Nintendo has confirmed that a successor to its Wii console will be released next year.

Speaking to shareholders via an investor update, Nintendo said that the new home system would be shown at E3 2011 for the first time.

The release reads:

“RE: Wii’s successor system: Nintendo Co. Ltd has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

“We will show a playable model of the new system and announced more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9 2011 in Los Angeles.”

The new Wii is said to feature a custom IBM PowerPC CPU with three cores, a GPU from the ATI R700 family with a shader unit at version 4.1, and at least 512Mb of RAM.

Rumors are also circulating that the new controller will have its own built in high definition touch screen.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has been nominated for seven GAME British Academy Video Game Awards.

Along with Call of Duty: Black Ops, Brotherhood is up for Action, Artistic Achievement, Multiplayer, Technical Innovation and Use of Audio awards. Assasin’s Creed is also nominated for Best Game and Gameplay, with Black Ops also in the Story category.

That puts Black Ops at six nominations, the same as Sony’s Heavy Rain, which is eligible for Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Gameplay, Original Music, Story and Technical Innovation. continue to read »

Here’s a new gameplay trailer for the new, bright and cheerful Mario Sports Mix.

The traditional Mario gang are joined by the Slimes from Square Enix’ Dragon Quest games for rounds of various ball sports in wacky arenas.

Although the trailer doesn’t fit with Nintendo’s usual high quality, it still gives us a little buzz of excitement about the upcoming game.

The starting bid is  yet to be met on this set of new in the box Legend of Zelda dishware from 1989. This is a  three-piece set the seller hopes to sell for $100,000 but will be willing to part with for, presumably, $15,000.

“This is really a rare find and it is likely that there is no other such set even complete together in existence still today,” says the seller. “It was made by Peter Pan and is officially licensed by Nintendo. I am going to put a donation on this auction too because if this is going to sell for what it should sell for, then I think part of that money should go to a charity.”

That charity is the American Red Cross, with 10 percent of the final bid going to the organization. The opening bid is $15,000. The set includes a plate, cup and bowl.

The link: EXTREMELY RARE 1989 ZELDA DINNERWARE SET!

Source:  kotaku.com

Disney’s new release, Epic Mickey has hit the shelves and Junction Point’s Paul Weaver has said he has fingers crossed for good sales. He believes gamers can tell his game has “a soul”, which should give it an edge over Wii rivals.

In and interview with Computer and Video Games he said:

“I think it comes down to belief at the end of the day and we’ve invested a huge amount of time and passion into the game,” 

“I really do believe you can tell when a game has a soul, when people went in and made the very best game they could. I know we did at Junction Point.

“Obviously I hope it’s very well received in the marketplace and with that in mind we hope for good sales. That’s really going to be for the public to decide, for us we made the best game we could.”

Disney Epic Mickey debuted at number 11 in the UK Wii Chart this weekend – and didn’t even manage to break the top 40 in the all-formats chart.

The new Harry Potter game is based on the book and and the first part of the Deathly Hallows film. It follows protagonists Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who set out to destroy the seven Horcruxes, which will help them to defeat Lord Voldemort, the game’s antagonist. continue to read »

Mad Catz has been designing some pretty cool accessories for the upcoming game Call of Duty: Black Ops. continue to read »