Valencia, Calif. – (March 5, 2008) — Independent game developer WayForward Technologies announced today that its forthcoming game LIT will make its debut exclusively on Nintendo’s upcoming download service, WiiWare. LIT utilizes the unique features of the Wii to bring a tense and unnerving adventure to the Nintendo Wii audience.

“This is the first time in recent memory that our team has felt the freedom to begin experimenting on consoles outside the confines of established IP, budget, or publisher dictates,” said John Beck, CEO of WayForward Technologies. “The scope and business model for WiiWare really make this possible.”

LIT is a 3D horror puzzler set in a dark high school overrun by creatures. The game follows Jake, a below-average student and the game’s protagonist, as he makes his way through each classroom, utilizing what light he can find to create safe paths across the darkness. Jake’s objectives are to escape his school and reconnect with his girlfriend, Rachael, who uses the school’s phones to keep in contact with him. LIT combines environmental puzzling with horror combat and boss battles to create a uniquely unsettling Nintendo Wii experience.

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“Street Fighter IV, as it stands now, would be well-suited for the higher-level platforms. But the game doesn’t have to have these visuals in order to be fun. We could go, potentially, to the Wii. We could make it on Game Boy, for all we know right now. As long as the rules are the same, that can be independent of the visuals. So we’re not going to be limited by any hardware specs; we’re going to aim as wide as possible. You could have a gold-inlaid board, knights with diamonds in their eyes. Or you could just draw a grid on a piece of paper and use cheap plastic pieces. And you’re having the same amount of fun.” - Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono

I have been saying ever since I saw the first screens of Street Fighter IV that it was going to come to the Wii. I really hope I am right, I am a big fan of the Street Fighter franchise.

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Randomized Dungeons, Online Features Fuel Latest Mystery Dungeon Adventures

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 26, 2008 – Ever wondered what it would be like to become a Pokémon? With the April 20 launch of Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness for Nintendo DS™, hand-held gamers will soon find out.

In this pair of action-packed adventures, players journey as actual Pokémon through a fantastic land untouched by humans. Before the game starts, players take a test to help them figure out which of 16 Pokémon best represents their personalities. Players then experience their adventure through the eyes of a Pokémon as they explore the land and embark on an epic journey through time and darkness. They talk and team up with other Pokémon to set out on an epic voyage while navigating an endless array of randomly generated dungeons.

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Unravel Mystery, Secrets and Brainteasers in a New Nintendo DS Treasure Hunt

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 11, 2008 - Move over, Sherlock Holmes! There’s a new Brit in town. The Feb. 10 launch of Professor Layton and the Curious Village™ brings a world of riddles, secrets and brainteasers to the portable Nintendo DS™. The puzzle-filled game provides hours of mind-bending game play, thick story plots, funny, eccentric characters and a double murder-mystery.

In the curious village of St. Mystere, a wealthy baron passes away. His will reveals that a treasure is hidden someplace inside the village. Unable to locate the treasure, the baron’s family calls upon renowned archaeologist and puzzle expert Professor Layton for help. Upon his arrival, the search for the treasure is interrupted by the suspicious death of another member of the family. Now with two mysteries on his hands, Professor Layton must work his way through the village’s many challenges to get to the truth.

“Professor Layton and the Curious Village combines a mix of clever storyline and brainy twists,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing. “Like the Brain Age titles before it, this new puzzle genre requires players to use their minds as much as their thumbs. The strong story, charming hand-drawn animation and fully voiced movies appeal to hard-core gamers and casual gamers alike.”

Players will tackle brain twisters ranging from mazes and riddles to logic and sliding puzzles as Professor Layton progresses through an engaging 19th century anime-styled mystery. Touch-screen controls make working through the game a snap for players of all skill levels. What’s more, for a limited time new puzzles will be available weekly for download via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection for extended replay value. The Professor Layton series is already a smash hit in Japan, where each succeeding game outsold the one before it. For more information about the U.S. game, visit www.ProfessorLaytonDS.com.

About Nintendo: The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.5 billion video games and more than 430 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere.

Nintendo Press Release

Last October a research company,Oricon, did a survey of 100 people, 250 people in their teens, 250 in their twenties, 250 in their thirties and 250 in their forties. They asked them which systems they owned? Here are the results of that study.

1. PlayStation 2: 62.3 percent
2. Nintendo DS: 55.4 percent
3. Super Famicom: 42.5 percent
4. PlayStation: 37. 5 percent
5. Game Boy: 34.3 percent
6. Game Boy Advance: 31.8 percent
7. Famicom: 28.3 percent
8. NINTENDO64: 25.4 percent
9. PSP: 17 percent
10. Wii: 16.4 percent

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Nintendo Game Boy
There’s no two ways about it: the original Game Boy is one of the hardest gadgets ever conceived. Rumour has it this beige behemoth isn’t made of plastic, but from the skulls of fallen Gurkhas. If you ever saw one that was broken, it’s because it lost a boxing match with a nuclear bomb — on points.

