GameStop To Test Digital Distribution Game Strategy

by Shawn Oliver

Some may say that the physical disc still has a place in this world for years to come, and they’re probably right. But to say that digital downloads aren’t taking out a serious chunk of sales would be denying reality. iTunes alone has proven that digital downloads are capable of catching on,as Apple has already taken over Walmart as the world’s largest seller of music. That said, music has been tied to downloading for a long, long time. Napster was booming years and years ago, but people haven’t had the same kind of opportunity to grow used to downloading games. Of course, Steam has provided avid PC gamers with the ability to download titles to their hard drive, but console gamers haven’t enjoyed that same luxury.

All that could be changing. If you’ll recall, GameStop hired an executive to handle digital media back in August, and it seems as if the new hire has yet to take a day off. Just a few months after getting his new label from his new company, the famed game seller has now confirmed that customers who visit retail locations will “soon be able to purchase digital upgrades to their favorite video games.” The shift towards digital distribution will begin in full early next year, with a test in conjunction with Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network expected to give GameStop shoppers a new opportunity to enjoy more of their purchases (and spend more via a digital route).

This is also a move that makes a lot of sense for a company that has been built around a physical disc/B&M store model. Blockbuster failed to innovate while Netflix was gaining ground, and now Blockbuster is being forced to shut down stores as the competition from by-mail services eats up its market share. This is probably just the beginning for GameStop; we’re guessing that it will attempt to get in even deeper with console makers in order to slowly see more profits come in through digital. Here’s a glimpse at what exactly shoppers can expect starting in early 2010:

Under the program, a GameStop shopper who learns about a new level available for, say, a war or sports game could immediately purchase that upgrade. When the shopper arrives home, the add-on will be available to download and play.

“A large market for full game downloads is not imminent, (but) the add-on downloadable market will grow,” GameStop Chief Operating Officer Paul Raines said at the BMO Capital Management Digital Entertainment conference.

http://hothardware.com/News/GameStop-To-Test-Digital-Distribution-Game-Strategy/

Bringing back Mickey Mouse’s dark side

Click image to go to Gallery

by Daniel Terdiman

In a world in which Disney defines its brand and the content it releases under its own name as being aimed at the broadest possible audience, Mickey Mouse is known largely as a feel-good, happy-go-lucky cartoon character.

But that’s not how Mickey was in the early days. Back in 1928, when he first hit the world stage, he was a very badly behaved mouse. And now, one of the best-known video game designers in the world wants to bring back a little of bit of Mickey’s dark side.

And he’ll get his chance to make that a reality. Warren Spector, the game designer behind the Deus Ex franchise, is working on a new game, Disney’s Epic Mickey, which is being positioned, in part, as a “re-imagining” of Mickey Mouse.

Planned for a fall 2010 release, Disney’s Epic Mickey will be an adventure-platforming game exclusively for Nintendo’s Wii. The story is built around a world–crafted by the sorcerer from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice–in which a series of forgotten Disney creations live, and thrive. Among those characters is Oswald, Walt Disney’s earliest cartoon star. As the years pass and Oswald becomes bitter at Mickey’s success, Mickey inadvertently destroys Oswald’s comfort zone in the cartoon wasteland and he must face the consequences of what he has accidentally wrought.

“It’s a game where we remind (people) that Mickey is a hero who solves problems by dynamically changing the world around him and deciding how to interact with the people and places and problems he encounters in this strange new world,” Spector said.

In 2005, Spector formed a start-up, Junction Point, which Disney bought when it commissioned him to work on the Mickey Mouse game. “I’ve wanted to work for Disney forever,” he said, “so that was not a stumbling point for me at all.”

And because Spector is a lifelong Disney fan and animation “freak,” everything came together in 2007 for him and his Junction Point team to take on perhaps the best-known cartoon character of all time. On Tuesday, Spector talked with CNET News about the project.

Q: How did you get involved?
Warren Spector: I was out pitching a near-future science-fiction game and an enormous epic fantasy role playing game, and my agent suggested we talk to Disney. They turned things around and asked me if I wanted to a Mickey Mouse game, and I told them no, because I don’t do kids games and Mickey’s been kind of a kid property for a long time. But they said, No, no, we want someone to bring Mickey to a gaming audience in a whole new way and make him a hero for the 21st century. Pretty much at that point, I was in.

