Despite some PlayStation3 success in Japan, the Nintendo Wii is selling extraordinarily strong all around the world. While Nintendo hasn't been able to keep up with Wii demand since the console was released, they continue to make insane amounts of profit. After selling 200,000 units in Australia in just 50 weeks, analysts in the country declared that the Wii is the fastest selling console to ever hit Australia. Even the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, which both were met with extreme fanfare, took at least 55 weeks to reach the 200,000 mark in Australia. Sony refuses to let Nintendo take this title without a fight, as their PlayStation2 continues trucking along to its seventh birthday. Sony announced that they will continue to sell the PS2 throughout all of 2008, and possibly 2009. It is priced competitively, at $199AUD, for Christmas. Microsoft also is working hard to compete with Wii sales, by pricing the Xbox360 at the same price as the Wii ($399AUD). Time will tell if the Wii really is just a fad/gimmick, or if it really has something going for it.

Ever since the Nintendo Wii first found itself in retail channels, customers have begged for light-saber support. Finally, Nintendo is answering their call with a Wii Laser Sword. While the Wii Light Sword fits in perfectly with games such as Lego Star Wars, the Wii Light Sword is no more than a standard Wii remote with a 22" LED sword. Hence, a user could theoretically bring his light-saber to any Wii game, including Wii Sports. The sword will be available on November 30 for £15 (€22/$30).

This is a story about a man by the name of Tony who claims to have caught his lying wife by searching the play history of his Nintendo Wii. After returning from a year active duty in Iraq in April 2007, he discovered that his wife was playing bowling with some guy during his absence. "[In Nov.] I flip through the Wii menu and visit the Mii Channel so I can peruse the many friends that I have created with the guys that I played with in Iraq," writes Tony in an email to GoNintendo. "As I go through the characters, I see there is a Mii that I have not created. It's a guy strikingly similar to my wife's [alleged lover]. "To be sure of this, I went into the Wil Message Board and click on the Calendar option. Through this menu I was able to identify the many nights my wife's Mii and this 'other' Mii Character played Wii Bowling together." After confrontation, the wife maintained that she had only shared an innocent kiss with the man on a single occasion. Tony has since separated and filed for divorce. Don't tell me we live in a normal world. How smart do you have to be, in order to cheat your better half without getting caught now a days.

Nintendo has announced that it plans to launch two new DS Lite bundles in North America this Friday. One is a gold DS featuring Zelda's Triforce symbol, which will be sold with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and the other is a metallic rose DS featuring the Nintendogs' paw print, which will be bundled with Nintendogs - Best Friends Edition. Nintendo's marketing Vice President said the following:

Our new bundles will be collector's items for current gamers while offering an attractive way for people new to video games to play with style.

No official price has been given, but judging by online retailers, each model should sell at around $149.99.

While Sony is celebrating the PS3's birthday with cake, Nintendo does not have time to celebrate. That is because they are too busy selling Nintendo Wii consoles at an astounding rate. Even a year after the console went on sale, Nintendo is having a very hard time keeping up with demand for their next-generation console. Nintendo Marketing Head George Harrison explains why it's so hard to keep up with demand.

It takes about five months for us to increase the actual monthly rate of production. We're at a rate now worldwide of about 1.8 million Wiis produced every month, and that's going to sustain itself until we get on top of this.

Harrison predicts that sales will taper off after the holiday season. You can read a full interview with Harrison here.

Nintendo, at this point, does not have any console that can play a DVD movie, which just about every other current-generation console can do. Nintendo did plan to add a DVD player to the Wii earlier, however, they wanted to make sure they would have enough stock for the holiday rush. Nintendo also discovered that DVD software licensing fees were a lot higher than expected. Nintendo fans everywhere should be able to enjoy a Nintendo Wii with DVD playback sometime next year.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (aka NES) is probably older than many techPowerUp! readers, being released in Japan during July 1983, the USA during October 1985 and most of Europe during September 1986. However, after over 24 years, Nintendo has finally decided that it can no-longer continue to support the console due to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts. As of 31st October this year, Nintendo has ended support for the NES (Famicom in Japan), Super NES, Nintendo 64 and both the original and pocket Gameboys. Considering that Sega ended support for its Dreamcast earlier this year, this really shows just how long Nintendo has kept the NES alive.

