Japanese hardware and software sales for the week ending July 23. Nintendo is firmly on top of both charts, the DS Lite sells more than all other consoles combined, while New Super Mario Bros. retakes the top spot in software sales.

Hardware sales:

DS Lite: 262,453
PSP: 35,938
PS2: 22,288
DS: 6,344
GBA SP: 2,953
Xbox 360: 1,472
GameBoy Micro: 1,410
GameCube: 1,076
GBA: 20
Xbox: 0

Software sales top 5:

New Super Mario Bros. (DS, Nintendo)
Shaberu! DS Oryouri Navi (DS, Nintendo Japan)
Battle Stadium D.O.N. (PS2, Namco Bandai)
Brain Age (DS, Nintendo)
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyu 13 (PS2, Konami)

Clearly the mania about the DS Lite isn’t over just yet. And yet another blow to Microsoft, not a single Xbox unit sold, big brother Xbox360 was almost outsold by the GameBoy Micro.

Via MediaCrate

EA has officially announced the first expansion pach for their successful RTS The Battle For Middle-Earth 2. The new title will be called The Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth: The Longest Game Title Ever. Well, not exactly, The Rise of The Witch King is the correct title for the expansion. Nevertheless, it’s one of the longest videogame titles I’ve seen. Ever.

The game will be released this winter, only for PC. It will contain a completely new faction and a new single player campaign. As the title suggests, the game will be somewhat focusing on the “evil side”, letting the player explore the othe side Middle-earth.

As if EA hasn’t released enough expansion packs to its Sims franchise, now they’re trying again with Pets. If Nintendo could do it with Nintendogs, sure EA can. The game will be an expansion on the PC, but released independently on PS2, GameCube, DS, PSP and GBA.

The Sims 2: Pets will let players create their own pets and teach them tricks, take care of them, and so on. There will be 35 different pre-made dog breeds and 15 different pre-made cat breeds. Expect it to launch on October 17, 2006.

Codemasters just released a bunch of new screenshots of KD Vision’s futuristic RTS Maelstrom, which will ship this September. Maelstrom is set only 50 years in the future, where humans are not only fighting against an alien invasion, but against each other as well. More screens after the jump.

Official Site

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Codemasters has signed a deal with IGA Worldwide to bring in game advertisments in titles developed and published by Codemasters. The deal is a multi-title multi-platform agreement that includes titles such as Colin McRae: DIRT and Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 (not released in the US).

The ads will be delivered using IGA’s Radial in-game ad serving technology, which can deliver static ads and interactive product placement. Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens says about the deal:

“Advertising in games generates additional revenue that publishers can offset against product development costs. However, it’s critical for the ad placements to complement the highly immersive gaming experience of our games across current and future platforms. Following significant due diligence on the market we believe that IGA is ideally placed to deliver on all of these key points.”

Via Gamasutra

Plenty of delays announced this summer. First, it was Enemy Territory: Quake Wars that was moved into 2007 for further testing, and then Neverwinter Nights 2 was delayed by over a month, for some more testing and polishing. Now Ubisoft has announced that Splinter Cell Double Agent has been delayed to the end of October, instead of September as originally planned. I guess they too need to do some more testing. You can’t get enough testing these days, remember Battlefield 2?

Via GameSpot

Gearbox has confirmed support for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii console. The developer of Brothers In Arms has posted a message on the official site saying they plan to develop for the console in the near future. No other details have been released, and as usual, we can only guess whether Brothers in Arms will appear on the Wii, or a completely new title.

Gearbox is known for the Brothers In Arms series but has made a number of ports of other games, including the PC version of Halo and the PS2 version of Half Life. Their next game, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway is scheduled for a 2007 release on PC, PS3 and Xbox360.

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During an interview with IGN, Nintendo’s Perrin Kaplan, VP of Marketing and Corporate Affaris, was asked whether we could expect the Wii to be region-free. She replied:

“Clearly, the success of Nintendo DS has offered a lot of lessons about what works in the marketplace – and we certainly intend to keep our fans satisfied. For the Wii system, we are finalizing all the relevant details and will be making announcements in the coming months.”

Nintendo would certainly benefit from a region-free console, the region-free DS is quite popular when you think about the amount of games that are being imported from Japan. Gamers don’t have to wait several months before a certain title appears in the Western part of the world. Kaplan continues:

“You’re right that the region-free approach has proved to be a successful and attractive feature for Nintendo WiFi Connection on Nintendo DS we have even blown the doors off our own anticipated numbers! Cost, ease-of-use and player privacy are the three things that were a focus for us with Nintendo WiFi Connection. Those priorities also will apply to the Wii system.”

So we can say with 99% accuracy that the Wii will be region-free, simply because it’s a proven concept and makes sense, both financially for Nintendo and for the gamers.

Sony has released firmware edition 2.80 for the PlayStation Portable. You can download it via the network feature on your PSP. The new firmware contains following features/updates:

• You can now download video and image content under [RSS Channel];
• You can now register devices via a wireless LAN access point under [LocationFree Player];
• You can now play AAC files with file extension .3gp under [Music]; and
• You can now play content saved in “Music,” “Picture” and “Video” folders on a Memory Stick. (Apparently, this means you don’t have to rename video files, and you can play them without using special folders.)

Via PSPFanboy

Blizzard’s announced that in the month of June, they have banned over 59,000 accounts, and confiscated 22 million gold pieces. The accounts were banned for using cheats and scripts, and then there are all the ones used for gold farming. Blizzard said on the official site:

“While we regret having to take such extreme action, these accounts were participating in activities that directly violated World of Warcraft’s Terms of Use, including the use of third-party programs to farm gold and items.”

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