What was it like to get a chance to re-imagine Mickey Mouse?
Spector: How often do you get a chance to work with the most recognizable movie star character property on Earth? That’s an opportunity most people never get. There was pretty much no way I could say no. Mickey touches everybody, and none of us will ever meet a human being who doesn’t know about this character.

What’s the best-case outcome for this game, in your fantasy?
Spector: The best case is to change the way people think about Mickey Mouse. He’s not just your 8-year-old kid’s best buddy, or a character who teaches infants colors on Mickey’s Clubhouse. He’s a hero again. In his early days, he appealed to every body. From 1928 to the mid-1930s, moviegoers around the world, everybody, men, women, old, young, you name it. Everybody loved Mickey. And the opportunity to bring him back to that place, where he’s not just an icon on a watch or a T-shirt, but is actually a character that people care about in a narrative context, or want to be, to look up to as a character whose skin they want to inhabit for awhile, Boy, I can’t think of a better (challenge) for someone who tells stories and makes games for a living.

The logo for Disney’s Epic Mickey.

(Credit: Disney Interactive Studios)

Why does Mickey need re-imagining? And why now?
Spector: There’s these characters, like Mario and Link (from the Zelda games) and Sonic, and I don’t know if it’s true, but you’ve got to believe that those characters–who are three heads tall and cute and iconic–at some level were inspired by Mickey Mouse. So why shouldn’t Mickey be at the top of the gaming heap? Mickey deserves to be at the top of the game hero pyramid.

What are some of the things you’re doing to make this new Mickey recognizable for everyone?
Spector: I came into this with a pretty good idea of who Mickey was. I wanted to remind Mickey that it’s okay to be mischievous and badly-behaved. For so many years, he hasn’t been allowed to do anything remotely mischievous. But if you go back to those early cartoons, he was very badly behaved, and we’ve got to let him get back to that. And in his early cartoons, he was very cartoon-y, he squashed, he stretched. He could remove his tail and use it as a sword. That was the second thing. And the third leap was mischievous cartoon character made of paint. So we talked about what we could do if we gave Mickey control over the stuff that he’s made of and let him paint and then use paint thinner to remove stuff.

Were there other things that were essential for bringing Mickey to this medium?
Spector: One major challenge was finding a look for him, especially a 3D look. With a couple of rare exceptions, Mickey’s always been in 2D and the animators cheated all the time, with the way his ears work and the way his nose fits relative to the rest of his face. In 3D you can’t do that, so I looked at the few previous 3D Mickeys and I didn’t feel anybody had gotten it right. We went through probably thousands of concepts trying to find the right look.There are a lot of people at Disney who care a lot about Mickey Mouse, and so getting a look that people could get behind was tough. Rendering it in 3D was tough and then getting it to move like a cartoon character was a huge challenge and tons of fun, and you’ll tell me if we succeeded.

How much control did you have and how much control Disney assert?
Spector: I was really worried about that when I first started on this. There are lines you don’t cross with Mickey Mouse, OK? But the thing that surprised me was how far out those lines were and how obvious it is where the lines really are.

There are people who say, ‘Oh, give Mickey a big knife and put a gun in his hand, and then I’ll like him.’ Well, come on, nobody’s going to do that. And you’re not going to make Mickey evil, you know? And when you have an icon, where any combination of three circles defines Mickey Mouse for most people on the planet, you’re not going to make his head square. I’d say it was a pretty easily negotiated deal, creatively.

Talk more about where the story idea came from?
Spector: During a meeting with the Disney guys, they showed us a PowerPoint with the concept of cartoon wasteland, a world of rejected and forgotten Disney creativity. And the foundation was making Mickey relevant to a gaming audience and a modern audience. It was funny because I watched this presentation thinking, Holy Cow, this is phenomenal and the seed of an amazing thing. And then all the execs were saying, Oh, you don’t have to use any of that, this is just our think tank’s concept. And I’m sitting there, going, Are you guys crazy. That’s a great idea. Why would I not use all of that? I just thought it was so funny because they were trying so hard to make it clear that I had all this creative freedom, and I was like, No, I don’t want it, I want this as my starting point.

