Midway is now owned by Warner Bros. -- by default. The LA Times report that the media conglomerate has won the bidding rights to Midway for US$ 33 million. So how come they won it by default? According to reports, the big WB was the only one who had a "serious offer".

Gore Verbinski got box office success when he directed Pirates of the Caribbean, but would gamers take to him as well? (They took well to the Pirates game though.) According to an interview by the LA Times, Verbinski has a new video game project in the works, but details are locked up as tight as the Dead Man's Chest. Full story after the "read more" link below.

LA Times have caught on the Wii-health craze, making it their cover story for today's Fitness edition. While this may be nothing new to us (we've had a healthy coverage on the subject, after all), it sure is amusing to see how the rest of the mainstream population are only now catching on.

Here's an excerpt from the said article:

Since its Nov. 19 release, the Wii has become a mini-phenomenon - 1.5 million of the consoles were snapped up by U.S. consumers between the product's launch and the end of January, according to market researcher NPD Group Inc. The lightning lift off has made the Wii the fastest-selling console in the video game industry in the last ten years.

Also mentioned in the article is the now-famed Mickey DeLorenzo whom we met through his Wii Sports Experiment. But even more interesting is how this "mini-phenomenon", as they would so eloquently put it, is stirring up some sort of debate as to just exactly how healthy it actually is.

"Digging into" the other side of the spectrum, the report cites a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine sports physician and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Mark Klion. According to him, "The problem is you get someone who's a couch potato, and put them in front of a TV, swinging their arms countless hundreds of times, and that's enough to cause injury to the soft tissues, whether it's the muscles, tendons or ligaments."

But his comments ain't all that bad. After all, he did agree that for the most part, while playing a game with the Wii as a substitute for outdoor exercise ain't the best thing around, it's still better than nothing.

Still, it remains amusing at the end of the day. Leave it to them non-gamers to blow out of proportion something as benign as playing the Wii. I don't know about you, but debating over whether or not the Wii does provide for a viable alternative to working out is simplistic at best. Nor do the "experts' citations" make it any richer. Of course you'd develop sore limbs and tendons if you suddenly picked up an activity after being used to being a couch potato for so long. That goes for any physical activity that is not within your usual routine, as a matter of fact.

So really, we just want to enjoy our Wiis. And if there's any benefits being derived from it in the course of playing, then we'll take it as some kind of added bonus. But please, we don't need any more value-judgment or cost-benefit analysis on enjoying our Wii. It just spoils the fun.