Nintendo have always prided themselves on their originality. Unfortunately in this case the courts do not agree.
Back in 2006 a small Texas based gaming company called Anascape sued Nintendo for patent infringement in the creation of the Wii, Wavebird and Gamecube controllers. After almost two years the courts have ruled in favour of Anascape, and Nintendo must now pay $21 million compensation to Anascape and while Nintendo can certainly spare the cash this is definitely a humiliating blow.

Today Sony has released there earnings for the fiscal year ending on March 31st 2008 and believe it or not they are in the green. Sony have reported that there operating income has been increased by 491% translating to £1.837 billion. There was a sizeable loss in the gaming segment (most likely due to the selling the PS3's at a loss) but both the PSP and PS2 were still bringing in strong sales.

Even though Europe is the third largest video game market in the world, many games never release over in the PAL region. Because of this, Europe has missed out on many great gaming experiences. (particularly during the SNES era) BritishGaming takes a look at the ten best games that were never released in Europe. The list includes "Hey You, Pikachu" and "Final Fantasy III", among others.

With it's low price and mass market appeal, the Nintendo DS is continuing to be the more popular choice in the portable gaming market. Sony shouldn't feel too bad, but I wonder how they can predict a turnaround at this point? Well, according to Sony Europe's president David Reeves, the PSP needs more games to be released for it here in the West. If Sony is ever going to gain ground on the DS, it needs alot more big name releases.

In this article they talk about the future of the Xbox 360, and how technological advancements could eventually shrink the Xbox 360 down to Wii size. In August, Microsoft will be releasing a new 65nm GPU, called Jasper, which will apparently put an end to the "Red Ring of Death." You might want to hold off a little longer on purchasing your 360 if you can.

Remember my story about Mass Effect for the PC needing to be authenticated every 10 days? Well Bioware and EA have apparently had a change of heart and changed the system. Now you will only need to enter a code when first installing the game and when you purchase additional content. No word on what's happening to Spore.

Recently ThreeSpeech asked their members what questions they wanted to ask Evan Wells at Naughty Dog. Now they have selected the best ones and put them to the man in this exclusive interview. There is some interesting stuff in there, but by far the highlight is his discussion of Naughty Dog's next project, he mentions that the next game might not be Uncharted and that a new Jak is definitely a possibility. This is just half the interview though, the rest will be posted tomorrow

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A realist has written a lengthy blog on what he thinks will be in the next Xbox to come out for Mircosoft. He talks about the design(size, style), which media it will use/stick with, the CPU(sticking with IBM, possibly), the GPU(Xenos ATI chip), the controllers(maybe the Wii-look-alike) and finally, when it will be dated for release. He seems to be set on Novemeber 9th, 2009.

The Nordic Game 2008 conference is coming up, yeah nothing special right? Wrong, while the meeting is less game focused and more tech focused the conference will feature Fumito Ueda head of the ICO team to give a speech in the game creation and technology program, as well as Fumito the creator of Siren Hill Keiichiro Toyama will be attending along with Rock Band's Roby Kay and Ninja Theory co-founder, Tameem Antoniades. And who knows we may just hear something abut that new ICO game we've bee...

Have you ever wondered how much something actually costs the company? In this case, an analyst breaks down how much it would cost Microsoft to make their hard drive for the Xbox 360. After purchasing various things like VARs, the final packaging and markup, the analyst decides that it costs them a rough $100 to make their hard drive. It costs $179.99 on GameStop, but Amazon offers a steal at $149.99. Therefore, Microsoft earns a nice profit. Either way, they're going to make a move for the be...

Last year E3 suffered much criticism for privatising the event with the average Joe unable to attend the expo. Many analysts said they E3's fate depended on what happened in the following year. Now the list of companies attending E3 has been made public and it's not looking good. Activation, Blizzard NC Soft and many more are missing from the line up. Is this a sign of whats to come?

"#7.Thou shalt let us play your game with real-life friends.


You're dropping it because four players on a split screen are playing off one $60 copy of the game. Four players playing online need four copies ($240).

And these are the same people who're baffled about how the Nintendo Wii was able to depants the whole industry with its cheap, underpowered little machine. Hey, maybe it's because they're the one company that still seems to realize humans need interaction with other humans...."

