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As promised, Redbox has rolled out game rentals nationwide.

In April, Redbox said it would start offering game rentals in 21,000 of its 27,000 kiosks this month. The company is renting out a range of titles for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3, including the recently launched Duke Nukem Forever and last year's blockbuster hit Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Redbox has launched a full online listing of games available to customers. Those who find something they like can reserve a title from home and pick it up at their chosen Redbox location.

Redbox is charging $2 per day for its game rentals. It currently rents DVDs and Blu-ray discs for as little as $1 per day and $1.50 per day, respectively.

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According to the reports, 400,000 Nintendo 3DS units were sold since the device's launch on Saturday. A sell-out was expected. Most retail outlets in Japan had their preorders sold out prior to the launch of the portable-gaming device and were already taking orders for the next shipment.

The Nintendo 3DS will be one of the more interesting launches this year, thanks to its unique feature-set. The platform, which went on sale in Japan for 25,000 yen (about $300), allows gamers to play 3D titles without the need for special glasses. It comes with two screens and boasts an accelerometer and gyroscope to give developers a few more options for their video games.

In Japan, 400,000 units sold is just the beginning for Nintendo. The company said last year that it expects to sell 1.5 million 3DS units in Japan alone by the end of March. The European launch is set for March 25. The U.S. launch is scheduled for March 27 with a $249 price tag for the device.

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With retail titles for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS expected in the $35 to $45 range, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime actually thinks it's cheap, $1 and $2 mobile games that are "one of the biggest risks today in our gaming industry."

Speaking to Geoff Keighley in the latest episode of GameTrailers TV, Fils-Aime contrasted "full-fledged" 3DS games like Steel Diver with a flood of cheap games on mobile devices like the iPhone that are "disposable from a consumer standpoint."

"Angry Birds is a great piece of experience," he said, "but that is one compared to thousands of other pieces of content that for one or two dollars I think create a mentality for the consumer that a piece of gaming content should only be $2."

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We played FlingSmash in February of this year and quite enjoyed it, as our First Impressions show, but its projected release date of Summer 2010 has been and gone without the game hitting shelves. Now retailer Gamestop has released boxart of the game showing the game is set to be bundled with a Remote, seemingly containing MotionPlus built-in.

Titled "Wii Remote Plus", the controller itself looks only slightly different, with a slight curve below the four lights the only alteration visible at this resolution. As FlingSmash requires MotionPlus this is obviously a new controller containing the add-on, but could the game's delay have been caused by the newly developed Remote?

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It finally looks like we have unofficial confirmation of the DSi's virtual console.

Check out Kombo for the whole story, but the highlight--as I'm sure we can all agree, is the revelation that the DSi will allow you to download Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games.

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Multiple sources close to Nintendo tell IGN that the company is gearing up to debut the anticipated successor to its DS Lite handheld during the first half of this year in America. More specifically, the company has allegedly relayed to its partners that DSi will ship stateside in early April, most likely on April 4. Insiders assert that they have been told the system will retail for $179.99 when it launches domestically.

Said By GBAtemp

Reports are flying in this morning that the new DSi handheld is incapable of booting existing flash carts. Our friend ahtin at Hacken.cc who has got his hands on a brand new DSi, has tested both the popular R4 DS and EZ Flash V.

ahtin has reported that the R4 DS (an auto-booting slot-1 cart), when inserted into the DSi, in fact does NOT automatically boot up, and fails to appear at all in the new revamped DSi main menu (which is normal behaviour for an auto-booting cart). The EZ Flash V on the other hand (a non auto-booting slot-1 cart), does in fact show in the DSi's main menu, but when launched generates an error which prevents it from loading any further.

Whether or not the new flash cart "prevention" on the DSi can be disabled or worked around is yet to be determined. Once more people get their hands on the new Nintendo handheld revision, we'll undoubtedly learn more about why this is happening. Perhaps it could be something as simple as an update in the carts loader/firmware (at least in the case of the EZ-V), or perhaps something a modified firmware (ala. FlashMe) could fix. But of course, only time will tell.

Hacken.cc have not reported results on any other flash kits. Stay tuned to GBAtemp for any further news, as we'll keep you posted on any developments.

UPDATE!: ahtin has informed me personally of his latest tests. Unfortunately it's not good news! Just take a look at the long list of flash carts that have ALSO FAILED on the DSi...

CycloDS - Failed
G6 DS Real - Failed
M3 DS Real - Failed
Supercard DS One - Failed
iTouch DS - Failed
FCard - Failed
NCard - Failed
M3 DS Simply - Failed
U2DS - Failed

Also, importers please note that there is no English language option in the firmware - only Japanese, so be careful!

Said By Kotaku

Speaking to Pocket Gamer, an obviously-doesn't-want-to-be-named "developer" has said there may be a problem or two regarding DS/DSi compatibility. This developer, you see, is currently developing a game for the DS. Their game obviously runs just fine on DS, but on the DSi, it keeps freezing up, and as a result is stuck in development limbo, Nintendo refusing to certify it. Nintendo, predictably, are saying "All DS titles are compatible with DSi", but if a game in development will run on DS but not DSi, might there be some finished games that run into problems as well?

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SEGA of America and BioWare’s Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood has gone gold and will be in stores exclusively for the DS on September 30th. Promising an all new adventure crafted by BioWare the game will take the Sonic universe to a new space with new adventures, beautiful environments, a classic cast of characters, and a new dark enemy for Sonic to take on. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood marks the first RPG game for Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends.

