It looks like EA's next entry in the Dead Space franchise won't use Wii MotionPlus after all. UPDATED!

UPDATE

News outlet IGN confirmed today that the apparent revelation of Dead Space Extraction using Wii MotionPlus was a misunderstanding. While COO John Pleasants mentioned Dead Space: Extraction while discussing the use of WiiMotion Plus, it will not use the new technology. It is still confirmed as a major gameplay element in the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis, however. (JL)

The original story follows.

Dead Space: Extraction is slated for release later this year, and when it comes out it will support Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus peripheral.

Did you know that the DSi was originally supposed to have two DS game card slots?

Iwata Asks is back for another edition, and this time the Nintendo CEO interviewed the DSi development team about their thoughts, opinions, and the development of the latest DS redesign.

The DSi story begins with Masato Kuwahara, from Nintendo's Development Engineering Department. At the end of 2006, roughly two years ago, his boss had assigned him the task of doing yet another redesign of the DS hardware. The caveat: Kuwahara needed to have the proposal completed by the end of December. Listening to the story, Iwata remarked that it was "quite short notice," to which Kuwahara quickly agreed, "I'll say!" Kuwahara and the rest of the team also had to move at top speed in order to meet their second goal, producing the internal chip for the DSi.

According to CEO Brian Farrell, THQ wants "the people who buy Nintendo games…to buy things like de Blob," which has sold over 700,000 units so far.

THQ is very happy with de Blob's success on the Wii, but they aren't content with resting on their laurels. "The competition on the Wii right now is from Nintendo," said THQ CEO Brian Farrell at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. "That's what we've got to attack."

To do so, the third-party company is currently employing a "three-prong" strategy in their Wii efforts: high production value "Nintendo-esque" games like de Blob, budget titles such as Neighborhood Games (their budget title Big Beach Sports has sold 1.3 million units since its launch), and licensed titles such as the Spongebob Squarepants games. Farrell also mentioned that de Blob has been able to keep its $49.99 price tag for five months, saying that "We can make money on games like that."

Nintendo's import-friendly Starfy series will make its North American debut, and a new addition to the Excite series will be coming to Wii very soon.

This morning, Nintendo revealed their upcoming release schedule for both their Wii and DS systems. Included in the schedule were the announcements of two new titles, one for either of their systems.

The Legendary Starfy, a localization of the fifth title in the Starfy series, puts players in control of Starfy, the legendary hero of Pufftop. This undersea adventure has Starfy assisting a mysterious, bunny-eared visitor find his lost memory. Players will use Starfy to swoop into enemies, glide over bottomless chasms, and transform into powerful creatures to help his new friend. The Legendary Starfy will be available for the DS on June 8 in North America.

Nintendo's Japanese website reveals a new form factor for the Classic controller that takes it even further in the traditional direction.

The classic controller has always been Nintendo's link to the past, a traditional input setup that's been supported in some Wii games, and necessary for many Virtual Console ones. Nintendo seems to believe that the controller's role is still an important one as their Japanese website has just revealed a new controller, the Classic Controller PRO.

At first glance it's easy to see how the Classic Controller PRO strengthens ties with earlier gaming systems. The most visible addition to the controller are two prongs in the style of earlier controllers like the GameCube controller or Sony's DualShock line. Another change is that the Classic Controller PRO is thicker than the original Classic Controller and can thus support larger ZL and ZR buttons. These buttons used to be small, circular, and positioned in-line with the larger L and R shoulder buttons on the original Classic Controller. On the Classic Controller PRO, they are almost equal in size to the other shoulder buttons and are no longer situated so far towards the center of the controller.

This week has a mix of flavors: port, remake, sequel, and spiritual sequel. The rhythm game downloadable content ranges from Bob Seger to The Cars.

The final week of February 2009 had some decent releases despite the Wii selection being slim.

For Wii, there was Capcom's Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop and Disney's Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3 Senior Year. On DS the selection was a little more abundant and was flavored with several RPGs. The releases included Ignition's Blue Dragon Plus, a real-time strategy RPG; Atlus' Legacy of Ys: Books I & II remake; Graffiti's C.O.R.E., a first-person shooter; and D3 Publisher's Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, a puzzle-RPG hybrid.

Marvelous' CEO is interested in the "the more hardcore platforms," but the company has embraced the Wii due to business realities.

In a recent interview, Marvelous CEO Yasuhiro Wada explained that his company's projects were very Wii-heavy because projects on the other consoles "require a lot of technical skills" and because his company didn't have "enough money" to pursue them.

Marvelous, a mid-sized Japanese publisher, is responsible for helping bring gamers the Wii-exclusive No More Heroes. The company is also prepping the sequel, No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, and simulation title Little King's Story for release in early 2010 and later this year, respectively. Both games are Wii exclusives.

The new wired Kama with rumble and Pistol Grip Gun will take use of the Wand's patented Trans-Port technology.

Nyko announced last week that they plan on releasing two new accessories for the Wand, following its release during the second quarter of 2009. Both the Wired Kama with Rumble and Pistol Grip Gun will use The Wands patented Trans-Port technology which will digitally replicate the input commands of the A and B buttons.

The Wand was recognized as Best of CES 2009 in the Gaming Category and according to Nyko Technologies Director of Marketing, the Wand opens a "myriad of new features and accessories," which allows them to "improve how consumers experience games on the Wii." Nyko's Wand will be available for purchase individually in April of 2009 for an MSRP of $34.99, $5.00 cheaper than Nintendo's own Wii Remote.

The urge to push the sequel "as far as it could be pushed" kept the game off of Nintendo's console.

After two major success stories on the Wii, the Resident Evil franchise is skipping Nintendo's console for Resident Evil 5. According to Producer Jun Takeuchi, the reason why is that the team "really wanted to push the next part of the series as far as it could be pushed."

As part of an interview with Joystiq, Takeuchi was asked why the game wasn't coming to the Wii despite Nintendo's market dominance, cheaper development, and the success of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. Takeuchi explained that the decision came "from the development team." Resident Evil 5 would arrive on the Xbox 360 and PS3, and not the Wii, because of the team's ambitions, including those for "the graphical aspect of the game."

Hudson's WiiWare first-person shooter and three Commodore 64 games make up this week's games.

After last week's tease of Commodore 64 games coming to Virtual Console, it is now a reality. This week sees three Commodore 64 games: The Last Ninja, International Karate, and Pitstop II. For WiiWare, the lone game is Hudson's first-person shooter, Onslaught, which is the first of its kind on WiiWare.

Onslaught features a single player mode that puts players in the shoes of a member of the Elite Interstellar Strike Force in a war against insectoid aliens. The first-person shooter features four-player online multiplayer modes, such as Free Battle mode and Ranking Battle mode, using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Onslaught is rated Teen and is now available for 1,000 Wii Points ($10).