With EA's deadline for Take-Two Interactive coming up fast, a lot of people are eagerly waiting for Take-Two's reply to the game publishing giant's takeover bid. Whatever happens, though, it seems like Rockstar Games president and co-founder Sam Houser actually sees a few good things about an alliance with EA.

Nintendo's decided to go official with the dates of two big North American releases; namely, Wii Fit, the fitness enhancing software, and WiiWare, Nintendo's game download service.

The two are expected to come out in May, and happen to be a week apart. Interested in knowing the specific dates so you can prepare? Check out the full article for more!

With the current demand for the Nintendo Wii exceeding the supply, Wall Street Journal writer and Wii shortage theorist">Yukari Iwatane Kane and Nick Wingfield of the Wall Street Journal have theorized that the supply problem and the alleged hype strategy behind it may somehow be related to Nintendo's tendency toward conservatism and caution.

More about Kane's and Wingfield's theory after the jump!

 

Getting the Wiimote to do things other than interact with video games on the Wii is pretty common news to us gamers by now. Why, just the other day we reported on this Wiimote door opener, and before that, we informed you folks about this project that allowed for a robotic arm to controlled by the Wiimote.

While wiimote hacking is common to us, it's quite interesting how the culture outside of gaming looks at this movement to find other uses for Nintendo's cute white controller. Wall Street Journal is interested as well. The author of the Wall Street Journal report, Jamin Brophy Warren, looks at how many different folks, from Italian DJs to TiVO aficionados use the Wiimote to sequence music tracks, all the way to directing Roomba robot vacuum cleaners.

The report not only looks at the actual project and hacks, but also the people responsible for it. It even has an interesting bit from Nintendo that apparently shows that it discourages this popular movement of finding alternative uses for the controller - despite the obvious popularity that Wiimote hacks bring to Nintendo. Anka Dolecki, Nintendo spokeswoman says, "The Wii Remote was created to play on the Wii system only."

For a nice refreshing outsider look at something commonplace to us already, feel free to check out the report via our Read link below.

Everyone in the gaming community and industry knows just what the heck a Wii is. It's that little console that could. Its success is at fever pitch and the brilliance behind it is undeniable. The machine's performance has in fact been so impressive, the Wall Street Journal itself felt the tremors.

The esteemed business magazine ran a story describing the Wii's success titled "Wii and DS Turn Also-Ran Nintendo into Winner in Videogames Business." It details how Nintendo as a company turned from the has-been of gaming a year ago into the hottest hardware manufacturer on the planet to date.

Everyone remembers how the Wii was codenamed "Revolution" during its development and hardly anyone gave a spit about it because it was revealed early om that the new Nintendo console would not compete with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in terms of hardware power. Instead, the makers said they would focus on gameplay. Everyone scoffed for a moment at the claim, only to be silenced later.

What happened afterwards was history. Attracting the casual and non-gamer demographic, the Wii was sold to young kids, ladies and the senior populace. Expanding the market, showing up with top-notch games and its stalwart motion-sensing Wiimotes, it set the business on fire and is to date the fastest-selling next-gen console on the planet.

The Wall Street Journal now refers to the Wii as the console to beat. That goes double to its handheld game machine, the Nintendo DS which went head to head with Sony's PlayStation Portable and outsold the PSP on a two to one basis.

The Wall Street Journal also notes that big third party developers and publishers are coming to the fold. Square Enix and EA have already pledged support, and more are on the way. The console wars are far from done, but the Wii is looking very good at this point. To read the full WSJ story, follow the read URL.

Well, it looks like Google is once again finding new ways to integrate itself into our everyday lives. And its new target? In-game advertising.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to acquire Adscape, a company which specializes in in-game advertisements. Though there has still been no official word about the matter, many are guessing that negotiations may already be happening. Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson did say this:

We are always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers. In-game advertising offers one such possible extension among many others.

It has also been noted by members of the industry that Google may have taken a fancy to Adscape because of its AdverPlay technology which allows "two-way communication between in-game ads and the outside world".

Considering that other Google applications are already starting to make their appearances in the world of gaming, could this mean that those Google text advertisements that we usually see on webpages will soon become part of the wall graffiti in your next round of CounterStrike?

Google is apparently looking to move its advertising business into the realm of video games. CNN Money reports that Google Inc. is in talks to acquire Adscape Media Inc, a closely held San Francisco firm who has developed technology that allows for the placement of ads over the Web in video games.

