Nintendo has filed an application to trademark the name Wii Relax in the US.

The application covers a wide range of possible uses for the name - it could refer to all manner of software or peripherals. But there's plenty of speculation it could have something to do with the Vitality Sensor accessory, particularly since the patent mentions "parts and accessories of consumer videogame apparatus, including those with pulse-measuring functions".

Nintendo also trademarked the Wii Relax name in Europe last year. Hmm.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ni...ii-relax-in-us ...

While EA is publicly backing Tiger Woods, the publisher is reportedly polling people to see whether the golfer's infamous "mistakes off the course", to borrow Peter Moore's phrase, will affect sales of its games.

In a recent Greenfield Online survey (thanks Kotaku), the publisher is seen to ask whether the controversy has "made your impressions of EA Sports more or less favourable". The survey also asks: "Has the controversy made you more or less likely to buy a Tiger Woods-related videogame in the future?" (More!)

Earlier this month EA Sports boss Peter Moore updated his blog with a post supporting Woods, apparently on the basis that EA had chosen to work with the golfer for sporting reasons and not so he could "act as an arm's length endorser".

Given that the decision appears to have been made to stick with him, presumably the survey is either old or geared towards something else, like marketing, or what kind of message to write in a sympathy card e.g. "Sorry about your mistakes off the course, best keep your head down for a bit. Love (too soon?), Pete."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ea...ds-controversy ...

Nintendo has denied that the next iteration of the DS will feature a motion sensor and more graphical power.

Company president Satoru Iwata was reported as making the claims last week. But according to Nintendo there's been a misunderstanding.

"Mr Iwata did not make any comments regarding the functions of Nintendo's future hardware systems," a representative told Kotaku. "The answer to the reporter's question was misinterpreted."

Kotaku stands by its original translation of the comments, which appeared in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Nintendo says it was the paper's reporter who was responsible for the mix-up.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ne...nsor-after-all ...

One of the most popular questions on the Google Nexus One support forums is the 'Spotty 3G?' thread with almost 700 posts of users complaining about their 3G signal coverage fluctuating up, down, and between EDGE/3G with the phone just sitting on the desk or compared to other 3G devices on the T-Mobile network that don't offer the same unpredictable behavior. One workaround that seems to fix the issue is forcing the phone into '3G' or 'WCDMA Only' mode. This is a bit of a downer given that T-Mobile just finished their 3G upgrade to 7.2Mbps. Official word from Google is 'We are investigating this issue....

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/...ls-On-T-Mobile ...

Casual games have thrived in the past year, as demonstrated by the overall 2009 single format charts. While hardcore gaming bastion Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was crowned as the best selling game of 2009 in the UK, a closer look at which titles performed best on each format in the last 12 months shows how casual releases dominated the Nintendo platforms.
Elsewhere, across the Sony and Microsoft platforms traditional titles still dominated.
The numbers come courtesy of ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack.

2009 Nintendo Wii Chart

1. Wii Sports Resort
2. Wii Fit
3. Wii Fit Plus
4. Mario Kart Wii
5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

2009 Nintendo DS Chart
1. Professor Layton And The Curious Village
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
3. Professor Layton And Pandora's Box
4. Mario Kart DS
5. New Super Mario Bros.

2009 Sony PlayStation 3 Chart
1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2. FIFA 10
3. Assassin's Creed II
4. Killzone 2
5. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2009 Sony PSP Chart
1. FIFA 10
2. FIFA 09
3. Gran Turismo
4. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
5. LittleBigPlanet

2009 Xbox 360 Chart
1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2. FIFA 10
3. Forza Motorsport 3
4. Assassin's Creed II
5. Halo 3: ODST ...

Publisher successfully mixing both new online offers with established bricks and mortar big-budget releases
Despite huge success for its 2009 digital strategy LucasArts says retail releases are still a key part of its business.
Last year the publisher revived many of its classic older IPs, with both new and old Monkey Island titles launched for iPhone, Xbox Live Arcade, PC and WiiWare.
Embracing digital has only widened its business, however, with the firm telling MCV that the boxed content it releases through Activision in Europe goes from strength-to-strength.
“We’ve had a great 2009 and look forward to 2010, especially with The Force Unleashed 2 which we recently announced and promises to be the next massive Star Wars experience on consoles,” said global publishing VP Mary Bihr.
In fact, said Bihr, LucasArts has seen strong sales of back catalogue titles – despite the year-on-year decrease in global games spending.

She said: “We, similar to many other publishers, have been challenged by the current economic climate. We’ve seen a slowdown in sales velocity across some titles, but a commensurate increase in others, sometimes with games that have been on the shelves for two, three, even four years. There’s still strong demand for these licensed games.”
The first Star Wars: The Force Unleashed arrived in 2008 and has already clocked up over six million copies sold to date, and was re-released with new added content in November.
“As for recent releases, LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues has already been a huge success for us. TT Games did a fantastic job making this the most immersive LEGO game to date. We’re very pleased by its performance across Europe.”
Now Bihr says LucasArts is focusing all its efforts on the release of The Force Unleashed 2 later this year.
“This will be a huge game for us. Our internal development team is hard at work making it the next massive action packed Star Wars experience. We have a lot more going on that I can’t talk about now, but it continues to be an exciting time here at LucasArts.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37128/Luca...Street-support ...

French publisher Ubisoft has revised its financial outlook off the back of poor DS sales contributing to a 50 per cent drop in its casual business, and under-performing titles such as James Cameron's Avatar: The Game.

