A company accusing Nintendo of swiping the name for the Wii's Mii Channel from its own digital avatar service is trying to drop its lawsuit against the gamemaker. The only snag is that Nintendo doesn't want it to drop the suit.

Last November, WeeWorld filed suit against Nintendo, alleging that the gamemaker's Mii avatars on its then-unreleased Wii system infringed on trademarks for its own WeeMees, digital avatars it claims to have offered online since 2001.

Currently featured on AOL Instant Messanger, WeeMees give users a simple tool for creating their own custom cartoon-styled avatars. In addition to choosing eye color, hair style, and clothing, users can outfit their WeeMees with accessories to indicate their interests. A number of gaming systems are included in the possible accessories, from an Xbox 360 to a PlayStation Portable. Users can also equip their WeeMees with what appears to be a Nintendo DS Lite (click on picture above), but there is no Wii option at the moment.

Nintendo originally defended itself in the suit, saying that its use of homonyms for common words like "me" and "we" constituted fair use under trademark laws. It has also alleged that WeeWorld didn't use the WeeMee name in the US until after Nintendo had announced its system and Mii Channel, and that WeeWorld can't prove the likelihood of consumer confusion arising out of the products' similar names.


...and this is a Wii Mii.The legal battle simmered until last month, when WeeWorld asked the judge in the case to dismiss the suit without prejudice, which would leave the door open for future litigation on the subject. Calling the case "unquestionably in its infant stages" with no depositions taken, motions for judgment made, or trial date set, WeeWorld said it wanted to see the dispute played out overseas first.

"With most of its current business in the United Kingdom, WeeWorld recently decided that it should use its limited resources to first seek relief in the United Kingdom," the company said in its motion to dismiss the case.

Last week, Nintendo filed its objection to WeeWorld's motion. The gamemaker feels there is no possibility of confusion between the names, and said it's entitled to a dismissal of the suit with prejudice, which would prevent WeeWorld from picking up the claims against Nintendo in the future.

"[I]n the face of disclosure obligations and discovery demands targeted at getting to the bottom of its unsupported claims of 'confusion' and damage, WeeWorld has abruptly asked this Court to let it dismiss this case without prejudice," Nintendo's response reads, "freeing it from having to reveal the lack of substance to its claims, while allowing it to hold over Nintendo the threat of future US litigation if it is unsuccessful pursuing those claims in European courts, as it now intends."

Even if the matter is dismissed without prejudice, Nintendo said WeeWorld should be made to pay its legal fees, as it estimated that it had already spent around $400,000 investigating the claims and preparing its defense.

via gamespot ...

With games being a prime target of film studio execs for source material, it was only a matter of time before Epic Games' Xbox 360 hit Gears of War began its walk down the road to becoming a movie.


Coming to a theater near you?
Variety is reporting today that New Line Cinema has acquired the movie rights to Gears of War. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will produce the film, which is being written by Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Collateral). No more details of the movie have been released, including crew and release date.

Gears of War, published by Microsoft Game Studios, has won several Game of the Year awards since its release last November. As of mid-January, the game had sold more than 3 million units worldwide.

The next task for the film is to actually get made. Several high-profile movies based on games are still in limbo but slowly moving forward, with Sony working on bringing Metal Gear Solid to the big screen, Jerry Bruckheimer bringing his brand of action to Prince of Persia, and Warner Bros. affiliate Legendary Pictures working on a World of Warcraft movie. Others, such as the big-budget endeavor to bring Halo to the cineplex, have stalled completely.

Microsoft was unavailable for comment as of press time.

via gamespot ...

Rockstar's PS2 version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories has jumped to the top of the UK all-formats chart, helped by a budget price that has seen sales leap by over 35 per cent in the past week.

With only 200 units between them, the latest port of a PSP title has managed to knock Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 off the top spot after only one week, to number two.

Square Enix's Final Fantasy XII for the PS2 also drops one place to number three, with Sega's Sonic and the Secret Rings at number four and EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 at number five.

RealTime Worlds' new Xbox 360 IP Crackdown sits at number six, just ahead of a re-entry by Atari's Test Drive Unlimited, following a release on PSP and PlayStation 2.

Electronic Arts' FIFA 07 is also bumped down the charts to number eight, with expansion pack The Sims 2: Seasons at number nine and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training at number ten.

This week's new entries are Disney Interactive's Spectrobes for the DS at number 23 and EA's SSX Blur for the Wii at number 28.

via gamesindustry ...

via engadget

Last week marked the fourth month the Zune has been on the market, and its sixth month since being officially announced. We know the Zune was in development all the way back into 2005 -- so why the hell is Microsoft having such a hard time ironing out even the basic kinks, let alone adding features? Wasn't the whole reason Microsoft went into the portable media hardware business because only vertically integrated solutions seem to be able to guarantee a vaguely acceptable DRM user experience?

