Japan's game and hardware sales from last week have been revealed, with Rhythm Tengoku Gold, a Ninteno DS game, coming first. One of the newest additions to the Japanese market, Afrika, came in second with 38,000 units sold. Rounding out the top five is J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship for the PS2, PSP Fate/Tiger Colosseum Upper for the PSP, and Wii Fit.

Over on the hardware side, the DS Lite sold the most, reaching over 56,000 units! Second was the PSP with 41k new owners, ...

"How did you perform in Nintendo’s last Mario Kart Wii online tournament? …Not so good? Nevermind, there’s another one just on the horizon and its for you Wii Wheel specialists."

"It's hard to say if the last week of the Olympics gave Segas' Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games a boost, but that hasn't stopped the PlayStation 3 version of the game moving up four spots from the previous week, into sixth spot. The Xbox 360 version of Beijing 2008 also made it into the charts, though at the much lower position of number 10. Nintendo's Brain Training series are regular contenders in the charts, with Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brai..."

In a surprise press release today, sales trackers NPD Group, Enterbrain and GfK Chart-Track Limited have announced that they will be collaborating on an all new Top Global Markets Report for video game sales, which will combine the trackers' US, Japan, and UK data, respectively, in a sales ranking chart to track the global sales of video games. They are currently working on incorporating the other countries they cover, namely Canada (NPD) and the rest of Europe (GfK). This is the one of the...

The NPD Group has released their hardware and software numbers for the month of July, representing sales for the United States for the four week period of July 6th to August 2nd

This month, there were three notables:

• 360's price drop has no effect
• Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bump is gone; game has fell out of top ten
• Five new releases in the top five, in the form of three separate games

Hardware numbers:
NDS: 608k (152k per week)
WII: 555k (138.75k per week)
PS3: 225k (56.25k per week)
PS...

"01. [PSP] Phantasy Star Portable (Sega) - 148,000 / 490,000
02. [NDS] Fire Emblem: New Shadow Dragons and the Sword of Light (Nintendo) - 145,000 / NEW
03. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) - 130,000 / 343,000
04. [360] Tales of Vesperia (Namco Bandai) - 108,000 / NEW
05. [NDS] Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - 73,000 / 1,019,000
06. [NDS] Sangokushi Taisen Heaven (Sega) - 33,000 / NEW
07. [NDS] Summon Night 2 (Namco Bandai) - 30,000 / NEW
08. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 2..."

"01. [PSP] Phantasy Star Universe - (Sega) - 342,000 / 342,000
02. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold - (Nintendo) - 213,000 / 213,000
03. [NDS] Dragon Quest V - (Square Enix) - 112,000 / 946,000
04. [PS3] Soul Calibur IV - (Namco Bandai) - 75,000 / 75,000
05. [PS2] Powerful Pro Baseball 15 - (KONAMI) - 37,000 / 121,000
06. [360] Soul Calibur IV - (Namco Bandai) - 35,000 / 35,000
07. [Wii] Fatal Frame IV - (Nintendo) - 33,000 / 33,000
08. [Wii] Wii Fit - (Nintendo) - 32,000 / 2,442,000
09. [Wii..."

"The newest Mario Kart Wii tournament went live a few days ago, but unfortunately, some participants took it upon themselves to hack their way to the top. Two racers have submitted ludicrous times - 0.004 and 0.609 seconds. Immediately upon looking at these results, one would quickly surmise that the results would not have been able to have been achieved through ethical means. Also, one of the hackers has gone so far as to dawn the name “ihack@you.” This is not the first time the Mario Kart Wi..."

"Nintendo Co Ltd's quarterly profit rose 31.5 percent on the runaway success of its Wii game console, but the Japanese video game maker kept its annual outlook well short of market expectations."

"1. [NDS] Dragon Quest V (Square Enix) - 643,764 / NEW
2. [PSP] Gundam Battle Universe (Namco Bandai Games) - 137,550 / NEW
3. [PS2] Persona 4 (Atlus Co. ) - 40,680 / 233K
4. [PS3] Tears to Tiara: Kakan no Daichi (Aqua Plus) - 34,431 / NEW
5. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 27,198 / 2,380K
6. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 23,992 / 1,584K
7. [NDS] Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (Nintendo) - 21,419 / 212K
8. [NDS] Derby Stallion DS (Enterbrain) - 16,248 / 223K
9. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable..."