The Japanese sales figures for last month's console sales are in, and there's some good news for the PS3. Sony's console is now just over 63,000 units behind the Wii compared to almost 175,000 units in August (the figures for September weren't announced), which is a considerably smaller gap. The bad news for both consoles is that sales figures have plummeted from 245,653 units for the Wii and 81,541 units for the PS3 in August to just 110,415 units and 47,183 units respectively. It was better news for Microsoft, which saw its Xbox 360 sales figures rise from 11,288 units to 18,717 units over the same time period, although it still lags behind both other companies. The PS3's and 360's sales would have been helped slightly by both consoles experiencing a price drop during October, and the PS3 is expected to do well in November with the introduction of the new 40GB PS3 in Japan, along pre-Christmas sales affecting figures.

Nyko is proud to announce the release of the Intercooler for Nintendo Wii. The Intercooler for Wii is the perfect accessory for Wii gamers looking to keep their consoles running in the best possible environment. The Intercooler dramatically increases the rate of hot air flowing out of the vent, resulting in a console that runs at considerably lower temperatures. The Intercooler for Wii clips easily onto the back of the Wii, meaning there is no complicated installation or modification necessary. This patented design also leaves all of the inputs on the back of the console free and easily accessible. For image conscience gamers, the Intercooler for Wii comes in a décor that matches the aesthetic of the Wii itself and can be used when the console is in a horizontal or vertical position. The Intercooler for Wii has shipped to stores nationwide, and is available at the Nyko Online Store for $14.99 here.

It seems as though all of Nintendo's efforts to make fine, enjoyable products is paying off handsomely. Nintendo's market value is officially worth over 10 trillion yen, which is equivalent to approximately $85 billion USD. This prosperity is almost certainly due to the popularity of the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. Nintendo's extremely high market value puts it in third place as Japan's most valuable company, shortly behind Toyota and Mitsubishi. The event that pushed Nintendo's stock above the 10 trillion mark was the announcement of the Wii Fit's release date, which is December 1st.

Nintendo has released firmware update 3.1U for the Wii, adding official USB keyboard support. This should greatly increase web browsing experience with the Internet Channel. The update also adds the following:

• USB keyboard compatibility
• Links received on the Wii Message Board can now be opened in Internet Channel
• Can now send web-links to friends to view
• Can copy text from page being viewed and paste it into a search engine

Earlier this week, Nintendo announced that it would give each household up to four Wii remote jackets, free of charge, and would start including said jackets with future Wii consoles. However, this program isn't going to be free of charge for Nintendo. With 10 million consoles already sold, Nintendo will have to make 40 million sleeves, to live up to their promise, which will cost a grand total of no less than $17.2 million USD.

Surely to the horror of all third-party Wii accessory companies, Nintendo announced today the Wii Remote Jacket that will be given to all system owners completely free of charge. The Wii Remote Jacket is a silicon cover made specifically to fit the Wii Remote and "provide cushioning for the Wii Remote for people who might accidentally throw or drop their Wii Remotes while playing games." Nintendo will begin shipping Wii Remote Jackets on October 15, 2007. For Wii owners who purchased their systems prior to this addition, Nintendo will send free Wii Remote Jackets for their existing Wii Remotes. Click here if you don't have Wii Remote Jacket and would like to request one.

It's been almost a year since the Wii was launched now, and it's fair to say that it's been much more successful than most people originally anticipated. As a result of this, Nintendo has now said that it is expecting another shortage of Wii consoles this Christmas, with President of Nintendo America Fils-Aime saying:

The issue is we went in with a curve that was aggressive, but the demand has been substantially more than that. And the ability to ramp up production and to sustain it is not a switch that you flick on. We're working very hard to make sure that consumers are satisfied this holiday, but I can't guarantee that we're going to meet demand. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record we won't.

The Wii is currently the most successful of the three new consoles, managing to sell more units than both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, despite Microsoft's machine having a year's head-start.

Some games for the Wii may not be so family-friendly after all: they require a gun-shaped controller to be played. This is getting parent groups extremely upset. Parent groups claim that this is a "bone-headed idea". Some extremists claim that the Wii gun controller will train kids to aim and shoot, which, according to them, will make them become killers and psychopaths. One "very concerned grandparent" even went as far to proclaim that an application to the NRA should be included with every gun-shaped controller.

A quick glance at the controller, which you can buy here, hardly makes it seem all that bad.

