According to a report in the NYT, Grand Theft Auto IV reached sales of over $500 million in its first seven days on the market. Take Two Interactive said the game sold approximately 6 million copies worldwide since its launch last Tuesday.

The numbers significantly exceeded expectations of many analysts who expected to see around 5 million copies sold in the first two weeks. Take Two also stated that 3.6 million of those copies were sold the first day of the launch globally for around $310 million in sales. This number even exceeds the numbers we saw for the Halo 3 launch for both first day and first week sales.

Walmart is moving in a more creative direction for the latest upcoming holiday and is promoting Nintendo’s Wii Fit as a “perfect gift for moms” for this Mothers Day. The retail giant has thrown traditional flowers and candy out the window as the Nintendo product is dominating the Walmart website home page with pre-orders for just under $90. The orders even come with a $10 gift card to Walmart so you can come back and get yourself a little something extra later on. The site’s home page portrays kids and men using the Wii Fit board as well, not to miss out on any type of demographic.

Walmart’s Mothers Day Wii Fit pre-order promotion with the gift card runs through May 11 and the Wii Fit will officially launch on May 19 for $89.99. Walmart will ship any pre-orders on or shortly after May 21 and ensures consumers that they been working with Nintendo to have adequate inventory to fill the pre-orders.

Grand Theft Auto IV went on sale worldwide today and many retailers such as Best Buy and GameStop opened their doors at midnight last night to meet fans across the country who created long lines to be one of the first to get their hands on a copy and spend the rest of the night playing. The GTA 4 launch from Take Two is expected to see sales that will rival that of last year’s Halo 3 release, with numbers nearing $400 million for around 6 million copies sold around the world.

The Grand Theft Auto 4 game is available for both the Sony Playstation 3 and the XBox 360 which greatly broadens the audience. Some speculate that the launch delay from last October also allowed more people to have time to buy the latest generation of game console and built more anticipation for the launch. Take Two says the delay was due to technical hurdles that needed to be overcome.

This news may be a little bit old for some, but just in case you hadn’t heard the Wii Fit game from Nintendo which is bundled with the Wii Fit Balance Board has gotten an official release date and now an official price. $89.99 will be the price tag associated with Wii Fit on its May 19 US launch date. This price includes both the game and the board bundled together.

In the short time since the announcement, pre-orders for the Wii Fit on Amazon has moved up into the number one position with an 885,500 percent increase in just a day, not to mention all the accessories. Needless to say, it looks like this is going to be another hot item for Nintendo this year.

Nintendo

Here’s the latest in Chinese underground knock-offs. The “Cool Boy” wants to be a real living Gameboy so bad you can practically taste it. It manages to be completely un-cool despite the name and despite the fact that it’s a portable game system capable of playing a variety of old school 8-bit and 16-bit console titles.

Looks like the Cool Boy plays emulated NES and SEGA games. The kind you get from questionable sources in the dead of night, in a back alley, that usually have 120-in-1 cartridges that often violate copyrighted works from major game studios like EA, Nintendo and Disney. The system has a 2.4″ LCD screen with 480×240 resolution, and can even output to a TV via it’s built-in AV port.

If you like recycling objects and have some extra time on your hands, then this Speaker Media Cabinet might be just the thing. You can store anything you like inside, though it won’t fit a body, you’ll have to continue using the old fashioned car trunk for that.

It would be a great place to store your entertainment media, like DVDs and console games. All you need is a pair of large junked speakers, several chopping tools, the usual array of nuts and bolts, and the will to succeed.

Rockstar has an edited version of Grand Theft Auto IV to release in Australia this month in order to obtain a MA15+ for the game with the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). This may not come as a big surprise to those in Australia, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

To make it even worse, Rockstar has not only confirmed that Australia will be getting a censored version of the game, but they have chosen not to divulge what parts of the game have been cut to obtain approval from the Australian game classification system - our guess is the hookers, again. This is no doubt done to leave the benefit of the doubt with consumers that parts of the games they like most will still be there.

Normally, you could use Microsoft Excel to create that business model for your next multi-million dollar idea, or you could calculate last month’s sales for your other business, but I think the thing to do would be to play classic arcade games on it. Games should always win over business.