The NPD Group's hardware and software numbers for the month of June has been released, representing sales for the United States in the five week period of June 1st to July 5th.

This month, there are three notable happenings:

• Wii overtakes 360 in the United States in Lifetime to Date sales, with 666.7k units sold vs. 219.8k units sold for the 360, bring the Wii's total to 10.9 million units sold in the United States in its 20 months of release.
• Metal Gear Solid 4, being the only major rel...

"It’s been almost a year since Nintendo stepped onto the stage of their E3 2007 press conference and threw the industry a curveball with their new take on gaming.

Let’s run down some of the major announcements at last year’s conference:

* “Wii Fit” revealed and demoed
* “Super Smash Bros. Brawl,” “Super Mario Galaxy” release dates
* Wii Zapper announced
* “Mario Kart Wii” and wheel peripheral shown

More importantly, Nintendo did the opposite of their wildly popular ..."

"10. Wii Play (Wii) 411,416 copies
9. Mario Kart DS (DS) 416,935 copies
8. Mario Party DS (DS) 497,547 copies
7. Wii Sports (Wii) 544,958 copies
6. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) 576,437 copies

Not sure which is more impressive: A month old game like MGS4 making it into the top ten or a two and a half year old game like Mario Kart DS doing it. YOU DECIDE! Hit the jump for the top five.

5. Pokémon Ranger: Battonage (DS) 576,467 copies
4. Wii Fit (Wii) 1,443,167 copies
3. Mario Kart Wii (W..."

"Next time you're on a multiplayer server, you might want to ask everyone who's a Canadian, and then ask who among them are dudes. Because according to a Microsoft survey, every fifth one of them (in the long run) has gamed in the nude, and might be doing so now.

Microsoft commissioned a pretty serious poll up in the Great White North, asking Canadians all sorts of questions that sound like a Cosmo bedside astrologer survey, if "game" is used as a euphemism for "sex." Do you game at work? (..."

"Now I’m sure this has happened to all of us. Frequently. Too frequently - you’ve been in first for quite some time. It’s the last lap. Just coming up to the last corner. Heart pumping. Sweat dripping from forehead. Using every bit of willpower to avoid scratching the itch on your nose as you know it will all be over soon. Victory is guaranteed, surely? But, no. The computer/friend/bastard fires a blue shell at you. 5 karts whizz past. Controllers are smashed, discs are snapped and friendships..."

"Until recently, Microsoft could brag about how Live was by far the most feature-complete online service on any platform, with a unified Friends list, the best online shop, voice and video chat as standard and a consistent and stable online experience. But in recent months there’s been a shift in the market, and even bigger changes are coming. Microsoft is the only player to charge for online play, and their policy has landed some of the best online games on the 360... but as PC and PlayStatio..."

"Nothing's perfect. Stare closely enough at anything - even a masterpiece - and you're bound to find flaws sooner or later. They might be small. They might be insignificant. They might not detract from the overall quality of the piece at all...

Except when they really, really do. With these seven games, in fact, you don't need to stare. Their flaws are so huge, so obvious, so frustrating and so effing obnoxious that you can't help but notice them, despise them and wonder how the damn things..."

"HW
PlayStation 3 208.7K
PlayStation Portable 182.3K
Xbox 360 186.6K
Wii 675.1K
Nintendo DS 452.6K

SW Top 10
Top 10 SKU's May 2008 Rank # Units
(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc.)
360 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) APR 2008 1 871.3K
WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA APR 2008 2 787.4K
WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA MAY 2008 3 687.7K
PS3 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) APR 2008 4 442.9K
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AME..."

"Seven new titles have entered into the top of ten of the Japanese software charts for the week ended June 1, according to figures from Media Create.

Konami's Powerful Pro Baseball Portable 3 for the PSP took the top spot, followed by another new comer from Namco Bandai, Endless Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga for the DS.

Family Trainer on the Wii, D.C. II: Da Capo II: Plus Situation on the PS2 and Valhalla Knights 2 for the PSP entered into the chart at sixth, seventh and eighth re..."

"Taking a cue from Mario Kart DS’s Mission mode, the new Galaxy Arena tasks the player to bash around several of the Spiky Topmen who were last seen knocking Mario into space in Super Mario Galaxy. The aim of this mission being, to knock four of the baddies off the side of the stage in as short a time as possible.

