Famous game designer Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo has officially announced that they are currently working on new hardware, and has confirmed the rumors that Nintendo has a secret project in the works. As of right now there’s no further information, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what the new product could be. Could it be the long-rumored HD Wii? Another upgrade to the DS Lite? Or is it something completely different, which will become the next home console? The rumors have been circulating for quite some time, but Miyamoto’s announcement has finally given those waiting for more Nintendo products hope. The full story is on 1up.com.
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On the subject of a rumored HD Wii, Netflix VP of Corporate Communications Steve Swasey echoes the words of Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime in saying that HD is not necessary for Netflix’s services nor the Wii. Swasey argues that Netflix and the Wii are already enormously popular, despite their lack of HD support (most of Netflix’s content is not available in HD). This full story is also available on 1up.com.
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Shigeru Miyamoto has attributed his inspiration behind the last Mario platform adventure (not counting New Super Mario Bros. Wii), Super Mario Galaxy, to a pet hamster he was baby sitting during the game’s development. Miyamoto was concerned about the difficulty of navigating and controlling Mario while in space, especially with the concern of semi-realistic gravity coming into play. Observing the activities of the hamster inspired Miyamoto to break down many of the environments and planets Mario visits into spheres, which allowed for easy control and transfer between worlds. Read more about it here.
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Namco Bandai is looking to cut 10% of their workforce; an estimated 630 jobs. The publisher has a projected fiscal-year loss of $343 million. They attribute this huge loss to a fall in software sales, and cite Tekken 6 as the only release to have succeeded expectation-wise. Full story here.
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