Nintendo sells 4.5 million Wii consoles and 4 million 3DS systems in 2011, blames Mario and Zelda

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The new year is just underway, and Nintendo wants to make sure the world knows how well they’re doing and how confident they are heading into 2012. In a gleeful press release, Ninty broke news that they sold more than 12 million total hardware units in the US  in 2011. It breaks down like this: 4.5 million units of Wii, more than 4 million Nintendo 3DS systems, and over 3.4 million units of the Nintendo DS family of systems were sold last year. Some calculations later, the current install base for Wii is 39 million and for Nintendo DS it’s over 51 million. The house that built Mario blames their recent successes on a strong software lineup. 3DS games Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 have been crowned the fastest-selling titles in the history of their respective franchises when they launched. Additionally, Nintendo notes that they are now also the first 3DS games to sell 1 million units each in the US. Zelda also made an impact on the Wii; The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword became the 45th Wii game to sell over 1 million units in the States. And 2012 is already looking to be a solid year for Nintendo with highly anticipated games on the horizon; first-party titles from franchises such as Mario Party, Pokémon, and Kid Icarus as well as third party titles like Resident Evil Revelations (Capcom) and Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater (Konami) are coming soon. And of course, don’t forget that their next home console the Wii U is expected to launch later this year. Get the full debrief directly from Nintendo after the break.

[Via Nintendo] Continue reading Nintendo sells 4.5 million Wii consoles and 4 million 3DS systems in 2011, blames Mario and Zelda →

JibJab pokes fun at politics and pop culture in 2011 with year-end video

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The creative clan at JibJab claim that “the whole world went nuts in 2011” and so they put together this elaborate Year in Review musical to cover all the insanity (read: Rebecca Black’s stardom) that went on. “The goal was to create the typical “JibJab-look” but to step away from the computers for a bit and do it all in-camera,” shares the team behind the clip. “Ya know… the good ole fashioned way.” So using popsicle sticks, cut paper, and hands JibJab has developed another catchy video that succinctly summarizes 2011 for the masses. Head over to JibJab’s blog to peruse their detailed making-of section.

Happy New Year!

This year in music, as told by DJ Earworm’s mega-mashup

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By now you should be anticipating DJ Earworm’s mashup of the top 25 hits according to Billboard Magazine when the year is near its end. Like always, in addition to masterfully mashing together all these songs he also manages to fuse together all of the corresponding music videos that accompany the tracks. Adele, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, LMFAO, and Rihanna dominate this year’s selection; for the full tracklist jump after the break. Download “United State of Pop 2011 (World Go Boom)” right here. Now turn your speakers up and sing-along…you know all the words, don’t deny it.

Continue reading This year in music, as told by DJ Earworm’s mega-mashup →

This year in movies, as told by 230 of them in five minutes

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She’s done it again. Gen Ip, a communications student from Vancouver BC, has mashed together 230 movies that made in 2011. The annual retrospective “celebrates this year’s movies and their amazing capacity to transport us through the boundaries of space, time, and identity.” Head over to Gen’s Tumblr page to view the entire list of films used in the video; they’re listed in the order of their appearance.

The year in news as told by an “accidental” NYT timelapse

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This is neat. A developer by the name of Phillip Mendonça-Vieira “accidentally” collected about 12,000 screenshots of the front page of The New York Times‘ website. Instead of trashing these images, he put them to good use by creating a time-lapse video that binds together important (front-page worthy) news events that happened over the past year. Specifically his computer captured the site’s images twice an hour from September 2010 to July 2011. Watch it all unfold in the video embedded above and read some poignent words from Mendonça-Vieira below.

Having worked with and developed on a number of content management systems I can tell you that as a rule of thumb no one is storing their frontpage layout data. It’s all gone, and once newspapers shutter their physical distribution operations I get this feeling that we’re no longer going to have a comprehensive archive of how our news-sources of note looked on a daily basis. Archive.org comes close, but there are too many gaps to my liking.

This, in my humble opinion, is a tragedy because in many ways our frontpages are summaries of our perspectives and our preconceptions. They store what we thought was important, in a way that is easy and quick to parse and extremely valuable for any future generations wishing to study our time period.

[Via Okayfail; Gizmodo]

Jedis, ninjas, and Sith lords, oh my!