Admittedly the downside of this news is that this mode and arena are only available when competing in the online Tournament mode and not in offline multiplayer, but it’s still nic..."

"Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii was finally unseated from its top slot in Media Create's software chart list. After enjoying the spotlight for eight weeks, Sega's Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! on the DS was finally toppled the racing title giant as the premiere video game in Japan for the week of May 19 to May 25.

Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G is still fully entrenched in its second place position. However, the PlayStation Portable title looks rather lonely amidst all the other Nintendo t..."

"May 23, 2008 - Following a few weeks in second place behind Nintendo's latest Wii million seller, Mario Kart, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G rubber banded this week back into first place. Media Create reports sales of 53,248 units for the monster PSP hit, which has now crossed the two million mark.

Mario Kart came in at second for the week spanning May 12 to May 18, with 41,739 units sold.

The chart wasn't all old titles, though. Marvelous Entertainment's Luminous Arc 2 Will for the DS p..."

"Over the past two years, gamers who have doled out the cash for a shiny new Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 have enjoyed a wealth of great titles. Games such as Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, Super Mario Galaxy and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune have reassured owners that their purchases were not vein, and that the potential for memorable videogame experiences would be ever-present in this generation."

"To keep in line with their austere “safe and fun” policy, Nintendo has banned the name Hitler from Mario Kart Wii’s online services. If you attempt to access the Wi-Fi Connection with your Mii licence set as Hitler, you will receive a message stating that such nick names are forbidden and that you must modify your Mii name to proceed. On the other hand, those who connect to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection as other notorious gentlemen such as Stalin and Osama will be able to do so without a mess..."

"U.S. Video Games Industry - April 2008

April 2007 April 2008 YTD Apr 07 YTD Apr 08
Video Games $839 million $1.23 billion 47.0% $4.18 billion $5.47 billion 31.0%
Video Games Hardware $339.2 million $426.2 million 26.0% $1.62 billion $1.84 billion 13.0%
Video Games Software $389.4 million $654.7 million 68.0% $1.97 billion $2.88 billion 46.0%
Video Game Accessories $110.4 million $154 million 39.0% $584.4 million $750.6 million 29.0%

Hardware
PlayStation 2 124.4K
PlayStation 3 1..."

"Japan appears to be fixed the combination of Mario Kart and Monster Hunter. The Nintendo and Capcom smash hits continued their reigns at the top of this week's Media Create sales chart, covering April 28 to May 4.

Mario Kart Wii was, once again, in the top spot with an additional 173,387 sales. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G took second with 102,320 units. The two have remained in the same position for the past four weeks, since Mario Kart's release. In terms of overall sales, Mario Kart ha..."

"To get in on the tournament, check out the Mario Kart channel every day too see if there’s one happening. You may be pleasantly or not so pleasantly surprised when you see the types of races you may have to get into. Some examples of the match setups include racing with a predetermined character on a selected course, or seeing who can collect the most coins using the Wii wheel only. Some matches may require you to use just the Wii remote. The rules can get pretty random so you never quite kno..."

"May 2, 2008 - There's no stopping Mario Kart over in Japan. In its third week of sales, the Wii title sold an additional 151,918 units, placing it at the top of Media Create's software chart for the week covering 4/21 to 4/27.

Mario Kart was followed in second by another long seller. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G sold an additional 92,656 units. The two titles have remained fixed in first and second for the past three weeks.

Following these two were a trio of new titles. Sega's Valkyria..."

"Fun fact: I'm a total Mario Kart fanboy. For the record: Double Dash is my favourite (I know, I know). So I'm used to watching the Mario Kart series take small, baby-steps forward with each new version. In this case, I was expecting just that. Small steps forward.
Mario Kart Wii, however, feels more like a step forward, a shuffle to the side then, after a brief pause, a tentative step back.

Look, Mario Kart Wii isn't a bad game. Far from it! I've enjoyed playing it, and I'm sure a ton of..."

