Nintendo has released a list of the games coming to the Wii console this holiday season. This is a pretty long one since these aren't just first-party games and includes third-party releases as well. Also included is a WiiWare release list. Let's get right to it

If you're into doing charity for a good cause, you need not go to Africa with Angelina Jolie. We've got an opportunity right here with Real Heroes: Firefighter for the Wii. Epicenter Studios is making it known that part of the proceeds of the game will go to the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.

They're not all about killing animals and finding out why planes go down - National Geographic announces the formation of NGG: National Geographic Games.  Their mission: to bring the NatGeo experience into gaming. Find out more.

Downloading torrents is one thing, but attacking merchant ships with guns at the ready and stealing their goods is quite another. I'm talking real maritime pirates here.

Attacks from pirates off Somalia have been increasing recently, which might force merchant ships to take different trade routes. This could potentially cause shipments of various goods, including video game hardware and software, to get seriously messed up.

Among the latest games you'd find fresh on shelves is Majesco Entertainment's Wild Earth: African Safari for the Nintendo Wii. As its title implies, you can set foot on Africa to enjoy what nature has to offer. Don't be shy - go wild and hit that jump for more details!

Game and console manufacturers have been fighting for the attention of the casual gamers in the market today. Apparently, Microsoft has thrown down the gauntlet and is readying for a full scale assault on the territory of Nintendo.

The regional vice president of the Microsoft EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) home and entertainment division Chris Lewis spoke to MCV and gave word that they need to encroach on Nintendo's market. Aside from targetting the casual market, the company is also looking into "peripheral based gaming experiences" which is the main selling point of the Wii.  

Of course, Lewis gave the standard disclaimer that both companies are currently co-existing (which is actually true, but it's still fun to imagine both companies going at it), but the fact of the matter is, they're going to attack the current market leader on its home turf.

Our drive is to appeal to a wider genre with more casual types of gaming. Clearly we need to continue toward more casual-based gaming experiences, and more peripheral-based gaming experiences in front of the screen. You’re going to hear more about that at E3.

For 360 to appeal in the way we want it to and for us to achieve our aspirations, we need to be in the broader space as well as investing in the core element. Nintendo occupies a very specific space and I genuinely think we co-exist with Nintendo very well. Having said that, it is interesting for us to continue to work on games and experiences that appeal to a broader demographic base.

This could either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you view it. It can be a good thing considering that this competition could actually drive game and console prices down. It could also be bad if the game developers start polarizing between the two companies and start only releasing "exclusives" (a bit far-fetched but it could happen). Now, all we can do is wait for Nintendo to respond to this challenge by Microsoft.

According to an industry analysis report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the video game industry will continue to be considered as an above-average growth segment of the global entertainment industries. Additionally, they have claimed that this year's investments made by the game industry is "set to exceed" the current spending for the music industry.

 
The global spending has jumped 14.3% to US$ 31.6 billion back in 2006, and PwC expects that the amount should climb another 18.5% to US$ 37.5 billion in 2007. The report also projects that the game industry will officially overtake the music industry by 2008 in the US, as data from key growth factors in the industry have been gaining performance this year.

Such factors include that of online and wireless games, next generation consoles and the advent of in-game advertising. Although much of the analysis took the US into question, PwC cut back on US-only expectations and spread its views over the global scape.

Click on Full Article to learn more of the gaming industry's performance as a whole and the best performing region for 2007.

According to an official announcement made by France-based Ubisoft, the video game publisher is planning to expand its employee base for its studio in Casablanca, Morocco. Spurred by a local government incentive program for high quality jobs in technology, the studio established back in 1998 will open up 150 seats for interested applicants.

 

The Moroccan studio has been active in delivering titles under Ubisoft's umbrella, featuring a portfolio of games such as Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie and Prince of Persia The Two Thrones. They were also responsible for bringing Rayman Raving Rabbids to the DS, together with Star Wars: Lethal Alliance.

And although mostly lacking in the manpower as opposed to Ubisoft's Montreal studios, the 50-man team is currently at work on Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Nintendo DS. And while the studio is the only game developer studio in Morocco or in Northern Africa, the team is mostly staffed by local people - artists and engineers from the local populace.

Managing director of Ubisoft's Casablanca studio, Cyril Vermeil, stated that many of the young people in Morocco are passionate about games: "Our task will be to recruit people who want to grow with Ubisoft to become leading specialists in an industry offering an increasing number of career opportunities for local talent."

Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, said that the studio was established because Ubisoft knew local education system would provide talented people for game development. He concluded the announcement saying:

It is an honor to work with the Moroccan government to significantly expand our presence in the region. Both the video game industry and the Moroccan economy are strong and growing, and we look forward to pioneering the industry in this exciting region.

Some European Nintendo Wii fans were disappointed that it states in the manual of Mario Strikers Charged that "you will be able to play only with people within Europe," with concerns on lag taking the blame.

Essentially, that means there will be peak and none-peak days and times if servers for the online part of the game are restricted on a time zone basis. In turn, this means that there will be instances when the rooms will overflow and there will be times that you'll be hard-pressed to find your ideal playing companions.

Joystiq suggested that a latency test might have been the first step to not putting up regional barriers, and went on to say that at times, playing with people in South Africa was more lag-free than playing with people in North America.

We certainly hope that in due time, Nintendo finds a way to work around lag issues when globalizing games. It's really just a different level of fun and competition when playing with fellow gamers from across the planet. That atmosphere of being part of something big makes for more intense matches and more fulfilling results.

It's no secret that Nintendo has been keeping pretty mum about the South African launch details of the Wii. The South African based blog Ninty though has revealed sparse details that they have been able to confirm directly from Nintendo.

• The Wii will be officially launched in South Africa with a rumoured price of R2500 (About US$ 359).
• There has been no details on the price of the games.
• They've confirmed that neither Numetro, and Mustek will not be the importer of the said console.
• Nintendo will have a Wii booth at Rage 2007, but the console may be launched even before that or on the event itself.

The guys at Ninty raised a very valid point "Why the secrecy?" Is there something that they have to keep under wraps for this specific release? Anyway, the price of the Wii in South Africa looks to be pretty high considering that Wiis went for about US$ 250 when it was first introduced. Well, hopefully they'll be able to get the prices down after a month or two.