: Paradise – highlighted our front page this week. Dante’s Inferno sneaked in underneath it. Our original news coverage: K Monthly – January 2010 Kotaku Talk Radio Top Stories We Shall Mourn The Following Xbox Live Originals Want The Heavy Rain Demo Right Now? Here’s How… Sony Cools “Arc” Name Motion Controller Talk Analyzing The Fallout: New Vegas Trailer The Games You Won’t Sell, The Games You Can’t Sell Latest Dante Stunt Buries ASCII Art In Our Source Code ESRB Explains “Creepy” Dead Or Alive Paradise Re-Rating; Tecmo Responds What’s Happened To Nintendo’s “New Play Control”? Reviews, Previews, Hands-On and Impressions Doodle Jump Micro-Review: Boing! Tournament of Legends Preview: Two-Fisted Combat Trenches Micro-Review: An Interesting Take on Tower Defense Starship Defense Micro-Review: The Most HD DS Game Crush The Castle Micro-Review: Fun With Trebuchets KrissX Micro-Review: Fun With a Purpose Blood Bowl Review: No Fun League Glory of Heracles Review: A Forgetful Adventure Brothers In Arms 2: Global Front Preview: Back To FPS MAG Review: World of Shadow Warcraft No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Review: Repetitious Rebel Columns Speak-Up On Kotaku: Press Start, Men Of Repo, Game Prices, And Avatar Effect 2 Features Romance With Disabled Girls: How (And Maybe Why) An Unusual Video Game Came To Be News I Will Now Attempt To Explain A Battle System Mario Vs Mario: How Three Wii Sequels Are Chasing Their Predecessors Capcom Kicks Out New Super Street Fighter IV Screens Better Scores: Musical Selections For Your Next Game Video Megadeth’s “Rust In Peace” Hits Rock Band Store Next Week Sega Offers Reasons Iron Man 2 Won’t Be Dreadful More Fist of the North Star Screens, Yes Already Dead Dead Space PS3 Is A Very Limited Edition NSFW: Behold! The Underboob Gladiator Lady Body Pillow What Happens On Xbox LIVE When You Press A+A+A How Does Konami Do Without Metal Gear Solid? Sony: PS3 Sales Up, PSP Sales Down You Should Relax About BioShock 2, No Freak Outs! So, How Did Mass Effect 2 End For You? Red Faction Guerrilla Sequel At E3 2010, Arrives By April ‘11 A Peek Inside Mass Effect Redemption #2 The 10 Most Avidly-Played Wii Games In America (As Of Feb 1) Will There Be A Last Guardian Announcement At E3 Or TGS? This Is Exactly Why I Hate Peripherals EB Games Pushing For Changes To Aussie Game Ratings After Mario, The Next Nintendo Wii Game With Depth Yup, Final Fantasy XIII Is Coming On Three Discs This Game Guide Cover Gets To The Points Namco Bandai To Cut Over 600 Jobs Nier Dated For Japan The Cutest PSP Bundle Of 2010 Quantum Theory Delayed To “Improve Quality” On The iPhone, GT May Not Stand For Gran Turismo Raven (and I) Need You! iPhone Chart Toppers: X Games and Spore Creatures Hit Xbox 360 Controller/Game Bundle, 250GB Drive Hit Japan Star Trek Week Why There Hasn’t Been A Truly Great Star Trek Game The Star Trek Influence In Your Games Phasers Set to Fun Star Trek MMO Log, Stardate 2010.02 As The World Becomes Star Trek … Building The Perfect Star Trek Frankengame Memories of Strange New Worlds, Strange New Ideas Sports 2K’s NBA Team Steals Key Player Back from EA UFC Undisputed Sells 3.5 Million Stick Jockey: The Replacements, Still Replaced in Video Games Art and Video Games John Romero Bows Before Gaming’s Masters Finding The Art In Video Games LOL Commander Shepard’s Toughest Choice Yet Nobody Noticed DJ Ravidrums in this Pic Death of A Wii Outreach 2010 Life Love Game Design Challenge Offers $2.5K Prize Continued here: Kotaku Originals: Rated C for Creepy [Original]
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Kotaku Originals: Rated C for Creepy [Original]
Nintendo Reveals Lifetime Hardware Shipment Figures [Nintendo]
Nintendo today released its financial results for the period between April 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. And after the money stuff was all done with, the company announced some lifetime hardware shipment numbers. Those numbers are as follows: Wii – 67 million DS (including all variants) – 125 million Nintendo also announced that 510 million Wii games have been shipped, while for the DS, there have been 688 million. Breaking that down region-by-region, it reads as follows: The Americas Wii – 32 million DS – 45 million Japan Wii – 9.7 million DS – 29.9 million Other (so, Europe and whatever’s left) Wii – 25.7 million DS – 50 million As for the financial earnings, things are looking a little less impressive, with net sales down 23.1% on the same period last year, operating income down 40.8% and net income down 9.4%. Excerpt from: Nintendo Reveals Lifetime Hardware Shipment Figures [Nintendo]