"PSP　99000
Wii　49000
DSL　40000
PS3　11000
PS2　7800
360　1900

1.Mario Kart Wii　143000　(952000)
2.MHP2G　120000　(1851000)
3.Senjou no Valkyria (PS3)　78000
4.Taiko no Tatsujin DS 2　60000
5.Summon Night (DS)　44000
6.WiiFit　36000 (1890000)
7.Bokura ha Kaseki-Horida (DS)　25000　(65000)
8.DS Bi-Mozi Training　22000　(185000)
9.Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin (PS2)　18000　(332000)
10.Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage (DS)　17000　(463000)

11 DS NARUTO 15000
12.Mario Kart DS　14000　2979000
13.Pro Basebal..."

GameSpot reviews the new Mario Kart racing game for the Nintendo Wii. Find out the positives and negatives of it, is a game worth buying or just a rental?

"PC
Baseball Mogul 2009, Iron Man

PS2
Iron Man, SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1

PS3
Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition, Grand Theft Auto IV, Iron Man

Xbox 360
Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition, Grand Theft Auto IV, Iron Man

Wii
Iron Man, Mario Kart Wii

DS
Brain Voyage, Iron Man, Toy Shop

PSP
Iron Man, SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1"

"Monster Hunter keeps on selling over in Japan. The latest milestone represents a first both for the series and for the PSP: double platinum.

Capcom announced today that Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G has crossed the two million mark in Japanese shipments. This is the first time the Monster Hunter series has reached this mark, and is also a first for a Japanese PSP title.

While this is a shipped figure, the title is still one of the hottest titles at retail. The latest numbers from tracke..."

"This Thursday, April 24, if you head out to the Sheraton Hotel on 811 7th Ave., between 52nd and 53rd streets, you'll be able to meet Mario, or a reasonable facsimile of same. He'll be able to hail you a cab, which he will then pay for in advance (!), from 8-10 AM and 12-2 PM.

Any New York City Game|Lifers want to head down and snap some pics? Bonus points if you get a ride to the Nintendo World Store."

"Nintendo has confirmed what we knew was in the pipeline after discovering a membership card in our review copy of Mario Kart Wii - Club Nintendo is coming to Australia.

Essentially, Club Nintendo will reward you for buying Nintendo games. Games that are part of the system will come with a unique PIN that can be entered into the Club Nintendo site. You'll then be given Star points, which can be used to purchase "goodies" from a catalogue available on the Club Nintendo site.

This would al..."

It could be these shortcuts which explain the exceptionally low time-trail mode scores, or it could be actual cheaters, however whatever it is, this video shows you the secrets in the various levels of the game, which can help any gamer achieve first place more easily. Visit the source and view the video and be surprised by the numerous shortcuts that have been added.

"Tons of people were complaining that people were cheating in Mario Kart Wii’s Time Trial records. I didn’t know how quickly Nintendo would act, and I am quite surprised to find out that they have already taken steps to solve the problem. According to multiple readers, cheaters have had records deleted, and the cheating methods have been blocked. Nintendo wins this round, let’s see what happens from here on out!"

"I know that some of you out there are reading this and laughing. That’s because you are one of the cheaters! Mario Kart Wii is hitting all around the world, and the cheaters are coming out in full-force. It seems that the the Time Trials mode is taking the biggest hit from cheaters. There are all sorts of impossible times popping up, and Nintendo is yet to do anything about it. Granted, the game has just come out in certain areas, so I am still hopefully for Nintendo to clamp down on these is..."

"Iwata:
Why did you decide on using Mario?

Konno:
Well, in the very first prototype, there was a guy in overalls sitting in the kart.

Iwata:
Wait just a minute! I can’t let that slip by. Did you just say a guy in overalls?

Konno:
Sounds like Mario, doesn’t it? It wasn’t like I forgot to put Mario’s moustache on him or something, though... (laughs)

Iwata:
How long was it before Mario himself actually appeared in the karts?

Konno:
It was about three to four months after we s..."

"Oh my. Anyone preparing to throw the Wii Wheel out with the bathwater when their copy of Mario Kart arrives may want to know this. The latest fact sheet handed to us from Nintendo contains some notes on the game's four control schemes. Here's what it says for the Classic and GameCube controls:

• Classic Controller: Mario Kart veterans can let their thumbs do the driving with the Classic Controller. However, players cannot perform certain moves with this control scheme.
• Nintendo GameCub..."

"Nintendo UK just announced what could easily be the most exciting Mario Kart tournament to date, as participants won't just enjoy the privilege to play Mario Kart Wii before everyone else, but also get the chance to win a Mario Kart VW Convertible.

Come April 5, thirty GAME stores in the UK will hold Mario Kart Wii races where players will compete for supremacy on the track. During the event, everyone has a chance to win a copy of the game and £250 of "Experience Vouchers" for karting, pai..."

