Coinciding with the release of the sixth movie in the Harry Potter series, the Half-Blood Prince will be available this holiday season.

EA revealed today that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be seeing release later this year on the Wii and DS, as well as a number of other platforms. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth entry in the book, movie and game series. The game will follow the basic storyline provided by the book, offering Harry and crew the chance to engage in a number of extra-curricular activities including Potion Making and Quidditch.

Square Enix also announced future downloadable content for Final Fantasy: My Life as a King.

Square Enix announced the availability of a new piece of downloadable content for their Japanese WiiWare title, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. The new content, which costs 300 Wii Points ($3), contains 11 new locations which amount to 20 new dungeons. Completing these dungeons unlocks new shops, parks, and other locations. This content marks the second batch of downloadable content for the game.

The wireless DS service that made its debut last season is now free and has plans for expansion.

Nintendo announced that their Nintendo Fan Network that made its debut in 2007 is now free at every Seattle Mariners home game. The service involves a DS connecting wirelessly to any one of the numerous download stations in the stadium. Once connected, you can check various things, like player statistics,... Read more...

High Voltage has plans to release five Wii projects in the future using their Wii specific engine.

High Voltage Software has officially announced their Quantum3 Engine for the Wii, hoping "to raise a new bar" in graphical performance. Notes CEO Kerry Ganofsky, "we think it's a real shame that publishers and developers aren't taking advantage of the technical possibilities of the Wii platform."... Read more...

The run-and-gun game will release in Europe on May 30.

Lexicon Entertainment announced that Commando: Steel Disaster will be seeing a slight delay and will release in Europe on May 30 instead of May 9. The publisher announced the cause of the delay as longer-than-anticipated lead times due to a busy period in DS game manufacturing. The side-scrolling... Read more...

In an effort to match the Rock Band experience, Activision CEO reveals that new iterations of Guitar Hero will feature more than just guitars.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed that the developers of Guitar Hero, NeverSoft, are working on bringing new instruments and vocals to future iterations of the Guitar Hero franchise. The revelation came in an interview with the business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio. It is currently unclear as to whether or not this will include the soon to be released Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

The arcade light gun shooter is now available in stores featuring the brand new Justice Mode.

Target: Terror, Konami's new Wii light gun shooter has shipped to retail outlets. It is now available now in North American stores.

The game is a rerelease of its classic arcade counterpart, featuring the new Justice Mode. In Justice Mode players get to dual-wield weapons. Target: Terror also features unlockable mini-games and updated controls optimized for the Wii Remote.

Each song in THQ's exclusive rhythm game is available in each of the game's five styles.

THQ's unique take on Rhythm gaming has shipped to American retailers. Each of the songs in Battle of the Band are recorded in all five of the game's styles: rock, funk/hip-hop, country, marching band, and latin. As players compete, the music being played will switch back and forth in style depending on the player currently winning. All-in-all, the game features 150 unique tracks.

The Game Factory’s bear building mini-game fest will hit stores in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The Game Factory recently announced the upcoming release of Build-A-Bear Workshop A Friend Fur All Seasons for Wii. The game, priced at $39.99, is set to come out in the fourth quarter 2008 and is the follow-up to the recent DS game, Build-A-Bear Workshop.

The premise of the game is founded on... Read more...

There is trouble in River City and the Orakian Kingdom of Landen in this week’s games.

This week’s Virtual Console haul seems to have a central theme of RPGs. While River City Ransom is not an RPG, it is a beat-‘em-up that is known for its RPG qualities. However, there is no doubt that Phantasy Star III is a classic RPG.

Originally released for the NES, River City Ransom is... Read more...

The Wii puzzle game has support for four players online and off.

Octomania, the octopus-centric Wii puzzle game, hit stores on April 8th. It features a story mode and both offline and online multiplayer. Published by Atlus U.S.A. and developed by Conspiracy Entertainment, the game is focused on saving the land of Lonronpia from the accidental infestation of octopi. The game, supervised by the creator of Puyo Pop, appears to be similar to the typical genre of falling block puzzle games.

After a year and a half of waiting, Korea can finally get their waggle on.

This Saturday, April 26, Wii will be available in Korean retail outlets. Debuting at 220,000 won (approximately $224 USD), the Wii will launch without Wii Sports packed-in.

Wii Sports will be available at retail, however, along with eight other titles including Wii Play with remote, Rayman Raving... Read more...

In a non-holiday month Brawl managed to sell 2.7 million copies and Wii related sales contributed "31 percent of total industry dollars for the month." More game and hardware sales inside.

Nintendo apparently hasn't heard the phrase "Christmas only comes once a year." According to NPD data for the U.S. market, the Wii sold an unprecedented number of systems in March 2008. Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold 2.7 million copies. And, in case you were wondering, the DS didn't do too shabby either.

Take the wheel of emergency vehicles to save the city.

Codemasters' emergency services game has shipped off to retailers after prolonged development. First announced in 2004 as an Xbox and PS2 title, the game was canceled back in 2006 before being revived on the Wii.

In Emergency Mayhem the player takes control of one of three emergency services... Read more...

DS software passes a huge milestone and Mario Kart Wii sells big.

Mario Kart Wii made a bold entry in Nintendo’s home territory this week, selling well over half a million copies. Super Smash Bros. Brawl continued to slowly build on its 1.5 million sales so far, just barely in the top 10. Monster Hunter Portable, however, has already surpassed Brawl’s sales in a little over two weeks.

The port of the popular engine has been completed with optimized support for Wii and the Wii Remote.

GarageGames and Pronto Games have completed the port of the Torque Engine to Wii. The engine has been fully optimized for Wii and includes extensive Wii Remote support.

The Torque Engine has been used for the development of the popular Xbox Live Arcade Game, Marble Blast Ultra, as well as the upcoming title, Penny Arcade Adventures. It will also be used for the Wii exclusive The Destiny of Zorro, in development by Pronto Games.

Scheduled for summer, Majesco's next Nintendo DS game will also support the Rumble Pak.

Majesco is bringing the frantic situations of air traffic control to the DS touch screen. In Air Traffic Chaos, players will have to manage frantic takeoffs, landings, and gate assignments under an assortment of weather conditions. In addition to a tutorial, the game will feature three difficulty... Read more...

The long-awaited, much-touted horror adventure title will feature cutting edge black-and-white graphics.

Sadness will be the first entirely black-and-white game developed exclusively for Wii. The horror adventure title is being built on Emergent's Gamebryo development platform to push the graphics capabilities of the Wii. The stylish crime noir thriller is set just before the outbreak of World War I and will feature eight different endings. There is still no word on a release date.

A futuristic first-person shooter that aims to be “a Wii game that looks like a 360 title.”

The Conduit, introduced by High Voltage Software, is a futuristic FPS that is drawing influence from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, and is being built on top of Quantum3, the engine built by the same team from the ground up for Wii.

The Conduit takes place during present... Read more...

High Voltage Games is focusing their energy on making poor Wii graphics a thing of the past.

High Voltage Games, the team behind the brand-new title The Conduit is creating the Quantum3 engine to power their new FPS experience. Featuring “real-time normal mapping, reflection and refraction, post process full screen effects, real-time shadows, projected lights and textures, specularity and fresnel effects, emissive and iridescent materials, interactive water, [and] morphing,” all purportedly running at a smooth frame rate.