Rovio Mobile has announced this week that Nintendo fans will be getting ‘Angry Birds,’ as well, with Wii and 3DS versions confirmed.
Furthermore, the company announced a Valentine’s Day version, and a “secret” Rio-based level for the game.
Rio is an upcoming animated movie telling the story of a Macaw and his adventures.
Rovio did not give a specific date for the Nintendo version, except to say “later this year.”
The Angry Birds mini-game, with 63 levels, hit the PS3 and PSP last month.
Rovio says the Valentine’s Day levels will be an update to Angry Birds: Seasons, which is $1 on the iPhone and free on Android.
Result for: nintendo wii
According to the latest figures from market research firm NPD Group, U.S. videogame industry sales took a dive in August, falling 10 percent year-on-year (YoY).
Overall sales fell to $819 million USD, with software revenue collapsing 14 percent and hardware falling 5 percent.
Almost reaching the point of saturation, the Nintendo Wii saw its lowest sales since November 2006, falling 12 percent to just 244,300 units sold for the month.
The perennial hardware leader, the Nintendo DS line, fell 38 percent to 342,700 units sold. DS sales have now fallen in each month since April.
Dead-in-the-water handheld PSP sales dove 43 percent, with Sony selling just 79,400 units for the month.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 rose to the top, seeing 66 percent growth thanks to the release of their updated, slimmed down console. Microsoft sold 356,700 units for the month. The Sony PlayStation 3 saw 7.6 percent growth YoY, selling 226,000 units for the month.
Says Anita Frazier, senior analyst for NPD: “This month reflected the lowest sales for August since 2006. While all categories are down in both dollars and units, the portable portion of the industry is down to a greater extent.”
Result for: nintendo wii
According to “trusted” sources speaking to Edge-Online, Microsoft’s upcoming Project Natal motion control camera system will launch with a price tag of $150, much higher than expected by most in the industry.
The system will also launch on October 26th, says the site, in line with expectations of an October release.
Additionally, Microsoft will bundle the camera with an Xbox 360 Arcade console for $300 USD.
European and UK rates would be based “on a number of factors,” including the current exchange rate at the time of release, so those prices remain unclear for the time being.
Rival Sony is releasing its PlayStation Move motion control system later this year, bundled with a game, for $100 USD.
Perhaps more notably, Natal (which will be given its official name in June at the E3 event) will cost just $30 less than the Nintendo Wii, which has motion control out of the box and a huge catalog of games.