Third quarter sales are expected to be €495 million, down from €540 million, with full-year sales expected to €860 million, a drop from the previous forecast of €1,040 million.

"The considerable contraction in the DS market during the year particularly affected Ubisoft, leading to a €160 million, or almost 50 per cent, year-on-year drop in the Company’s casual segment sales," offered CEO Yves Guillemot.

The company revealed that Assassin's Creed II has now sold over six million units worldwide, and is expected to shift nine million by the end of the financial year – and its this success in the core market that Ubisoft intends to chase in 2010.

"The year 2009 saw the release of many more very high-quality games than in the past," continued Guillemot. "Against this backdrop and with a view to further reducing our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the two consoles which are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010.

"Ubisoft has already demonstrated its capacity for success in the high-end games market thanks to Assassin’s Creed 2, with sales 40 per cent higher than for the first title. The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox 360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability," he added.

The company is to delay the next Tom Clancy title, Splinter Cell: Conviction, from February until April. RUSE will also now be released sometime in the next financial year 2010-2011, alongside a new Ghost Recon title, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Driver, Raving Rabbids 4 and a “new episode of Assassin’s Creed, which will be the first in the series to have an online multiplayer mode.”

The company expects to end the year with an operating loss of around €50 million, rather than the operating income of €70 million initially forecast.

Also blamed for the loss is poor sales of back catalogue titles and abandoned projects.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...rop-50-percent ...

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has said he doesn't expect the launch of Netflix on Wii, announced earlier today, to be as significant a move as it was on Xbox 360.

Despite a US installed base of close to 26 million, Pachter estimated that only a small percentage of users - fewer than 20 per cent - had connected their Wii to the internet. In contrast, he estimated around 75 per cent of 360s and 80 per cent of PS3s were used online.

As such it wasn't expected that Netflix activations would jump significantly when the service launched this spring. "We think that the Wii installed base will embrace the Netflix service only gradually," said the Wedbush report.

However, as the Xbox 360 installed base for the Netflix service approached saturation point, the addition of PS3, Wii and further electronics devices would enable Netflix to maintain its pace of new subscribers, it added.

To access the Netflix service through the Wii, users will need to insert a separate disc before watching a film - as will be required on the PS3 also. On the Xbox 360, users can simply access the service from the Dashboard - a feature which Pachter predicted has arisen from Microsoft's 360 exclusive arrangement with Netflix, which will run at least until the end of 2010.

In the wake of the Wii announcement, the guidance from Wedbush on Netflix shares was that they would underperform.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...limited-impact ...

Chart-Track has today confirmed the best selling games of 2009 - with the not unexpected news that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 outpaced all competition on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and in the all-formats charts.

The second biggest all-formats title was FIFA 10 - with FIFA 09 also coming tenth in the chart.

Nintendo games Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus and Mario Kart Wii accounted for four of the top ten best sellers, while SEGA's Wii title Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games came in as the eight biggest selling.

Assassin's Creed II made it to sixth place, while Activision also saw a second game - Call of Duty: World at War - enter the top ten.

The DS chart was topped by Professor Layton and the Curious Village, while the biggest PSP game was named as FIFA 10.

"The phenomenal success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was undoubtedly one of the leading entertainment stories of year and firmly established videogames as one of the leading forms of entertainment in the UK," said Michael Rawlinson, ELSPA's director general.

"There is no doubt that 2009 belonged to Activision, but it was a strong year for many software developers and publishers. The rise of family-orientated, multiplayer games in 2009 also demonstrates how videogames have expanded into new genres finding fresh audiences. If nothing else, last year confirmed that we are now a nation of enthusiastic and energetic gamers here in Britain."

"Constant innovation and exciting new titles are key to driving entertainment sales and 2009 was one of the best ever years for games sales in the UK thanks to a slew of great new titles and heavy investment by retailers in showcasing them to consumers. We look forward to even more innovation in 2010." added Kim Bayley, director general of the Entertainment Retailers Association.

It was revealed last week that 2009 had been the second strongest year in sales history for the UK games industry - a strong performance considering the country's recession, said Rawlinson.

2009 All Formats chart

01 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
02 FIFA 10
03 Wii Sports Resort
04 Wii Fit
05 Wii Fit Plus
06 Assassin's Creed II
07 Mario Kart Wii
08 Mario & Sonic At Olympic Winter Games
09 Call Of Duty: World At War
10 FIFA 09
2009 Nintendo Wii chart

01 Wii Sports Resort
02 Wii Fit
03 Wii Fit Plus
04 Mario Kart Wii
05 New Super Mario Bros. Wii
2009 Nintendo DS chart

01 Professor Layton And The Curious Village
02 Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
03 Professor Layton And Pandora's Box
04 Mario Kart DS
05 New Super Mario Bros.
2009 Sony PlayStation 3 chart

01 Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
02 FIFA 10
03 Assassin's Creed II
04 Killzone 2
05 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2009 Sony PSP chart

01 FIFA 10
02 FIFA 09
03 Gran Turismo
04 Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
05 Littlebigplanet
2009 Xbox 360 chart

01 Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
02 FIFA 10
03 Forza Motorsport 3
04 Assassin's Creed II
05 Halo 3: ODST
2009 PC chart

01 The Sims 3
02 Football Manager 2010
03 Football Manager 2009
04 Empire: Total War
05 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...dern-warfare-2 ...