French publisher striving for "Nintendo-like quality" in future releases.

At the BMO Capital Markets' Annual Interactive Entertainment Conference in New York City on Tuesday, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot delivered a presentation that was not short on praise for Nintendo. He was particularly enamored with Nintendo's success in both the handheld and console markets, as well as their strategy of attracting casual gamers outside of the usual hardcore gaming market.

Comparing Mario to food, gardens, and tea tables!

On the eve of its Japanese release, Satoru Iwata sat down with former Nintendo Dream writer Akinori Sao to talk about Super Mario Galaxy (for the entire interview, click the Related Link above). Here are the juiciest tidbits:

• The concept for Super Mario Galaxy was born from the famous... Read more...

My Word Coach, My Spanish Coach, and My French Coach hit store shelves.

Ubisoft Announces That Three "My Coach" Games Have Shipped To Store Shelves

My Word Coach, My Spanish Coach and My French Coach Teach Players Vocabulary and New Language Skills

SAN FRANCISCO — November 6, 2007 — Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced... Read more...

Creature-raising mode to use Weather Channel for real-time weather, and allow two-player online racing and battling.

SEGA REVEALS NEXT-GEN FEATURES FOR NiGHTS: JOURNEY OF DREAMS

SEGA® of America, Inc. today announced that NiGHTS™: Journey of Dreams

for the Wii™ video game console will come complete with a variety of

next-gen features that tap into the system’s hardware including “Weather

Channel" support, a Wii-first! This feature enables the game’s “My

Music, Ontamaestro.

ONTAMARAMA™ NOW SHIPPING TO STORES ACROSS NORTH AMERICA!

Tap into the fun!

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 6th, 2007 - Atlus U.S.A., Inc., a leading publisher of interactive entertainment, today announced that the Nintendo DS™ music rhythm game Ontamarama™ is now shipping to retailers!... Read more...

This week: We try and stop shovelware. Have a chance at winning a prize, just for participating!

When asked if competition from Nintendo's first party efforts scared off major third party titles Shigeru Miyamoto replied, "I think that when it comes to the question of trying to compete with our software, I would really like to see the parties try to do that with their number one teams rather than with the third- or fourth-string teams."

Two weeks of announcements are in this edition of the Dojo Update.

A couple of big announcements came out over the last two weeks that we brought you on the day of. Besides those, several other interesting bits of information were revealed, including one of the most interesting stages yet shown. Check out our summaries below and hit up the Dojo to read the original posts.

This week Nintendo took the time to remind us of their philosophy, and introduce some new executives as well.

Nintendo made its partial move to the Bay Area official on Thursday, with NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime holding a kickoff reception at the firm's new office in Redwood Shores, California. CEOs from Sega, Hudson, Namco Bandai, and Natsume were in attendance, gathering to hear Fils-Aime expound on Nintendo's philosophy of delivering a gaming experience that appeals to people of all ages.

Nintendo's console lead in Japan isn't growing as fast as it used to. But it's still growing.

The Wii is still dominating the Japanese hardware sales charts, but not with the ferocity that it was at its launch a year ago.

Enterbrain, publisher of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu Weekly and independent tracker of game sales data, said that the Wii sold 110,415 units in the month of October.... Read more...

TV Program Schedule Channel unearthed, Wii capable of television and movie content delivery, the deal with unplayable Wii demo stations, and more is revealed in a Q&A with Iwata.

As a part of Nintendo's financial briefing in Japan last week, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and other key Nintendo figureheads sat down to participate in a Q&A session with investors. Below is a summary of the more interesting and informative points of the Q&A. If you'd like to view the whole shebang, you can do so here.

Zelda, Nintendogs bundles set to arrive after Thanksgiving.

Nintendo is preparing two new DS Lite bundles for the holiday shopping rush. According to a Sears "Black Friday" advertisement obtained by DSFanboy, Nintendo will roll out a metallic pink DS Lite with a copy of Nintendogs: Best Friends Edition for $149.99. Additionally, a Zelda-themed gold DS Lite... Read more...

Finally, an event Pokémon!

It has been revealed that for the first time in a very long time, Australians can now receive an event Pokémon, Manaphy, when they visit JB HiFi between the 7th and 13th of November using the Mystery Gift function.

The Aussie Manaphy has a Red Scarf, and Cherish Ball and its moves are Heart... Read more...

EA's CEO doesn't think the $60 game is going to fly with consumers much longer.

John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, thinks that the video game industry will be damaged if leading companies don't change with the times.

Talking with Fortune Magazine, Riccitiello believes that paying a premium price for games is a business model that won't be around next decade. Because of the advent of online game distribution, he said EA will be experimenting with new pricing models.

Want to do the foxtrot with Emmitt Smith? Neither do I, but here's the game to do it in anyway.

DON'T FAINT. "DANCING WITH THE STARS" SHIPS FOR WII AND PS2

Cha-Cha, Tango, Mambo and more with Emmitt Smith, Mario Lopez and Stacey Keibler and others to Claim the Title of America's Favorite Celebrity Dancer

Minneapolis, MN - October 31, 2007 - Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), in

conjunction with Disney-ABC Television Group's ABC Entertainment and BBC

Do you want to win some E For All swag? We're extending this week's Hot Topic question to give everyone a chance! All you need to do is answer one simple question...

Last week was the first annual E for All Expo. Differing from E3, E for All was open to the public. While the event didn’t provide a lot in terms of news, it gave real gamers hands-on time with some of the hottest upcoming titles.

With the convention season over, we were curious what you... Read more...

Soon, we'll be able to give the gift of classic gaming. Also, Wii production has increased to 1.8 million per month.

The Associated Press is reporting that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has announced a new feature of the Wii that will allow consumers to purchase Virtual Console games and then send them to friends over the Internet.

Details are sparse, but apparently users who receive and accept a game gift... Read more...

A wide variety of games make their return to Japan next month.

Nintendo has updated its Virtual Console page in Japan, and that means a list of seventeen new titles for gamers there to look forward to in November.

For the Famicom (NES), Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Douchuu, the second Goemon (Mystical Ninja) platformer from Konami, will be the first out, followed... Read more...

Iwata promises expansion into new markets next year.

With Nintendo riding high on the Wii’s continuing rise into the stratosphere, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently announced plans to further expand its hardware distribution into both China and South Korea. While Iwata referenced the huge demand for the Wii that has continued to outpace Nintendo's... Read more...

Expect plenty of cinematic zombie fodder in the coming years in the form of animation and live-action.

Biohazard: Degeneration will be Capcom’s first foray into CG film waters. The film is already in production in Japan in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, and will released in 2008 in the Land of the Rising Sun.

According to Capcom, Degeneration will feature a brand-new storyline,... Read more...

Will Wright's ultimate god game is heading to “the only next-gen system."

In an interview with UK publication The Guardian, legendary game creator Will Wright has confirmed that he is working on a version of Spore for Wii. No other details on the Wii release were given during the interview.

Wright mentioned that he was making a Wii version of Spore without being asked... Read more...