According to a new report the Nintendo Wii is expected to be the dominant force for shoppers as well as developers this upcoming holiday season. As it stands right now 86 Wii games are scheduled for release between now and the end of the fourth quarter compared with 47 for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and 38 for the Sony PlayStation 3. At the rate that Wii games are being released there will be more titles available for Nintendo’s next gen system than for the Xbox 360 sometime in early 2008. Nintendo is rapidly approaching sales of 10 million Wii consoles since its launch one year ago.

Earlier today at Nintendo’s Fall Conference the company announced a release date and price for their new WiiFit balance board game in Japan’s market. The WiiFit game will go on sale December 1 for 8,800 Yen, or about $75 which might seem a little bit on the steep side but it does come bundled with the balance board. Similar games like Guitar Hero that come with the guitar accessory are usually priced similar or more. There was no announcement for a U.S. release of the WiiFit game yet but you can bet that it will be launched in the states before the holiday season, likely for a similar price.

It looks like Nintendo is trying hard to avoid a repeat of Wii remote control injuries like it had last fall and has now started to ship a Wii Remote Jacket accessory with every new Wii remote purchased.

The new clear silicone sleeve fits over the remote control and aside from just giving you a better grip it also gives any unintended targets of a flying Wii-motes a fighting chance with it’s padded covering. This is the third addition/modification Nintendo has made to the safety features of the Wii remote after beefing up the straps and adding a clip.

Since its launch last November the Nintendo Wii has consistently been the leader in the latest-generation game console sales and has been simultaneously behind the curve in having enough consoles to meet consumer demands.

In a recent interview with the San Jose Mercury News the Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Amie admitted that the company is not likely going to meet demands through this holiday season, either.

Once again, Nintendo appears to be the clear leader in game console sales for August beating out rivals Microsoft and Sony, according to the latest NPD numbers for United States sales in August.

The Kyoto-based company last month sold 403,600 Wii game consoles, along with 383,200 units of the Nintendo DS handheld game console. According to the Financial Times, the Nintendo Wii is now also the number one best selling “next-generation” game console in the world, pulling ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 despite it being released a full year before the Wii. Nintendo has sold over 9 million of the Wii units total, with the Xbox 360 trailing slightly but falling further behind with 8.9 million. The Playstation 3 has around 3.7 million total units sold in its lifetime.

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The Wii controller-combo gun dubbed the Zapper which we heard about back in July is gearing up to launch in November and will come packaged with Link’s Crossbow Training, a Zelda-like target shooting game likely designed to help learn the use of the controller accessory.

The Zapper is really little more than a molded piece of plastic, but is specifically designed to hold the two wireless, motion-sensitive Wii controllers in the shape of a short two-handed gun.

Once you become proficient at using the Zapper with the Crossbow Training game you’ll want to try your aim at a few other 3rd party titles that will make use of the controllers, including EA’s Medal of Honor Heroes 2, Capcom’s Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and Sega’s Ghost Squad. All three games are expected to be out …

The folks at Nintendo World Report have recently gotten a tip that the Wii is coming out with another upgrade to the wrist strap for the motion sensitive remote. We saw early on that Nintendo came released a stronger version of the strap shortly after a number of people reported various damages from losing control of the Wii remote and the wrist strap not holding during game play.

The new Wii-branded strap features a locking clip on the strap in place of the existing clip that just slides. This would keep the clip from sliding away from the users wrist and since the strap is stronger now hopefully help prevent more damages and injuries from some possibly over-intense, Wii-loving individuals.

Source via Joystiq

The Wii Balance Board might have gotten the biggest show but it certainly wasn’t the only cool thing Nintendo unveiled today. The Wii Zapper is a controller accessory that holds both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk to make somewhat of an elaborate automatic weapon to use in game play. The sounds of on-screen battle can even be heard through the speaker on the Wii Remote.

Nintendo says the Wii Zapper name hasn’t been decided for sure, but the design is pretty much done. Planning on hitting shelves later this year, the Wii gun holder will be packaged with games from Nintendo that take advantage of the multi-controller configuration. According to Nintendo when launched the configuration will also work with Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad and the new, upcoming Medal Of Honor.

