Nintendo: The Wii has stalled.

Friday 30th October 2009 - 17:00


CEO admits lack of great games has hampered commercial success plus two new tunes available for DJ Hero and Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time screens



In a remarkably candid statement the boss of Nintendo, CEO Satoru Iawata, has admitted that the Wii, once the pack leader in the three horse console race, has stalled as a result of weak software support.

"Wii has stalled," Iwata told Japanese gaming site Andriasang.com. "We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool."

He further explained: "We were unable to show a new game to become 'the next thing'. In the game market, once you've lost the momentum, it takes time to recover."

"With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time," he continued. "We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year. "In order to reach our sales target, we'll have to move quite a large quantity, but it's a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning."

We can't help but agree with what the Nintendo boss has announced. The Wii has been blighted with far too many 'me too' games that offer little more than motion sensitive gimmickry at the expense of all-important gameplay. Let's hope the forthcoming Legend of Zelda title redresses the balance.

Meanwhile, living room legends and budding superstar DJs alike who have already started the party in DJ Hero can now add to the 93 mixes available with two new downloadable tracks: 50 Cent featuring Mary J. Blige "All Of Me" mixed with Queen's "Radio Ga Ga" and "DARE" by Gorillaz vs. Public Enemy's "Can't Truss It."

Activision has also revealed that also joining the mix, on November 24th, will be a three Mix Pack from one of the hottest house DJ's in the world, David Guetta. David Guetta Mix Pack 01 will contain remixes of his tracks "When Love Takes Over" featuring Kelly Rowland, the chart-topping "Sexy Chick" featuring Akon and "On The Dance Floor" featuring will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.

We round off with a few fresh screenshots from some of our favourite PS3 double acts Ratchet and Clank in their brand new PS3-exclusive adventure A Crack in Time. Players can control both Ratchet and Clank as they attempt to reunite and save the universe. Each will have new abilities at their disposal such as Ratchet's Hoverboots, which allow him to travel at high speeds and soar to new heights around the galaxy. With all-new Clank gameplay, players can utilise special time-manipulation abilities in an effort to thwart Dr. Nefarious, one of the franchise's best-known villains who is attempting to control time itself. The game is in the shops today and we predict it'll do very well in next week's charts.