Can you tell me something about working with these famous Disney characters that would surprise us?
Spector: I think the thing that surprised me the most is how easy it is to get these characters almost right. It’s like, drawing Mickey or any other character in the Disney archives, they are so well known and defined and recognized and have such strong personalities that getting them 90 percent right is very easy. But that last 10 percent that just nails them, that’s really, really hard. And that goes for how they look, and how they act and how they move, which is one of the reasons why I was so proud of my animators. I didn’t tell them to do this. They came up with this idea on their own, of going back to the old cartoons, and rotoscoping them. They took the old cartoons and took our model and rig and then duplicated classic 2D animation, and composited our guy into classic Disney 2D cartoons. When you couldn’t tell if it was our model or the original 2D animation, that was when I knew we had it.

Why only the Wii?
Spector: At the beginning, it was supposed to be on all platforms. I remember vividly how nervous I was about that. The idea was we were going to do a Wii port and I was never comfortable with that because the Wii really deserves its own design, something that takes advantage of what the Wii does best. We were talking about this one day and (Disney Interactive Studios executive vice president) Graham Hopper basically said, What does it take to ensure quality? I said, you can never guarantee greatness, but you need enough time and money to be competitive and it helps if you can focus. A single platform would be great. And it was an easy step from there to, Hey, we should do a Wii exclusive.

What about the Wii “stalling?” Does that worry you at all?
Spector: Yes and no. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’ve had this saying, That I just need to sell one more copy of a game than is necessary to get my publisher to fund my next one. So I’m looking at this as, I’ve got a responsibility to Mickey Mouse and to Disney, and if I do something really good, commercial success will follow. I’ve got to believe that. And once you start talking about painting, people’s hands (on the Wii) just immediately start moving as if they’re holding a brush. It just totally works. I think we’re on the right platform.

Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10390179-52.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Diablo for loners: the story behind indie-hit Torchlight

Creating a new entry in the world of Diablo-style loot-fests that sticks to single-player may seem mad in this day and age, but Torchlight from Runic Games manages to pull it off. We discuss where the game came from, where it’s going, and why it deserves the buzz coming from all corners of the Internet.

By Ben Kuchera

Sometimes it seems like your friends list on Steam is completely taken over by a game, and right now PC gamers are enamored with a new, $20 take on the Diablo formula called Torchlight. This is a game with bright, attractive graphics, enough looting to satisfy fans of new equipment and weaponry, and… no multiplayer? Ars Technica caught up with Wonder Russell, the “Minister of Culture” for Runic Games, to explore what makes this game so special.

From the ashes…

The first question was a simple one: why ship a top-down loot fest such as Torchlight without multiplayer? The answer goes back to how Runic Games formed, and where the game is headed, along with an interesting culture at the developer that rewards playability. It starts with the closure of Flagship Studios, and the subsequent loss of all the IP that developer was working on. In the case of the team that would become Runic Games, they lost Mythos, a free-to-play MMO, right before it went into open beta.

“To lose a game you’ve worked on for years like that is heartbreaking, so first priority for us as a new team was simple: ship a game,” Russell explained. The founders of the company had worked on both Diablo and Fate, so they knew this genre inside and out—it was a natural fit. Sticking to single-player meant that they could focus on one thing and deliver it with a high degree of polish.

So they wanted something fast, in the vein of Diablo, but it had to be good. Those requirements rarely add up to anything worthwhile, but the strategy for creating the game left a lot of room for iteration. “The MO at Runic is to ‘always have a playable build.’ The game has been essentially playable weeks after its inception, and so everyone can play and comment and tweak—we have constant, daily iterations of the game, so playtesting really began a year ago and has only ramped up since then with our hardworking QA team,” Russell told Ars. They also invited the friends and family of the developers to come in and play to make sure the game was fun for the more casual fans. The goal was simple: to make the game fun to play, even if that meant focusing on single-player.

Torchlight should have quite the future ahead of it. “We are making an MMO version, due out in about two years. Torchlight with a co-op would be fun, but it just wasn’t feasible in our initial dev cycle, and even if we could add it at this point, we’d essentially be competing with our own game.”

Digital distribution makes life easier for indies

When it came to distribution, Runic cast the net wide. “We basically approached all the usual suspects—Steam, Direct2Drive, etc, and began setting up those partnerships and agreements,” Russell said. “There is definitely an ease-of-use and approachability with digital downloads that is a huge help to the indie developer, but getting the word out there that you have a game for sale that’s a lot of fun to play is always going to be the trickiest part of the business, especially for a small company like ours, with zero marketing budget.”