Atari and Infogames are officially merging together for a cool $11 million, information on the deal being released just yesterday. Infogames will have full control of Atari when the merger is completed in the third quarter of 2008 but in return Infogames as well as the money for the purchase must also supply Atari with $20 million to cover capital requirements.

"Ah, fanboys. What industry can truly call itself an industry without them? Those who prove themselves obsessively loyal to any product or corporation can be found among many communities, and nowhere do they flourish more freely than within gamer culture.

Although it may sound ridiculous to normal people, swearing undying allegiance to a heartless box of electrical components is a perfectly rational act in the mind of the fanboy, even though if he defended something like a particular brand ..."

"What's that you say? GTA IV's only been out for a few hours, and already the internet's decided that both the PS3 and 360 versions are broken? That's what many forums - as well as many of our readers - would have you believe, with reports of the game locking up during/following the game's first cutscene, an error so severe you apparently have to unplug your console at the wall. Shades of Bully on 360, perhaps?"

"A NEW futuristic line of poker machines with Xbox-style graphics will rake in a younger generation of gamblers according to experts.

The hi-tech machines will use better graphics and interactive technology to appeal to junior punters and will be designed to be as versatile as a home computer.

The plan for more sophisticated, hi-tech pokies was canvassed at a recent Future Trends in Gaming conference in Queensland, where major industry organisations outlined their vision to attract you..."

"Can’t get enough of the classic arcade games up on Xbox Live? Then you probably know how miserable it can be to play most of the old school arcade games with the 360’s modern controller. I guess that’s why this one-of-a-kind custom 360 arcade controller has me green with envy.

Created by master joystick builder ShaolinDrunkard, it’s just one of several gorgeous custom arcade sticks he’s designed and constructed."

Of the 30 years that videogames have been running strong, it's always going to be hard to choose a top 10 list. There are always years that are left out even with stellar titles in them, and as much as it pains me to see 2004 and Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 overlooked for their monumental contributions to PC gaming (especially HL2's genius Source engine), I do agree with their number one choice.

"A PlayStation 3 version of 2K Boston and 2K Australia's story-driven underwater shooter BioShock will arrive this September, assuming rumors printed within the June issue of EGM are true.

According to the magazine and proven NeoGAF proxy SuperSonic 1305, the PlayStation 3 port will pack improved visuals over the previous PC and Xbox 360 editions along with the previously-released free downloadable content.

When reached for comment today, 2K Games told Shacknews it had "no comment" on th..."

"UPDATE: Inside sources have informed 1UP that Eidos's entire PR, marketing, and sales department has been laid off as part of the deal with Warner Bros. We'll update with more information as it becomes available.

ORIGINAL STORY: It hasn't exactly been sunshine and roses lately for British publisher SCi. Last time we checked in, the beleaguered company was firing 25% of its staff and canceling games left and right in a bout of extreme cost-cutting measures designed to keep the company afloa..."

After Microsoft had been reported trash talking, it seems the PS3 is going better with pre-sales than the XBOX360. Most people including myself thought that since the 360 version will be receiving extra features, that the sales will be better. It turns out that the sales were neck to neck but it seems the PS3 is still pulling through. Whats you opinions on the matter?

"UPDATE: Microsoft just contacted MTV Multiplayer with an official statement, confirming the prospective hires will work on Peter Jackson’s “Halo” project.

“A Peter Jackson-helmed Halo project was announced at X06 in Barcelona,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “Since then, Microsoft Game Studios has been hard at work collaborating with Peter Jackson and Bungie on the development of that project. At this time, it’s necessary to grow the internal team to keep pace with development. Bungie will..."

"This week's Famitsu has revealed three new characters for Square-Enix's upcoming 360 RPG Infinite Undiscovery. Here's all three with what little info we've got so far:

Eduardo, age 17, is a swordsman who wields an unsurprising-but-still-ludicrous large sword, is also a member of the resistance. He looks up to Sigmund and always strives to do his best to earn his respect. Although he may seem cool and calm, his ideals sometimes cloud his actions.

Lucca and Locca, age 10, are fraternal tw..."

"It's easy to forget that back when Devil May Cry 4 was announced, fans of the series were quick to trumpet it as a potentially system-selling classic and an exclusive feather in Sony's PS3 cap. Times change however, and as we all know Dante and Nero also made their grandstanding way over to Microsoft's Xbox 360, in due course selling more than 2 million copies and becoming a certified hit on both consoles in the process."