And amazingly, it wasn't even a close race.

The NPD hardware figures for last month are in, and it looks like all the hub-bub about the Wii being really popular has translated into big sales. According to Nintendo, 453,503 of the hard-to-find Wii consoles were purchased last month, which is an impressive 33% more than the widely available Xbox 360, which sold through more than 294k systems. The PS3 brought up the rear with 244k sold in January.

Titles include the newly-announced Ouendan 2 and reconfirmation of former GameCube releases.

Nintendo has announced an update to their Japanese lineup featuring several new games such as a sequel to the Elite Beat Agents progenitor, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan as well as Panel de Pon DS. Additionally, games originally set for a GameCube release, such as DK Bongo Blast and Kirby, have been reconfirmed as Wii releases.

The toy maker anticipates to make 3 billion yen less than previously expected, thanks to Nintendo's success with DS and Wii.

A report from Reuters today states that Japanese toy maker Tomy has cut its annual profit forecast from 5 billion yen to 1.7 billion yen, blaming high sales of Nintendo's Wii and DS game systems for diminishing toy sales.

Tomy says that Nintendo's video game systems have replaced demand for these... Read more...

If you want to confirm with your own eyes what the "Zero" in Zero Suit implies, then have we got a collectible statue for you!

First 4 Figures has an official license to produce collectable statues based on Nintendo characters. They've previously done other Metroid statues of Samus in her less revealing suits, but now and they've gone and done one in Samus's skin-tight blue Zero suit. The press release and images of that is below.

The disbanding of Capcom's most recognizable studio isn't as bad as you think.

Gamasutra recently talked to Capcom's Charles Bellfield, who is the company's vice president of marketing in the USA. He engages in a rather large interview, but the most interesting part of it is exactly what happened at Clover Studio.

As it turns out, Clover was something of an anomaly at... Read more...

The Island, the Country, the Kage and the Rage make up the four-pack variety of downloadables this week.

It's been a while since each game in a set of Virtual Console releases has been from a different platform, but here we are. The NES, SNES, Genesis and TurboGrafx are each represented with a game this week, and from the looks of it, they're all pretty good. Which ones should you get? Every one of them. If this is financially infeasible, then get a second job you should read up on each game to see which one or ones you may want to download.

Not only are consumers having a hard time finding the system, Indie developers can't get a hold of one, either.

Water Cooler Games has come across an interesting bit of information. It seems that publisher demand for Wii development kits is outstripping the supply available from Nintendo. Because of this, independent developers, to whom Nintendo said they would make Wii development kits available for, haven't got kits as of yet.

A lot of people have been flocking to Nintendo's official page on the Internet.

A report from Nielsen//NetRatings, a firm reponsible for measuring traffic and usage statistics for Internet sites, has determined that Nintendo's official U.S. homepage, Nintendo.com, has seen the largest increase in traffic amongst all computer hardware manufacturer sites.

Last January, Nintendo... Read more...

Controller gloves, storage centers, and charging stations available in March from Thrustmaster.

Get The Most From The Wonderful World Of WiiTM

THRUSTMASTER® LAUNCHES ITS RANGE OF ACCESSORIES FOR WiiTM

Nintendo® has introduced the world to the new generation of video gaming with the launch of Wii. The Wii has totally revolutionised the way the consumer plays video games and has completely widened the demographic of those who enjoy them.

Europeans can return to Forget-Me-Not-Valley on April 13th.

CREAM OF THE CROP!

Cultivate a happy future in Harvest Moon DS

16th February 2007 – Harvest Moon is arriving on Nintendo DS across Europe, so if you fancy yourself as a bit of a dab hand around the garden, now is the chance to put your green fingers to the test. Or if that doesn’t take your fancy, simply enjoy a peaceful life on your very own farm as Harvest Moon DS sows its seeds onto Nintendo DS on 13th April 2007.

According to Nintendo exec George Harrison, Japan-only games might eventually be translated and released in America through Virtual Console.

Chris Kohler of Wired's Game|Life blog has extracted this juicy quote from George Harrison, senior vice-president at Nintendo of America:

We are aware that there are some very successful Japanese franchises that have a small following in the US, and that they could never be reached by putting these products out at retail. We're open to games released in Japan if we can get them translated properly.

Is SSBM really a fighting game? The biggest fighting game tournament in North America thinks so.

The Evolution tournament has been around since the year 2000, bringing the best fighting game players from all over the world together to see who's the best of the best. Now heading into its seventh championship season, the stakes are higher than ever with more than $100,000 on the line over five tournaments across the United States.

Did you see this coming? Yes/No

Nintendo has released a new channel for the Wii today. Seemingly out of nowhere the "Everybody Votes Channel" is now available via the Wii Ware section of the Wii Shop. A new system update is also available (though the firmware version number does not change) and required to enable the new channel. The channel opens with a description stating:

Headsets include microphones and feature colors that match current DS Lites.

Turtle Beach® Ships Stereo Headphones for Nintendo® DS™ and DS Lite™

Pink, Black and White Ear Force® D2 headphones let gamers play and interact without annoying others.

Elmsford, NY -- February 13, 2007 -- Releasing the second new headphone product in as many days, today... Read more...

The release focuses more on other versions, but the GBA game features sidescrolling action and Mode 7 motorcycle chases.

2K Announces Ghost Rider Video Game Is Now Available

Marvel Comic Series Comes to Life in High-Octane Combat and Motorcycle Game

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: TTWO), today announced that Ghost Rider, the action-packed... Read more...

Play Wii all night without waking the kids.

Turtle Beach Unveils Wireless Headphones for Nintendo Wii

Wireless Ear Force® W3 headphones designed to allow gamers to hear every bit of game audio while playing on the Nintendo® Wii -- without disturbing others.

Elmsford, NY February 12, 2007 -- Adding to its growing line... Read more...

Three oldies-but-goodies from Nintendo's NES library make up this week's batch of releases.

Remember how everyone complained that Nintendo was holding back all the good stuff? After releasing some high-quality SNES games over the past few weeks, Nintendo starts this week with three of their own NES titles, including one that people have been clamoring for since the download service began. Which one is it? You should already know that by now.

The fix is the first use of the Wii Shop update feature.

Military Madness fans were disappointed to find less than perfect emulation in the Virtual Console version of the TurboGrafx-16 title. The game suffered from a lagged scrolling glitch. As of today, the bug has been eliminated.

Purchasers of Military Madness will find an updated version waiting... Read more...

Pokemon Battle Revolution will be the first Wii online game in America; more titles are coming, says Reggie.

Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said in a DICE interview that the tools needed to get Wii games online are now starting to find their ways into the hands of developers.

Talking with Dean Takahashi of The Mercury News, Reggie stated that Wii online development kits have... Read more...

Publisher anticipates 3,000 Quebec employees by 2013, plans to open CGI studio. In other news, Patrick Roy to be named CEO.

UBISOFT EXPANDS ITS QUEBEC OPERATIONS

Plans 1000 New Jobs by 2013

Opens a Studio Specialized in the Creation of Digital Cinema Content

Montréal, Canada – February 9, 2007 – Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announces today a new phase of development for... Read more...