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Check out this kick-ass viral video starring Team 2X, a collective group of professional martial arts performers. Watch as a lone Jedi takes on a hoard of ninjas and a vengeful Sith Lord. Stay for the end–it’s unexpected and absurdly humorous.

Jedi Ninjas was developed as a passion project to recreate the current style of Star Wars action seen in video games into live action. This style often combines elements of Force powers with the use lightsaber combat. As there are no upcoming live action Star Wars movies to this date, this was a project to make many of the fans’ dreams into a reality.

Sony announces 25 launch titles for PlayStation Vita

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In a blog post this month Sony announced that 25 games will be launching alongside the PlayStation Vita on February 22 in North America. John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing, says that the PS Vita “will have the biggest and best lineup we’ve ever launched across the history of PlayStation platforms.” Specifically, 8 titles from SCEA will release on the 22nd along with 17 third party publisher titles. Lingering in the “launch window” are 4 games from SCEA and 6 games from third parties. Games will range from $9.99 to $49.99 in price, and all of them will be available over the counter at retail shops and downloadable over the PlayStation Network. A handful of titles are labeled PSN-exclusives. Sony also says that the Vita will come bundled with six AR Play Cards and one voucher to download a selection of augmented reality mini games called AR Play over PSN. Looks like somebody is stealing a page out of Nintendo’s playbook. A myriad of Vita accessories such as memory cards, cases, and charges will release slightly ahead of the Vita’s launch date on February 15. Hop after the break to view the full list of games and accessories coming down the pipeline.

[Via PlayStationBlog] Continue reading Sony announces 25 launch titles for PlayStation Vita →

‘The Hobbit’ production vlog #5

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Shortly after releasing the very first trailer for The Hobbit, director Peter Jackson uploaded a fifth production video. This one focuses on “the logistics of location shooting.” It shows how the massive production team establishes the beautiful landscapes of Middle Earth in New Zealand. After 110 days of shooting indoors, the team finally ventured outside to recreate Hobbiton, the tranquil neighborhood of hobbits such as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. “It’s weird when you come back to a place that you literally thought you’d never see again,” says Jackson. Elijah Wood also feels nostalgic stepping back into the town of Bag End. “I’ll never forget that feeling of coming to Hobbiton for the first time.”

When the Hobbit huts were originally built in 1999 for the Lord of the Rings films, they were constructed with polystyrene and later torn down when filming completed. This time around, the construction crew rebuilt all the Hobbit holes using real wood, stone, and brick. Now they won’t deteriorate as fast and fans of the books and movies can schedule tours and visit the set. In the video you’ll even see that the Prime Minister of New Zealand approves!

At the end of the clip Jackson teases that there’s more to this location shooting-themed video diary; part two is coming in 2012. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theatres December 14, 2012.

‘American Horror Story’ season 2 will be “radically different” as series creator Ryan Murphy confirms anthological roots

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[Major spoilers inside] On Wednesday FX’s hit new show American Horror Story came to a dramatic conclusion, leaving most of its main cast members dead. The entire Harmon family passed on (including Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, and Taissa Farmiga) and they linger in the haunted house as ghosts with their dead child and the sweet maid Moira played by Frances Conroy. The only series regular that managed to survive the whole ordeal is Jessica Lange, who was recently nominated a Golden Globe for her portrayal as the neighborly Constance. So with the Harmon story complete, where does the show go from here? Today AHS co-creator Ryan Murphy led a conference call with members of the press and explained that the show was originally built as an anthology meaning that each season will be “radically different” from the last.

“Every season of the show will be a different haunting,” Murphy explains. “That’s always been the plan. Every season of the show will have a beginning, middle and end, and all new characters and setting … and we’ll have a new overriding theme.” So does this mean McDermott, Britton, Farmiga, Conroy, Lange, and even Rubber Man himself Evan Peters will not be returning for season 2? Not necessarily. “We’re still negotiating with a handful [of the cast members] about returning,” Murphy says. “We’re also meeting with new actors whom we’ve targeted roles for. I will say that Connie and Dylan will not be playing the leads of the show in the second season. We’d love for them to come back and do something, maybe a smaller role or a cameo.” He continued, “There will be familiar faces and some new faces. People that are coming back will be playing completely new characters… Getting to tell a different aspect of what an American horror story can be [every season] is fascinating.”

