wii

Jeff and I find ourselves in a conversation about candy in this morning's preshow that bleeds over into today's recorded episode. Why? Well, we heard a story about Steve Jobs proposing a Willy Wonka style contest to celebrate the sale of the millionth original Apple iMac.

It comes from a book coming out soon called "Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success," and it talks about how Steve wanted to put a custom gold ticket inside a single iMac box that would land the winner a trip to Cupertino, Calif., for a tour of … Read more

The 3DS and Wii could do nothing to save Nintendo during its most recent fiscal year.

The company today released the results of its fiscal year that ended March 31 (PDF) and revealed that revenue slid 36.2 percent compared with the previous fiscal year. Nintendo ended its year with revenue of 647.6 billion yen (about $8 billion), versus over 1 trillion yen in the prior year.

Due to sluggish sales, Nintendo posted a net loss for the year of 43.2 billion yen ($532.5 million). In the prior year, it had generated a profit of 77.6 … Read more

The Xbox 360 scored its 15th month in a row as the top-selling gaming console, NPD reported yesterday.

With a 42 percent chunk of all console sales, Microsoft sold 371,000 Xbox 360 units last month. Total spending on Xbox hardware, software, and accessories hit $430 million, more than was spent on Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii combined.

Among the top 10 games last month, five of them were Xbox titles: Mass Effect 3, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, NBA 2K12, SSX, and Major League Baseball 2K12.

As usual, the rest of the video game industry was down … Read more

The Xbox 360 continues to be a bright spot in a sluggish gaming market.

Grabbing more than 42 percent of all console sales, the popular platform scored 426,000 in unit sales last month, according to Microsoft.

Xbox aficionados shelled out a total of $383 million in February on hardware, software, and accessories--the most amount spent for any gaming console.

For the month, 5 of the top 10 games in the U.S. were aimed at the Xbox, including Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, UFC Undisputed, NBA 2K12, and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Nintendo saw … Read more

Assassin's Creed III will mark the series debut on a Nintendo home system.

Ubisoft today confirmed that the next installment in its stealth action series is in development for the Wii U in addition to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game is due for release October 30.

Set during the American Revolution, Assassin's Creed III features a new protagonist with a mixed Native America-English heritage. Named Ratohnhaké:ton but going by Connor, the hero of Assassin's Creed III will inject himself into the ongoing struggle between the Templars and the Assassins.

The game is being built by Ubisoft Montreal and six collaborating studios on a new engine called Ubisoft-AnvilNext. The publisher is promising "breakthroughs in visual quality, character models, and artificial intelligence" thanks to AnvilNext.

Read more of "Assassin's Creed III confirmed for Wii U," and see the new trailer at GameSpot.… Read more

It seemed like the perfect setup--give kids video games that would motivate them to get off the couch and start moving. Not only would they have fun, they would also get healthier.

However, these high hopes may have been wishful thinking. According to a new study by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, kids given "active" video games showed no more overall physical exertion than kids who used only their thumbs to play.

"There was no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at anytime, than children receiving the … Read more

Hulu Plus subscribers can now access the service on the Nintendo Wii videogame console.

The partnership will offer Hulu Plus subscribers more ways to watch their streaming video on their TVs.

That's the knock on Hulu Plus and Amazon right now. Netflix, the No. 1 Web video-rental service, is compatible with many more devices. I should say that's one of the knocks. The big criticism of Hulu Plus is that managers charge the same $8 price for its streaming video but then force advertisements on viewers. But that's for another story.

When it comes to hardware, Hulu … Read more

To celebrate Mark Zuckerberg maybe possibly loosening his death grip on Facebook, Karyne and I give you a little Econ 101 lesson.

Kidding! No we don't. All I learned in Econ 101 was that there is apparently no such thing as a free lunch (then what was that pizza I just found abandoned in the kitchen and ate, hmm?) and that the more scarce a thing is, the more money it will cost.

But scarcity might explain why unvested stocks of Facebook have been some of the highest valued and most traded on SecondMarket--a market to trade stocks in … Read more

Nintendo announces an online gaming network, Twitter censorship stirs up protest, and Facebook is expected to make its stock market launch this week.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded: