Nintendo has altered the circuit layout of its Wii games console in order to block the increasing use of modification chips (modchips). The new Wiis, which are part of new shipments of the console, have an altered circuit layout that makes modification more difficult than in earlier versions. Users attempting to mod the new consoles using current modchips are very likely to damage the system, the sources pointed out. However, new-generation modchips capable of working with the revised Wii consoles may become available in less than a month, according to DigiTimes.

The Nintendo Wii is apparently on a winning streak, as it were. Passing both Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in sales, the Nintendo Wii has taken the lead. Last month, Nintendo sold 335,000 Wii's, compared to Microsoft's 228,000 Xbox360 sales, and 127,000 Sony PS3 sales. While February isn't exactly the best indicator of retail success, it sure is nice for Nintendo to know that they are selling what currently is the hottest console in the market.

Nintendo's online gaming service for the Wii will be provided by Fox Interactive Media's GameSpy, a name already familiar to most online PC gamers. Nintendo WiFi, the online service for the Nintendo DS, already uses GameSpy, and this move shows that Nintendo doesn't want to fall behind to Sony and Microsoft in online gameplay. Although there are not yet any online games for the Wii, Pokémon Battle Revolution will change this when it is released on June 25th. "This partnership will expand our wireless community of players on Nintendo WiFi Connection," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "Millions of Nintendo DS users have already logged on using GameSpy's technology, and now Wii owners will be able to do the same in a fun and easy-to-use environment."

Or, that's what the The Porn Talk is calling their latest anti-pornography campaign. The Porn Talk appears to be a parent activist group aimed at helping parents talk to their kids about porn. They seem to have taken the ability of the Wii to access the internet a wee bit too far. Their latest campaign's goal is to teach parents how to protect their children from the pornography that can be accessed using the Nintendo Wii. While the Nintendo Wii already has plenty of safety features put in place programmed to do just that, The Porn Talk claims that it simply isn't enough.

The solution lies in parents getting the facts and then talking to their children about expectations for online activity... The Wii is an amazing console and tons of fun but parents need good info on how to keep kids safe.

Gaming consoles are getting more and more popular these days. That is not only because the integrated hardware is fast and games will be compatible for years but they are much more than a stupid gaming box. You can play movies utilitzing CDs, DVDs or even Blu-Ray discs, surf the net and whatnot. But what about their power consumption? All these shiny features won't come for free, do they? Now the guys from HardCoreWare come into play. They took a PS3, a Wii and a XBOX 360, fired them up with different tasks and compared the power consumption to a mid sized gaming rig. You will be surprised with what conclusion they came up with.

Preliminary figures for North America suggest that the Nintendo Wii is comfortably outselling its two major rivals, the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. The Wii managed to sell 436,000 units during January, with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 selling 294,000 and 244,000 consoles respectively. The Wii is also the cheapest of the three, whilst the Xbox 360 is next cheapest and the Playstation 3 comes in as the most expensive (and arguably most feature-packed, albeit somewhat unwanted) next generation console. Figures for the Playstation 2 have not been released, although it has been the major seller in the previous months.

Bethesda studios announced that as much as they'd love to see Elder Scrolls IV- Oblivion, it will never find itself there. The Nintendo Wii simply doesn't have enough power to run the very demanding game. Of course, this doesn't explain how they managed to stick Oblivion on the PSP, which is essentially a much smaller version of the PS2.

Neversoft, a software firm that has recently undertook a lot of major games, is announcing that they will make some of their games compatible with Nintendo platforms. In the past, Neversoft, which has helped make games such as Spider-man, was focused on making games purely for Microsoft and Sony platforms. Now, they have decided to add support for the Wii and DS. They will do this by porting games that they own, including Spider-man, Shrek, Transformers, and Guitar Hero (Guitar Hero is no longer a Harmonix title, they sold it to Neversoft).

During the holiday season, Nintendo sold two Wii's for each Sony PlayStation 3. It appears that in Japan, Nintendo's strong trend continues, and they are currently selling 3 Wii's for every single PS3 sold. The official figures are 405,000 Wiis sold to 148,000 PS3's. If this trend continues, Sony will likely cut PS3 prices in Japan by the end of the year.

Once again, it's that time of year. The post-holiday lull in market activity where everyone is either waiting for the "next big thing" or watching for the market's next move. According to The New York Times, the gaming market is very easy to see. Xbox360 is in the lead, Wii's are selling like hotcakes, and PS3 sales are steady but slow. Sony had a very interesting comment in regards to the current console war. The senior director of corporate communication in Sony Corporate Entertainment America:

Wii could be considered an impulse buy more than anything else.

It should be noted that Sony's President of Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison said something very similar about the Nintendo DS...18 months ago.

Nintendo has updated its firmware for the new Wii console to enable the news channel, a day ahead of schedule. The channel uses feeds from the Associated Press, with categories for National News, Regional News, International News, Sports, Arts/Entertainment, Business, Science/Health and Technology. You can't use your own RSS feeds yet, but this adds to the forecast channel to give Wii users quick and direct access to news and weather. Admittedly the free internet channel can also be used for this, but it gives users a simpler way to see news stories on their console.

With the release of the Wii towards the end of last year, coupled with the success of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo saw a nice boost in profits between April and December last year. Profits over that period hit the equivalent of $1.09bn, up 43% from the figures a year earlier. This success has led Nintendo to predict a further 28% rise in profits for the year up to 31st March. The manufacturer has revealed that it reached its target of shipping four million Wii consoles by the end of the year, with the PS3, one of the major competitors, suffering production issues.

