Nintendo Makes Its Presence Official In Southeast Asia With Singaporean Website

While there are plenty of ways to get your hands on a Nintendo Switch here in Malaysia, the company doesn’t actually have an official presence. Never mind in the country, the company doesn’t even have an official presence in Southeast Asia. But it looks like this are changing, as the company now has an official Singaporean website.

The website itself is pretty bare bones, and you would be forgiven to go as far as to say that it’s still incomplete. One of the few things that give the impression are the URL for the games. None of them are referred to by name, instead they get a serial number equivalent that’s made up of four letters – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is just “aaaa” for example.

And then there’s the fact that there’s no mention of price pretty much anywhere. Not for the games, nor for the hardware. This may have something to do with the fact that Nintendo also has official stores on Shopee and Lazada, also only for Singapore.

This is quite the change for Nintendo, which has generally left the supply of its hardware to the regional distributor Maxsoft, or M.M.Soft in Malaysia. That being said, it remains to be seen if this will actually change anything for customers, especially when it comes to the prices of hardware.

As for the website itself, it may be a might-as-well move for the company. After all, Universal Studios Singapore is also getting a Super Nintendo World theme expansion which, according to Geek Culture, is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

Modder Makes Game Man, An Oversized Parody Of The Game Boy

The original Nintendo Game Boy was released back in 1989, and was relatively large for a portable gaming device. Now, 32 years later, there is a Game Man that takes the size to new extremes.

The Game Man is the project of a modder who goes by Grumpy Modeler on YouTube. In a side-by-side comparison, it towers over the Game Boy. Fitting, in a sense, if you imagine the handheld ageing like a person does for 32 years. But because of the size, it’s actually very impractical to play.

And despite the Game Man name, it’s probably more accurate to call it an NES in a giant Game Boy shell. After all, it actually takes NES cartridges, and uses an NES motherboard on the inside. The quarter-inch audio jack outputs to an external display, even if it has its own 5.6-inch 640 x 480 LCD screen. But like the original Game Boy, it runs on AA batteries.

This makes another entry into the pretty substantial list of Game Boy modding projects. You can make your own Game Man if you want to, and have a 3D printer. You can also use a Raspberry Pi or other hardware if you choose not to use an NES motherboard. You can find the original video demonstration of the thing as well as the assets to make your own via the links below.

Geely Makes Push Into Electric Vehicle Market With Foxconn and Baidu

Chinese carmaker Geely, widely credited for reviving Proton’s fortunes, is making an aggressive push into the electric vehicle market, signing separate deals with Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn and Chinese search giant Baidu.

Geely’s partnership with Foxconn, well-known as a major Apple supplier, would involve them providing contract manufacturing for other carmakers. According to Reuters, the companies would each have a 50% stake in a venture that will also provide automakers with consulting services on electric vehicle (EV) technologies. News reports indicate that Apple itself is likely to launch a self-driving electric vehicle by 2024.

Earlier in the week, Geely announced that it was linking up with Baidu to design and manufacture electric vehicles. Industry observers view the partnership as an effort to challenge US carmaker Tesla’s current global dominance in the electric vehicle market.

“We believe that by combining Baidu’s expertise in smart transportation, connected vehicles and autonomous driving with Geely’s expertise as a leading automobile and EV manufacturer, the new partnership will pave the way for future passenger vehicles,” said Baidu CEO Robin Li, according to the BBC.

Bloomberg, citing a source knowledgeable on the matter, reported that Baidu would hold a majority stake in the new electric car company. Bloomberg’s source further said that the pact was aimed at pushing Apollo’s adoption in more vehicles. Apollo is Baidu’s AI-powered autonomous driving platform. However, the Bloomberg report did note that it was unclear if self-driving cars were on the partnership’s roadmap.

The reason behind Geely’s spate of deals may simply have to do with pragmatism. Sources told Reuters that Geely wants to make better use of the production capacity of its factories in China. Geely Automobile, its main listed company, can churn out over 2 million vehicles a year, but only sold about 1.32 million last year.

Geely is better known in Malaysia as national carmaker Proton’s strategic partner, having acquired a 49.9% stake in the latter in 2017. Since then, Proton sales and revenue have seen a tremendous turnaround, breaking with years of steep losses. The carmaker hit a 8-year sales high just in July last year.