Our Blogophere 2 Podcasts coming to Cool Mario Media!

Hey, Guys. You may of heard of the podcasts I run at SBICD. One of them, our Blogosphere 2 is a gaming podcast. Now that luke is on the show, we decided to start putting them on Cool Mario Media too. Below is what you will see regularly every wednesday at midnight.
Oh, and be Sure to Subscribe!

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Our Blogosphere 2: Episode 3



Time goes by fast, my goodness! I cannot believe we are already on Episode 3. We stil lhave a few kinks to work out, but you can be sure we're working on it.
Anyway, In this episode Luke joins us from cool mario media! What a great addition to our panel. he bring an older-than-13-year-old opinion to our panel. He should be back every week.

Wii motion plus should be free!

I remember watching the live feed of Nintendo's press briefing at the Tokyo game show back in September of 2005; when they unveiled their new innovative controller that would capture player movement in 3-d space and put it on screen. Back then I imagined wielding Link's sword in The Legend of Zelda, or a lightsaber in a Star Wars game. Little did WE know that at that time the wii remote was not accurate enough to capture 1:1 movements.It took two and a half years after the wii's launch for Nintendo to admit the remote's shortcomings, and at E3 2008 they announced the wii motion plus accessory. We shouldn't have to pay for an accessory that is going to make the wii remote what it should have been in the first place. The wii remote+nunchuck combo (that is required in most games) already cost $60 per player. Come spring 2009 wii games will implement wii motion plus technology. By then, Nintendo should pack the accessory with every wiimote and system shipped. They could also make a wiimote 2.0 with the functionality built in. But for the people who already have the system they should be able to pick it up at little or no charge.
In a recent interview, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata said that "the cost of making the Wii Motion Plus is not that much."and that they intend to "make it very affordable".

Downloadable Content (DLC)

Let's Talk downloads.
Downloading content is a huge part of a systems onlice abilities, and downloading content seems to be deciding the future for not just gaming, but for normal software and updates. Take for example the iPhone App store, which has had over 10 million downloads so far.
As of now, on our current-gen consoles, we have 3 different ways of getting content. For the 360, there is XBox live arcade. For the PS3, there is the PlayStation network. For the Wii, is WiiWare (I don't count Virtual console, because those games are not new. they have all been previously released.).
All of these Services offer New Games, Old Games, Patches to disk games, and added features to disk games. Some offer movie rentals and downloads also. Soon to come in the future will be full games no longer in stores, but in online marketplaces.
Because downloading is coming fast into our future, we should start focusing on these services. I would say that, as of now, XBox Live is definitely winning. PlayStation network is following close behind. So, Why is nintendo in last place? I believe it is because of less core gamers on Wii. More People are going to buy the 360 or PS3 over the Wii, if they want to spend most of they're free time gaming.
What can nintendo do to catch up? Advertising. I believe that casusal gamers will downlaod games. Refrencing again to apple app store: 10 million downloads. a lot of those apps are games. and those games are things like Tetris, Bejewled, Labyrinth. So, if nintendo puts a little bit more marketing money (they have plenty) into WiiWare and Virtual Console, they could go places.
What can the others do to be better? Xbox Live already is. With a partnership with Netflix, and many more great games coming out on Arcade, they dont need to improve much more. Sony is trying to improve buy trying to actually put out good games on the PSN, and recently launching movie rentals/downloads.
What do you think about the State of the DLC? I'll be waiting for your opinion in the comments.

AiLive and wii motion plus

You may have heard about wii motion plus, which allows for 1:1 controls on the Nintendo wii, But You may not have heard of the company who partnered with Nintendo to make it, Ailive. Now Ailive has made a software development kit for game developers called live move 2. watch this!

Wow! amazing. This is how I imagined the controls would work when they announced the controller back in 2005. This will be even more amazing once it is used in actual games.

Cool Mario Media: Now with another free kid!

Yes, Yes it is me. I know you are already tired of seeing me, but i was invited. To this blog i will be added my (biased, mind you) opinion on Nintendo news. I hope you enjoy me enough so that I'm not fired.

Want to see some of my work? Here's my personal Blog.

New author

I'm glad to have Matt from So busy I could die, as a co-author of Cool Mario media. Thank you for joining Matt!