It was big, heavy, and the only colours it could show were black, green, and the blood of its victims. But it remains the only thing I’ve never cackhandedly broken. We were going to do a gag at the end of this feature where I endorse a massive pile of broken tech, but Game Boy has defeated me. Damn him. -Rory Reid

Its good to know that if unicorns relay do take over the world and destroy us all with their nuclear weapons, that our old gamboys will be safe.

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January 25, 2008 - A new platform has entered the family of classic consoles that makes up Nintendo’s Virtual Console download service. Sega announced today that it will begin shortly distribution of Master System titles on the service.

Sega currently distributes via the Virtual Console a large library of classics for its once successful 16-bit Mega Drive (aka Genesis in America). Master System is the 8-bit predecessor to the Mega Drive which was released opposite the NES and, while popular in Europe, failed to take the spotlight from the Nintendo console elsewhere.

In addition to games that were originally released for the Master System platform, Sega’s Virtual Console Master System distribution will also include titles for the Sega Mark III and Game Gear platforms. Mark III was a Japanese predecessor of sorts for the Master System. Game Gear was, of course, Sega’s answer to the Game Boy.

Master System titles will begin appearing on the Japanese Virtual Console some time in February with Fist of the North Star (600 Wii points) and Fantasy Zone (500 Wii points).

Sega also plans on distributing Master System titles on the Europen and North American VC services. We’ll have details as soon as they’re available.

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With the recent release of both American and European, Nintendo 4th quarter sales figures. We finally have some concrete numbers of total sales of of Jan. Trust me you will be amazed.

• Game Boy Advance - 80,720,000
• Nintendo DS hardware - 64,790,000
• GameCube - 21,720,000
• Wii - 20,130,000

As for the breakdown of territories, first the DS looks like this:

• 20,180,000 in North/South America
• 21,660,000 in Japan
• 22,940,000 elsewhere

And the Wii breakdown looks like this:

• 8,850,000 in North/South America
• 4,990,000 in Japan
• 6,300,000 elsewhere

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REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 17, 2008 – Nintendo DS™ and Wii™ finished strong in 2007, commanding sales in the holiday shopping period and finishing the year as the two best-selling video game systems in the United States, according to new data just released by the independent NPD Group. Nintendo DS was the top-selling U.S. system of 2007, with nearly 8.5 million sold, including more than 4 million in November and December alone. Wii placed second, with nearly 6.3 million sold through the year, more than 2.3 million of which sold in the final two months.

“By the end of 2007 we were sold out of virtually all hardware, and much of our stock of software and accessories was sold out as well, thanks to the broad appeal of Wii and Nintendo DS to core gamers, women, families, grandparents – and seemingly everyone in between,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing. “And that momentum continues here in the early weeks of 2008.”

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NINTENDO APPOINTS TWO SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVES TO BAY AREA OFFICE

VP and GM Bring Strong Credentials to Keep Nintendo’s Momentum Going

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 14, 2008 - Nintendo of America announces the appointment of two sales and marketing executives to work from the company’s new Bay Area office in Redwood City, Calif. Denise Kaigler joins as vice president of Marketing & Corporate Affairs, while Bill van Zyll becomes the new director and general manager of Latin America. Van Zyll’s appointment is effective immediately, while Kaigler starts Feb. 18. Both will report to Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing.

“Denise and Bill bring a wealth of branding and marketing experience to our team,” Dunaway said. “Their expertise will help us keep Nintendo’s momentum going strong throughout 2008 and beyond.”

Kaigler will oversee all aspects of corporate affairs, including corporate communications, public relations, government affairs, investor and analyst relations, and internal communications for Nintendo of America, and will play a key role in global coordination. Kaigler comes to Nintendo following a 16-year tenure at Reebok International, where she serves as head of Global Corporate Communications and Corporate Citizenship. She also serves as head of Corporate Communications in the United States for the adidas Group, the parent company of Reebok. Kaigler replaces Perrin Kaplan, who left Nintendo at the end of December.

Kaigler is an active participant in several professional and nonprofit organizations, including Bottom Line, an organization committed to helping low income, first-generation-to-college students get into and graduate from college, and go far in life. She is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, where she majored in journalism. Kaigler serves as a member of the Emerson College Board of Overseers.

Van Zyll heads Nintendo of America’s Latin America department, which is responsible for the creation, direction and implementation of short- and long-term sales, marketing, and operational strategies for Latin America. He comes to Nintendo of America after more than 15 years at the Whirlpool Corporation, where for the past four years he has served as Director of Finance for Sales for the company’s North American region. Van Zyll also served in other key international capacities, which included overseeing Whirlpool’s operations in Latin America, and brings his extensive experience in sales and marketing to Nintendo.

Van Zyll earned a master’s degree in business administration with a specialization in international business from the University of Miami and bachelor’s degrees in finance and accounting from the University of Arizona. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Dutch, and proficient in Italian.

About Nintendo: The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.5 billion video games and more than 430 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.