Luckily, the community around the game has done quite the job of evangelizing for them; a thread in our own forum has resulted in many buying the $20 game. That price point—and the low requirements—weren’t an accident. “The price point was really set with the idea of making Torchlight as widely available as possible, which we extend to our settings too; we don’t use shaders, and have optimized the game to even run on a netbook,” Russell explained. “We want your granny to be able to play if she wants to!” The game features three character classes, with around 20 hours of gameplay for each play-through.

That 20-hour mark is somewhat misleading, however. After you beat the game the first time, you unlock a never-ending dungeon as well as more quests to help you get to the level 100 cap. You’ll also be able to enchant an item and pass it on to your “descendant,” the next character you play with. Shared stashes allow you to pass items from one character to another; while you play with one character, you can be looting for everyone. “That way, if you are playing a melee character and find a great gun, you can keep it in the shared stash for your ranged character, rather than selling it,” Russell told Ars.

“We’ve made Torchlight to have extremely high replayability, the randomized dungeons, help too.” He also notes that they’re releasing the complete set of developer tools used to create the game itself. “We know the modding community is going to go crazy, and folks will be able to play with tons of new content, levels, monsters, and more.”

But is the game good?

In a word: yes. The addiction grabs you very quickly, and the ability to share loot as well as level your in-game pet go a long way to making this a very inviting game with a fair amount of challenge in the higher levels. The replayability is also very high, and the $20 price tag puts it into the realm of an impulse buy.

If you’re a fan of the genre, there really is no excuse not to pick this one up, and my mouse-finger is already itching to play more. It can be a lonely experience at times, but by sticking to what it knew and leveraging the best of PC gaming, Runic Games has created a high-quality title that’s worth the buzz. This is a keeper.

Follow the link for a Video clip of game play – http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/11/diablo-for-loners-the-story-behind-indie-hit-torchlight.ars

Nintendo president: ‘The Wii has stalled’

by Tom Magrino

Though it once appeared to be a tiny sales juggernaut, Nintendo’s top-selling Wii console has struggled in 2009. In July, the Japanese publisher reported April-June revenues that slid 40 percent from a year prior to 253 billion yen ($2.81 billion). Nintendo didn’t fare much better during its July-September quarter, saying Thursday that sales fell 34.5 percent to 548 billion yen ($6.09 billion) during the first half of its fiscal year.

Nintendo’s slipping performance has not gone unnoticed by the publisher’s president. As reported by Japan’s Mainichi Newspaper and translated by GameSpot, Nintendo executive Satoru Iwata told analysts and investors as part of a post-earnings Q&A that a weak software lineup has contributed to the Wii’s sluggish performance.

“The Wii has stalled,” Iwata said. “Games of high demand could not be continuously released and the good mood has chilled.” Iwata went on to note that it will be difficult to recover from “the slowdown in demand,” but he also expressed optimism over Nintendo’s ability to continue selling Wiis.

According to Japan’s Nikkan Sports (also translated by GameSpot), Iwata said during the conference that Nintendo misjudged market conditions as they pertained to the publisher’s sales strategy.

“The mood of the market got colder than expected, and there was a difference in expectations,” he said. “Now, we are preparing for next year and thinking about what to do the year after next.” Iwata reportedly went on to note that Nintendo is optimistic about its chance to right the Wii’s downward sales trend going forward.

Notably, reports have emerged that Nintendo is planning a number of enhancements to its console. Earlier this week, reports surfaced that Nintendo would be introducing Netflix’s online video-streaming service to the console, functionality that is already available for the Xbox 360 and will soon be introduced to the PlayStation 3.

Analysts and industry insiders also expect the publisher to launch an HD version of the Wii or an all-new system in 2010 or 2011 to better compete with Microsoft and Sony’s consoles.

As for Nintendo’s other hit hardware, Nikkan Sports reports that Iwata downplayed suggestions that the DS was losing ground to Apple’s increasingly ubiquitous iPhone. “Our presence in the marketplace is growing,” he succinctly stated.

Thursday, Nintendo also took the lid off its fourth DS hardware iteration, the DSi XL. The jumbo-size DSi, which features 4.2-inch screens, increased battery life, and a larger stylus, is expected to launch in Japan later this year for 20,000 yen ($220.50). The device’s North American and European launch is expected to follow during the first part of 2010.

