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After hinting that the capability was already in place to do so, Nintendo has announced plans to begin selling digital versions of retail games for 3DS starting with New Super Mario Bros. 2 this August. To date, the only games available through the systems eShop are smaller experiences specifically designed for release through it; larger titles like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 are only found on game cards at retail.

The news was made official as part of a financial results briefing conducted by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. With the company officially posting its first annual loss in the three decades its been in the videogame business, Iwata was fixated on outlining how things would be turned around in the year ahead. Aside from no longer selling the 3DS at a loss (which is expected to be the case by the end of September), delivering new software, and releasing the Wii U, a digital push is beginning — one that wont rely only on selling games to those who regularly visit the eShop on their own.

In addition to selling games at retail as it always has, Nintendo will begin offering downloadable versions of its games at retail. Consumers will be able to purchase a 16-digit code than can be redeemed on the eShop for a digital version of the game. Nintendo was seeking a way not to cut retail out of the equation; back in January Iwata said, There must be a solution other than positioning digital distribution as an enemy to wholesalers and retailers. During this weeks briefing, he talked about needing to expand the digital business beyond those who are visiting the eShop. Although the connection rate of the 3DS is higher than that of the DSi and consumers are returning to the eShop more regularly, Nintendo thinks it can leverage retail as a way of introducing new consumers to the concept of digital software.

Its unclear if every Nintendo-published game will be made available in this fashion. Iwata was not specific on the subject, but Joystiq was told by Nintendo that the majority of first-party games will be. That also goes for the Wii U, which Iwata announced will have have downloadable versions of its games available at their respective launches.

Iwata specifically identified New Super Mario Bros. 2 and the new Brain Age, tentatively called Onitore, as two 3DS titles that are guaranteed to have digital versions. He also spoke about other games which 3DS owners may want to play on a daily basis, like Nintendogs and Animal Crossing, as a sort that would make sense to have easy access to right on the system without having to carry around game cards. This is one area where traditional game handhelds are lacking compared to phones and tablets — whereas every game you own on an iPhone or iPad is with the device wherever it goes, 3DS owners have to lug around their game cards. Vita solves this by having all of its games available digitally, although that is an imperfect solution as these games, sold through the PlayStation Store, rarely if ever go on sale. That means even people like myself with a desire to own digital versions of games still tend to purchase physical ones.

Nintendo believes it has found a way to resolve the pricing problem. While its suggested that the physical and digital versions be sold for the same price, thereby allowing consumers to choose which version they would prefer, retailers will be free to discount the downloadable game codes just as they do the physical games. In theory that means you wont be charged extra simply because you want to have your game collection loaded right on the system, aside the cost of SD cards needed to store the games, of course.

This all sounds like great news. Its very much a welcome option, and the sort of thing that will encourage 3DS owners to bring the system with them wherever they go. And the possibility for downloadable games to go on sale alongside their physical counterparts is one way the digital setup of the 3DS can trump the Vita.

One of the drawbacks is similar to purchasing digital games on other platforms — you wont be able to share them with others. Iwata specifically stated downloaded games will only be playable on the hardware it was purchased on. For some that may be a deal-breaker, and it continues to highlight the need for Nintendo to develop an account system similar to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

But at least it will be an option to download games when theyre first released. Sony has embraced the practice to some extent on PlayStation 3 and entirely on Vita; Microsoft, on the other hand, remains stubborn on the subject. Speaking with MCV, Xbox Live UK product manager Pav Bhardwaj recently indicated retail games will continue to be made available through the Games on Demand service only once several months have passed since their release at retail.

It comes down to choice, he said. The customer has the choice of going to retail on day one if they really want to buy a particular title, or to wait a couple of months and buy it full price from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Hes right that it is a choice, but its hardly an optimal one. Its a choice in the same way, Would you like to eat pizza or a pile of garbage? is a choice. A real choice would be allowing consumers to decide whether they want to buy a retail or digital version of a game at launch — having to wait months hardly makes the digital route an attractive option. Bhardwaj claimed the current model is successful, and there are people willing to pay full price for a downloadable game six months after its released at retail, leading him to ask, So why change something you dont need to?