"In Mario Kart Wii you can go online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection by yourself or together with a friend playing on the same Wii console, and let the games begin! You can directly jump into online races with random players Worldwide, or opt for Continental if you prefer a challenge closer to home.

Then you will be placed in a new group of people looking for a match, or you will join an existing group. When the latter happens you will become a spectator of that group’s race currently in prog..."

"In our original article, we speculated that players might be able to use a USB keyboard or at the very least the Wii remote to enter customized text messages. Not so, according to a rep for Nintendo of America, who contacted us today to clarify. Apparently, gamers will only be able to select from a pre-determined number of phrases that can be sent along as rudimentary texts before matches. Nintendo is clearly playing it safe."

""

"Keeping track of every nugget of Mario Kart Wii information is an arduous task, especially considering more is leaking out with each passing day.

To save you the effort, we've decided to build a Mario Kart FAQ that will track the game as we get more news through."

"With Mario Kart Wii on the horizon, Nintendo were bound to let some information slip about their latest Mario Kart game for the Nintendo Wii, and well, they have. For starters below we have 19 brand new screenshots (more on the jump below) for you to feast your eyes on and from those screenshots we’ve found a bunch of new information concerning new characters and tracks, as well as online. So read on…

- D.K’s snowboard Cross is a half pipe sort of track. You’ll be able to drive up the sid..."

"If the official Mario Kart Wii box art tells us anything, it's that we won't be waltzing out of the local game store with a standard-issue game case tucked neatly into our back pocket. No, we'll be lugging around an actual box -- and for what? The Wii Wheel. We can't imagine Nintendo's gonna charge extra for this 2-cent hunk of plastic, but it's the inconvenience that irks us: another box to break down, another prop cluttering the coffee table. What say we round these wheels up and send 'em o..."

"Mario Kart Wii will be released on April 10th in Japan. Nintendo thus reveals to us the first images and some information:

- the karts will be usable in 'Coupe' mode.
- the karts can use a new special action "Wheelie".
- a Wi-Fi mode with 12 players.
- the possibility of playing with a Mii.

Lastly, courses. We will once again find 16 new courses and some remakes of the old circuits. Among the latter, the ones that were already confirmed are Waluigi Stadium (Game Cube), Mario Circuit ..."

"Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has once again been honoured by the Academy, which has awarded the groundbreaking company with a coveted Emmy for its "excellence in engineering creativity.""

So, Nintendo sent out new PR, detailing their new release schedule. Unfortunately, that includes Brawl on Feb. 10

However, there are some very amusing and hidden gems. Assassin's Creed apparently is set to be released February '08, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin will be releasing on January 21st. There are some delays, including February 4th for Professor Layton (originally Dec. 3). It is shaping up to be a great end of '07/early '08.

Take note that this is a partial list. Most not...

Hi folks, Nintendo just let out the big one.

From Ge-maga via IGN, a live-blog of a live-blog of Nintendo's Japanese Fall Press Conference has let loose the megaton.

Here are the notables (Thanks evilmax17 at CAG for list compiling. Thanks!):
Fire Emblem DS
Mario Baseball Wii - Super Mario Stadium Baseball
7,800,000 VC downloads (JPN? Worldwide?)
Pokemon Ranch: Wii Ware, can upload Pokémon from DS to be raised on the Wii.
Dr. Mario: Wii Ware
Nintendo Wii Ware with three screens
...

"One of the biggest titles coming up for the Wii is Mario Kart. And now, I think the hype meter is going to shoot up about another ten notches as 16 player multiplayer races were confirmed in the upcoming edition of the Official Nintendo Magazine."

"Of course, you want to know everything there is to know about Mario Kart Wii. So we've dug away with our info spades to uncover the secrets behind Mario Kart Wii - the characters, the vehicles, the tracks, the items, the online play - and brought the whole lot to you here.

Nintendo's E3 showing couldn't have delivered us a more exciting announcement. Drink it in, and try to come to terms with the fact that if Nintendo's plans work out, you'll be overtaking people on your big telly - onlin..."

"“For the holidays we have a huge line-up of Wii games already, including Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and Pokémon Battle Revolution. Fans will not be hurting for great games to play,” said Nintendo, who wants to delay one of its biggest franchises for an onslaught in 2008."