If you live in Japan, programming video games using Excel Visual Basic macros is kind of an art form. People over there have recreated everything from Pac-Man to Space Invaders and Missile Command. With nice detail I might add. How about a spreadsheet game of Donkey Kong, Dig Dug and Tetris? Even Arkanoid.

Cats want games too. If your cat wants to get into some gaming action, now they can thanks to the CatBox 360. When your cat steps into the automatic litter box, a new game is activated and a random music track begins. Colored indicators scroll down the LCD screen like in Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

When the cat’s paws scratch across the litter, it triggers the notes, and every time your cat “answers nature’s call” in the litter box, the game enters a bonus multiplier mode for extra points. Some tunes include: Cat Scratch Fever, Stray Cat Strut, and of course, Cool for Cats. The makers of the game warn that a handful of cats have started “doing their business” whenever they hear music playing, so be careful when you use your stereo. You may have a clean up waiting for you. No price or release date yet. Don’t hold your breath…Or do hold your breath since your cat won’t be able to stop playing.

Sadly, arcade games have been replaced by consoles and the like. But there’s still a whole lotta arcade love from those of us who grew up in the 70s/80s. The story goes like this. A guy goes to Japan, sees these new arcade cabinets and of course, wants one. Problem is it costs a fortune to import something that size, so he did what any geek with a toolbox would do, he built his own.

And it looks amazing too. It has a large Sony display on top, a car audio system built in, and it houses not only his PC, but a PS3, and Xbox 360 as well. Have you wet yourself yet? Good. Me too. Now, since I’m too lazy to build myself one, any volunteers?

Not a full size arcade machine, of course. Your PSP screen would be really tiny inside of a huge cabinet. This might be the most useless PSP accessory ever, but it’s also one of the coolest. You can turn your PSP into a small retro cardboard arcade machine, straight out of the 80’s.

The cardboard mini game for PSP comes in a pack of two, with authentic graffiti and mall-rat trash. It only costs $12.49. This is a perfect way to relive your youth, but on a smaller scale. Personally I dig the Cosmic Intruders version.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime promises that something big is coming down the pike, but neglected to say exactly what. In a recent interview with GameTrailers, the Nintendo exec said that the companies release schedule for the rest of the year would be revealed at E3 in July, and that there would also be a new big game announced that would be available in time for the holidays.

“There’s gonna be a big game for the holiday that the gamers will want,” said Fils Aime. “All I can tell you is what we announce during E3 is gonna be fantastic. The gamer is gonna be excited and the expanded audience is gonna be excited.”

Gibson Guitar Corp. is accusing Activision of violating one of their patents with the popular Guitar Hero series of video games. The patent in question is owned by Gibson since 1999 and involves a system that would let a musician “virtually” participate in a pre-recorded concert while wearing a head-mounted 3D display with speakers. The music played on the instrument would then be recorded on a separate track and available for playback with the rest of the tracks to simulate playing in a concert.

Activision’s Guitar Hero does have a similar premise, however it’s played on a “pretend” plastic guitar and is a game where the player tries to mimic notes in concert represented on the monitor by graphical musicians in a concert. Activision is disputing the claim that they infringe upon Gibson’s patent and is asking the federal court to provide an official ruling.

I really like my iPhone, but I have found myself sitting around a few times bored of surfing the net and watching YouTube videos wishing it would do more. Thanks to the announcement last week of the iPhone SDK it won’t be long until the iPhone has some sweet new games to occupy my time.

Gameloft has announced that it will develop over 15 titles for the iPhone in 2008. Gameloft points out that while the SDK is available, iPhone owners can’t get the games until the App Store launches in June of 2008.

How many of us consider ourselves at least part geek? And being part geek means you’ve probably played D&D at some point, right? From that angle therefore we report with sad news that Dungeons & Dragons co-founder Gary Gygax has passed away today at age 69.

As we’ve reported on sister blog Pop Therapy, Gygax of late had been in poor health. During his heyday Gygax had an amazing contribution to the world of fantasy role playing games with his co-development of the uber-popular Dungeons & Dragons brand. His and Dave Arneson’s work in the old days of TSR made D&D the cornerstone of the modern fantasy RPG movement - you can see hints of its glory in almost any computer role playing game you enjoy today.