While we know Nintendo’s Wii U touts a ‘proprietary’ disc format for games, a question looming is if it will be able to playback DVD or Blu-ray media from the same drive. According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in a recent Q&A session, the answer is no, citing cost concerns over patents: more »

Sales tracking firm NPD Group has released its hardware and software sales analysis for the month of May 2011, which marked the lowest month of sales in the industry since October 2006. NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier blamed the decline on a “light slate” of new releases. Only 42 new titles were introduced this May, compared to 58 in 2010 and 72 in 2009.

Sluggish showing in terms of gross video game sales aside, this month was hardly a somber one for Microsoft. Xbox 360 unit sales were up 39 percent year over year, totaling 270K for the entire month. Microsoft’s Major Nelson also stated that 360 took the number one spot for May, which leaves Nintendo’s Wii trailing behind for yet another consecutive month, despite a recent price cut.

See the full breakdown of hardware and software sales below. more »

During a developer roundtable discussion Miyamoto revealed that the long-in-production Pikmin Wii title will be making its way onto the Wii U. During the discussion Miyamoto revealed that he wanted to see it on the new platform and simply said “so we’re gonna make it on that.”

Shigeru Miyamoto just got on stage to announce the release date for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D on the 3DS and release window for Skyward Sword on the Wii. Ocarina of Time 3D will be coming next week and Skyward Sword will hit store shelves this holiday season.

In addition, Miyamoto also announced that Links Awakening will be coming to the Virtual Console today. Four Swords will also be coming to DSi this September for the absolutely low price of free!

It’s not often we cover news from another website, but Raptr has just launched their new site which places a new emphasis on social news. Similar to the Digg, Reddit and specifically N4G, Ratpr’s new site will allow users to submit stories and vote them up or down. The more votes a story receives the  more prominence it will receive on the site.

Unlike other social news sites, Raptr has a strong focus on delivering news that matters to you. Want to know more about the NGP, or Batman: Arkham City? Just follow their respective topic pages and the site will automatically sort through the related content and display the new and important news stories straight on the front page.

Now what does this have to do with us? We’ll we’ve been in contact with Raptr over the past few weeks and they’ve built us our own topic page where you can follow us and receive our news stories as they come out. While it’s a little sparse now, we’ll be updating it with new content as we create it. You’ll also be able to help us out by submitting our stories to the site (it’s really simple) if we ever forget and help us get the word out there that we run an awesome site.

Follow us after the break as we break down their new site and what our new partnership will mean for you.

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Nintendo confirmed long-standing rumors today, announcing that its Wii hardware will receive a price drop from $199.99 to $149.99.  Set to go into effect on May 15, the reduction will coincide with a new Wii hardware bundle, which includes Mario Kart Wii and a Wii Wheel accessory of matching color.

It’ll be interesting to see how many holdouts jump on this when NPD figures come in for May.

What’s more, is that Nintendo is launching its own ‘Select’ value line on May 15, similar to Sony’s Greatest Hits program. more »

The always frank Nintendo president Satoru Iwata isn’t taking the Wii’s breakout success for granted. With 70 million units sold and counting, he feels the company faltered from a marketing standpoint, which had a negative impact on the Wii’s effective lifespan. more »

Wondering what’s the status on Dragon Quest X? Well, despite the fact that Square Enix has been oddly quiet about it since the 2008 announcement, it’s still alive and well. While series creator Yuji Hori didn’t have much in the way of new details to share with Nintendo Power in a recent interview, he noted that the title is still Wii bound and expects to divulge more information by year’s end.

All we can say is that development is going well and we’re on the last parts of the game. We can’t really share much else at this point, but by the end of this year we should be able to announce something regarding it.

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After Activision recommended closure of the studio last month, the Bizarre Creation’s management has agreed to close the studio after 17 years in the business. Bizarre Creations is best known for their Project Gotham Racing series and the addictive Geometry Wars titles. The studio was acquired in 2007 by Activision and will die by the same hands this week.

Many have been attributing the fall of the company to the release of Blur, a title not well received at it’s release. The game also come out extremely close to a rival racing game, Split/Second which many believe to have taken sales from the title if it were to be released earlier in the year.

The studio’s last game, James Bond 007: Bloodstone was also poorly received, albeit undeserved since I thought it was a solid game. It too came out right on the heels of another similar title, the Goldeneye 007 Wii remake and subsequently was met with poor sales as well. We wish all Bizarre Creations developers and staff the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Obituary Bizarre Creations [Develop]

To say Capcom is extremely pleased with the retail performance of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd would be an understatement. The company announced today that the PSP title, released on December 1, has shipped 4 million units to date across Japan. This milestone brings the worldwide sales tally for the franchise as a whole to a staggering 17 million.

“Monster Hunter Freedom 3″ has managed to ship the same numbers as “Monster Hunter Freedom Unite” did over a two year period in just one month, making it not only the fastest selling title in PSP history, but placing it in range to be the number one selling title for all of FY2010 within Japan.”

While Monster Hunter remains more of a niche title in the U.S., it’s clear that the craze generated by each new installment shows no signs of letting up overseas. Capcom has yet to pencil in a stateside release for MHP3.