This week: GIFTS!

It’s time for the holidays, and this week, we're keeping it simple. What we want to know is what gaming stuff do you want for your gift-receiving holiday of choice? Let us know and we’ll send your list to Santa and you’ll get it in your stocking!*

*NWR makes no promises for magical gift giving old men, but if you make a good post you may end up here next week! That’s just as good.

Sega's cult classic finally has its sequel.

SEGA SHIPS NiGHTS: JOURNEY OF DREAMS FOR THE Wii

Dreams Come to Life in SEGA’s Highly Anticipated Release of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for the Wii Home Video Game System

SAN FRANCISCO (December 18, 2007) – SEGA of America, Inc. today announced that NiGHTS™: Journey of Dreams for... Read more...

By spring North America will be seeing Dragon Quest Swords for the Wii, and both Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and The World Ends With You for the DS.

SQUARE ENIX JUMP-STARTS THE YEAR WITH AN ACTION-PACKED LINEUP FOR 2008

Fans Advised to Warm Up this Holiday Season in Preparation for an Assortment of Exciting New Adventures

LOS ANGELES (December 17, 2007) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix™ interactive entertainment... Read more...

One in Florida, the other in Japan.

Ignition Entertainment Opens Additional Development Studios

Newly Opened Studios in Tokyo and Florida Show Commitment to Next Gen Development

December 17, 2007 – Marina Del Rey - Ignition Entertainment Ltd., a UTV Software Communications Ltd enterprise, a worldwide publisher and developer of videogames, announced today that it will be expanding its videogame development capabilities by opening studios in both Japan and the USA.

One game player decided to sue Activision for "deceptive and unlawful" conduct.

Samuel Livingston of San Diego has brought suit against Activision for "deceptive and unlawful" conduct for the marketing of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Wii. The class-action lawsuit charges Activision with not addressing or attempting to warn customers about the mono sound issue, despite the game's packaging continuing to advertise Dolby Pro Logic II sound.

Canadians bought a lot of games too, enough to put them over $1 billion total for the year to date.

November wasn't just a big sales month in the USA, but up north as well. According to estimates released by the NPD Group, Canadian game sales reached $209.1 million Canadian (US $205.6 million), enough to put Canada over a cool billion dollars Canadian in sales for the year 2007 with the month of December still to go.

The environmental company launches "Clash of the Consoles" website.

The "Greenpeace vs. the video game industry" saga grows nastier by the day. Greenpeace recently launched a "Clash of the Consoles" site that pastes the Big 3's mascots next to bar graphs that account for: toxic use, toxic policy, recycling credits, and energy use. Their clip-art Mario, with his... Read more...

The bullet hell arcade shooter comes stateside next year.

CASTLE OF SHIKIGAMI III ON THE

Wii™ IN THE SPRING OF 2008

Bullet hell comes to the Wii!

Torrance, CA (December 14, 2007) – Aksys Games, a publisher of interactive entertainment products, is set to release Castle of Shikigami III, a vertical scrolling shoot’em-up on the Wii in the spring of 2008.

Wii Fit balances confidently at the top.

Last week’s Japanese charts saw Wii Fit reach the second spot with only a few days on sale, so a full week at retail went exactly as predicted – Wii Fit sold big. The 8,800 Yen ($80) pack reached the top spot with just short of 150,000 units sold, just ahead of Mario Party DS at No.2 with almost 107,000 units.

Major retailers will have a big supply release this weekend; GameStop will offer a rain check program for those who still can't get one. Also, what about Wii online voice chat?

In a conference call this morning, Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime explained what Nintendo was doing about the tight supply issues of the Wii, as well as detailing a new program aimed at making sure prospective Wii owners having difficulty finding the elusive console will have “something to put under the tree" this holiday.

Wii flirts with the million mark; the DS laughs at it.

The NPD Group has released its U.S. video game sales figures for the month of November, and the numbers are downright staggering across the board:

November 2007 Hardware Sales

Nintendo DS -1.53 million

Wii - 981k

Xbox 360 - 770k

PSP - 567k

PlayStation 2 - 496k

PlayStation 3 - 466k

Suda 51 notes the "broadly growing Wii market" in choosing to deliver the bloodless Japanese version of the Wii exclusive to PAL territories.

The developers behind the forthcoming Wii exclusive No More Heroes have declared that it was their decision to present the game to European audiences in a form significantly toned-down from its planned North American release.

Grasshopper CEO Goichi Suda and Marvelous Digital Contents Company... Read more...

For once, Nintendo of Europe actually gets a better deal than Nintendo of America.

Last week Club Nintendo Europe announced it intends to offer Wii Points for Stars, which were earned by simply registering Nintendo games with Nintendo of Europe. Anyone familiar with Nintendo knows of all the great rewards Club Nintendo Japan offers for registering Nintendo products over there, too.

Give the gift of Virtual Console games by updating your Wii.

A new Wii firmware update is now available from Nintendo. The update can be downloaded via the Wii Settings menu.

The new firmware, version 3.1, lets Wii owners purchase Virtual Console games for friends in a Wii owner's Wii Address Book. The "Gift" option appears next to the "Download" button on a VC game purchase page. The price of a gifted VC game is the same as one you would buy for yourself.

The BBFC’s refusal to certify Manhunt 2 is overturned by the Video Appeals Committee.

Rockstar has won its fight to overturn the BBFC’s decision to refuse Manhunt 2 classification.

The Video Appeals Committee voted four to three in Rockstar’s favour, leaving the BBFC to either classify the game or appeal the Committee’s decision at the High Court in pursuit of maintaining... Read more...

Nintendo’s European site re-launch expands reward scheme to include trading for software purchases.

In a move foreshadowed by previous website tests, Nintendo of Europe has launched the Wii Points Card Shop alongside its redesigned website. This service facilitates the trading of stars, accumulated by registering Nintendo product purchases at www.nintendo-europe.com, for Wii points at a rate of four to one in denominations of 100, 300, 500 and 1000 points.

Nintendo UK’s first half release schedule omits Brawl, spokesperson confirms a pre-July launch is "currently not planned." Updated: Clarification leaves door open for Q2 release.

Nintendo UK has unveiled its early 2008 software release schedule for Wii and DS, revealing the dates for several already released holiday titles in other regions such as NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure (both coming in January) and Battalion Wars 2 (February 15th). The list also provides a Q2 launch window for Mario Kart Wii, but is most notable for a single omission, that of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Not because of controversy, but because there's way too much demand for the console as it is.

Due to the extremely high demand for the Wii in the United Kingdom and the relative scarcity of the console, Nintendo UK has decided to pull its upcoming Wii television ads. They will be replaced with commercials for the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo realized that it would work against them to advertise... Read more...

The mono sound issue will be resolved the old fashioned way, apparently.

After it became known that the Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was not outputting audio in its advertised Dolby Pro Logic II, or even in stereo sound, for that matter, people wanted to know how Activision was going to solve this problem.

Well, now we know. Activision has told... Read more...

There are only a few hours left to bid on this rare, autographed collectible! And it's all for charity.

Wouldn't you love to own this piece of gaming memorabilia?

Well, here's your chance: Bid on it now!

This awesome swag has sat on my bookshelf for three years, and I'll hate to see it go, but it's the best idea I could come up with to raise some money for Penny Arcade's... Read more...