Tom Magrino reported for GameSpot.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10387926-235.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

DSi LL: Nintendo supersizes its gaming handheld

(Credit: Nintendo Japan)

by John P. Falcone

Nintendo has taken the wraps off a new version of the DSi handheld that sports larger 4.25-inch dual screens. The portable gaming unit will be considerably bigger than current and previous DS and DSi models. It will be dubbed the DSi LL in Japan where it goes on sale on November 21 for 20,000 yen (about $220). In Europe, the unit will be known as the DSi XL when it appears on store shelves in the first quarter of 2010. Nintendo did not provide details on a possible North American launch.

Tor Thorsen has additional details on the DSi LL/XL at GameSpot. But, with the possible exception of some bundled DSi Ware titles, this is exactly what it looks like: a supersized version of the DSi. We’re still scratching our head as to who would actually want one of these, since we’ve always felt the pocketable aspect of the DS/DSi was one of its great advantages. On the other hand, many of us never expected Nintendo titles like Wii Fit to achieve megahit status, either.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10385975-1.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

 

Netflix streaming coming to PS3… via Blu-ray disc

By Jacqui Cheng

Netflix continues its domination of the video streaming market by partnering with Sony to bring its service to the PS3. The two companies announced Monday that Netflix’s “thousands” of movies and TV shows will be streamable to the PS3 as of November 2009, and at no extra cost to Netflix members. Though the implementation is a little less than ideal, the partnership will solidify Netflix’s spot as the go-to service for on-demand streaming.

The arrangement is “less than ideal” because PS3 users will have to insert an “instant streaming disc” into their consoles before they can take advantage of Netflix’s streaming content. The disc uses BD-Live, which allows Blu-ray discs to pull down content from the Internet—basically, the Netflix player won’t be native on the PS3 operating system, but will run within the device’s Blu-ray player software.

It doesn’t take a genius to observe that this is noticeably less polished than Netflix’s implementation on the Xbox, for example—content can be accessed through an Xbox dashboard application without the need to insert a disc or do anything that involves getting up out of that comfy dent in the couch.

As pointed out by Zatz Not Funny, this was probably to get the solution to market as soon as humanly possible, but may also have been chosen in order to avoid making Sony too much as a middleman. Either way, having to an insert a disc means one extra step that will take this feature from “welcome” to “slightly irksome.”

This may not be the case forever, though. The two companies predicated the news by saying that this would only be the case “initially,” indicating that the PS3 might still get native Netflix streaming sometime in the future. Indeed, this appears to be the case after we spoke with Netflix spokesperson Chris Garrity.

“Netflix members and PS3 owners have really wanted a way to instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix via the PS3 system. The instant streaming disc represented the fastest and easiest way to let them so this,” Garrity told Ars. “Late next year we expect to have an embedded solution available for PS3s via a system software update slated for release through the PlayStation Network.”

The move is not only meant to make PS3 fanboys happy, though—Netflix is also trying stay a step ahead of the competition. With online video giant Hulu considering charging for content—possibly on a subscription basis like Netflix—it’s possible that the two companies could be competing more directly in the near future. Netflix certainly has a distribution advantage, though, with its streaming content going to numerous set-top boxes already (Xbox, TiVo, Roku, and now PS3), while Hulu has repeatedly tried to shut out non-computer browsing from consoles and media centers.

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/10/netflix-streaming-coming-to-ps3-but-via-blu-ray-disc.ars

EA Puts Children’s Books On DS With Flips

Electronic Arts is launching a line of interactive children’s books for Nintendo DS it calls Flips, in conjunction with major UK publishers Egmont Press and Penguin.

Each title will include six to eight books, with titles like The Enchanted Wood, Artemis Fowl, and Too Ghoul For School, among numerous others. The interactive books use the touch screen to encourage kids to read by including interactive material like quizzes.

“Flips is a brilliant way of getting children into reading who may love their DS but may not normally pick up a book,” says Egmont Press director Cally Poplak.

“We are proud to be at the heart of this innovation and thrilled to be a part of this first collection bringing authors such as Enid Blyton to the digital world, and encouraging more children to take up reading for pleasure rather than seeing it purely as part of their homework.”

EA is hoping the new line will position it well for the holiday season, and at its London event, it told press outlets like GamesIndustry.biz that it hopes to score a top 20 placement on the DS charts.

“I would like to think that we can get into the top 20 at Christmas, which would be sales of – depending on how the market goes between now and then – between 2000 and 5000 units per week,” said Electronic Arts UK VP and GM Kevin Ramsdale at the event. “I would think that would be a very good place for us to be at that time.”

