The gaming industry did well in 2006, however the real king of the consoles may surprise you. You know that the Wii beat the PlayStation 3. You also know that the Xbox 360 beat the Wii. But who beat the Xbox 360? The PlayStation 2.

Yes, the best selling console of 2006 appears to be the six year old PlayStation 2. Why did a ancient (in gaming terms) console outsell all the brand new rigs? It’s probably the availability of excellent games and the often overlooked economics aspect.

Sony has an incredible lead in game sales. Four of the top 10 games sold in December were for the PlayStation 2, including the number two game, Guitar Hero, which sold over 800,000 copies. The PlayStation 2 also had the number one …

Fenner Investments is suing Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft over the design of their game console controllers. Fenner, located in Texas, is claiming they hold the patent entitled “Low-Voltage Joystick Port Interface.” The suit claims that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are causing damage to Fenner by their infringement of the patent in their respective controllers.

It appears that Fenner is claiming to own the patent on joysticks or ports that connect joysticks to another device. If this is the case it may have a far reaching affect on game hardware manufacturers.

It should be noted that Fenner recently also tried to sue wireless makers such as Nokia and Cisco over another patent entitled “a method and apparatus for managing a communications network for mobile users.” That suit was dismissed.

Sony and Microsoft were also recently …

According to Japanese gamer magazine publisher Enterbrain, Nintendo’s Wii has outsold the PlayStation 3 in Japan. Some think that this could be an indication of the success or failure of each platform in the US. SlipperyBrick previously reported that Sony claimed it had shipped one million units in North America.

Wii’s stronger sales happened in spite of the fact that the unit went on sale three weeks after the rival PlayStation 3. Enterbrain says that the Wii sold 1.14 million units versus the paltry 311,000 units sold by Sony.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is relatively expensive and the cheap model sells for 49,980 yen (about $425) while the Wii sells for 25,000 yen (about $210). The speculation is that the price of the Wii, couple with its unique motion-sensing …

DarwiinRemote is an open source software application and framework that allows you to use the Wiimote to control the applications on your Mac by using it as a mouse or mapping the Wiimote buttons. The Wiimote is one of the revolutionary controllers for the new Nintendo Wii game console.

DarwiinRemote works by syncing with the Wiimote using the Bluetooth connection on your Mac. DarwiinRemote reads data to and from Wiimote and captures the various events raised by the controller. With the DarwiinRemote Framework you can monitor acceleration, buttons, sensor bar, LEDs, and the Rumble feature.

The DarwiinRemote interface displays a graph of all three acceleration forces acting on the Wiimote. When you move the Wiimote, the graph shows the intensity of force. In addition, a log records the history of the commands sent out by the Wiimote.

DarwiinRemote was first released on December 6th, …

True to Nintendo’s announcement earlier this week, a trial version of the Opera web browser for the Wii is available for download today with the new Nintendo game console.

Wii owners who have activated the Wii Shop Channel can download the browser and activate their new Internet Channel to start surfing the internet on their television through their Wii game console. The Wii controller can be used to motion and point in order to navigate the browser, and an on-screen keyboard can be used by pointing at keys to type.

In Tuesday’s press release from Nintendo they announced the immediate availability of the Forecast Channel along with the Internet Channel announcement. The forecast channel allows users to check the weather around the world with a 3D interactive globe.

Nintendo Wii owners will be available to download and use this trial version …

We all saw it coming, it was only a matter of time after all of the reports of damages caused by the Wii remotes. Green Welling LLP filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo of America for the defective nature of the Wii wrist straps for the new game console controller.

The lawsuit states, “Owners of the Nintendo Wii reported that when they used the Nintendo remote and wrist strap, as instructed by the material that accompanied the Wii console, the wrist strap broke and caused the remote to leave the user’s hand“.

We here at Slippery Brick are no lawyers, but we all concur that there is a hole in their case with that statement since the remote had to most likely leave their hand first, and then it would break the strap, not vise versa …

Today Nintendo announced that a free trial version of the Opera web browser will be available for the Nintendo Wii game console on Friday, December 22nd.

If you have a high speed internet connection, you can download the Opera web browser to activate the Internet Channel on your Wii game console and start surfing the internet on your TV through your Wii. This trial download will be available until the end of March when the final version of the Opera web browser for the Wii will be available for download. The final version will also be a free download, but only until June. After June the Opera web browser will cost 500 Wii points to download, so you’ll want to be sure to get it before then.

The Wii motion sensing controller can be used to navigate the browser using …

Nintendo‘s new Wii game console continues to get lots of exposure, but not all due to the cool new features. Pictured is a small showcase of those on the injured list from WiiHaveAProblem, reportedly due to game play injuries using the Wii remote control. Some of these injuries could possibly be resolved with the new, stronger replacement wrist strap that you can request from Nintendo, but not all of them.

