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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Namco Bandai and Sega may be taking advantage of the Wii’s success by publishing several titles for it, but they’re supporting the very thing that’s killing the other side of their business. Now that kids have the Wii and DS, they’re saving all that pocket change to buy more games for home. In addition, they’re not even being tempted by walking past arcades - high gas prices are keeping more people at home instead of at the malls.

Namco and Sega will be closing dozens and dozens of arcades around Japan as a result. I wonder how desolate those arcades have been the past week in Japan…

Reuters

48-year-old Ryuta Kawashima is, unsurprisingly, entitled to a hefty sum of royalties from the success of his brain training games for Nintendo. He and his employer, Tohoku University, are  entitled to 2.4 billion yen (or US$22 million) in royalties, with Kawashima allowed up to half of the sum. He has chosen not to take his share.

“Not a single yen has gone in my pocket… Everyone in my family is mad at me but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it… To hear this may put you off — but my hobby is work.”

Instead, he uses the money to fund research at the school. How many of you are big enough to do that? I know I’m not…
AFP

Five photos of Nintendo Co., Ltd. president, Satoru Iwata, are shown after the break. They show how in a short span of five years, Iwata’s gone from a young look and thick dark hair to a much older look with mostly gray hair. Sure, he’s nearly 50-years-old and all, but perhaps the stress of bringing a company like Nintendo up from the ashes like Iwata has done can help to speed up the aging process.

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Atari is attempting to regain their foothold in this industry, and they know how they’re going to start. Of their three main goals as a publisher this year, one is to increase production of mass market titles for the expanded gaming audience. They’ll be doing so by doubling Wii and DS games published this year over 2007.

It’s good to see publishers realizing that Nintendo platforms are the key to success. You wouldn’t have believed it three years ago.

MCV UK

Looks like the licensing entanglements surrounding a re-release of Rare’s Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64 aren’t as complicated as many of us were expecting. In fact, the only thing currently standing in the way of it happening is a royalties dispute between Microsoft and Nintendo.

Rare was supposedly two months away from completing the conversion for the game’s release on Xbox Live Arcade, but no decision could be made as to whether Nintendo would be paid a one-time fee for rights to the game, or ongoing royalty cuts from the game’s revenue. I guess that tells us everything else regarding the Bond license is in place, and that Nintendo holds the final say in terms of publishing rights.

Then again, if this were the case, you’d think we’d still be waiting for it on the Virtual Console…

1UP.com

Industry veteran Mark Haigh-Hutchinson lost his battle with pancreatic cancer earlier this week. Mark spent his career as a programmer and software engineer for companies such as LucasArts and Retro Studios. You may be familiar with quite a bit of his work, ranging from programming for Paperboy, to serving as a project leader on Rogue Squadron, and contributing heavily to the final camera systems in all three Metroid Prime titles.

Mark was 43-years-old, and leaves behind a wife and two young daughters. Thank you for the entertainment you’ve helped to provide us with, Mark. You will be missed.

4colorrebellion

The fact that three of Nintendo of America’s top executives are now gone was probably at the bottom of your list of concerns at the turn of the New Year, but it was going to happen sometime. We already know that Cammie Dunaway has filled Reggie’s former and vacant position. Now, former Reebok marketing exec Denise Kaigler will take over in Perrin Kaplan’s position. Kaigler has previously served as the head of corporate communications for both Reebok and Adidas.

In other news, Bill Van Zyll will take over Nintendo’s operations in Latin America. Van Zyll is coming from a position at Whirlpool. Yes, the dishwasher company.

Press release after the break.

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