Chinese help Nintendo crack down on mod chipsWii purgeBy Nick Farrell: Tuesday, 23 October 2007, 3:24 PMTHE HONG Kong High Court ordered police to raid a plant that was making copying devices and mod chips for Nintendo DS and Wii machines.The move, carried out at the request of Nintendo, resulted in the seizure of more than 10,000 game copying devices and mod chips from the Supreme Factory Limited plant.It took three days for Inspector Knacker of the Hong Kong Yard to carry out all the chips, which Nintendo claims breach its copyrights and trademarks.The gizmos seized allow punters to copy and play Nintendo DS games offered unlawfully over the Internet, and the mod chips allow the play of pirated Wii discs or illegal copies of downloaded Nintendo games.According to Gamasutra, among the pile of papers also found at the plant was evidence which the Chinese coppers think link the operation to a French company, Divineo and itsprincipal, Max Louarn.The court ordered the outfit's assets frozen and blocked Supreme Factory from further distribution of the devices and from shifting its assets worldwide. All the company's assets have been frozen pending outcome of the legal proceedings.
Samba de Amigo officially officialSega salsas with Gearbox to revive acclaimed Dreamcast rhythm game for Nintendo's console next spring.By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Oct 25, 2007 12:14 pm PTSombreros, monkeys, and maracas are a recipe for success any day of the week. Inclined to agree, Sega today officially revealed that it would be reviving the Dreamcast classic Samba de Amigo with a Wii version of the game, aptly titled Samba de Amigo. The decidedly Japanese take on Latin culture is slated to shake its way exclusively to the Wii in spring 2008.What a happy little monkey.Speculation over whether Sega's musically inclined monkey would hit Nintendo's latest console took off after a blurb for the game appeared in the final in-house published issue of Nintendo Power several weeks ago. Sega finally officially confirmed today that the Wii Remote and Nunchuk would replace the at-the-time outrageously priced maracas that were necessary to take full advantage of the original game.Sega also confirmed that it would be reviving some of the more popular songs from the original game as well as adding in a number of new samba-infused tunes. Gameplay will be much like the original, where players keep a beat to the music by shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in time with onscreen indicators.In a radical departure from its previous offerings, Gearbox Software will be developing Samba de Amigo. It's the first rhythm game for the Texas-based studio, which is best known for first-person shooters such as the Brothers in Arms series. It's also the second game Gearbox and Sega are collaborating on, with the pair developing a sci-fi FPS based on the film Aliens. Other upcoming Gearbox games include the recently delayed Brothers in Arms Hells Highway for Ubisoft and the sci-fi shooter/RPG hybrid Borderlands for 2K Games.
Nintendo's six-month sales, profit doubleGame giant takes $1.16 billion profit as Wii installed base surpasses 13 million worldwide; international sales of DS near 54 million.By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Oct 25, 2007 11:55 am PTA month after it first took the honor, Nintendo today was once again named the second-most valuable corporation in Japan. Like its rival Sony, the Kyoto-based game giant has also reported its results for the six months ending September 30, which saw both its revenues and profits double.Sales for the half-year totaled ¥694.80 billion ($6.10 billion), a 132 percent increase over the revenue brought in during the same stretch of time in 2006. Nintendo's net profits grew even faster: The company took home ¥132.42 billion ($1.16 billion) for the half-year, almost 144 percent more than it earned in the comparable period last year. Such huge percentage increases in the game maker's financial fortunes are likely done with for now, given that future results will be compared against the company's strong performance in the wake of the Wii launch.Nintendo attributed its success to a strong lineup of DS games such as Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (6.95 million sold for the half-year) and the Brain Age series (5.19 million sold in six months). Hardware-wise, the company sold 13.35 million DS systems for the half-year, which brought the lifetime installed base up to 53.64 million worldwide.The Wii also played a big part in the company's success. The company sold 7.33 million Wii systems in the first half of its fiscal year, which brought the worldwide installed base up to nearly 13.17 million. Mario Party 8 was the only Wii game for which sales figures were provided (2.89 million), but Wii Sports (which is sold separately from the system in some countries) and Wii Play (which comes bundled with a Wii Remote) were said to enjoy "favorable sales."For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, Nintendo is expecting to rack up sales of ¥1.55 trillion ($13.61 billion), 60 percent higher than the previous year, with net income up almost 58 percent to ¥275 billion ($2.41 billion).
interesting news.Online play (or the promise of it) was my motivating factor for not modding the wii. I've heard the newer units are difficult to mod as well.as soon as we get strikers (a month or two), will take you on rten.