The Wall Street Journal cites several people familiar with the mater and reports that Google is negotiating to buy Adscape and that a deal could be reached as early as next week. For now, here's what a Google spokesperson said:

We are always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers. In-game advertising offers one such possible extension among many others.

Some members of the industry note that Google is eying Adscape because of its AdverPlay technology which enables "two-way communication between in-game ads and the outside world."

Terms being discussed are still not known. However, there was a similar deal sometime ago that we can look at to get an idea of how things will shape up. Last year, Microsoft acquired Massive Inc, a company known for the delivery of in-game ads, for almost US$ 200 million.

It is also reported that Google is discussing a possible agreement with CBS Corp that would include brokering TV and radio advertisements.

Google has declined to comment on any talks.

In life, there are winners and there are losers. But for the CES, ever wondered how they churn out awards? We'll be taking a brief look at how the CEA administers to the "Innovations Design and Engineering Award." Branching out a bit, there are 29 categories to win for this award.

Within these 29 categories, one wins the "Best of" in their category, with 17 to 18 honorees. These 17 to 18 honorees are entitled to use the award for future product endorsements. Think how movie productions use lines like "Academy Award nominee."

To apply for the award, each company submits their best wares, which is in turn scrutinized by a panel of 40 judges. The panel itself consist of a healthy mix of industry journalists, designers, officials and other specialists who make the final call.

Of the 1,000 awards nominees that a CEA spokesman mentions, the Wall Street Journal notes that 380 received some sort of award. Statistically speaking, we're looking at a 40% chance of winning even an "honoree" status, which is still good if the company is after press coverage.

Just consider this additional insight into how current awardees earned their stripes (or was it gold) in the ongoing show. Keep alert for the further awards updates.

We've heard it for weeks already: the Wii is for those who need fun, the PS3 is for those who want power. This generalization that supposes that a particular console is best for a particular type of person seems to be the common ground that extinguishes Internet message board infernos.

Jack Uldrich of The Motley Fool looks at the highly combustible PS3-Wii mix in the market right now from a different perspective. For one thing, Uldrich refers heavily to a book by Clayton Christensen titled The Innovator's Solution. Uldrich likens the Wii to a something that Christensen like to call a 'disruptive innovation.'

As per Christensen's definition, disruptive innovations don't really offer anything that's more powerful or refined than existing products. Instead, disruptive innovations impress customers by making an existing concept more convenient and easy to use...like the Wii.

The Wii, being the disruptive little thing that it is, is expected to make inroads into the vast, untapped group of people who either don't play video games on a regular basis. Just look at Walt Mossberg's write-up in The Wall Street Journal. In it, he quoted a college athlete saying that the Wii allowed her to feel coordinated playing a video game for the first time in her life, and that she might actually buy the system.

Uldrich stresses that because Sony has focused on satisfying their already existing market of gamers that want more power and more features, Sony now faces the problem of having to now figure out how to create products for this new "non-consumption" market of first-time gamers.

Of course as good as his article starts, the way he ends it might make a few informed eye-brows raise. He says:

as the Wii continues to be upgraded and improved over time with better graphics and new capabilities, it could also begin to woo hardcore gamers. That won't just be a dilemma -- it could be a very big problem for Sony, which is still losing money on the sale of every PS3.

The Wii to get a hardware overhaul? Hmnnnnnnnn.

Reggie Fils-Aime looks kinda scary at first glance. We'd even go so far as to think he looks like a WWE brawler, were circumstances different. For all that, however, his voice makes him seem a lot nicer than he looks, so we don't mind hearing him talk so much.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Fils-Aime espouses the finer points of the Wii's strengths. For one thing, he talks about the simplicity of the Wiimote and its controller scheme. He asserts, "This ease of access is what we're trying to do to expand the marketing universe for the Wii console."

As is standard practice in the business these days, he also takes some time to remind people that there won't be any shortages for the humbly-priced console, assuring consumers of 6 million units for sale by March 2007. He even talks about the large lineup of games they'll be having, if you include the virtual console titles in development. "By the time this calendar year closes," he says, "we'll have over sixty different pieces of software both from what's available at retail and what's available for download through the virtual console."

Some things you should remember before watching though. First, the Wiimote has a cute little speaker, and you can hear sound effects through it. It's noticeable during the portion of the video where the girl is playing tennis on the Wii. Second, the guy they got to interview Fils-Aime looks woefully unprepared for doing the video, as he seems quite stiff when he talks. Lastly, we would have embedded this video, but the embed code for the Fils-Aime interview embeds a story on online dating site eHarmony instead. Enjoy!