Nintendo has continued to have spectacular sales with the Wii game console which features a new style of controller that allows the player to mimic actions of the game, such as swinging a racket or a golf club, or casting a fishing rod. Some have gotten so into the game that they lose sight of objects around them, and sometimes lose their grip on the controller.

In response to …

Nintendo has added some information to their Wii Remote Safety Information page regarding the recent claims of damages caused to people and objects due to the wrist strap breaking during game play.

As we had reported earlier this month there had been a number of reports where game players using the Wii controller would sometimes loose their grip on the device, and even though they were using the wrist strap it would sometimes not be strong enough and the wrist strap would break, sending the Wii remote flying through the air at high speeds striking objects and other people causing damage.

This month Nintendo, being aware and responsive to the problem, had already started shipping the Wii game consoles with a new and stronger strap, but they are now stating that you can get your wrist strap replaced if …

The new Wii game console from Nintendo has been very well received by consumers and sales are causing serious competition for rival game maker Sony with the PS3. A lot of the hype revolving around the Wii has had to do with the controller, in more ways than one.

As most are already aware, the Wii controllers feature motion sensitivity allowing the user to participate more physically in the games they are playing. Some examples include swinging the remote like a racket when playing tennis, like a bat for baseball and even simulate punching with it in your hand for boxing.

To the dismay of some game owners, the Wii controller has gotten out of hand, literally. In the heat of excitement during a game, players have reportedly lost their grip on the controller having it fly out of their …

There will soon be a new gadget available for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite to sense motion by the user.

The card can plug into the DS slot and contains a three-axis accelerometer and a single-axis gyroscope to sense motions such as tilting, twisting and gestures by the person holding it. The new card opens up a lot of opportunity for different games which could be along the same lines as the new motions sensitive controller for the Nintendo Wii. Some example applications show using the Nintendo DS as an etch-a-sketch type toy by tilting it to draw, or rolling points around like water droplets to make different designs.

The Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite are both portable gaming systems with two vertically tiered screens. The botton screen is a touch screen and the top is for viewing only. It also has …

The Nintendo Wii game console has finally hit the UK early Friday morning, and like the previous releases in the US and in Japan, it was met by crowds of enthusiastic fans.

Die hard Nintendo fans waited outside of the Oxford Street branch of HMV in London for as long as two days, weathering rain storms and even a tornado. HMV is one of the few stores offering the new game console that did not have all of them already pre-ordered.

The launch of the Nintendo Wii is done in direct competition with the Sony’s PS3, although the target consumer may be slightly different. The Wii is a lower priced system and is not as powerful as the PS3, but it has some features that appeal to a wider range of gamers.

The Wii debuts with what some call a revolutionary type of …

Japan – In an uncommon fashion the Nintendo Wii was released to consumers in Japan this Saturday after it’s release to the US two weeks ago. Nintendo stated that the earlier release to the US was to capture more of the holiday shopping season, and speculations are that the timing was to also rival the PS3 release which was only days prior. Previous Nintendo releases have usually been done in their home country of Japan first, and then to the US.

Nintendo has 400,000 units available for sale in Japan and has already sold over 600,000 in the US. The price for the game console to consumers in Japan is about $216 USD, or 25,000 yen which is about half the price of the PS3, and about four times the number of consoles were available at the launch date.

According to reports, thousands …

Nintendo launched it’s new Wii video game console in New York last night at midnight, meeting more than a thousand eagerly awaiting fans. Some fans had been in line for days awaiting the launch in the hopes of being one the first to get their hands on the new console. Surprisingly, the US launch was done prior to the launch in the companies home of Japan. This was done, according to Nintendo, in order to take advantage of the earlier holiday shopping season in the US.

This bold launch by Nintendo comes only two days after the launch of the PS3, and puts the two gaming giants in a head to head battle in this seasons gaming console wars. The Wii game system does not have near the processing power or graphic capabilities of the it’s PS3 and Xbox rivals, and has a price that …

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is the next entry in the Super Monkey Ball franchise from Sega. Following on the footsteps of Super Monkey Ball Adventure, it is a Wii exclusive and also a confirmed launch title that is sure to make ample use the Wii controller.

Fans of the Super Monkey Ball series can expect to see returning characters: Aiai, Meemee, Gongon, and Baby as well as two new characters: YanYan and Doctor.

The game features 100 main game levels, over fifty mini-games, boss battles, and lots and lots of jumping. There will many varied situations to use the controller such as minigames, darts, ring toss, and a whack-a-mole variant.

Wii Controller Features
The Wii-mote is held parallel to the ground and then tilted in all directions to move the monkey character through mazes. The …