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25589

Review: Forza 3’s Rewind Button Redefines Racing Game

Actual graphics from the game

I know many folks aren’t into games (of the computer variety), but even so, it is impressive what they can do with the technology these days and the graphics (pictures) are just amazing.

You just slammed your Audi R8 into the racetrack wall. But it’s cool: In Forza Motorsport 3, you can rewind time.

Videogames are all about do-overs. When Mario makes a misstep, he can try to save the princess again if he has an extra life. But extra chances aren’t common in racing simulators. Screw up in Sony’s Gran Turismo and you’ll have to start the whole race again, spending another 20 minutes because of a single missed turn.

Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport 3, to be released Oct. 27 for Xbox 360, takes its inspiration from games like Prince of Persia and Braid, allowing racers to rewind time. Skid out of control, trade paint with another car or botch a turn in this new game and there’s a quick way out: Rewind to the moment you made your big mistake and give it another go.

Let the hard-core gamers scoff. They don’t have to push the button if they don’t want to.

Time in Forza Motorsport 3 is malleable, but not infinitely. Press the Rewind button and the race reels backward for exactly five seconds. Close is often good enough.

Forza 3 packs even more optional cheats for the casual racer, like the “autobrake” driving assist and a glowing guide that shows the suggested path and speed a driver will want to take through each of the game’s 100 real-world race courses. Forza 3 has three standard difficulty settings — the hardest takes fuel and collision damage into account — and a handful of sliders and switches that allow players to customize the game’s difficulty to their particular needs.

Customization is a core value with this videogame series. Forza 3 continues the tradition of allowing players to paint and decorate their cars, then sell, share or trade their designs online. And the tools are quite powerful: I was able to re-create Stuntman Mike’s custom ‘69 Dodge Charger from the movie Death Proof in an afternoon. There’s already a car decked out with the Ghostbusters logo available for sale in the game’s marketplace. And you can be sure there will be more than a few replicas of the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard for sale as soon as the game launches.

Developer Turn 10 Studios plans to launch a website where Forza players can share the clips and photos they create online. An option to kick the videos straight to YouTube, as you can in Noby Noby Boy, would have been nice, though, and it’s a shame the tools for creating videos aren’t as detailed as those you find in other games. Skate 2 and Halo 3, for example, offer would-be filmmakers much finer control over the angles and editing of their shared clips. I’d like to see Turn 10 add better tools as downloadable content.

But these perks are all secondary to Forza Motorsport 3’s main mission: to deliver a realistic racing experience with more than 400 licensed cars and 100 real-world tracks. Consider that a mission accomplished — or at the very least rewound and nailed again on the third go-round.

WIRED Rewind races to retry tricky maneuvers; lots of customization.

TIRED Hard to share custom cars and movies with those who don’t own the game.

$60, Microsoft

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/10/forza-3-review/

Next-gen Wii in 2011 suggests Square Enix chief

Nintendo regularly quash Wii HD rumors, but they keep on coming back.  Latest to reignite the speculation is none other than Square Enix chief Yoichi Wada, who has stuck his neck out and suggested 2011 as the launch window for the reworked console.  Wada tips the new Wii HD as having many of the features as the Xbox 360 and PS3, to which we’re assuming he’s referring to media-centric functionality.

He’s also predicting the possibility of a new controller, though his comments on upcoming motion-controllers on other platforms seems to downplay the importance of that.  ”Present game machines already have a lot of functions: they are a network terminal, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a gaming machine,” Wada told the Financial Times, “compared to these three pillars, the [new motion] controllers are quite limited, so the impact may be small.”

[via Joystiq]

http://www.slashgear.com/next-gen-wii-in-2011-suggests-square-enix-chief-2157457/

Clever Rain Barrel Holds Its Own Watering Can

Bas Van Der Veer

Some rain barrels are utilitarian and others are silly, but if you are going to attach something to the side of your house it might as well be elegant and practical too. Apartment Therapy shows Dutch Designer Bas van der Veer’s “A drop of water”- a “a rain barrel that makes saving water really easy by providing a watering can that is automatically filled when it rains. This way, the user doesn’t have to fill the can with our precious tap water, but uses ‘free’ rainwater instead to water the garden.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/clever-rain-water-barrel.php“