Say goodbye to the GBA. The SP now reigns supreme. Also, China gets GBA.

The Magicbox is reporting on a new announcement form Nintendo of Japan. The company has taken the old model of the Game Boy Advance out of mass production. The system isn't gone for good though. From now on they will only be produced on a per order basis. The Game Boy Advance SP will stay in mass production.

Nintendo remains mum on the system itself, but discusses funding and Nintendo DS numbers.

During Nintendo’s fincancial briefing on Thursday, Nintendo discussed its future plans—most notably Nintendo Revolution and Nintendo DS.

Repeating the company’s E3 statement that its next home system will provide a totally new gaming experience, Senior Managing Director Yoshiro Mori stated,... Read more...

Games based on movies show less than stellar sales.

It has become common that a video game will be released alongside a major motion picture. In addition to the usual critical malaise surrounding these games, an article from the New York Times reports that licensed games also sell poorly. The article mentions that of all the licensed games published last year, only Enter the Matrix reached the top 10 in NPD sales charts.

Now if only I could buy a Mini-Mario.

Nintendo seems to be going all out for the Japanese release of Mario vs. Donkey Kong. The Japanese website Game Watch was on site during the filming of the game's commercial. The promo, which stars three very good looking Japanese girls, takes place in the Mini-Mario toy factory. The girls, who are... Read more...

Nintendo are the masters of stating the obvious.

According to news coming out of Japan, Nintendo held a briefing today in Osaka, Japan. The company spokesman said that Nintendo would like to debut their next home console system at the 2005 E3 show, which is being held next May from the 18th to the 20th. Earlier this month at the 2004 E3 expo Nintendo's... Read more...

For hardcore Metroid fans in Japan, Nintendo has created yet another two-tone system color.

Nintendo Co. Ltd. in Japan is now offering yet another color option for GBA SP owners. This limited edition Samus Aran model is orange and red, with an insignia in the lower-right corner of the inner face. The new color theme is apparently available only as a casing swap through NCL's Club Nintendo service.

Warner Bros. will start raising royalty fees for games that make a mockery of its properties.

Warner Bros. Interactive hopes that by charging game publishers higher royalty fees for not making good games based on WB intellectual properties, the traditional bad movie game and other similar licensed games can be avoided.

The WB will refer to popular game review websites (such as GameRankings)... Read more...

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a lock for "best conga-based platformer."

The Nominees for the official E3 Awards were announced tonight. Here’s a quick breakdown of the stats. Nintendo and Electronic Arts led in number of nominations with eleven each. That’s six more than Nintendo got in 2003. GameCube games had a total of 18 nominations, which is four more than last... Read more...

Over a million counterfeit goods found. Employees facing prison sentences.

DID YOU KNOW? - COUNTERFEITERS PAY HEFTY PRICE IN TAIWAN FOR ILLEGAL MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION OF NINTENDO PRODUCTS

May 24, 2004 – Taiwan's Pan-Chiao District Court has rendered a judgment against Taiwan's Yudian Company, a major manufacturer and distributor of counterfeit Nintendo Game... Read more...

Three systems, one tunneling program. It's likely as close to Xbox Live! as the GameCube will ever get.

After months of toiling behind keyboards, XLink Kai: Evolution VII is finally ready for public consumption. Boasting superior tunneling software compatible with all three home consoles, GameCube owners itching to go online now have a new alternative for all LAN-enabled games.

Using a chatroom-like... Read more...

We've come back from E3 with a lot of swag, and we're giving some away to tonight's winner! Find out what the goodies are, along with a new rule that will benefit everyone.

Planet Trivia is back for another round of questions, and as we've been doing for the past four years, there are plenty of E3 swag to give away!

This year's main prize will be the T-Shirts that Nintendo gave out to everyone that passed through their Nintendo DS show, pictured below (front on top, back below):

Two screens means it’s twice as difficult to make a Nintendo DS unit.

High prices on Liquid Crystal Display are nothing new for Nintendo. As handheld products incorporating digital displays increase, so does demand for the flat screens. Nintendo has had trouble acquiring enough screens and a reasonable price for Game Boys in the past, and getting enough for its two-screen handheld will be even harder.

If you live in the UK, sign up on THQ's website for a chance to win a Sonic Advance 3 Print signed by Yuji Naka.

For any hardcore Sonic fan it's the gaming equivalent of having Van Gogh's Sunflowers hanging on your study wall with "Cheers! - Vince" scrawled across the bottom right corner...

It's an extremely rare, numbered and framed Sonic Advance 3 Print signed by the noble 'hog's revered creator himself - Yuji Naka - and it's there for the taking on www.thq.co.uk .

It'll be drawn by Ashley Wood and written by Kris Oprisko.

KONAMI TO RELEASE COMIC BOOK SERIES BASED ON THE HIGHLY POPULAR "METAL GEAR SOLID" VIDEO GAME FRANCHISE

- Konami Begins Aggressive Licensing Campaign for Original Content -

Konami Corporation (President and CEO: Kagemasa Kozuki, headquartered in Tokyo) and IDW Publishing (President: Ted... Read more...

The latest set of release dates for GameCube and GBA in Europe.

Here are the latest European release dates for now until the end of the year. The first list is Nintendo published titles and you can find third party games below that.

Hardware

18th June 2004 Game Boy Advance SP Tribal Edition

9th July 2004 Game Boy Advance SP NES Edition

Nintendo GameCube Release Dates Q2 - Q4 2004

EBWorld and Gamestop websites list tentative DS price and shipping date.

Both EBWorld.com and Gamestop.com have added the Nintendo DS to their product lists. They currently have the system listed at a price of $199.99 with a ship date of 11/29/2004. Games are currently listed at $49.99, the same price as most new GameCube titles.

Both sites offer the disclaimer... Read more...

Hear when the crowd first realized they were looking at Zelda, and everyone's new best friend: Reggie.

We have audio available of the full Nintendo Press Conference. Reggie, Iwata, the DS, Zelda's unveiling, and Miyamoto:

Nintendo Press Conference (6.93 MB)

Nintendo gives pricing and song list details for North America.

At E3 today, a Nintendo representative gave us some very good news on Donkey Konga. First of all, the game is set to launch on September 27th at the surprisingly low price of $49.99, including the Konga controller. We had all assumed the controller would drive the price up to $60 or $70, but at the standard retail price, Nintendo is practically giving the Konga controller away.

We've got the full list of Donkey Konga tunes currently on display.

We just got access to a full list of tracks from the US version of Donkey Konga. We apologize for not having more complete artist info, but you should recognize a good number of these:

Diddy's Ditzies

Bingo

Campfire Medley

Pokemon Theme

Kirby Right Back at Ya

We Will Rock You

Like Wow

Didn't go to the press conference? We've got a detailed report of what went down. It's as if you were there yourself... Updated with quotes from Miyamoto.

Due to technical mishaps, please use this Talkback Thread

For this year's media briefing, Nintendo once again chose the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland above the Kodak Theatre to spill the beans on their E3 plans. It was standing room only as Nintendo waited for attendees to arrive from Sony's press event held earlier in the day, and once everyone took their seats, the show got underway.