That's what they get for including a free demo, making it multiplayer-friendly, and having GBA backwards compatibility.

Worldwide, more than 2.84 million Nintendo DS systems have been sold, a little less than half of which (1.39 million) are here in the States. Because of the phenomenal demand, Nintendo has raised its hardware sales expectations to 6 million DS units shipped out by the end of their fiscal year, which is March 31. That's a million more than previously expected.

Try before you buy.

Blockbuster, the largest rental chain in North America, has announced on its website that Nintendo's Star Fox Assault will be available for rent beginning Feb. 1st, two full weeks before the game is set to be released in retail stores. Company-owned Blockbuster stores recently adopted a new "no late... Read more...

Upcoming releases include a new TMNT fighting game and several titles for Nintendo DS.

KONAMI ANNOUNCES BLOCKBUSTER 2005 LINE-UP

REDWOOD CITY, CA - January 27, 2005 - Konami Digital Entertainment - America, a division of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., today announced new titles and additional details for its 2005 lineup. On the heels off an unprecedented year that featured... Read more...

With touch-screen nitrous controls.

EA Announces Need for Speed Underground 2 for the Nintendo DS

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2005--

Selling More Than Eight Million Copies Since Its Debut in November 2004, Need For Speed Underground 2 Races onto the Nintendo DS This Spring

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:... Read more...

It's coming on 11th March, and will cost you €149.....

At a press conference in Paris today, Nintendo finally confirmed that the Nintendo DS will launch in Europe on 11th March 2005, and will cost €149 (roughly £99). Games will cost between £19.99 and £29.99, and the initial launch range will include flagship title Super Mario 64 DS, WarioWare Touched!,... Read more...

Exclusive new GCN baseball title coming April 4th!

Nintendo has announced Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball, a GameCube-exclusive baseball title developed by Exile Interactive and Nintendo. It will be released April 4th to coincide with the beginning of the baseball season, so it's obviously been in development for a while.

Pennant Chase Baseball... Read more...

Ubisoft's Montreal division will develop multiplatform games based on two upcoming animated films from Sony.

Ubisoft and Sony Pictures Consumer Products Sign Multi-Title Interactive Publishing Agreement

Ubisoft to Develop Videogames Based on Sony Pictures Animation CGI Feature Films

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 26, 2005--Today, Ubisoft, one of the world's largest videogame publishers,... Read more...

Little Mac joins the Fight Night line-up, plus you can play Super Punch-Out!

Hot off the heels of the exclusive inclusion of Mario, Peach, and Luigi in NBA Street V3, Electronic Arts has announced another exclusive collaboration with Nintendo. Little Mac, the start of the Punch Out! series will be included as a playable character in EA's upcoming Fight Night Round 2. The Super Nintendo classic game Super Punch Out! will also be included in this new Fight Night. Below is the official press release.

Digital Illusions shareholders accept offer.

Electronic Arts Completes Tender Offer for Digital Illusions with 59.8 Percent Ownership

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2005--Electronic Arts EA Holding AB ("EA") today announced the completion of its offer to the shareholders of Digital Illusions CE AB (publ) ("DICE").

Take-Two gets almost-exclusive rights to pro baseball players, then acquires sports developer Visual Concepts from Sega.

Take-Two has had a pretty rough new year. First they learn that Electronic Arts won exclusive rights for NFL games, and a few days later, they take the ESPN license from them as well, leaving the pubilsher with low hopes of becoming a sports giant.

Well, Take-Two has fired back with a shot of... Read more...

Sega determined to grow in Western markets.

SEGA Integrates SEGA of America and SEGA Europe Management Teams to Drive Growth in Western Markets

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2005--

SEGA Continues to Execute Plan to Become a Profitable, Leading Independent Game Publisher

SEGA of America, Inc. (SEGA... Read more...

Launch day will see two additional games along with those that are part of the DS package.

Melbourne, Australia, 21st January 2005

With the excitement surrounding the launch date and price of Nintendo

DS, Nintendo Australia confirm some of the amazing and innovative software

titles that will be available within the initial launch period. The

February 24th release date of Nintendo DS including embedded PictoChat and

Nintendo's Australian branch will be bringing out Project Rub and Resident Evil 4 to Australian gamers.

Nintendo Australia has sent information confirming that they will be releasing Sega's Project Rub (also known as 'Feel the Magic: XY/XX' in the US) for the Nintendo DS and Capcom's Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo GameCube. Unfortunately, there aren't many specific details at this stage aside from the confirmation that NAL will be releasing them in March.

New advertising partner to be announced in coming weeks.

EA and SEE Advertising End Long-Term Relationship; SEE Finishes Strong with EA's Winter Advertising

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2005--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) today stated that after more than ten years of partnership with SEE, they will not be renewing their contract... Read more...

The company increases manufacturing resources for the DS and prepares for Revolution.

According to Asia Pulse (via Yahoo! News), Nintendo Co. Ltd. is preparing to increase its capital spending by 76% this year, mostly for the purpose of fortifying Nintendo DS manufacturing capacities. The DS has been virtually sold out since its debut in both North America and Japan, and the handheld will launch in Europe and Australia this spring.

Rare updates their site, announcing that all four of their Game Boy Advance games have been released by THQ.

After being announced at Spaceworld in 2001 (remember Spaceworld?), all four of Rare's Game Boy Advance games have finally been released. After a small hiccup (like being purchased by Microsoft), Rare's GBA game Banjo Pilot is set for release this week (with some gamers already reporting it in stores). It's Mr. Pants! was released last year at the start of December.

ScanSoft's SpeechWorks recognition software, as seen in Mario Party 6, is available to all GC developers.

Advanced Speech Recognition Enables Gamers to Interact with Game Characters

Using Voice Commands

PEABODY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2005--ScanSoft, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSFT

- News), a global leader of speech and imaging solutions, today announced

that Nintendo has implemented a ScanSoft® speech solution for the Nintendo

Jonnyboy is the big 2-3!

Today is the 23rd birthday of one Jonathan Metts: aerospace engineering student, Bob Dylan fan, and director of Planet GameCube.com. The whole staff would like to extend our birthday wishes to Jonathan. He's done a fantastic job keeping everything here together. He's successfully brought us through two E3 expos and is already hard at work prepping for E3 2005.

Nintendo's new handheld arrives down under next month.

Nintendo Australia Pty. Limited has announced the first official information about the Australian DS launch. The system will be released on Feb. 24th for $199.95 AUS. Nintendo will have two first-party launch titles: Super Mario 64 DS and WarioWare Touched!, with Pokemon Dash available soon thereafter. The rest of the launch lineup will be announced at a later time.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is on its way to a store near you.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Sets a Small Link on a Huge Adventure

Nintendo likes to do things big. Bigger battles, bigger bad guys and

bigger adventures. The Legend of Zelda(R): The Minish Cap, launching

today, takes all these larger-than-life elements and shrinks them to

microscopic size. The result is a huge quest on a tiny scale.