And with that it is confirmed from the man at the top that AHS season 2 will tell an entirely new story and introduce to viewers a new slate of characters that will have new issues to deal with. Murphy went on to tease what may be in store for season 2. “There are all kinds of different American horror stories to tell. There are serial killing stories, prison stories, true crime stories…Each year of the show is designed to be a little miniseries unto itself. The only thing we’re not open to doing is a season on vampires.” Phew. More: “The second season of the show will [feature] a brand new home or building to haunt,” so in addition to the main cast you can also kiss goodbye the haunted manor you’ve become accustomed to during season one. Itching to find out what exactly the next American Horror Story will be about? “There’s a clue in the last three episodes where we say what the second season will be,” Murphy teases.

Jump after the break for more. Continue reading ‘American Horror Story’ season 2 will be “radically different” as series creator Ryan Murphy confirms anthological roots →

Trailer round-up: ‘The Hobbit’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Prometheus’

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After four extensive behind-the-scenes looks at Peter Jackson’s upcoming sequel two-fer The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings mastermind has finally released a full-length trailer. Return to The Shire in this beautifully edited clip embedded above. Part 1, An Unexpected Journey, hits theatres next December the 14th.

Jump after the break and you’ll find the explosive second trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and sneak peek at Ridley Scott’s sci-fi thriller Prometheus. Update: The full-length Prometheus teaser awaits. Continue reading Trailer round-up: ‘The Hobbit’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Prometheus’ →

HBO cancels ‘How To Make It In America’ & ‘Bored To Death’

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Just when I thought this TV season was coasting along just fine, this brunt of bad news knocked me unconscious today. HBO has decided to part ways with three of its cult comedies: How To Make It In America, Bored To Death, and Hung. How To Make It only managed to score two seasons before getting the axe, and fans of the show will never get to see if Ben and Cam, well, make it in America as fashion icons with the Crisp brand. They were definitely going places; season 2 managed to top the premiere season in almost every way and still the show was doomed in the end. Also concluding is Jonathan Ames’ Bored To Death starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and the talented Ted Danson. This series lasted a total of three seasons and rightly deserved many more. What started as a detective-story-of-the-week quickly turned into a more serial adventure exploring the eccentric lives of the title characters. Though I must say, the season three finale thankfully wraps things up and leaves viewers pleasantly satisfied. Why did HBO suddenly feel the urge to clear out its Sunday night lineup? Ratings is to blame, as is usually the case (according to Variety How To Make It and Bored To Death were “down about 25% from their respective previous seasons”), plus the premium cabler is making room for new shows in the pipeline for next year. They did keep one, however. Enlightened starring Lauren Dern is coming back for a second season despite rather dismal ratings. Perhaps the comedy’s recent Golden Globe nomination came into play.

Ben and Cam’s hustle and the zany adventures of Jonathan, Ray, and George have come to an end. Triumphant tears are shed in their honor for making it this far.

[Via Deadline]

New ‘Avatar’ special features come to iTunes

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James Cameron’s cash cow Avatar saw its first home release on April 22, 2010. Months later on November 16 Avatar was re-released into the wild as a “Three-Disc Extended Collector’s Edition.” Unlike the original release, this one included bonus features like 45 minutes worth of deleted scenes. While we wait for the Blu-ray 3D release to end its exclusivity with Panasonic, Cameron’s inviting fans of the movie to revisit Pandora by purchasing a new digital version of Avatar. This release is dubbed the “iTunes Extras Special Edition” and it comes with new, never-before-seen bonus material. Features include scene deconstruction, allowing viewers to interact with the performance capture and visual effects levels in 17 of the film’s scene; green screen x-ray gives viewers an interactive look through the visual effects levels to see the original green screen footage hiding behind certain scenes; it also comes with an original screenplay penned by Cameron, his scriptment, a gallery of 1,700 images, “and more.” Interested? Click over to iTunes, hand over $19.99 and immerse yourself in Pandora once more. At least until the 3D version comes out. Video promoting the new edition sits after the break. Continue reading New ‘Avatar’ special features come to iTunes →