In month four it's not cool for the Zune to still have bugs causing skipping in (DRMed) content, nor any of the other severe issues, bugs, and limitations that keep the product from approaching likability by a larger audience than the handful of thousands of Zune users out there today. (Let's not kid ourselves here, Zunes haven't been selling, and most people don't take the Zune seriously at this point.) We're not trying to hate, but we think it's about time Microsoft acknowledged that the ball's been dropped -- and then pick it back up. Stop promising bug fixes and vaporous new features, and stop talking about future Zune products when the current product is ailing. Here are five simple things Microsoft should do to fix the Zune right now, and even make it into a somewhat aggressive contender in one of the most cutthroat gadget categories. In order:

Fix the DRM, syncing, and system bugs, and get firmware v1.3 out the door!
Add useful WiFi features: wireless streaming to friends, Zune Pass (subscription) song transfer to friends' Zunes (á la MusicGremlin), computer-free downloads content downloads.
Add podcast and vidcast support. It doesn't even have to be as comprehensive as the iTMS, just a basic RSS reader / enclosure scraper or something.
Increase codec support. Go out on a limb and add open (read: free) codecs like FLAC, APE, OGG, XviD; if you really want to make your customers happy, belly up to the bar and license DivX.
Drop the price. For most consumers, there is still a huge mental barrier in paying $250 for a Zune when you can pay the same $250 for an iPod. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but people really love the iPod. Make it $230 MSRP, and let that sink down to like $210 for online retailers. People will freak out that this player, that does all these things it does, is barely more than two bills.
See, that wasn't so hard, was it? We didn't even ask them to do anything vaguely unreasonable, like open up the Zune Marketplace for other players, drop the 3x3 pseudo-DRM, drop the silly over-marketing, or add 3G and a QWERTY keyboard. We know these things won't happen tomorrow, but it would be nice to know Zune has some intentions of actually improving its product, as promised. ...

Captain Jack Sparrow is making a return to videogaming in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, a new adventure based on the upcoming film of the same name, and the previous film, Dead Man's Chest.

Players will hack and slash their way through scenes and event from both films playing as good guys, Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will apparently feature "innovative duelling controls", whatever than means, while the Wii version will allow for some Remote-waving, sword fighting action.

At World's End is due out on PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, PS2, and DS on May 22 in the US, with a UK release expected to follow shortly after.

via cvg ...

The Adventure Company is porting Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None to Wii.

The game, originally released on PC last year, has player work their way through a murder mystery based on Agatha Christie's novel of the same name.

New Wii-specific controls will allow players to tackle situations using various motions, like digging to unearth clues, or spinning the handle of a safe.

The PC game didn't do too well so we're hoping the Wii game will receive more of a re-working than simply updated controls.

A release date for the Wii version is yet to be announced.

via cvg ...

via cvg

New instalments in Namco Bandai's much-loved Katamari Damacy and Ace Combat series along with a port of PC RTS Warhammer: Mark of Chaos are coming to Xbox 360, internet reports claim.

The initial report comes from an alleged photograph of a Blockbuster Video computer terminal listing the inevitable Ace Combat 6, "Beautiful Katamari" and Mark of Chaos for Microsoft's console.

Adding weight to the rumour is a recent trademark Namco Bandai filed for the name Beautiful Katamari in January. In a recent blog post licensed Katamari merchandise company Panic Software also discusses the series' future.

This is also not the first time CVG has heard rummagings of a future Warhammer: Mark of Chaos console port, either.

When we picked up the phone Namco Bandai expectedly told us it has nothing new to announce regarding future titles, though we reckon there's a good chance we could see these three crop-up on a release list sometime soon. ...

The latest Wii Virtual Console update has just landed in the good old US of A, and for once gamers across the pond are getting the games we received many weeks ago.

Already released in Europe NES dirt-racer Excitebike is the first retro title up for download in North America, which if you're too young or memory fatigued to remember from the 80s you might recognize from the GBA Wario Wares.

Second is Namco's TurboGrafx offering Splatter House, which appeared on the European Wii Shop last week. In case you missed it the first time around, Splatter House is an early attempt at the survival horror genre, pitting you and your girlfriend against zombies in an abandoned mansion, which sounds familiar.


Finishing up this week's North American VC update is Beyond Oasis (or The Story of Thor to us), a Mega Drive action-RPG that apparently has you playing as Prince Ali, a bloke who's found a golden armlet and is using it for all kinds of spirit-y mischief.

Look out for the Europe Virtual Console update this Friday, where hopefully we'll get some more notable titles than in recent weeks.

via cvg ...

via cvg

Graphically what we've seen so far of Halo 3 hasn't exactly blown our socks off, but according to Bungie's latest community update the more-complete version of the game has improved leaps and bounds visually, and is looking "amazing".

"The exteriors still needed some polish, but sweet crimeny Christmas. It looked amazing," the update reads, describing a more complete Halo 3 campaign stage, which apparently has "lit, shader effects, proper detail, atmospherics" and "audio" up and running.

"Last week I talked about how we were adding all this hyper realistic stuff, while still trying to keep it true to the look and feel of Halo," the post continues. "The evolution of those ideas is that some of the test screenshots we took for an internal presentation, looked exactly like their concept paintings. Not just in terms of scale or detail, but the actual color palette. It's rich and vivid and full of life."

"As a matter of fact, we ran the screens back to back with concept paintings, and sometimes you had to blink to distinguish," Bungie claims.

The update goes on to admit that there's still plenty of optimization to be done, and while there's realistic-looking scenery the 360 sequel still has the Halo look

"The graphics have a painterly quality, sure, but this is more to do with the impression they leave you than the details," the update reads. "A game's a game's a game. We're not going cel shaded or oil painting-y." ...