Everyone has seen the cash producing cartoons of Miyamoto and Iwata, but apparently they aren’t even the fattest cats in the pet store. Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down in 2005 from his position as Nintendo president, but remains a large shareholder in the company. His net worth jumped $3 billion in the last year alone with the successes of the Wii and DS, and is now valued at $7.8 billion. He’s still crazy in my book.

Forbes
via IGN

Nintendo released a statement recalling pins that were sold between April 2004 and November 2007 at either the Nintendo World Store in New York or their employee store in Redmond. The pins apparently contain a potentially lethal amount of lead. So if you have been sleeping with your Mario pin in your mouth I would suggest changing your habits, or at least send it in to have it replaced with a toxin free pin. Picture of the evil pins (which I want) and replacement options after the break.

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 The team that has brought Nintendo fans the Metroid Prime series has lost three important figures. Lead designer Mark Pacini, engineer Jack Mathews, and art director Todd Keller have all parted ways with the Texas based developer. The good news is Retro is still a first party Nintendo company, and will continue to produce on Wii hardware.

No reason for the departure is known, but perhaps the three have bigger plans in sight. I wonder if this was Nintendo’s, Retro Studio’s, or the three individual’s decision. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.

IGN

Yesterday, Six Flags announced that they’re renewing a contract between them and Nintendo, which allows them to have sections of their theme parks dedicated to all things Wii and DS. Now those of you who get sick from riding one too many roller coasters can use this an excuse to take a break from the rides, rather than “visiting the kids area.”

The Wii Experience will be available through the 2008 season (April 5 - November 2) and will feature 10 consoles for you to get your Wii on. In addition to that, a new campaign has been implemented into the Experience: DS Street Teams. Now those of you who are waiting on the 1-2 hour lines in the grueling heat to enjoy a 30-second ride will be able to enjoy games, as 4-person teams will be roaming the park asking Six Flags guests if they’d like to give the DS a shot. As expected, Wii Experience areas will be listed on maps, in-park signage, and pole banners.

PR Newswire

Sure, Nintendo’s been pumping out 1.8 million Wii consoles each month, but between satisfying demand in North America and satisfying demand in Europe, Nintendo would rather ship those consoles away from Americans. Why? They earn less profit from the floundering US dollar.

Now that demand is starting to slow down in Europe, you might start seeing more systems here in the States in the coming months. Hopefully, for Nintendo’s sake, the dollar will be on the upswing by then - people want to throw their money at Nintendo!

Dallas News

Wanting to earn your trust back after giving you mono… sound output in your copies of Guitar Hero III, Activision has taken it upon themselves to quietly deliver a free gift. You should be receiving your replacement Guitar Hero III game discs soon if you haven’t already, and it may be followed by a Guitar Hero III Les Paul faceplate. That’s some good PR right there, don’t you think?

Thanks - we still <3 you, Activision.

Infendo

Remember when Nintendo scored a 0/10 in environmental performance? It was mostly because their information isn’t public. Since then, Greenpeace has gotten hints that Nintendo does indeed have a chemicals management policy. Despite not knowing the details, this alone was enough to bump Nintendo up a third of a point! …almost.

“Nintendo has made some tiny changes to score 0.3, since being the first company to score 0 when added last November… Nintendo remains the odd one out of the 18 companies in the Guide, without any public time lines to eliminate the worst toxic chemicals or a global recycling policy for the millions of products it sells every year. If Nintendo has better policies why not make them public like the other 17 companies in the Guide?”

For those who can’t help but want to compare, Sony remained at a 7.3/10 rating (though the PlayStation division shows no green innovation), while Microsoft rose from a 2.7 to a 4.7/10 rating.

Greenpeace

Now here’s something you don’t see everyday: developers defending Nintendo’s online plans and pounding on Microsoft’s. Everyone loves Xbox Live Arcade, right? Apparently not.

“Nintendo has made it very clear to us that we’ll not only be making a better royalty rate from WiiWare games, but we’ll also have a better chance of selling games - the service won’t be clogged up with the retro titles that have blighted the chances of many independent studios on Xbox Live Arcade.”
– Anonymous WiiWare development studio boss

“Frankly, we’re not looking at making games for Xbox Live Arcade because the service is full of sh*t.”
– Another WiiWare developer

Nintendo must have a pretty stinkin’ awesome arrangement going to have evoked these kinds of comments from developers.

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The DS has been out for quite a while now, especially for a Nintendo handheld. As such, it’s seen several price drops since all the parts are cheaper now. Oh, wait.

Nintendo’s two providers of DS Lite screens have been accused by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission for price-fixing on the screen parts. The offices at Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. are being searched for information. If found guilty, they could be fined up to 10% of the gains they have received for the screens.

Considering that the DS Lite is the fastest selling handheld that the world has ever seen, it’s easy to understand component providers getting greedy. At the moment, Sharp, Hitachi, nor Nintendo have commented on the situation.

Bloomberg

While Nintendo and government officials are working on tracking down all the “Chad”s in the larger countries (members of our Facebook DS group will get the reference), piracy is still strong in nations such as Hong Kong (duh), China, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, and growing in Korea. Apparently the governments of those countries are helping Nintendo with piracy raids, but the lack of prosecutions and increase internet distributions are continuing to hurt Nintendo.

So what’s next? Well, Nintendo is going to the United States government for assistance in cracking down on video game in piracy. Don’t download pirated games, people. You will get syphilis, and die.
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