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Nintendo Reveals Lifetime Hardware Shipment Figures [Nintendo]
Nintendo Games Dominate Overall Wii, DS Sales [Business]
Sure, that headline reads like “sky is blue”, but retail data firm The NPD Group today released figures showing just how reliant Nintendo software sales are on, well, Nintendo games. For the 2009 calendar year, total revenue for games sold on Nintendo platforms was $3.23 billion. Of which Nintendo games constituted $1.53 billion. Or, 47% . In terms of unit sales, there were 72.4 million games sold on Nintendo platforms last year, of which 27.5 million were published by Nintendo. More of a discrepancy there, then, but that’s chiefly because Nintendo sold some expensive games (Wii Fit’s bundle in particular) while other publishers sold “bargain bin” titles. The data comes courtesy of industry analyst Michael Pachter, who provided further NPD details like: – Guitar Hero: World Tour was outsold by not only Rock Band 2, but Just Dance, Cabela’s Big Game Hunter, Deal or No Deal, The Biggest Loser and Jillian Michaels 2009 as well. – The biggest-selling third party games (as in, those not published by Nintendo) were Mario & Sonic, EA Sports Active, Lego Star Wars, Madden 10, Tiger Woods 10, Deca Sports, Game Party and Rock Band 2 – Dead Space Extraction was the 261st best-selling game on the Wii last year. For shame. Third Party Wii Games [michaelpachter@NeoGAF] Visit link: Nintendo Games Dominate Overall Wii, DS Sales [Business]
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Nintendo Games Dominate Overall Wii, DS Sales [Business]
British Sales Charts: Business As Usual [Britain]
Not much has changed in a week in the UK. Wii games keep on selling, Modern Warfare keeps on shooting and Just Dance just keeps on dancing. And at the bottom of the charts? Welcome back, Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s been a while. Hopefully Mass Effect 2 can cause a break in the weather, if only for a week or two. See the original post: British Sales Charts: Business As Usual [Britain]
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British Sales Charts: Business As Usual [Britain]
Nintendo Launches Budget Wii Label In Japan [Japan]
Wii games, cheaper! Nintendo is introducing the ” Minna no Osusume Collection ” (literally, The Everyone’s Recommendation Collection), a line of cheaper Wii titles. But does low price mean low quality? Nintendo is including titles with high user scores from the Wii’s Minna no Nintendo Channel for the relatively low price of
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Nintendo Launches Budget Wii Label In Japan [Japan]
Microsoft: Natal Focus On "New Original Games," Not Motion Control For Existing Ones [Ces10]
Microsoft says that it’s planning on bringing “entirely new original experiences to life” with the addition of Project Natal ’s controller free add-on later this year, not on reworking already existing games to make them Natal ready. When Microsoft first showed off the controller-free Project Natal tech at E3 2009, it did so with both new content—Milo, Ricochet, Paint Party—and existing games—Burnout Paradise—with new motion-sensing control. Later, Natal-ready versions of Beautiful Katamari and Space Invaders Extreme were shown at Tokyo Game Show. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg told Kotaku at CES that we should expect more of the former, the new, built from the ground up Natal experience than traditional content repurposed a la Burnout Paradise. “What we want to do with Natal is bring entirely new original experiences to life,” Greenberg said. “These are going to be brand new original games and brand new entertainment experiences that never existed before. Because there’s nothing else like it, developers are going to be making brand new content for us.” That said, Microsoft is open to all possibilities when it comes to Natal implementation. “There may be some opportunities over time, where because you have millions of sensors in living rooms, that there may be elements of games that will integrate Natal into it,” Greenberg added. It’s unlikely that Microsoft would frown upon Natal integration in, say, the upcoming Xbox 360 game Halo: Reach, as developer Bungie has hinted at in previous interviews, later clarifying that it wouldn’t do so until it “makes sense.” “If you were going to make a Natal game, it probably wouldn’t be Forza 3,” Greenberg said. “So what would be a fun racing game that you would play controller-free would be different than what you would play with a steering wheel or controller.” What Greenberg doesn’t foresee is a batch of motion