The Nintendo Wii has been getting some bad press as of late, with the (formerly) weak wrist straps rumored to have lead to a class action lawsuit. However, after six weeks of owning a Nintendo Wii, a proud owner has noticed something. After not changing his diet (actually eating more for the holidays), and working the same hours, he's lost nine pounds. This is very likely to be the first time a video game system has helped anyone lose weight. All 25 year old Mickey DeLorenzo had to do was play Wii Sports for 30 minutes a day, and watched himself get thinner. You can read the full blog, complete with graphs and before/after pictures, here.

Transcend information, a leading company in manufacturing flash memory products showcased its new SD gaming cards designed specially for game consoles, such as Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii, at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The growing popularity of game consoles has catapulted the need for higher performance and bigger capacity flash memory cards.

Fenner Investments sues Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for infringing on its joystick

It sounds too nonsensical to be true, but Texas-based Fenner Investments sued all three console manufacturers for infringing their copyright on a "low-voltage joystick port interface" (patent number 6,297,751). The patent basically states:

The joystick port interface according the present invention is a low power port which interfaces a typical 5 Volt joystick peripheral device with a lower power computer port. The low-voltage joystick port interface includes a bidirectional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal.

If Fenner wins the lawsuits, then they will succeed in banning all three consoles from market, as they are seeking damages and an injunction against the consoles.

In Japan, where both Nintendo and Sony originate, the competition is really fierce between technology companies. Sony is so far losing the console war in Japan. Nintendo sold close to a million Wiis in Japan, while Sony sold 466,716 PS3s. Sony had expected to sell a million consoles in Japan, though whether or not Sony's lack of sales is due to low supply is unclear. Microsoft's Xbox360 also did not do very well in Japan.

Sony and Nintendo both win the best console controller war at CES 2007. Nintendo was also announced as having won the Peripheral Development and Technoogical Impact of Video Game Controllers. You can read a full list of who won what Emmy's at CES 2007 here.

In the console war between Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, Microsoft has won this holiday season. Between November and Christmas day in 2006, Microsoft sold nearly 2 million Xbox360's. This was very close to Nintendo Wii sales, which totaled around 1.8 million. The Sony PS3 trailed at around 750,000 sales, which was less than half of the Wii sales.

It may be the underdog in terms of power, but it's certainly enjoying much more success than the Playstation 3. Both consoles were released in the USA and Japan at around the same time, but the Wii is outselling Sony's offering by two to one. Microsoft still holds the next generation market share with 10 million units having shipped, although it was released a year earlier, with Nintendo aiming for 4 million units in early 2007. Sony has suffered from high production costs and shortages of components needed to build the PS3, after dominating the market with the PS2.

It may seem crazy, trading a console worth no less than $550 for one that retails for $250. However, that's exactly what people are doing. According to Craigslist.org, there are currently 6 people in Austin, 18 in New York City, and an impressive 48 in San Francisco trying to offload their PS3 for a Nintendo Wii. While most trades are PS3 for Wii and cash, there are some trades that are purely PS3 for Wii, meaning that the PS3 owner would be losing a considerable amount of money in the deal. While there is no definite reason for people doing this, some speculate that people owning a second PS3 who can't sell for the price they were looking for on Ebay can't think of a better way to use the PS3 then to trade it for a Nintendo Wii.

Green Welling LLP filed a nationwide class action lawsuit on behalf of the owners of the Nintendo Wii against Nintendo of America, Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The class action lawsuit arose as result of the defective nature of the Nintendo Wii.

Contrary to reports, there really is no recall of the Wii Remote. A representative for Nintendo stated that Nintendo will be more then happy to replace Wii Remotes that are already broken, or Wii Remotes that users think are about to break, with Wii Remotes that have a wrist strap twice as thick. Nintendo is willing to replace Wii Remotes due to some users complaints of the wrist straps breaking, and Wii Remotes flying into television screens. Nintendo is not recalling the remotes because they have tested the remotes, and as long as they are used sensibly, there really is no issue. The guidelines released by Nintendo for proper Wii Remote usage...

• Always wear the wrist strap while playing.
• Keep a firm grip on the Wii Remote at all times.
• Make sure people and objects are out of the range of movement before play begins.
• Players should keep at least three feet/ one meter from their televisions and dry their hands if they become sweaty or wet for any other reason.
• Remember that the Wii Remote is responsive enough to detect minor movements - so excessive and forceful actions are not necessary. Therefore we recommend not to use excessively rapid, violent or wide swinging motions while using the Wii Remote during game play.

Update- All new Nintendo Wiis have controllers come with the new wrist strap. If you would like a controller with an updated wrist strap, please fill out the request form here.

According to a report by the Japanese Toyo Economics TK newspaper, the new Wii console from Nintendo costs just about $160 to manufacture. This leads to conclusion that Nintendo may be earning money from selling Wii game console. The news-paper states that ATI-developed code-named Hollywood graphics processor costs $29.6, IBM's custom Broadway microprocessor takes $13 to be delivered to Nintendo, $31 is paid for Matsushita-made optical disc drive, memory array costs $7.80 and power supply unit stands at $11.30. Nintendo reportedly pays Foxconn Electronics $19.50 for Wii assembly. Nintendo set the recommended retail price of ¥25 000 (about $211) in Japan, $249 in the U.S. and €249 ($325) in Europe, which means that the actual price of the console may exceed the bill-of-materials cost by up to two times. So far Nintendo shipped over 1.3 million of its Wii game consoles worldwide.

Yet more news about the Wii. Apparently spring 2007 could wield a "re-launch" of Nintendo's latest console. This isn't anything to get too excited over though - by re-launch they mean a new price tag of $200 (down from $250) and the introduction of some new colors. Although it's been no secret that Nintendo was planning different variations of the Wii this is the first suggestion that's been given of when they will be released. However, this data does not come from Nintendo directly but from a Toys 'R Us manager, so it could be unreliable, but it does sound quite possible.