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.

The success of Nintendo's two newest consoles, the Wii and the Nintendo DS, has led to Nintendo reporting record profits for the year ending 31st March. The Japanese based company managed revenue of 966.6 billion Yen (about $8 billion US) and operating profits of 266 billion Yen (about $1.9 billion). These figures show a 90% rise in revenue and 150% rise in profits compared to the same period a year ago. Nintendo sold 23 million Nintendo DS units with 123 million DS games during the year (that makes 40 million units since they started selling the handheld), whilst the Wii managed to sell 5.84 million consoles and 29 million games in the five months after its launch. Read on for Nintendo's press release.

People getting tired of seeing "No Wii" signs in front of their favorite video game store while waiting for the Nintendo Wii might be seeing some relief soon. Nintendo has been somehow managing to make 1 million Wii's a month, which simply isn't enough to meet all of the demand. Nintendo hopes that adding a new plant or two into the production team will let Nintendo make 14 million units within this fiscal year.

Nintendo once again claimed the top two spots among the best-selling new video game systems in America in March, according to independent sales data gathered by the NPD Group. Despite widespread shortages for both systems, more than half a million buyers snapped up the portable Nintendo DS, and Wii which is now once again the top-selling new home video game console. Wii remains the fastest-selling new console in more than a decade, based on NPD sell-through information over the first five months of availability.

After successfully releasing version 9.20 of its popular browser yesterday, Opera Software has now released the final version of the internet browser for Nintendo's Wii console. The new 'Internet Channel', as it is known, boasts a faster start-up speed, better text clarity, improved navigation, the ability to hide the toolbar, improved security options and a built in search feature with a choice of Google or Yahoo!, as well as other minor improvements. To update to this new browser, Wii owners first need to download the latest firmware update and then visit the Shopping Channel to download/update the browser. It will be free to all Wii owners until the end of June, and anyone who has not downloaded it by them will need to purchase it using 500 Wii points - Wii owners that have already downloaded it will be able to continue using it free of charge.

Nintendo expected to make 900 billion yen in Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 (March 31, 2006 to March 31, 2007). Fortunately for Nintendo, they exceeded their own expectations. FY2006 earned Nintendo a whopping 966 billion yen (roughly $8.1 billion USD) in raw profit. This is thanks to the smashing success of the Nintendo Wii, and the Nintendo DS' strange way of being a "giant money pot". And so, in response to these incredible profits, Nintendo has increased their expected profits by a considerable margin. We should see this, along with a more detailed report of Nintendo's FY2006 performance, later.

Most of you have probably heard by now the story of Mrs. Jennifer Strange. She participated in a radio contest in an attempt to win a Nintendo Wii for her children. The contest determined a winner based on who could drink the most water. Unfortunately, a few hours after Mrs.Strange participated, she died of water intoxication.

Anyways, there was almost a court case to file criminal charges against the radio station. The would-be prosecution determined that the whole event was one tragic accident, and that there was no way the radio station could have prevented the death of Jennifer Strange. This is because Mrs.Strange did not show any signs of water intoxication at the event. The radio station has fired 10 employees since the tragic incident. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Strange family against the radio station remains in court.

The Nintendo Wii, which was once seen as the weakest console of them all (before anyone had even heard off the Wiimote and Nunchuck controller), is now leading the sales of all three next generation consoles. In fact, it's leading the sales by such a wide margin that Nintendo simply can't keep up with demand. Nintendo senior VP of marketing and corporate communication, George Harrison, has this to say about Wii production, and getting all the Wii's to the various markets.

We have worldwide territories that are all competing over the available production. The Japan and European markets are doing extremely well with the Wii. People in Japan at NCL [Nintendo Co. Ltd.] are making the best decisions that they can about which products get shipped to which market and when.

In short, the Nintendo Wii is doing extraordinarily in sales all over the world, and Nintendo can't keep up with demand.

Nintendo has altered the circuit layout of its Wii games console in order to block the increasing use of modification chips (modchips). The new Wiis, which are part of new shipments of the console, have an altered circuit layout that makes modification more difficult than in earlier versions. Users attempting to mod the new consoles using current modchips are very likely to damage the system, the sources pointed out. However, new-generation modchips capable of working with the revised Wii consoles may become available in less than a month, according to DigiTimes.

The Nintendo Wii is apparently on a winning streak, as it were. Passing both Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in sales, the Nintendo Wii has taken the lead. Last month, Nintendo sold 335,000 Wii's, compared to Microsoft's 228,000 Xbox360 sales, and 127,000 Sony PS3 sales. While February isn't exactly the best indicator of retail success, it sure is nice for Nintendo to know that they are selling what currently is the hottest console in the market.

Nintendo's online gaming service for the Wii will be provided by Fox Interactive Media's GameSpy, a name already familiar to most online PC gamers. Nintendo WiFi, the online service for the Nintendo DS, already uses GameSpy, and this move shows that Nintendo doesn't want to fall behind to Sony and Microsoft in online gameplay. Although there are not yet any online games for the Wii, Pokémon Battle Revolution will change this when it is released on June 25th. "This partnership will expand our wireless community of players on Nintendo WiFi Connection," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "Millions of Nintendo DS users have already logged on using GameSpy's technology, and now Wii owners will be able to do the same in a fun and easy-to-use environment."

Activision published Guitar Hero a few years ago for the PS2, which allowed people to pretend they could play real guitar. They did this by plugging in a fancy guitar controller modeled after the Gibson SG, and programming the "notes" for a bunch of songs that the player has to hit to play the note. Ubisoft is doing something very similar, with an entirely different style of guitar, and for the Nintendo DS. Gamers, by pressing the right button on the D pad and strumming with the stylus, can play a set of unannounced songs. Free play mode allows gamers to invent their own songs, which can be used to propose to the girl of your dreams in the nerdiest way possible.