Nintendo, on the other hand, talked about providing consumers with a choice, and based on these early details, its plans appear to do a good job of that. Offering codes at retail gives even those without a credit card (or those hesitant to use one online) the opportunity to buy digital games. Assuming the prices are competitive with retail games and there isnt much of a concern about being able to redownload games if the need should arise, I could see myself buying many of my 3DS games this way. Wii U downloads will be a more complicated matter with the system not being equipped with a hard drive; downloading games that fill up a DVD onto an SD card may not be particularly ideal. But, once again, more options are certainly better than none.

As digital distribution becomes more prominent in the game industry, there are some that believe it means physical games are doomed in the long-run. Grasshopper Manufactures Akira Yamaoka however, doesnt think thats the case, as to him, the emergence of digital platforms doesnt represent the end of retail.

Yamaoka, probably best known for his work on the Silent Hill series, told Siliconera that hes hoping to branch out to digital platforms such as Steam and Origin in the near future. When asked on his thoughts about Steam, he bluntly stated that retail games wont die out.

Grasshoppers 2011 release Shadows of the Damned sold abysmally at retail, despite being a solid action title. Its nice to hear that the team hasnt given up on retail releases, which is especially evident in their hopes to make a sequel.

I don’t think that packaged games will die out, but Steam has a lot of potential since it works with different hardware.

While Grasshopper does have another retail game out in the coming months in Lollipop Chainsaw, theyve already begun spreading out to digital services. The team recently released an XBLA exclusive titled Sine Mora, which ended up becoming a hit among our staff and the gaming community at large.

As for the eventual branch out to mobile and digital platforms, Yamaoka doesnt just want to port over old Grasshopper titles, but to make completely new games. The CCO of Grasshopper is also interested in making horror games, so who knows, maybe well get to see a PC exclusive spiritual successor to Silent Hill in the near future.

It is really refreshing to see Yamaokas attitude, as opposed to the physical media doom and gloom sentiment many analysts and developers seem to have. Digital doesnt have to kill physical, and vice versa; both mediums have their own advantages and disadvantages, and as someone who prefers a physical disc to a download code, I look forward to placing Grasshoppers games on my shelf and not in my download list.

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Follow me on Twitter @AnthonyMole.

Source: Siliconera

Despite the growing importance of digital distribution in gaming, physical media will still be around for another five to ten years or so believes Sean Spector co-founder of GameFly.

I think that the disc lives for five or ten years from now, said Spector, speaking to VideoGamer.com during a recent visit to London.

I dont have a crystal ball, but thats my hunch. My hunch is that there will be another generation of consoles that will require physical media, maybe not exclusively like with Xbox LIVE, you can download old games. I think it will be more of a hybrid, digital and disc. Which is kind of where we position ourselves, to be a hybrid.

As that transition takes time some people will do both, some people will do one or the other. And we want to be able to facilitate both.

GameFly recently soft-launched in the UK, having bought Direct2Drive from IGN at the end of last year. The firm now offers digital downloads for over 230 games, and plans to offer over 1000 titles by Christmas.

At present Spector says there are no plans to emulate GameFlys US rental service, which sends out physical games in a similar manner to LoveFilm. GameFly may eventually sell game discs over here, however.

Either way, Spector maintains that it will take time for gamers to let go of hard media:

It never happens overnight. People like to think that it does, and they like to write about that its going to happen overnight but it never does. The music business in the States, when Gamefly started, was a $20bn a year business, physical CD sales. Now its and $7bn or $8bn business. So its definitely come down, but it hasnt gone away.

Certainly the technology is there to make it go away, but consumers behaviour hasnt changed 100 per cent yet. I think it takes a couple of generations to happen: My daughters are 9 and 12 theyve never bought a CD, and they probably never will. But theyre 9 and 12, right? Theyre not 25, 30, 44. So things take time.

GameFlys new client app is available here.