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Today Nintendo held a demonstration of a new type of controller for its Wii game console called the Wii Balance Board. Looking like an aerobics step, the balance board can sense the weight you put on either side of the board with your feet and through this also sense your balance. No doubt taking a hint from all the exercise people are getting in on with the console, the associated Wii Fit “game”, users can work on aerobics, muscle conditioning, yoga and balance through the game console giving a total of more than 40 exercise activities.

The Wii Balance Board can even work in tandem with the Wiimote to create full-body interactive games working on balance and coordination. Nintendo didn’t announce any prices or specific release dates which most likely means it won’t be real soon, but we’re sure …

Nintendo is launching a new interactive system with the Nintendo DS Lite and Mariners baseball games, called the Nintendo Fan Network. Making its debut at Safeco field in Seattle, the system allows interaction between owners of the Nintendo DS Lite portable gaming system and the live baseball game at the stadium.

Owners of the DS Lite that are attending the game can stop by a kiosk and upload software to their game console for a $5 fee at each game or $30 for 10 games. The software will allow them to watch a live feed of the game, access stats, play trivia and even order food and drinks if the vendors aren’t coming to your area. (A little gratuity is also added to your order).

For now the system is only available at Safeco field with the Mariners, but if it catches on …

EA Sports realizes that although the motion-sensitive controllers for the Wii may well be the key part of the game consoles success, running both of them in some games can be complicated for some and turn them off of certain games, not to mention dangerous.

Due to this, the versions of Madden NFL 08, NBA Live 08 and FIFA 08 for the Wii will have both and Advanced and a Family mode of play. The Family mode makes use of only the Wii remote and not the Nunchuk, leaving some of the more complicated functions for the computer to handle. The basic functions of things like passing and shooting are controlled through the single remote. As players get more skilled with the game they can change modes and use both controls for more orchestration …

It looks as if Nintendo will soon be coming out with an add-on camera that fits on the Nintendo DS, along with a little stand that holds the DS upright sideways.

Along with the DS Camera, Nintendo is also releasing an associated game that makes use of the it, called Face Training. The face training game shows example pictures and instructions of different “faces” to make, which you are to mimic and see yourself in the second screen by use of the DS camera on the handheld game. While people like Jim Carey have made quite a lucrative living by perfecting odd facial expressions, the idea of this Face Training game is to make the skin more elastic and possibly to strengthen muscles to make it prettier, according to “facening” experts like Fumiko …

Not only is Nintendo’s sales of the Wii game console staying ahead of the competition, but they are continuing to rise and pull further away from rival Sony’s PlayStation 3.

Last month we reported that the Wii was outselling the PS3 in Japan at a ratio of 5 to 1 in May with 251,794 units. Reuters is now reporting that these numbers have risen and Nintendo sold 270,974 Wii game console units in the first 24 days of June in Japan. This, compared to the 41,628 units of the PS3 that Sony sold ups the ratio to that of 6 to 1 Wii’s to PS3′s sold. Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which is also a major competitor in the current generation gaming consoles, sold 17,616 consoles during the same period.

This trend of dominate consoles sales from Nintendo …

Nintendo today announced a new game-creation service called WiiWare which will open up game development for anyone to create games to play on the Nintendo Wii game console.

The WiiWare service will enable developers from around the world to create new and unique games that take advantage of the popular, motion-sensitive Wii controllers. If you thought there were some strange and interesting games available that utilize Remote and Nunchuk now, just wait.

While the popularity of the Wii game console along with the massive fun people have with it may alone be enough incentive to draw some developers, Nintendo may also offer the chance for them to make some bank from their game creations. Game creators will have their Wii games placed online on the Wii Shop Channel which can be viewed and downloaded by the masses through redeeming Wii points. …

The Sony Playstation 3 has its processing power and the Xbox has its Microsoft but as far as sales go there is really no denying that Nintendo is the closest to the “magic formula” for selling game consoles with the Wii. May marks the fifth month in a row that Nintendo outsold rivals in console sales with 338,300 units sold compared to 81,600 Playstation 3′s from Sony and 154,900 Xbox 360 consoles sold from Microsoft.

Nintendo also has notable sales in with its handheld DS by selling 423,150 units in May, and Sony’s Playstation 2 outsold its successor again by more than twice as many with 187,800 consoles. Overall the market has seen a 50% increase in sales of video game hardware and software from last year according to Reuters, mostly attributed to the Nintendo Wii …