Nintendo's Wii to provide AP news
By CURT WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 25, 7:53 AM ET
SEATTLE - Rabid video gamers could get some help keeping in touch with the outside world this weekend as Nintendo Co. launches an online news service through its popular Wii console.
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The Wii News Channel, scheduled to debut Saturday, will primarily feature top news stories and photographs from The Associated Press.
Consoles with a broadband Internet connection and the Opera Web browser will be able to access the free news channel, which will offer AP news in multiple languages. Japanese-language news will come from a separate agency.
There were no immediate plans to sell advertising space, said Perrin Kaplan, vice president for marketing at Nintendo's U.S. headquarters in Redmond.
News will be displayed through an interactive map, which users can navigate with the Wii's wireless controller, Kaplan said.
"The beauty of it is it zooms in and out of areas of the world," she said. "So if you really want to focus on regional news or national news versus international, you just blow up the map of the U.S."
The AP has a two-year contract to provide news and photos to Nintendo and would like to provide multimedia in the future, said Jane Seagrave, vice president of new media markets for the New York-based news cooperative.
"It's a very innovative new application of what we're doing generally, which is to try to get our content to new audiences on new platforms," Seagrave said.
The AP will supply news for the Wii in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Swiss-German, Seagrave said. The Japanese news company Goo will supply Nintendo's Japanese-language news, Kaplan said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Wii has been a surprise hit for Nintendo as it competes with Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news).'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s
Xbox 360 consoles.
A recent report from the market research firm NPD Group said the Wii has sold 1.1 million units since it was released in the U.S. on Nov. 19, with 604,200 of those units sold in December.
"The Nintendo Wii demographic is definitely a wider demographic than your traditional hardcore gamer," said Billy Pidgeon, a video game industry analyst at IDC in New York. "It kind of makes sense for other types of content to be made available on the Wii."
Nintendo isn't the only company hoping to offer more from video game consoles with online connections. The Xbox scored an early hit with its Xbox Live online gameplay system and has since begun offering more perks to Internet-connected users.
Ahh, so the news channel will feature a giant spinning globe(Better yet! Power it with Google Earth!) that you can zoom in and see AP news stories? Sounds better and better.
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
Mr Bean wrote:Ahh, so the news channel will feature a giant spinning globe(Better yet! Power it with Google Earth!) that you can zoom in and see AP news stories? Sounds better and better.
Makes you wonder who's actually in a better position to "take over the living room", no?
That's awesome. I almost made myself hurl spinning the globe around in the weather channel. Now I can do it while catching up on the news!
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
Xisiqomelir wrote:"The beauty of it is it zooms in and out of areas of the world," she said. "So if you really want to focus on regional news or national news versus international, you just blow up the map of the U.S."
I love this quote so much.
Other than that, this sounds really cool. If I had a Wii I could easily see myself using this more than the newspaper or local tv station, since those both kinda suck.
That said, I don't think I'll get one anytime soon since I pretty much have no way to try it out first. Too bad.
Losonti Tokash wrote:
That said, I don't think I'll get one anytime soon since I pretty much have no way to try it out first. Too bad.
Stores like CompUSA have a 14 or 21 day no questions asked return policy. Just ask the store's return policy and you can bring it back if you don't like it.
I know that the CompUSA return policy is 14 days for computers; if the box is open and nothing is wrong there's a 15% restocking fee...and 21 days for everything else in the store, which can be returned for full money back under any condition.
I *think* Best Buy and Wal-Mart have similar policies (I've heard of people returning PS3's because they were unable to sell them on eBay), but ask before you buy. And keep the receipt.
Grabbed the update today, always happy to see that blue light
You can use list view if you don't like globe view. When you zoom out, the news stacks into the closest major region, so at max zoom out Washington looks like it's covered with a mile-high stack of newspapers.
Ooh, awesome. I'll have to call my wife at home and tell her to fire up the Wii.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
It's ok, but it's not something I would consider using over, say, the BBC news homepage. Nice gimmick but along with the weather feature, I could easily live without it and still enjoy the console.
"I'm personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets - but it's what the people want." - Saparmurat Niyazov
"I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent." - Q
HAB Military Intelligence: Providing sexed-up dodgy dossiers for illegal invasions since 2003.
Just grabbed it a little while ago. Pretty interesting, and I hope to make use of it since I don't watch televised news or read newspapers much anymore and I'm not really down with getting it off the Web. My only reservation is that it lacks a "local" regional section, though that's probably because it's using the AP as a resource.
I believe in a sign of Zeta.
[BOTM|WG|JL|Mecha Maniacs|Pax Cybertronia|Veteran of the Psychic Wars|Eva Expert]
"And besides, who cares if a monster destroys Australia?"
Man, they had me at the remote, and now they went and made it even better with geography? How did they know my passion for geography would go so well with keeping me informed? And then, Metroid Prime? I mean, come on. Arm Cannon? It's so obvious how you use it. Screw PS3 and X360. I don't play many games anyways.
Slightly off topic, but is it still near impossible to find a Wii? I sort of stopped looking after I got the new Zelda for the GC, but I'd like to get one at this point if it's feasible to find for someone who can't spend all his time running around the city to all the different stores.
observer_20000 wrote:Slightly off topic, but is it still near impossible to find a Wii?
You're probably going to have to wait a while, demand is still white-hot all over the place (Wii is tracking higher than Super Famicom/SNES in Japan atm).
observer_20000 wrote:Slightly off topic, but is it still near impossible to find a Wii?
You're probably going to have to wait a while, demand is still white-hot all over the place (Wii is tracking higher than Super Famicom/SNES in Japan atm).
The DS Lite is proving nigh impossible to find as well.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
General Zod wrote:The DS Lite is proving nigh impossible to find as well.
DS is region-free, just buy one online. AU has piles, but it's slightly cheaper to order one internationally, and that way you can get whatever colour you like.
observer_20000 wrote:Slightly off topic, but is it still near impossible to find a Wii?
You're probably going to have to wait a while, demand is still white-hot all over the place (Wii is tracking higher than Super Famicom/SNES in Japan atm).
The DS Lite is proving nigh impossible to find as well.
There's a few around here, though choice of colour is limited.
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
Just ask at whatever store you go to.
