Hong Kong Raid Nets 10,000 Products Used To Play Pirated Nintendo Software

Illegal WiiKey
At Nintendo's request, the Hong Kong High Court has intervened to help stop a global distribution operation involving game copying devices and modification chips ("mod chips") that violate its copyrights and trademarks in the Nintendo DS and Wii systems.

On Oct. 8th, the court ordered the raid of Supreme Factory Limited facilities. During a three-day period, Nintendo representatives seized more than 10,000 game copying devices and mod chips. The game copying devices connect to the Nintendo DS and are used to copy and play game files offered unlawfully via the Internet. The mod chips allow the play of pirated Wii discs or illegal copies of Nintendo games downloaded from the Internet.

The search also turned up volumes of documents reflecting the scope of the operation. The Supreme Factory Limited has ties to a French company, Divineo SARL, and its principal, Max Louarn, who are also named in the legal action initiated by Nintendo. The High Court prohibited the companies from further distribution of the devices and from disposing a portion of their assets worldwide, and ordered that such assets be frozen pending outcome of the legal proceedings.

"Piracy affects the entire video game industry, from large companies to independent developers," says Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director for anti-piracy. "It can destroy years of hard work by a team of very talented software developers, who strive to create games consumers enjoy playing. Copying the developers' work and spreading the game files globally is blatant stealing."

Piracy not only affects Nintendo, but also more than 100 companies that independently create, license, market and sell Nintendo video game products. Nintendo and these companies lost an estimated $762 million in sales due to counterfeits in 2006.

This action is one of several that Nintendo has initiated over the years against game copiers and mod chips. In 2005, Nintendo was awarded more than $5 million in damages from the Hong Kong High Court against Lik Sang, a company responsible for the widespread distribution of game copying devices. In another case, a U.S. judge ordered Bung Enterprises to pay Nintendo $7 million in damages in connection with its involvement in manufacturing and distribution of such products.

The SIMS 2 Castaway OUT THIS FRIDAY

For the first time ever, your Sims can survive and thrive on an uncharted island

Electronic Arts announced that The Sims 2 Castaway for the Wii, the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system will be available in all main UK retail outlets from October 26th. The PSP (PlayStation Portable) system will follow closely on November 2nd. New and old fans of The Sims will now be able to leave the urban jungle for an uncharted island filled with sandy beaches, blue lagoons, explosive volcanic mountains and more! Will your Sims choose to survive and thrive on a tropical island or begin planning their escape back to civilization? The choice is yours in The Sims 2 Castaway!

As The Sims 2 Castaway begins, players will have the opportunity to create a crew of Sims. And in true Sims fashion, each character brings a unique skill, humor and quirkiness to the crew, promising an entertaining adventure in this new island environment! Upon setting sail, a storm quickly approaches casting your Sims overboard on a beautiful beach all alone. Having no other items but the shirt on his back, your Sim will embark on a tropical journey, choosing to either subsist on the beautiful island or flee altogether. Will your Sim choose to reunite with the crew and enlist the help of clever monkeys to make a flourishing community with the Musician, Doctor, Park Ranger and more? Or will they follow the treasure map island to island in search of clues that will eventually lead them to freedom? How your Sims survive, or thrive, is up to you.

Studio Head of The Sims Label, Rod Humble said, “Whether you’re spending hours collecting resources to build the ultimate island hut, or passing time taming wild boars with your crew, there is a new adventure for all types of players this holiday season in The Sims 2 Castaway. The gameplay is magnificently tailored to each of the four platforms – we can’t wait to see how players are going to help their Sims survive and thrive on this beautiful, uncharted island.”

Regardless of their destiny, your Sims will explore a variety of new environments, from lush green jungles and dark spooky caves to forbidden plains and more! In addition to new environments, Nintendo DS players will also hone their Sims survival skills such as spear fishing, fire starting and bug squashing in one of the six fun mini-games. Whether your Sims are collecting unusual shells for crew members, crafting furniture out of palm leaves or creating dry shelter out of bamboo, what you build and collect makes all the difference!

The Sims 2 Castaway ships today on the Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation2 to retail stores across North America and Europe. The PSP version ships today across North America and on October 26th across Europe. For more information – and to check out the hilarious, recently-launched webisodes – please visit The Sims 2 Castaway website at www.foundthesims.com

Codemasters celebrates Halloween early with release of Jericho

Just in time for the fright-filled holiday of the year, Codemasters today announced that its long-awaited action horror game Clive Barker's Jericho is now shipping and will be available from retail stores this Friday, 26th October, for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows.

