Spinning Discs: Your Source on All Things Gaming

Written and produced – Josue Plaza
Other Side Drive Producer – Shannon Williams
Edited by Caitlin Greenlee

Welcome to Spinning Discs, your KTSW Video Game segment. Let’s not waste any time and head into the top video game headlines of the week.

Gah, it’s been a bad week for Nintendo. Last year, when the Nintendo Wii U was released, they expected to sell about 9 million consoles by this upcoming March… I don’t know what they were thinking… The updated sales forecast for their latest console was 2.8 million by the end of their fiscal year. That’s an expected decrease of 69 percent!

Since this announcement, Nintendo stock has taken a significant hit. Fiscal year revenue estimates have adjusted from a $550 million profit to a $250 million net loss.

Now, what does this mean for Nintendo? Are they out for the count? Has Mario used his last mushroom?!

Not even close. Despite the poor marketing decisions resulting in poor Wii U sales, Nintendo can afford to take a loss like this without a stumble. They still have some excellent things going for them.

The best-selling console of 2013 turned out to be the Nintendo 3DS, choking the competition out of the PlayStation Vita, which is struggling in every country it has been released in.

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4, on the other hand, are selling like crazy, both surpassing the Wii U in sales in the two months they have been out!

It’s okay Nintendo… At least you are not selling Ouya.

Co-founder of Ouya, Muffi Ghadiali, has announced his departure from the company. While working for Ouya he was a key factor for the consoles firmware and is credited to being a huge asset for their widely successful Kickstarter campaign.

Ghadiali has not stated where he plans on working next, but cited that his reason for departure is that the Ouya is an ever-changing business; as they continue to grow, their needs shift accordingly.

The Steam Controller has announced a change to its design at the Valve’s Steam Dev Days conference in Seattle, Wash. We can now say goodbye to the touchscreen, which has been replaced with standard buttons. This controller is being developed for use on PC titles that are not yet controller-enabled on Steam, a digital distribution platform with more than 7 million daily users.

This means you won’t be stuck using a keyboard and mouse on games you want to play.

Let me reiterate that the only change so far is the touchscreen, not to be confused with the revolutionary touchpads that emulate a keyboard and mouse.

No word yet on exactly when the Steam Controller will be released, other than a date in 2014.

That wraps up this week of Spinning Discs. See you next week, on Other Side Drive.