It toppled Atari. It went head to head with SEGA for years to come out the victor. Even during the slow times, it was still in the black. Then Nintendo took control of the home console market again with record sales from the Wii. But eventually being on top means you have to fall. March 31st, 2012 marked the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year where they were forced to announce something that seemed impossible to imagine. They were at a loss.

While many factors contributed to Nintendo losing $ 458 ,000,000 during the past year while sales were in the $7,990,000,000 range, the main two being looked upon are the lack of software and the gigantic price drop from the 3DS.

With a library of over 1200 games, one would think the Wii would have carried enough momentum to continue high sales. Unfortunately, 2011 marked a lackluster year for new Wii releases. With only The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword to be both a commercial and critical success releasing in late 2011, owners of the system didn’t flock to other critical darlings such as Xenoblade or The Last Story like Nintendo would have hoped.

This could speak strongly to the hardcore gaming audience already having written off Nintendo for forgetting them with a lack of big core titles when the system initially launched. With the Wii U on its way, there is a drastic drop off in titles being promoted for the Wii.

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With PAX East over, it’s now the time to countdown to the biggest show in the gaming world: E3. This 2012′s E3 has the potential to be one of the biggest in gaming history. As both the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 have hit milestones in their lifecycles, could it be time for both Microsoft and Sony to reveal the latest entrants to the console market? Last year’s E3 revealed the Wii U to mixed feedback.

Nintendo appeared to be playing catch up to the power of both the 360 and PS3 by announcing power specs that are comparable to the current generation’s competitors with another gimmick controller. But what could this next generation of home consoles do to change the game and the way gaming is consumed? Truth be told, we don’t know and the rumor mill around the internet has only lead to widespread debate over possible problems caused by these new consoles as opposed to innovations brought on from them.

The next iteration of consoles will most likely not focus on simple graphic upgrades. Looking at games from the XBox 360′s and PlayStation 3′s launches and comparing them to the most recent releases has shown that these systems have not topped out yet in terms of their processing power and graphical capabilities. In the hands of the right developers, cutting edge visuals are still being developed for consoles and it is rare to see drastic differences between even the highest end PC games to their console counterparts. So while it is realistic that these new systems will have stronger processors with higher capabilities, the noticeable degree of improvement isn’t going to be as drastic as with previous generations.

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Assassin’s Creed III has proven itself a huge point of interest for many gamers since it’s reveal. With the drastic change of scenery from three games set in Renaissance Italy and Constantinople, the idea of a new proper sequel to the series with a completely new continent to adventure upon is one people can’t seem to resist talking about.

Yesterday, Machinima.com got access to an exclusive teaser trailer of Connor, the game’s new protagonist. In it, Connor’s character model is presented in stunning detail, though no gameplay is shown. Instead, the trailer focuses on the tools of the trade Connor will be using, confirming the items originally hinted at in the game’s XBox.com description like the dual pistols and the much anticipated tomahawk.

Interestingly enough, Connor is fairly new to the Assassin brotherhood. The trailer reveals he only joined in 1770 with the game taking place during the American Revolution only a few years later. Many who played the original games will remember that Altair was raised in the Assassins while Ezio was destined to become a part of the order since birth as well. Connor may end up being most like Desmond, the series’ modern day protagonist who has been thrust into his current role.

Take a peek at the teaser after the break. Keep your eyes peeled to The Flickcast for more on Assassin’s Creed III and its new protagonist Connor.

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For those finally catching up with all their late 2011 gaming, Assassins’ Creed: Revalations marked the end of Ezio’s story (for now at least). Now, from the look of the new trailer for Assassins’ Creed III, we are going to be fast forwarding a little over two hundred and fifty years and crossing the Atlantic to the new world as the founding fathers waged a revolution.

As originally reported the other day by the Flickcast, Assassins’ Creed III will feature a half English, half Mohawk man named Connor, and also referred to by his birth name of Ratohnhaké:ton. The game will also feature historical figures like George Washington and Charles Lee alongside Benjamin Franklin who may play a role similar to that of Leonardo da Vinci from the Assassins’ Creed II timeline. As revealed by the description on the Microsoft website (see below), the game will feature the weapons of the time including bows, pistols and a tomahawk.

Also worth noting is the mention of “abundant wildlife” which is yet to be seen other than the eagles and pigeons flying around in the previous games. This leaves potential for instances like that of Red Dead Redemption where players can have encounters with wildlife and have to have a knife fight with a bear. Though Connor must have a better set of skills for taking on grizzlies than John Marsten did.

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One of the main issues Nintendo has faced in the second half of it’s Wii lifespan is a disturbing lack of major third party titles. The graphics limitations of the Wii, coupled with the unique control scheme makes it difficult for developers to incorporate the Nintendo console as a platform for their marquee titles.

Ubisoft has just announced that the new Nintendo console, the Wii U, will be one of the consoles their new, and highly anticipated, title will be playable on. Assassin’s Creed III could open the flood gates of other third party marquee titles making their way toward Nintendo.

Ubisoft has been on the forefront of third party partnership with the Wii U since the announcement at last year’s E3. They showcased Ghost Recon playable on the system and have been participating in Nintendo events showcasing the Wii U features. The real test for Nintendo will be if they can lure other high profile developers, but getting their hands on Ubisoft’s biggest franchise will go a long way in that goal.

Assassin’s Creed III sees a major change in the series as it advances the time frame up to the American Revolution and takes place on this side of the pond. The game will feature a new protagonist, this time of partial native american decent, which should be the source of some interesting aesthetic tweaks this go around.

With E3 coming to a close today it’s time to take a look at the rest of the photos we took over the last three days. Well, we can’t actually show you all of the photos due to several factors: we shot way too many and some of them contain embarrassing moments best left for a night of cocktails at Trader Vic’s.

However, we do have quite a few we can share so in this gallery we’ve included those. Yes, they contain more booths, some gameplay, cool cars and, of course, a selection of beautiful booth babes.

What E3 would be complete without them? A less beautiful experience to say the least.

Click through for all the pics. See you next year!

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This week Nintendo announced the upcoming release of its new Wii U console but even with that announcement, details on the console itself were still few and far between. But now, more info has begun to emerge as the E3 show is in full swing.

According to BGR iinformants, the new console will support full HD 1080p gaming and sports a custom Radeon HD graphics processor from AMD. In addition, IBM will be supplying Nintendo with a 45nm multi-core processor with embedded DRAM for the console.

There are also four USB ports, an HDMI port, an S-video port and component jacks. It will also feature 802.11n Wi-Fi. And that, for the moment, is pretty much it.

Expect more details of this new console to emerge as E3 progresses. Of course, we may not know it all right away and that’s okay. What’s life without a little mystery, right?

Check out the full press release of the Wii U announcement after the break.

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