May 15 - 8:05am EDT   Nintendo today was told by a US federal court that it must pay $21 million in damages to Anascape Ltd. for alleged patent infringement with its game controllers. The Tyler, Texas-based plaintiff successfully argued that Nintendo's conventional but more recent gamepads, including the stock Gamecube controller, the Wavebird wireless pad and the Wii Classic add-on all violated patented technology from Anascape. The Wii's pack-in wand controller, as well as earlier Nintendo gamepads, aren't affected by the ruling. [full story]

April 18 - 4:10pm EDT   Nintendo's Wii console continues to be the strongest-selling of all systems a year and a half after its launch, according to March statistics from The NPD Group. The organization says that about 720,000 examples of the motion-driven Wii were sold last month, helped in part by both its lower $250 price and the launch of the first Super Smash Brothers game for the platform. The result is nearly three times the 262,000 Xbox 360s sold and a slightly larger increase again over the PlayStation 3, which was near-equal at 257,000 systems sold. [full story]

April 16 - 4:40pm EDT   Nintendo on Tuesday denied the possibility of a new DS portable gaming system making a debut at E3 in July, as suggested by Famitsu magazine publisher Hirokazu Hamamura. Last Friday at a seminar, Hamamura mentioned that historically, a new Nintendo handheld gaming system is launched every two years, with the DS Lite launching in 2006. At the time, Nintendo's PR department responded by saying they cannot say anything at the time, but Japan's head of PR had a more definitive answer yesterday. [full story]

April 15 - 3:10pm EDT   The Wii Fit is scheduled to arrive on North American shores in just over a month's time, and Nintendo today released pricing for the Balance Board accessory and interactive fitness game combo. Nintendo's much-anticipated release, which includes a balance board and game disc that includes over 40 specific games and activities, will retail for nearly $90 when it hits store shelves on May 19. [full story]

April 11 - 4:10pm EDT   Famitsu publisher Hirokazu Hamamura today fueled speculation by suggesting that Nintendo is likely to introduce a new version of its DS handheld. Although not pointing to sources, Hamamura points to murmurings in the industry as well as historical evidence as signs of the replacement: the Japanese game maker has released at least one new or revamped handheld every two years and last did so in 2006 with the DS Lite, according to the magazine chief. [full story]

April 9 - 9:35am EDT   The BBC today said that its iPlayer is now available through Nintendo's Wii, marking the first time the TV catch-up service can be accessed through a game console. Currently in a test phase, the feature is available from a dedicated channel and lets UK-based gamers watch episodes of recent BBC shows as much as they like while they remain available on the site, which often keeps content for one or more weeks before they are removed for copyright reasons. [full story]

March 19 - 9:50am EDT   American spending on electronics is about to take a sharp slide, suggests a study by ChangeWave Research. In a survey of over 4,400 Americans conducted between February 18th and the 25th, a full 33 percent said they would be spending less on electronics in the next 90 days, versus only 19 percent who said they would spend more. Although "spending less" responses tend to dominate in most months of the year except for the run-up to Christmas, the gap is now the largest it has been since 2002, a factor which may both reflect and harm an already damaged US economy. [full story]

March 18 - 12:40pm EDT   Japan's Toshiba and Korea's Samsung are the most environmentally friendly of the major electronics manufacturers, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has published a new edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics, ranking producers of consumer electronics against each other in terms of factors like pollution and recycling. Toshiba has leaped ahead six positions to tie the previous leader, Samsung, due to continued improvement in areas of both recycling and electronic waste; Samsung's static ranking, meanwhile, is attributed to an "incomplete" product takeback policy. [full story]

March 10 - 11:15am EDT   Microsoft has quickly confirmed existing rumors and today officially dropped European prices for the Xbox 360. The base Xbox 360 Arcade system now costs £160 in the UK and €200 in Europe, making the system less expensive than the already low-cost Nintendo Wii that serves as its chief rival; the standard 20GB Xbox 360 in turn drops to £200 or €270. The black, 120GB Elite model now sells for £270 or €370 depending on the region. [full story]

February 15 - 2:10pm EST   Sony's PlayStation 3 successfully edged out the Xbox 360 in sales for the first time in January, new research data from The NPD Group says. The console sold an estimate 269,000 systems during the first month of the year, significantly outpacing Microsoft's Xbox 360 at 230,000 and just narrowly missing the Nintendo Wii's 274,000 mark. Sony credits the jump in part to the PS3's built-in Blu-ray drive, which gave the console an added edge after news of Warner Bros. dropping HD DVD triggered a spike in sales of Blu-ray players and movies. [full story]

February 14 - 4:20pm EST   Sony's PlayStation 3 console will outperform the Xbox 360 and roughly double its user base in 2008, says a new estimate by research firm iSuppli. The study predicts that Sony will sell approximately 10 million PS3s over the course of 2008, roughly doubling the game system's share to 20.3 million by the end of the year. The unusually high estimate would also have Sony near Nintendo's own sales figures with just 12.2 million total Wii sales in the same timeframe. By contrast, the Xbox 360 is estimated to move just 7.5 million systems this year. [full story]

January 14 - 2:35pm EST   Both Nintendo and Sony have been sued over some of the technology that forms the backbone of their controllers, according to a new complaint filed against them and reported by Ars Technica. Copper Innovation Group alleges that the two game system makers are violating a patent which sends an identifier along with the wireless signal between a handheld controller and a host device. Nintendo's Wii remote and Sony's SIXAXIS both infringe on the patent by beaming unique info about each controller along with game commands, according to the lawsuit. [full story]

December 14 - 3:30pm EST   Nintendo's Wii console may eventually get some form of voice chat, the company's American president says. Speaking during a conference call today, Reggie Fils-Aime explained that there is nothing technically stopping the Wii from doing voice in online play; it is only a matter of Nintendo mustering the will and money to support it. "...what it comes down to is finalizing the peripheral," he noted. "I would not be surprised to see that capability come to this system." Voice chat is one current advantage of Microsoft's Xbox 360, which comes bundled with a headset and allows sending delayed messages in addition to in-game conversation. [full story]

December 14 - 1:40pm EST   Nintendo today took the unusual step of launching a raincheck program with the American retailer GameStop for its Wii console to cope with demand. Similar to a pre-order, customers buying the system on December 20 and 21 will be able to pay for a system with a promise of receiving the system in January. GameStop has declined to say how many of the devices will be available in the program but says that "tens of thousands" will be available across the company's stores. Nintendo itself will supply a stream of consoles next week but is unlikely to have enough to meet demand, says the console designer's US chief, Reggie Fils-Aime. [full story]

December 7 - 12:25pm EST   Accessory maker Nyko has announced an important add-on for Nintendo's Wii game console. While the system's remote has always connected to the console wirelessly, the accompanying "nunchuck" controller has traditionally remained tethered to its sibling, meaning that players can only hold it s short distance away. Debuting at next month's CES expo will be Nyko's Wireless Nunchuck, with comes with an adapter that plugs into the remote's bottom port. [full story]