LOS ANGELES — A couple hours before Saturdays 1:30 pm tilt against the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins was asked by a hometown television reporter if he thought his team was going to be able to maintain the so-called physicality advantage theyd established early in the series.

Hollins laughed.

You guys keep saying that, he told the reporter while presumably also referring to the rest of the media. But I dont see it. Theyve both been physical games thus far. Todays going to be a physical game too.

Maybe Hollins should have let his team know how he felt about the physicality, too. Memphis forward Rudy Gay said in his postgame press conference following the Grizzlies 87-86 loss that he and his team got out-physicaled by the Clippers at the Staples Center on Saturday.

Well, were supposed to be a physical team, Gay said in response to a question about his teams tough reputation. They took that away from us today. They pushed us. They did all the things that we usually do to teams.

What do the Grizzlies usually do to teams?

They forced a league-leading 17.1 turnovers per game in the regular season on the strength of Hollins signature stifling defense. They prevent big men from establishing themselves deep in the block by pushing out and rely on the perimeter defense of Tony Allen and Mike Conley to force teams into alternative offensive plans.

Reggie Evans said he wasnt sure if Game 3 was more physical — overall — than Game 2, because he was equally physical in each. But Blake Griffin said he thought it was, at least on the Clippers side of things.

That was kind of the plan: be the aggressive team from the jump and take it to them a little bit, Griffin said. I thought we did a good job of that early. It got messed up at spots here and there but overall I thought we did a good job of being the more aggressive team.

Thats their MO, being aggressive — that whole grind thing. So we gotta beat them with that.

Game 3 was the first time the Clippers matched that Memphis intensity in this series. In Game 2, the Clips flat-out lost, and, in Game 1, they needed a miraculous comeback to erase the damage their lack of physicality had done earlier in the game.

The Clippers shot 30 free throws Saturday afternoon, a big jump up from the 18 they took Wednesday in Memphis. Of course, the difference was minimized by the fact that they made only 13 of the attempts each night.

But they clearly bodied up a lot better this time. Now they just need to do it again Monday night in LA and as the series continues on to Memphis later this week.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said Saturday he thought his team matched the Grizzlies physical play in Game 3.

Itd be nice if he could say in a couple days that his team exceeded its opponent in that category.

Nintendo’s Stance On Download vs. Retail Prices For Games

By Ishaan . May 1, 2012 . 5:31pm

As you may have heard in a report last week, Nintendo will begin offering the majority of their retail first-party Nintendo 3DS games in the form of both physical boxed goods as well as downloads via the Nintendo eShop this summer. This initiative will begin with New Super Mario Bros. 2, scheduled for release in August.

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There are two things of importance to note about this initiative. Here’s the first:

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Nintendo will not price physical and download versions of games differently. If you download a Nintendo game directly off the Nintendo eShop in the comfort of your own home, it will cost you the same as it would to buy the boxed version.

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Explaining why this is to investors, Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, stated that Nintendo do not feel that downloadable versions of games are of lower value than physical copies. For instance, Iwata suggests, there are consumers who value the convenience of being able to take all your games with you at once, instead of having to carry multiple cartridges around to have access to your entire library.

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Certain third-party publishers around the world feel similarly, too. “We have found that their opinions are completely divided on the topic of the price points of the digital distribution of packaged software,” Iwata reports. “Some publishers believe that the digital versions should be cheaper while others insist that both versions must be set at exactly the same price.”

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Iwata didn’t take any names, but this isn’t an uncommon approach for certain publishers. For instance, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim both currently cost $59.99 on Valve’s Steam service–the same as their retail prices–and those are just two examples. That having been said

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Retail stores will be selling the download versions of these games as well, in addition to the regular boxed versions. For the download versions, they will be allowed to set their own prices, perform sales, and so on. Effectively, they’ll be able to treat them like physical goods, so you could potentially find bargains on download titles at different retailers.

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Why are retailers being allowed this option? To give consumers a choice while not throwing retailers under a bus, is about the gist of it. Furthermore, Iwata expects that the step will lead to individual retailers pricing their downloadable products competitively, in order to take advantage of their strengths, just like with physical games.