controlled Wii games cleaned up and recoded to be Natal games. “Because we are doing something completely original, I don’t think you will see Wii games ported over,” he said. “That’s one of the nice things about not doing the motion sensing controller, we’re going to have original concepts.” “When you think about games and new experiences that will appeal to people that maybe have never played games before, I think you do get into a new category with the types of experiences we think about,” Greenberg noted. “I don’t think that puts us in a Wii category, because we’re still a high-definition console, we still have the online community—Live will be very much integrated into these experiences—so I think there’s a lot more richness that we’re able to bring to life with it. I think the type of games will be different.” And, at this stage, Microsoft is focusing on those game being traditional retail games, not Xbox Live Arcade games or Xbox Live Indie Games. Greenberg also says that we should think about Natal being used beyond games, including “lifestyle experiences, entertainment experiences and the ability to navigate the dashboard.” “It’s not just about playing games,” he said. Visit link: Microsoft: Natal Focus On “New Original Games,” Not Motion Control For Existing Ones [Ces10]
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Microsoft: Natal Focus On "New Original Games," Not Motion Control For Existing Ones [Ces10]
Kotaku Originals: On Topic [Original]
This week saw the debut of Kotaku’s overnight off-topic discussion , aka Our Excuse to Talk About S—t Like the A-Team . Crecente and McWhertor in Vegas still helped keep the rest of the site on-topic for original coverage this past week. Kotaku Talk Radio Reviews, Previews, Hands On and Impressions Super Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition S Hands-on Trajectile Micro-Review: Testing Your Talent For Precision Demolition More Hands-on Details From Xbox 360’s Game Room Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot Micro-Review: A Very Long Engagement Cold Stone Creamery: Scoop It Up So You Don’t Have To Darksiders Review: Harbinger Of The Apocopylypse Columns Well Played: Oh What A Year Stick Jockey: A Picture Worth More Than Words News Death by Cube Ready To Kill Xbox LIVE Separated At Birth: Borderlands And CodeHunters Mass Effect 2 Debuts In Mass Effect: Redemption Target To Offer $99 “Video Game Setup” Service Ninety-Nine Nights II Dated for Japan The Harvard Lampoon Skewers Twilight, Sega The Bravest Game, Mistakenly Neglected What We Want From The Next Nintendo Handheld Capcom (Try To) Back Away From Anti-Wii Comments Yes, Alan Wake Is Getting DLC Ar tonelico III Rolls Out The Manly Lady, Voiced By Pikachu! Xbox 360: 39 Million Consoles Sold, Only Half Are On Xbox Live Will The Michael Jackson PS3 Bundle Get Western Release? Xbox Game Room To Feature “Over 1000″ Classic Arcade Games Project Natal Launching This Holiday Season Microsoft CES Liveblog Left 4 Dead 2 Vs. The Motion Control Apocalypse Toobin’ Controller? Super Hang-On Motorcyle? What isn’t Mad Catz Working On So, Who’s Behind Microsoft’s New Game Room Service? Sony: Nearly Four Million PlayStation 3’s Sold Over Christmas Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers Review: The Big Book Of FF Activities Sony CES Liveblog Bach Explains To Be Announced Xbox Game Room Microsoft To Announce “Xbox Game Room” At CES [Update] Reader Makes His Own Bayonetta Collector’s Edition What Parents Think Their Kids Learn From Video Games Pink PSP Blossoms In Japan Fist of the North Star Dated Dated, Already Dead (And Dated) Five Ways Japan Can Stop Game Industry Shrinkage GOD EATER Eats Up Over 1 Million Demo Downloads This Is It, The Michael Jackson PS3 Bundle Is Google’s Nexus One A Gaming Contender? Bayonetta Review: To Infinite Climax Action And Beyond Modern Warfare On Wii Hooks Players, If Not Big Sales… Yet The History Of Video Game Art In Reverse Japanese Hardware Sales Tally 2009’s Top Five Selling Games in Japan In 2009, Japanese Game Market Shrinkage Continued What Will Be Gaming’s Next Hot Destination? There Are Responsible Parents Out There Japan Celebrates Christmas By Buying Many, Many Wiis, DSis Think Of It As James Cameron’s Beyond Good & Evil The 10 Most Avidly-Played Wii Games In America (As Of Jan 1) iPhone Chart Toppers: Zombies Won’t Die EA Shutters Online For Selected Games, Including Madden 09 Master Chief’s Dancing Spartan Parade Twilight Freakout, Guido Names and Fist Bumps Link: Kotaku Originals: On Topic [Original]
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Kotaku Originals: On Topic [Original]