Clive Barker's Jericho is a spectacular blast from Barker's cannon of nightmares and an interactive experience that mingles the darkest elements of his creative works with an ambitious, age-spanning story for mature gamers and horror fiction enthusiasts.

Clive Barker's Jericho dispatches gamers to the Middle-Eastern city of Al-Khali, where the most ancient of evils has resurfaced; causing intense paranormal activity that has caught the eye of the military. Controlling the Jericho squad, an expert strike team skilled in both conventional and paranormal warfare, players fight their way through slices of time on a gruelling journey as they make their way toward the heart of the evil.

En route, gamers encounter the horrific armies of hellish denizens that now rule the city and corrupt everything they touch. As the squad incrementally approach the source of evil, players will have to rely less and less on traditional weapons and instead focus on the combined psychic talents of the Jericho team.

Assassin's Creed at HMV Oxford St, London

Personal Appearance by Jade Raymond and Demonstration of Assassin's Creed at HMV Oxford St, London this Saturday 27th October

As part of London Games Festival, Jade Raymond, Producer for Assassins Creed by Ubisoft, is set to make a special appearance at HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street, London this Saturday 27th October. New levels from the latest version of the game will be presented at this one off event in anticipation for the release of the game next month.

The presentation is open to all members of the public and will take place at 3pm and then again at 4.30pm on the day. Jade will meet and answer questions from the public and also sign merchandise available for the game.

Details of event:

Attendees: Open to all public on the day
Address: HMV Level One, 150 Oxford St, London W1D 1DJ.

Details can also be found here on the London Game Festival website:

London Games Festival

For more information on Assassin’s Creed please visit www.assassinscreed.com

For more information about Ubisoft please visit www.ubi.com.

ChartTrack UK weekly games charts

All formats

(Full price) Week ending 20 October 2007
POS TITLE PUBLISHER
1 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2008 - SEGA
2 FIFA 08 - ELECTRONIC ARTS
3 THE ORANGE BOX - ELECTRONIC ARTS
4 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS - NINTENDO
5 HALO 3 - MICROSOFT
6 PROJECT GOTHAM RACING 4 - MICROSOFT
7 RATATOUILLE - THQ
8 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 08 - ELECTRONIC ARTS
9 RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN - SONY COMPUTER ENT.
10 CRASH OF THE TITANS - VIVENDI GAMES
11 MYSIMS - ELECTRONIC ARTS
12 HEAVENLY SWORD - SONY COMPUTER ENT.
13 MOTORSTORM - SONY COMPUTER ENT.
14 HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: MAKIN' THE CUT! - DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS
15 JUICED 2: HOT IMPORT NIGHTS - THQ
16 FORZA MOTORSPORT 2 - MICROSOFT
17 RUGBY 08 - ELECTRONIC ARTS
18 SEGA RALLY - SEGA
19 SKATE - ELECTRONIC ARTS
20 MARIO PARTY 8 - NINTENDO

Guitar Hero tracks available on iPod

Do you wanna rock like a hurricane with your iPod? Of course you do! Check it:

Activision, Inc. announced that starting today a series of compilations featuring music from the hit franchise Guitar Hero will be available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store. The tracks will be featured in iTunes Essentials for Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

From “Surrender” to “Welcome to the Jungle,” to “Carry On Wayward Son,” nearly every song to appear in the Guitar Hero franchise has been gathered. A newly recorded version of "Anarchy in the U.K." which the Sex Pistols recently recorded for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, is also available as a separate track. The series also includes Artist and Genre Essentials custom-created especially for guitar fans. Titles include Shredders, Live Guitar Heroics, Killer Guitar Solos and Guitar Anthems of the ‘80s with tracks from Aerosmith, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pearl Jam. Additionally, iTunes will be offering guitar-themed playlists from guitar legends Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols and Slash of Guns ‘N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver so fans can download the legends’ favorite anthems.

MySpace add Games

A day after announcing its first foray into Web video production, News Corp.'s MySpace is now planning to become an online gaming destination, too. The social network is striking a deal with game distributor Oberon Media to feed its new MySpace Games section, set for a January launch.

MySpace, with 110 million-plus worldwide members, is already a major player in interactive music and video. Casual gaming, the fastest-growing sector of the gaming industry with the largest audience, is a logical next step. The area will include hundreds of free, easy-to-play, time-waster, puzzle, quest and card games. "This was a very clear area for us that answered a need for enhancing the fun factor on MySpace," said MySpace vice president of business development Amit Kapur.