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“There are several types of retailers,” Iwata said to investors. “A retailer that offers products at comparatively high price but provides good services and is in a convenient location, or a retailer that only focuses on offering products at lower prices than others do. I expect to see sound competition among retailers that takes advantage of their strengths as they have done so far.”

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So far, we only know that all of above applies to Nintendo’s own first-party titles. What approach third-party publishers will take remains to be seen. The only third-party retail game that has been announced as a Nintendo 3DS download-only title so far is Unchained Blades, a dungeon-crawling RPG that will be published by Xseed.

PRINCETON Early on this season, Notre Dames girls lacrosse team struggled, dropping their first four games. Recently though, the Irish have been tough to stop, and that continued yesterday when they handed eight-seeded Hun a 16-13 defeat in the first round of the Mercer County Tournament.

The win makes it three in a row for the Irish, and tomorrow theyll get another shot at top-seeded Allentown (who downed Nottingham 21-1 on Thursday) in the tournament quarterfinals. The Irish will travel to play the Redbirds, a team that they lost to 13-12 just two short weeks ago.

One of the central figures for Notre Dame on offense was senior attack player Emily Bowers, who scored the 200th goal of her career in the second half helping the Irish get past a pesky Raiders team.

We kept the 200th goal stuff on the down low, said Bowers, who finished the game with four goals and a pair of assists. That means that I got a lot of help from my team to be able to score that many goals.

And Dina (Cifelli), shes my girl because she always helps with her assists; shes my feeder and shes the one that got me the ball on my 200th.

Today we knew coming in what it was going to take to win. Coach (Julie Mazer) goes over what we need to win and we knew we had to try and limit what (Kate) Weeks could do out there.

This was a complete team effort. Were coming off beating Hopewell (17-8) and it was the first game that we really played together.

This is our third win in a row, and its all teamwork and were so excited. Our coach said that were finally meshing together.

Now, I think were ready to make a comeback when we play Allentown.

Both teams matched goal for goal in the first half, but it was Francesca Bellos goal with 43 second left in the half that gave the Raiders an 8-7 advantage at intermission.

Brooke Gallagher started the second-half scoring with her fifth goal, followed by a Kate Weeks goal putting Hun ahead for the last time.

Notre Dame ended the one-goal seesawing with goals by Cifelli, Bowers and another by Gallagher staking the Irish to an 11-9 lead with 16:10 left.

Weeks and teammate Bello did their best to keep the Raiders in the game, but after another Weeks goal, Bowers scored her milestone goal.

Bello tallied to draw Hun within one again, but another run by the Irish put the game away. Gallagher, Bowers, Cifelli and Kim King found the net for a 16-11 lead.

Both teams matched goal pretty much through most of the game until they took that 11-9 lead, and from there it seemed like we just couldnt catch up to them, said Hun coach Beth Loffredo.

Theres not a whole lot to say except we just didnt get it together and we didnt have enough time to come back at the end.

Notre Dames Mazer knew stopping or trying to limit high-scoring and Boston College-bound Weeks (6 goals, 2 assists) would be key for the Irish to advance.

We figured if we possessed the ball that would limit the time she (Weeks) could have the ball; shes just a very talented player.

I think this was one of our most physical games and I knew Hun was a good team. But we made good decisions with the ball and we limited our turnovers in the second half after turning it over eight times. Emily getting her 200th was special, and Brooke (Gallagher) has been playing great of late. Shes getting a lot of goals off of transition and shes making great use of her speed to score for us.

Our offense is working really well together right now and theyre starting to really mesh as a unit. And our defense did a great job today, we came up with some big turnovers and (goalie) Molly (Damm) played amazing today.

I told the girls that if they wanted another shot at Allentown that theyd have to win today. Well, now we get to play em again and our girls are excited about it.

