Kotaku: nintendon't

CES 09: Your Source For Wii Knock-offs

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:40:08 MST

There's a reason the Gaming Showcase at CES doesn't light the gaming world on fire. It's packed to its borders with subwoofer-filled seating designed for games and lame Chinese knock-offs, like the iSports.

Wii imitators, each of which is loaded with minimal effort games, aren't hard to come by at the Consumer Electronics Show. Typically, the method for making a Wii-like is ordering enough white plastic for your casing and designing a little boot for your plug-and-play games console to rest in vertically.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to go hands on with iSports and its suite of games — including Badmintoon, Sword of Warrior01, Beach Vollyball and Soccer 11 — but it looked like a blast. Maybe next year, when Sword of Warrior02 ships.

SEGA Takes In-Game Ads Further

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:00:21 MDT

SEGA of America is taking in-game advertising one step further. The company has just inked an ad deal with GET Interactive, which is known for interactive advertising tech. SEGA business development v.p. Rob Lightner explains:

With typical product placement you simply see a product in the game, GET allows you take the relationship one step further and allows the consumer to interact in a more meaningful way with the brand.

Meaning? You can actually buy things advertised. It's in-game advertising but better. And by "better," we mean worse. Way worse.
SEGA's Ad Deal [Games Industry]

New Wii Box Ignores Slip Jackets

Mark Wilson — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:40:25 MDT

It looks like the new Wii SKU box, and as Maxconsole points out, has no love for the new anti-slip jackets—the whole point for the new SKU in the first place. Why didn't they include the jacket on the cover? Because it's ugly as sin and destroys the understated aesthetic of the Wiimote. The console has a brilliant design, in that even though it's essentially the shape of an external optical drive, the stand adds an element of individuality and importance. And don't expect marketing to allow some sticky, semi-translucent membrane to go screwing things up.

New Wii SKU boxes [via maxconsole]