However popular, casual games brought in just $380 million in revenue in the U.S. last year, according to research from Pacific Crest Securities and NPD Group Inc., compared with $4.78 billion in sales of console games. This is largely because casual games are free, relying on advertising to make money. The sector's growth rate is more than double that of the console gaming business, expected to reach $512 million this year.

XBox DVD drive movies giveaway extends to UK

In the high-def war, the HD DVD camp has been taking a kicking in the publicity stakes [and sales, apparently] from its Blu-ray rival.

As a result, Microsoft has extended its US offer of free HD DVD movies to the UK. If you buy the HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 between now and the end of January 2008 you will get five free HD DVD movies. Just buy your HD DVD add-on for the 360, then pop over to this page on the Microsoft site and enter in your details along with the barcode from the player and your movies will be winging their way over within 28 days.

Choose from the following:

Serenity
The Chronicles of Riddick
Hulk
Children of Men
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Troy
Full Metal Jacket
Corpse Bride
The Prestige
Swordfish
Black Rain
Dreamgirls
Word Trade Center

The offer is also extended to anyone that bought a HD DVD after Oct 1st [as long as you have the receipt] but early adopters of the HD DVD are left out..

Wii Takes Video Game Industry by Storm

Getty Images
With the holiday shopping season just around the corner, what's the best video game system—long wait lines notwithstanding—on the market? Currently, three major video game consoles are vying to rule gamers' sleepless nights: Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, Sony Corp.'s Playstation 3, and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii.

The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are the most thrilling and technologically advanced. They have state-of-the-art computer chips onboard with spectacular graphics, and hundreds of third-party games are available filled with imagination, intriguing story lines, and action-packed game play.

On the other hand, Nintendo's Wii system doesn't have the high-end specs. However, its offerings to consumers are something the gaming industry has never before seen, and has caught on with those outside the usual gaming crowd—housewives, busy professionals, and even senior citizens.

For traditional gamers, the quality of graphical aesthetics tends to be the main draw. According to Microsoft, its newest Halo 3 video game for Xbox 360 —a "first-person-shooter" with immersive 3-D graphics—sold more than 5 million copies within the first week of launch. One GameStop store in New York City was open until 1 am on a weeknight selling the Halo 3.

Due to the popularity of Halo, Xbox has outsold the Wii in the month of September,

Following 2001's GameCube, the Wii is the 5th video game system developed by Nintendo. It's differentiated through its unique wireless controller where players use three dimensional movements and physical gestures to determine game control. This selling point was heavily marketed by Nintendo to a broader demographic—even senior citizens have taken on a great liking to the Wii.

Game developers have introduced titles that utilize the Wii's virtual motion control flawlessly. For example, a bowling game actually requires players to lower their knees and swing their arm as if the Wii's wireless controller were a bowling ball. A tennis game requires the player to execute precise swings and backswings using its controller during a tennis match. Playing the Nintendo Wii goes even beyond playing video games, as there are even titles on personal fitness, home budgeting, cooking, and brain training.

If you're thinking about getting a Wii for Christmas, you better start looking right away. Its level of graphics is noticeably lower than competitors Xbox or Playstation—then again, at $299, so is its price. But for the Wii, addictive game play itself is enough to get a broader range of consumers hooked.

Wii's popularity has also helped Nintendo's bottom line and its stock. Nintendo has tripled in market capitalization since the Wii's launch last year. It's now Japan's 3rd most valuable listed company. Many analysts have a positive outlook on Nintendo in its ability to expand market share and keep up innovation.

Since its introduction, Nintendo has sold over 12 million Wii consoles in less than a year. In short, Nintendo's well executed marketing campaign and its innovative game play has just about redefined video gaming. Only one question remains: is the Wii a mere "fad" or a "golden standard" for the future of the video game industry?

Source: Epoch Times

Atari founder calls today’s video games “trash”

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, “father of electronic games,” called today’s video games “pure, unadulterated trash.”

Bushnell told Electronic Design in an interview published on Friday that "Video games today are a race to the bottom.”

He says that a lot of the games today are too isolating and missing the important social element. Bushnell, the creator of Pong, now focuses on social games that involve the whole family just as they once did instead of the single player games he helped pioneer.

He also recently criticized Sony, calling the company “arrogant” and “difficult to deal with from a developer standpoint.”