NOTRE DAME 16, HUN 13
Notre Dame (5-7) 7 916
Hun (5-6) 8 513
Goals ND: B. Gallagher 6, Bowers 4, Cifelli 2, King 2, Henig 2; H: Weeks 6, Bello 3, Dwyer 2, Albanese, Schade; Assists ND: Boland 2, Cifelli 3, Bowers, B. Gallagher, M. Gallagher 2, Henig 2, King 2; H: Weeks 2, Bello, Dwyer.
Saves ND: Damm 8; H: Perasso 4, Kane 3.

The violence and physical play of the NHL playoffs helps the leagues mainstream appeal because fans love to watch players beat each other up during intense playoff action.

With a ton of physical games throughout the first round combined with every game being broadcast live in the United States on the networks of NBC, the playoff ratings are going through the roof.

ViaCBS Sports:

For the first time, each first-round game is being broadcast nationally and its paying off for NBC. The opening two nights produced some of the best ratings hockey has seen in 10 years. Overall, viewership in the States was up 34 percent on the first two nights.

People who dont know the game ofhockeytoo well will watch the playoffs because they know the intensity and violence is heightened, compared to the regular season.

However, the NHL hurts its mainstream appeal when they fail to properly discipline players who cross the line between being very physical and dirty.

March was another brutal month for sales of video game discs and consoles as total revenue dropped 25% in the US from the same month last year, according to research firm NPD Group.

It was the fourth straight month that video game industry sales have dropped and comes after revenue fell 8% in 2011. However, the data include only sales of physical games and consoles and excludesthe fast-growing but still smaller market for digital downloads, social and mobile video games.

It was the devices themselves that suffered the most, with revenue down 35% to $323.5 million. NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in an email that while sales ofall video game devices were down, high definition consoles — meaning Microsofts Xbox 360 and Sonys Playstation 3 — fared best. That meant Nintendos Wii and handheld 3DS and Sonys new handheld Playstation Vita, which debuted in February, appear to have sold poorly.

Sales of software — the games themselves — dropped 25% to $553.1 million. Electronic Arts highly anticipated science-fiction sequel Mass Effect 3 was the months best-selling game, while Capcoms newest installment in its Resident Evil horror series, Operation Raccoon City, came in at No. 2.

Activision Blizzards kids game series Skylanders: Spyros Adventure continued to be popular, NPD said. The game itself, released in October, was still the No. 15 title in March. More significantly, three Skylander character packs — toys that can be integrated into the game — were among the top-10-selling video game accessories for the month. The [Skylanders] accessory items are selling phenomenally well, said Frazier.

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– Ben Fritz

Photo: An image from Mass Effect 3. Credit: Associated Press.

play games involving physical activities now, he said.

On April 23, six children between the ages of 12 and 13years were detained at the Vashi police station for playing cricket in their compound after Shruti Bhatt, a resident complaint against them.

“The children have been affected by the incident. There is fear each time my child goes out to play,” said the mother of a child who was detained.

The lack of open spaces has resulted in some cutting down on their outdoor activities and other simply avoiding stepping out. “Physical games are a natural stress buster for children, teaching them management skills. It is also important for a child to play regularly so as to be emotionally and physically healthy,” said Dr Anjali Chhabria, a psychiatrist.

Some housing societies have found solutions to keep everyone happy. Shakara Colony, Chembur has two designated play areas, of which one is big enough to play football or cricket.

Games for mobile devices now account for almost half of all the game downloads, according to an NPD Group report released today.

Even most of the gamers who use a dedicated console to play online are spending the largest chunk of their change on games for mobile devices. The rest of their game funds are going toward titles downloaded for PCs, full consoles, portable consoles, and other systems.

Mobile gaming represents one of the fastest growing segments of the digital games market, and potential for future growth remains strong as more consumers are using smartphones for games of all types, including the increasingly popular mobile game apps, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

The surge in spending on games for mobile devices is taking a toll on the amount of money spent on physical games, though not dramatically, reported NPD. Among those gamers who bought a mobile game over the past three months, 60 percent said theyre spending the same amount of money on console and portable games, but 40 percent said theyre spending less on physical games.

Among gamers asked to decide between buying a physical game and a digital game (assuming the price and other factors were the same), 75 percent said more