Thanks to stellar earnings performance on demand for the Wii and DS gaming systems, Nintendo rose to number 5 on the list of Japan's largest companies. It's market value now stands at 8.69 trillion yen ($72 Billion), a number that places it above Japanese auto maker Honda. On the news, Nintendo adjusted their sales forcast and expects to sell 16.5 million Wii units and 26 million DS units by the end of the current business year.

Future Shop Canadian retailer today revealed that a special version of its DS Lite will launch along with the upcoming game Brain Age 2. The Crimson/Black model will be the first of many DS models to ship in a two-tone pattern and will come with a red lid but a black body and stylus. It will also come bundled with an identically-themed black and red traveling case and a copy of the game to get the user started. The bundle will sell for $160 Canadian ($153 US) and while the ship date is estimated on August 20th its uknown if it will be offered to American customers as well.

Nintendo has been forced to recall all copies of Mario Party 8 in the UK after it was discovered that the game contained an offensive word. Although Nintendo has given no official reason, it is claimed that the game has been withdrawn because of the use of the word 'spastic' - Ubisoft found itself in a similar position just a few weeks ago when the same word was found in one of its games. The game, which had experienced numerous delays in the build up to its release, was finally launched last week on Friday 13th July, a day which obviously proved to be unlucky for Nintendo. The company blames the issue on the "wrong version" making its way to retail. "Unfortunately we have discovered that a small number of games contain the wrong version of the disk due to an assembly error. We have therefore decided to recall all copies of the game from UK retailers so that this mistake can be corrected," said Nintendo in an official statement. No re-release date has been issued yet.

Nintendo Reveals 2 Wii Peripherals At E3

Zapper is a gun designed to host both the WiiMote and the Nunchuk to act as a laser gun. The Zapper will retail for $20 and will be sold seperatly or bundled with specific titles.
Medal of Honor, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and a so far secret title will be the first games to utilize the zapper.

While Microsoft has recently lost a huge sum of money to make their console work, Nintendo has won a humble sum of money from a court case in Uruguay. Back in 2001, the international version of the FBI busted into a warehouse in Montevideo, Uruguay full of counterfeit Nintendo products. The goods were seized, and the mastermind was captured. The mastermind was charged by the government, and sued by Nintendo. While the mastermind somehow did get an executive pardon, he did not escape Nintendo's lawyers. Nintendo has sought and won $2.5 million USD from the mastermind, as compensation for the counterfeiting.

Nintendo had this to say on this case, and piracy of their consoles in general:

This action exemplifies Nintendo's commitment to combat the international problem of product piracy. These types of illegal operations simply will not be tolerated and Nintendo will do everything in its power to protect its business and its customers.

Nintendo has continued its recent console success throughout May, with the DS taking top spot and the Wii in a comfortable second in terms of sales. The Nintendo DS sold an impressive 423,000 units and the Wii 338,000 units, with the PSP next in line with 221,000 units, ahead of the PlayStation 2's 188,000 units. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are continuing to lag behind, with Sony's latest console on just 82,000 and the Xbox 360 on 155,000 units - the PS3 only beat Game Boy Advance figures by a mere one thousand units. Sales in May totalled $815.5 million, up 49% compared to figures from last year - a strong month for the games industry.

Weertzen, May 2007 - Whether you're a pirate in the Caribbean or a knight of the round table: with this scimitar, sword and shield set from SPEED-LINK, sword fights will turn into a real experience.

Only a couple of months after the Wii's realease modchips appeared, opening up the black market for the piracy of Wii games.

Now Nintendo is fighting back, as reports from Japan indicate that the latest console hardware revisions are now much more difficult to modify with current chips. Three pins used by current modchips to alter the console's drive software are reportedly now physically cut, making modifications impossible for all but those with highly advanced skills and tools. The hardware revision has only been discovered in Wiis from Japan, though it's reasonable to expect that anti-mod measures will soon make their way worldwide.

Namco Bandai Games announced on its Japanese Web site that it is selling its majority interest in developer Monolith Soft to Nintendo. According to the publisher, Nintendo has acquired 80% of the company's shares.

Best known for their Baten Kaitos and Xenosaga series of RPGs, Monolith Soft is also currently at work on Nintendo's Disaster: Day of Crisis for the Wii.

At the Tokyo press conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that Nintendo currently has 124 games in development. Of those, 45 are for the Wii and 79 are for the DS.

According to the Bloomberg news service, Iwata said the next batch of first-party games is coming out at the end of summer and just before one of the more crowded fourth-quarter release slates in years. No specific titles were mentioned as being part of the batch.