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Iwata: only 35% of Wiis are online, 20% of DS

Nintendo has never been known for fully embracing online gaming, and the Wii trails a distant third behind the PS3 and Xbox 360 when it comes to playing online — despite being the top selling console. Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata has revealed numbers on online connectivity, saying that 35% of Wii consoles are online and only 20% of Nintendo DS consoles.

Furthermore, Iwata said that those numbers will decline if the company doesn’t “take aggressive action” on the online front — which it of course plans to do. All we can say is; it’s about damn time!

Miami police arrests Modern Warfare 2 pirate

It seems that Activision can’t get enough PR for the release of Modern Warfare 2, as the game is now in the spotlight after 18 year old Christian Del Amo was arrested by Miami Police for trying to sell pirated versions of the game.

This comes after Activision had hired an online investigation firm to look into suspicious posts on Craigslist advertising Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles for sale. With the age of high-speed internet, where anyone can download the pirated version, why would you even try and sell the pirated version on a burned disc? That kind of “business” seems so 1999.

Game Boy inducted into toy Hall of Fame

It’s always an honor when a great athlete gets inducted in a Hall of Fame — earlier this year for instance, Micheal Jordan was inducted into the NBA hall of fame, and now, more importantly to us gamers, Nintendo’s original Game Boy has been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame, specifically, the Strong National Museum of Play’s Toy Hall of Fame.

The original 8-bit Game Boy was released in 1989, and its subsequent variations, have sold over 120 million units world wide since then, with the best game being Tetris, selling a whopping 33 million copies.

Congratulations, Nintendo!

Nvidia posts $107m profit in Q3

Despite falling behind in both sales and technology to arch rival AMD, Nvidia managed to turn a solid $107 million profit in Q3, on revenues of $903.2 million, mostly fueled by the mobile and laptop sector. Compared to last year, that’s an increase of 16%, and from the previous year by 18%. The company said that it expects revenues in Q4 to be up 2% from previous year.

The company is set to release their brand new graphics card and technology later this year, called Fermi.

Namco Bandai posts $66m loss in 1H 2009

Publisher/developer Namco Bandai has posted some rather dim results for the first half of 2009.

The company lost $66 million, while it posted a profit of $14 million during the same period last year, so it’s quite a decline, mostly attributed to lack of decent titles during the period. The company still expects sales to reach $94 million this year, fueled by Tekken 6, of which 2.5 million copies have already been shipped.

Sony sued over PS3 firmware update

Owners of PlayStation 3 systems that have been broken by the latest firmware update have filed suit on behalf of everyone who downloaded system update 3.0 or 3.01. Two gamers from Texas and Iowa allege that the latest update caused PS3s consoles to malfunction, with problems including loss of controller use and the malfunction of the Blu-ray drive.

Their main complaint seems to be that Sony is charging a $150 fee to repair the consoles that were broken by the firmware update. The two are now seeking a class-action lawsuit against Sony.

Back in 2006, an owner sued Microsoft for bricking his console with an update and settled out of court.

WiiWare demos coming

Nintendo has revealed that the company plans on offering demos for their downloadable-only Wii games from WiiWare. Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata told investors during a Q&A session that the feature is in development, and will be tested with demos of a few selected titles, before demos are rolled out to cover most of the lineup. Nintendo hopes that the demos will increase sales in the WiiWare store, as it’s currently trailing competitors from Microsoft (Xbox Live) and Sony (PSN).

Apple app store reaches 100,000 apps

Apple has reached a massive milestone with its app store for the iPhone and iPod touch, revealing that the store now features 100,000 applications categorized into 20 categories, and over 125,000 developers have signed up and are actively making apps.

Over 2 billion applications have been downloaded in over 77 countries. Astonishingly, over 19% of those apps are games, meaning there are over 19,000 different games on the platform, which definitely rivals the DS.

First Tekken move promo spotted in magazine

Movie site comingsoon.net posted a magazine ad of the upcoming Tekken movie at the American Film Market Expo (where a ton of movies are bough and sold). The ad features the tag line “Survival is no game”. The movie, directed by Dwight Little, is set in the future and features sci-fi elements, while staying true to the Tekken characters and franchise. We’ll see how it turns out.

Walmart offering $100 gift card with Xbox 360 Arcade

Count this one as one of the really good offers you can get this holiday season: when you purchase a $199 Xbox 360 Arcade at Walmart, they’ll give you a $100 gift card, which you can use on games, accessories, or whatever else Walmart has to offer (which is a lot).

Forking over another $35, alongside the gift card, will get you a hard drive for your Arcade console — still a great deal. But hurry, there’s a limited amount of offers per store.

Warren Spector tried to buy Deus Ex rights

Noted game designer Warren Spector, who created Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War, revealed in an interview with Variety that he tried to buy the rights to the game from the publisher, but was unsuccessful. Specter said,

“There were and still are ‘Deus Ex’ stories I would like to tell. That story is not done for me. For the sci-fi game, I sort of filed the serial numbers off. ‘Deus Ex’ was very much a game of the millennium.”

Yep, a lot of people would argue that Deus Ex was the game of the millennium, especially if you’re into cyberpunk. Spector is also the creator of the Wing Commander and the Thief series and is currently working on Epic Mickey for Disney.

Iwata confirms, “The Wii has stalled”

In a rather surprising move, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata said in an interview that the Wii “has stalled”, after selling 40% less units in 2009 compared to 2008. Iwata contributes the slow sales due to the fact that there weren’t many great games released on the Wii this year, “Games of high demand could not be continuously released and the good mood has chilled”, Iwata said in an interview with Japanese newspaper Mainichi.

He further revealed that Nintendo misjudged the market conditions, and concluded by saying that they are now focusing on next year, and is determined to deliver key titles that will boost console sales.

250 GB PS3 spotted at Best Buy

Sony’s 250 GB PS3 isn’t expected to launch until November 3rd, and the units have already been stocked at retails outfits, the above one belonging to Best Buy in Houston. The console goes on sale November 3 (Tuesday) and will retail for $399.

Nintendo reports declining profits

Nintendo’s latest financial results show a decline in profits, mostly due to lower Wii sales and a lower price on the console as well. The company reported a profit decline of 52% compared to last year, but still, unlike its rivals, Nintendo made a $750 million profit, and it still makes money on every Wii console sold, despite a new $199 price point.

Nintendo also revealed that the company has sold 56 million Wii units worldwide, while the DS has sold 113 million worldwide. Nintendo said they expect to sell 20 million Wiis this year, down from 26 million they projected last year.

“Hold your wee for a Wii” gets $16m awarded by court

Remember the infamous stunt a radio station pulled off a few years ago, when the Wii was in shortage? The KDND-FM radio station offered the winner of the “Hold your wee for a Wii” contest a Wii console, all the contestant had to do was to hold their wee, or urine. Sounds easy, right? Well, no.

Contestant Jennifer Strange died of water intoxication, and her family sued the parent company of the radio station, Entercom Sacramento LLC. Today, the court ruled in favor of the family, awarding them $16.5 million in damages.