According to Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, the company is planning to implement paid downloads for both the 3DS and Wii U. Iwata said that developers will have access to the system for the 3DS by the end of the year and he said Nintendo was thinking about extending the life of some games by making new levels available.

Iwata said that Nintendo will not support low quality content either, as in unlocking keys or stat increases. Don’t worry though, he also seemed to indicate that free games won’t have added chargeable content later.

Redbox has announced that it will add video game rentals to an additional 5,000 kiosks starting August 1st. The company announced last month that game titles for the Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Wii would be added to 16,000 more redbox kiosks by the end of June, and the total after this next round of additions will approach 27,000.

Redbox owns and operates about 33,000 rental kiosks around the country, and the company did not indicate if or when video games might be added to the remaining 6,000 kiosks that will not have them. All games carried in redbox kiosks are $2 per night.

Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, says that the original Wii won’t be disappearing immediately. The two consoles will be sold together in stores for a short time. We already knew that games will be playable on the controller, but now we have learned that it is possible for the console to stream other media to the portable screen as well.

That’s good news for your Netflix account. Reggie says that the Wii U will arrive after April 1st 2012.

Nintendo hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility down the line, however comments made by Satoru Iwata make it clear that the Wii U will only support one Wii U controller. This is an odd move by the company. In all likelihood you can still play multiple player games. Maybe using Wii remotes, or passing a controller around. It comes down to money.

“Technically, it is possible for the Wii U to support multiple Wii U Controllers,” Iwata said. However, this will result in a “considerable” price increase.

According to Iwata, “We’re not planning on asking our customers to buy multiple Wii U Controllers.”

Well we already suspected as much, but Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot mentioned that his teams will be able to use a lot of the work done on titles for the current HD consoles when developing for Nintendo’s new platform. Guillemot says, “So we will not have to redo completely the games that we create. We’ll be able to use all the capacity the console is giving but also use all the work we do for the other platforms.”

Good news for them and it’s not a surprise, but it does confirm that Nintendo’s next console will be as powerful or more powerful than the current generation of HD consoles. Yes, it should be a great console. Then again these are the same people who released the Wii with only 480p, so who knows.

Well, we knew it was coming and sure enough, Nintendo just made it official. They will cut the retail price of the Wii down to $149.99, and will also include a copy of Mario Kart and the Wii Wheel peripheral with the console.

They will replace the current bundle of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort games. The steering wheel and the Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk controllers will match the color of the console you buy. Not a bad time to get a Wii if you have been waiting for such a deal.

If you are a Nintendo fan, then chances are that you have noticed that there seems to be a drought of 1st-party Nintendo titles this spring. In fact there aren’t any. Zero. Nada. Zip. So what does it mean?

Well, it may just mean that we can expect the new console very soon. Kotaku has compiled some data of Nintendo’s game release history for the past 10 years and it seems to back up this speculation. It is looking very likely that we will see Nintendo’s next console this spring.

You know that slider on the side of the 3DS? It adjusts the 3D aspect to the user’s preference. And although the 3DS’ screen doesn’t force you to wear glasses, it does have to be held at just the right angle to get the most out of the 3D effect. And there are many of us who would just want to use it for plain old 2D gaming. So it’s good to know that Nintendo now says that no game should require 3D as part of its gameplay mechanics. And frankly that’s just a good rule of thumb for making a good game if you ask us.

Hideki Konno, one of Nintendo’s producers says that the company wants all of its 3DS games to be playable in 2D, reducing the 3D aspect to an aesthetic enhancement. Some might feel ripped off, but what did you expect? Nintendo wants to please the mass market, otherwise people will soon tire of the 3DS, like they did with the Wii. Novelties wear off quickly.

The Nintendo 3DS launches next week and now there are rumors that the company may focus on a replacement for the Wii. Frank Gibeau, label head at EA Games, said in a chat with IndustryGamers that he was aware of a follow-up coming. The device is unknown and wasn’t confirmed, but it is a fair bet that it will have have HD support, rivaling competitors from Microsoft and Sony.

Nintendo has been one of the most conservative console makers especially during this generation of console. The Wii was mostly built using faster but nearly identical processors as the GameCube. The company has often refused to discuss the possibility of a next-gen console as long as sales continued to dominate, but sales are not what they once were and it would seem that the time is right.

At GDC 2011, Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime revealed a ton of info about the 3DS. As far as video content, the news is that the 3DS will get Netflix this summer as well as the ability to pause a video on your handheld and continue watching on your Wii.

We aren’t sure but we assume that you can also do the same with an XBox or PS3 as well. Nintendo is partnering with AT&T to provide free WiFi access at 10,000 hotspots starting in late May. It will also use the SpotPass passive connection feature that works even when no game is in the system and when its in sleep mode, to download new content.

We’ve seen other hacks where the Kinect uses a Nintendo Wiimote, but the creator of this hack used the FAAST emulator for the Kinect and GlovePIE for the Wiimote, allowing you to have some pretty interesting Dead Space 2 games.

One interesting aspect of this hack is the ability to stomp on your the aliens in the game, which looks very satisfying. I’d love to play DS2 like this. Looks like a lot of fun.

Look what we have here. Sonic the Hedgehog is willing to charge up your Wiimotes while showing the peace sign. He doesn’t look very happy about it though. You can understand why. He’d rather be chasing down golden rings and promoting Sega products. But sadly, those days are gone.

Now he is reduced to sub-par games and promoting Nintendo gear, which in this case will cost you $49.99. It comes from Mad Catz. Hey, at least it acts as a figurine too.

GameStop’s Black Friday ad has leaked out early and as usual, there are some deals if you’re buying a new console. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo’s systems all come with games included, and they’re not bad games.

Some of the deals include: Buy any two used games or accessories, get one used game or accessory of equal or lesser value free. 4GB Xbox 360 console bundle ($199) — includes a free copy of Madden 11 or Medal of Honor. Wii console bundle ($199) — includes Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and Just Dance. Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary Wii bundle ($199) — includes Wii Sports and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. How about a 160GB PS3 console bundle ($299) that includes the God of War Collection and God of War III?

Looks like Redbox will start renting out video games at DVD rental kiosks across the US this month, expanding on some earlier tests in limited markets, while trying to outdo its main competitor Netflix, which doesn’t offer video games at all.

The company is currently expanding their test, which started in 2009, to include more markets in the West, Midwest and Atlantic coast. They are trying to gauge consumer interest in video game rentals. You’ll be able to get games for the PS3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS.

Nintendo has been pretty slow out of the gate since the Wii debuted in one way or another. Now Nintendo is releasing something that should have been released at least a year ago. The Wii Remote Plus.

Nintendo today revealed the new controller which combines the original Wii Remote and its add-on, Wii MotionPlus, in the same controller.