Wii and DS lead hardware sales, industry up 73% from the same period last year.

After much ado about withholding data from the public, the NPD Group has decided to continue its monthly practice of releasing hardware and software sales figures. For the four-week period that made up the October reporting period, here is data for hardware sold.

October 2007 Hardware Sales

Nintendo of Japan add an exclusive controller to their catalogue! Also: a two-disc Galaxy soundtrack.

Club Nintendo, a service in Japan that lets gamers register games and redeem points for cool stuff, has updated its catalog today. Nintendo have gone all-out for fans of the Virtual Console service. Original controllers have been available before, such as the Mario and Luigi themed GameCube pads.... Read more...

The new Spectator mode lets you watch and bet on other people's online matches. Yeah, on the Wii.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl continues to establish itself as an online experience with features you'd expect in a PC or Xbox 360 game, certainly far beyond anything yet seen on Wii. The newest announcement is Spectator mode, in which you can watch Wi-Fi matches of anonymous players from around the world.... Read more...

Genre grandaddies could show up on our beloved handhelds.

In an interview with Chris Kohler, id Software's John Carmack and Anna Kang said that they would like to bring Wolfenstein 3D, Quake Arena, Doom, and a few new intellectual properties to the Nintendo DS. Their primary concern is whether an M-rated game would actually sell on the DS.

Wired News: What do you see as being the audience of the DS right now?

Vivendi is ready to continue the series in video game form.

It seems that no 80’s license is safe, kiddies. Variety reports that Vivendi Games and Sony Pictures have made a deal to continue the popular Ghostbusters franchise on home gaming consoles. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson have all jumped aboard to lend their likenesses and... Read more...

Now it's even easier for gamers to make a donation to this great cause.

Child's Play is a charity organization, founded by Penny Arcade, aimed at mobilizing gamers to help provide games to children in hospitals all over the United States and across the globe. It recently kicked off its 2007 fund-raising campaign, with a goal of beating its 2006 total of over a million... Read more...

This week: Gaming is an expensive hobby.

Last week Steven Rodriguez, Nintendo World Report's director, wrote an editorial titled "Price Break: The Future of Game Prices." His basic premise was that publishers need to lower the price of the games they release on the Wii, or they will always lose out to whatever Nintendo releases. Nintendo titles are acceptable at a price of $50 because they are known quality titles, and provide great value for the cost.

Get scared with a Wii remote and nunchuk.

Heart-Stopping Action Of 'Alone In The Dark' Comes To Wii And PlayStation 2

Atari's Apocalyptic Action Blockbuster Coming to Five Platforms, Gameplay Uniquely Adapted to Wii Control System

LYON, FRANCE – 13 November 2007 – Atari today announced that its forthcoming apocalyptic action... Read more...

Partnership with id Software brings mobile phone game to the DS.

EA and id Software Announce Orcs & Elves Ships Today for the Nintendo DS

Fantasy Role Playing Game Is One of the First Titles to Cross Over to the Nintendo DS From Mobile Phones

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--It’s time to answer the call of the Hero! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS)... Read more...

Most retailers will have it on Tuesday.

SUPER MARIO GALAXY FOR WII SHOWCASES MARIO'S STAR POWER

It's the Hottest Game on the Hottest System for the Holidays

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 12, 2007 - The amazing new Super Mario Galaxy™ game launches for Wii™ in T-minus 3 … 2 … 1. The hottest game for the hottest system fills players... Read more...

Where's Ridley?

This week was filled with seven minor updates. While there was nothing spectacular, we did get an assist trophy from outside the Nintendo universe! It's been a few months since the daily updates started, and the Dojo is still going strong.

New Music: Fire Emblem ThemeThe Fire Emblem theme was... Read more...

Are you a numismatist?

When the Super Mario Galaxy pre-order bonus was announced, it was met with mixed reactions. Nintendo World Report recently got our hands on the coin and one thing is for certain, Nintendo didn't skimp on the packaging. Check out some shots of it below. If you haven't pre-ordered yet, hopefully... Read more...

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.