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It was already known that Nintendo was on the hook for $21 million in a patent suit over the company's controllers. A Texas judge last week denied the game maker's request for a new trial, and Bloomberg is reporting that the judge will issue a ban to halt sales of the controllers tomorrow.

However, if the ban were to be issued, it would not take effect until after a Nintendo appeal on the original ruling was resolved. Nintendo could also avoid the ban by posting a bond or putting royalties into an escrow account, according to Bloomberg.

The original suit sought to have Nintendo's Wii Classic Controller, Wii Nunchuk, GameCube controller, and GameCube WaveBird all deemed in violation of an Anascape patent for a "six degrees of freedom" interface device. A jury found that all of those products, with the exception of the Wii Nunchuk, infringed on Anascape's patent.

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On Oct. 8th, the court ordered the raid of Supreme Factory Limited facilities, through which Nintendo representatives seized more than 10,000 game copying devices and mod chips over the course of three days. The devices seized are used to copy and play Nintendo DS games offered unlawfully over the Internet, and the mod chips allow the play of pirated Wii discs or illegal copies of downloaded Nintendo games.

Documents recovered during the search also shed light on the scope of the operation, revealing that Supreme Factory Limited has ties to a French company, Divineo SARL, and its principal, Max Louarn, who are also named in the legal action initiated by Nintendo. The Hong Kong High Court prohibited the companies from further distribution of the devices and from disposing a portion of their assets worldwide, and ordered those assets frozen pending outcome of the legal proceedings.

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Apparently, little plastic vaguely gun-shaped thingies are more dangerous than we thought. Over in the the U.K. the Wii Zapper has already received a PEGI-18 rating for when it is released next month. That seems kind of strange to do for a peripheral; even stranger when you consider that it comes bundled with Link’s Crossbow Training, which is mostly derived from a game that received a “T for Teen” rating in the U.S.

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Nintendo Co Ltd roared past Canon Inc to become Japan's second most valuable company behind Toyota Motor Corp, driven by its hot-selling Wii game console and DS handheld player.

Nintendo's Wii has so far outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 by a large margin since their launches late last year as Nintendo's strategy to expand the gaming population by offering easy-to-play but innovative games has proved a big success. Shares in Nintendo were up 2.6 percent at 58,900 yen in afternoon trade on Tuesday, bringing its market value to 8.34 trillion yen ($72.6 billion), surpassing Canon's market capitalization of 8.20 trillion yen.

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Vgchartz.com, the most comprehensive Videogame charts in the world has announced that lifetime sales of Nintendo's Wii have passed Microsoft's Xbox 360 on a worldwide basis as of August 23rd. (*)

Two years ago, very few analysts would have predicted the Nintendo Wii would be market leader this generation against the established Playstation and Xbox brands. But analysts can be in error: Vgchartz.com data, which is based on sample data from retailers all over the world indicates that the week ending August 23rd Nintendo's Wii (which was released one year after the Xbox 360 in November 2006), currently standing at 10.57 million consoles sold, passed Xbox 360 lifetime sales of 10.51 million units, making Nintendo the new market leader in both the home and handheld videogame console businesses.

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When Wii users download Opera, it will activate the "Internet Channel" on the Wii and allow them to use the game console to browse the Internet on their television. Opera via a comic strip, and Nintendo via a statement, announced that the final version of Opera for Wii will be available in March 2007. That final version, according to Nintendo, will also be free March through June, after which it will cost 500 Wii points (roughly $5) through the Wii Shop Channel. In addition to its PC and OS version, Opera is already available for portable devices via Opera Mobile for smart phones and Opera Mini for cell phones.

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NEW YORK--Isaiah "Triforce" Johnson's eyes were feeling heavy, but even after getting little to no sleep over the past few days, the man could not help but smile very early on Sunday morning.
Johnson was sold the first Nintendo Wii at the Toys "R" Us in Times Square after waiting several days outside the retail giant's flagship store. And it wasn't just any normal store employee who rang the register; Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, did the honors of handing out the first system.

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Opera Software, the makers of the Wii's Web-surfing software, cleared that situation up a bit today with news that its browser for the system would be free for a limited time. Gamers will be able to download the Opera browser from the Wii Shop Channel free of charge until June 2007, the company announced today. After June 2007, the browser will be available to download for an undetermined number of Wii points, the virtual currency of the Wii Shop Channel. The browser will support Flash and AJAX-based content, and while it will be customized for Nintendo's next-gen system, Opera promises it will have "the same complete standards support as the Opera 9 Desktop browser," with functions including bookmarks and zoom. The browser will also be designed to work specifically with the motion-sensing Wii controllers.

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In a move that may allow Nintendo of Japan to take advantage of stumbles by its main rival, the company plans to announce today that it will release its new Wii video-game console in North and South America on Nov. 19, just as the holiday shopping season begins, and that the machine will cost $250 in the United States. Nintendo will start selling its new console on Dec. 2 in Japan, President Satoru Iwata announced today at a news conference in Chiba prefecture, next to Tokyo. Nintendo executives said this week that the company also would announce today that more than 25 new games would be available for its video-game machine this year, a substantial portfolio from several genres that is intended to help the company broaden the appeal of its console. The company plans to ship 4 million of the Wii consoles worldwide this year.