“But the signs are that the Wii has peaked in terms of console sales, and its installed base will begin to decline after 2011,” said Mercer. “Meanwhile, Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will continue to grow, so that the PS3 will become the largest platform globally by 2013. In terms of cumulative lifetime sales we expect the PS3 to hit 127 million units, compared to 103 million Wiis.”

Read more of his heresy after the break.

The mother claims that the girl picked up her stepfathers .380 caliber pistol and shot herself in the stomach. The mother told law enforcement that the daughter “could have” mistaken the gun for a Nintendo Wiimote.

The story goes on to explain that the stepfather took out the gun because he had heard a prowler. Then — because he is so protective of his family — he went to bed and left the gun on the table where the girl eventually found it.

Hit the cut to find out what we think of the results.

If you hadn’t heard, Harmonix officially announced Rock Band 3 earlier today. And after plenty of deliberation, I decided it was a good time to rattle off a wishlist of gameplay elements I’d love to see make the cut in both Harmonix’s new game and the inevitable Guitar Hero 6. To me, tracklisting worries have become progressively less relevant as the music industry clamors to revitalize itself through these games. It’s more important to focus on the ease of use at this point. After all, a few seconds of menu fidgeting can bring down the buzz at a house party very quickly.

Although everyone’s casting a gloomy forecast for music and rhythm games in 2010, I’m looking forward to both efforts — after all, it’s not like I played every band-branded Guitar Hero game — and sincerely hope that we’ll see some of the following features implemented:

Personalized Playlists — Look, my wife hates AC/DC. It’s claws on a blackboard to me when she wants to play The Cranberries. It’s only going to hurt more when Rock Band Network gives us new songs out the wazoo. Personalized playlists are a great workaround for this. I’m sick of yelling “shut up and sing, dammit” every time “War Pigs” randomly shows up during Career Mode in Rock Band 2. Yes, I’m a terrible husband, I admit it, but that’s beside the point.

Not Just Custom Playlists, the Ability to Toggle Tracks — I want the option to toggle songs on/off of playlists, but not my hard drive. I don’t want to delete songs, I just want more control over what a “random setlist” defines. (read: no Fallout Boy, ever). And yes, this ties into Career Mode, since it’s pretty annoying to randomly encounter some song that’s utterly repulsive or is “Say It Ain’t So.”

Support for Multiple Vocals — Not every band has the pipes of the Beatles, but I’d love to see the next iterations of Rock Band and Guitar Hero boast support for multiple singers. Harmonix has set expectations for vocal harmonizing with The Beatles: Rock Band, and it’d be a pity to see it trimmed from future iterations. Between the likes of SingStar and Lips, there’s room for multiple mics. Unless you’re playing on Wii, but then, I have no easy solutions for that. A better USB hub, perhaps?

Universal Calibration Settings — I’m glaring at you on this one, Guitar Hero. Amidst a year of market saturation that threatened to kill the genre, and none of those four major Guitar Hero SKUs share the same TV calibration? Insanity. Nothing kills Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero’s awesome Party Mode feature like spending 20 minutes noodling around in menus.

Instant Calibration Feedback — The only thing arguably more irritating than the lack of universal calibration is the inability to immediately test it out. Instead, I’ve got to backtrack through several menus, wait for the song to load, miss a litany of notes, and…derp. An option that lets me immediately tweak a song, then jump back in, is most desirable at this point.

Disc Swap — SingStar’s been doing this for years. If Guitar Hero is going to restrict the amount of songs per-disc I can slap on my hard drive, why can’t GH6 recognize tracks from prior releases and load them up?

Nearly three years after Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, are there any major gameplay or interface tweaks you’d like to see make the experience go smoother?

According to a source close to Develop, Sony’s motion controller will include a Wii Nunchuk-ish add-on in addition to the standard wand controller. This isn’t terribly surprising given that the duel-wielded controls lets developers add an entirely separate layer of movement and control to their games. Plus, thanks to the Wii, developers have had a few years of practice with this kind of control scheme, so making the transition to the PlayStation 3 should prove relatively painless.

At this point though, nothing has been officially announced, so don’t put all of your money in Arc-nunchuk futures just yet. Hopefully, Sony will make everything perfectly clear in the coming days.

Source: Develop

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé has said that the company’s not yet “thinking seriously” about a Wii successor.

“… When the software developer comes forward with an idea that can’t be executed on the current platform, that’s when we start thinking seriously about the next system,” the executive told Forbes. “We’re not there yet, from a Wii perspective.”

read more

Elaborating, Wright said that all consoles will have a “specifically defined niche” and that Nintendo actively decided to approach the Wii in a different way. He stated that Nintendo opted not to directly compete with the hardcore sensibilities of FPS-heavy consoles like the Xbox 360. “I think it’s kind of cool that they decided to go off and find a different sandbox to play in,” said Wright, “I think it’s been very good for the industry.”

Hit the source link for more excerpts from the interview.

Will Wright on the Wii’s toy-like sensibilities originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA Sports’ “Season Opener” event at GDC contained one major announcement for the developer’s bevy of franchises: EA Sports Active will receive the sequel treatment this Fall with EA Sports Active 2.0 (working title), an updated version of the exergame for the PS3, Wii, iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. The console versions of the game will come equipped with two motion sensors and a heart rate monitor the player can strap to their arms and legs.

User information in this new game can be shared over an online social network, allowing fellow players to keep track of how frequently you’ve been skipping out on your demanding workout regimen. EA Vancouver is reprising its role as developer for the title. We’ll let you know when we hear more about 2.0 — like, for instance, why the game is apparently skipping out on launching on the 360.

EA Sports Active 2.0 coming this fall to Wii, PS3 and iPhone originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new report from Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices has predicted that PS3 will eventually become this generation’s bestselling home console.

Key to this will be the system’s lifespan – the report predicts that PS3 “will still be a commercial platform five years after the Wii has been replaced”.

It forecasts: “Lifetime PS3 sales are predicted to reach 127 million units, compared to 103 million Wii units.”

read more

There aren’t any other details about Motion Controller implementation at the moment, but the game is slated for release on June 8 — well before the Motion Controller’s projected fall release. (And before you ask, no mention has been made of support for Microsoft’s Project Natal.)

It may be less flashy, but series fans may be interested to hear the game will also feature the Ryder Cup, allowing for two 12-man teams to face off against each other.

We say 12-man, but we guess it could be 12 women against 12 men, right? Heck, maybe even 12 women against one man. Can you imagine, one guy trying to keep up with all those women? We sure can’t.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 will be available on June 8 for Wii (with MotionPlus support), Xbox 360, PS3 and iPhone.

Tiger Woods 11 to support PlayStation Motion Controller originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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