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Walmart just announced an exclusive Wii bundle, containing both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, as well as the necessary MotionPlus attachment. It'll be available in stores today, and on Walmart.com this Sunday. There's no reason not to pick this one up instead of the normal Wii package: this new bundle sells for the same $199 price!

According to Walmart, it'll only be available "while supplies last," which, given the history of the Wii platform, could be a surprisingly short time.

Update: We were additionally informed by a Walmart representative that the bundle contains "[one] normal Wii console you would purchase -- comes with all the same components -- for $199, except that you're getting Wii Sports Resort (with the packaged Wii MotionPlus)." Still quite a deal!

It doesn't take a research grant to figure out that exercise -- heck, just walking around the block once a day -- can have a dramatic effect on a person's well-being. The problem is that so-called "older adults," who are particularly prone to a mild but no less debilitating depression known as subsyndromal depression (SSD), are really just too bummed out to do much of anything. Here's where the grant money comes in: Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and his team of researches at UCSD gathered up 19 seniors diagnosed with SSD and had each of them play Wii Sports for 35 minutes, three times a week.

"The study suggests encouraging results from the use of the exergames," Dr. Jeste reports. "More than one-third of the participants had a 50-percent or greater reduction of depressive symptoms." Additionally, most participants claimed that learning to to play those darned vidja games was actually pretty easy -- even enjoyable. Uh-oh. Red flag!

You see, had Dr. Jeste continued his study, he might have found that his guinea pigs would soon discover that Wii Sports can easily be played with the slightest flicks of the wrist and, ah yes, it is nice to just sit back on the couch again, but, oh boy, this game is really getting boring, so let me just get on the dag blasted google and see what -- here we go -- "the best videogame right now," okay, the yahoo's answer says: World of Warcraft. Warcraft, eh? That certainly sounds better than bowling. Couldn't hurt to give it a quick gander ... click.

Look, we get just as tired of seeing Nintendo's remarkably high software sales figures every few months as you do -- that's why, this time around, we're going to do things a little differently. We're just going to add up all the life-to-date totals for the company's biggest titles, and just drop them in one big chunk. Ready? Okay, here we go: 247,780,000.

Well, that sure didn't work. Fine, we'll break down each of the games highlighted by Nintendo's recent financial report (warning: .pdf link) and post their FY2010 sales and life-to-date sales after the jump. (Fun fact: All of the Wii games actually have "Wii" in the title. It's like the Nintendo 64 days all over again!)

Across two of Nintendo's biggest markets, the US and Europe, the house that Mario built has managed to get a lot of its hardware and software into customers' hands, reporting huge sales milestones and a very prosperous December. In Europe, the DS is now the best-selling video game console of all time, surpassing the 40 million mark in the region. The Wii now tops 20 million, becoming the fastest-selling console in the region since its release three years ago. There's also some data on Nintendo's games to chew on, including Wii Sports Resort, which sold five million since releasing in July, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which just reached 2.5 million units sold.

As for the States, Nintendo's been raking in equally impressive amounts of cash here. In December, three million Wii consoles were purchased and the DS set "a new all-time calendar-year U.S. sales record for any console or hand-held system." You know, just like the company did last year. Also, New Super Mario Bros. Wii had quite the stellar showing in the U.S., achieving lifetime sales of four million units in the region.

In short: Nintendo is pretty much the same as always.

Source - Nintendo UK press release
Source - Nintendo of America press release

Nintendo must've had some luck with its Great Lakes and Wii Sports Resort tours recently, as the company has announced the Nintendo Mall Experience tour. Starting next week through December 20, The Big N will be stopping at shopping centers across the country to get some of its Wii and DS titles in the faces of holiday shoppers.

On the Wii side, Nintendo will show off its top three games for the holiday season: Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus. For the handheld crowd, Nintendo will be pushing the new Style Savvy, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Head past the break for the full list of stops on Nintendo's Mall Experience tour.

Look, if people are going to eschew their work day in favor of having a gaming tournament, we're the first to sympathize. In the case of those in the business of protecting our lives from murderers and financial institutions though, we find it hard to offer much solace. So when eleven officials from several Florida agencies were caught on videotape playing games a couple months back and the story caught on internationally, we were hopeful that those found guilty would maybe, you know, actually receive some form of punishment.

Instead, the Lakeland Ledger reports that the offending officers will suffer such retribution as ... a few hours of retraining? The names of the officers are even being withheld due to their "undercover" status at the time. Lakeland sheriff chief of staff Gary Hester goes as far as to say, "We are learning from our mistakes ... I think we handled [the investigation] properly." He then hurriedly rushed back to a game of Street Fighter IV in progress against a competing police department.

... Okay, we made up that last part.

Nintendo UK will release the black Wii system on November 6, as part of a limited edition bundle including matching Wii Remote, Nunchuk, and MotionPlus peripherals, and both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. This bundle will be available elsewhere in Europe on November 20.

Along with the black bundle, Nintendo is releasing the black Classic Controller Pro accessory. No price has been announced for any of these items. Nintendo of America has yet to announce any plans to release any of these items -- in fact, it has announced that there are no plans. But, really, it's waiting until every holdout gets impatient and buys a white system.

We were certain -- absolutely certain -- that the epidemic of fractured television screens which cropped up with the release of the Wii had passed. Everyone's heard the horror stories, seen the blackened eyes and witnessed the ruined electronics, we thought. Everyone now knows the methods of avoiding Wiimote accidents during their exuberant Wii Sports bouts, we thought. The Home Shopping Network recently proved the inaccuracy of this observation.

The hilarity unfolds in the video after the jump. While some might grimace at the fate of the poor television featured in the video, remember that they're charging $330 for a Wii and 15 completely unnecessary controller attachments. Call it an accident, if you'd like -- we call it Karma in action.

Just like we saw earlier this year with the PlayStation 3 Slim, the rumor mill is churning at breakneck pace -- though this time around a possible Nintendo Wii price cut rather than a slimmer console. Aside from multiple retailer listings and today's alleged internal Best Buy memo, MCV reports that a "retail source" told it the UK won't be receiving the same price cut that North America and Japan are expected to receive. Instead, the current model will be given the bundle treatment.

GamesIndustry.biz spotted the new bundle on ShopTo.net -- it has since been removed, though an image and a shell of the page still exist -- which includes both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort as well as a MotionPlus attachment, for the same £199.99 ($326.76) the system is priced at now. If it is true, at least UK Wii buyers will be getting a bit more for their pounds. It's not quite the Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros. with a Zapper combo of yore, but it'll have to do.

Source -- No Wii price cut for UK [GamesIndustry.biz]
Source -- New UK Wii bundle leaked [MCV]

Police are good at three things: protecting; serving; and bowling. During a recent raid in conjunction with several Florida agencies, officers came across the occupant's Wii console and, instead of ignoring it and going about their day, decided to turn the little white box on and throw down in some bowling with Wii Sports. What they didn't notice is that the occupant had a secret security camera set up that filmed every strike and gutterball, MSNBC shares. Busted!

Head past the break to watch the video.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

In an email interview with Wired, Wii Sports Resort producer Katsuya Eguchi revealed that, beyond the twelve events included in the final game, even more were planned that didn't quite make it in the game.

"We considered fishing and a water slide activity before deciding on the final twelve events," Eguchi said. We're having a hard time imagining a controllable, skill-based water slide game, which may have been one reason it didn't end up in Resort. "As for more unconventional concepts, we created a pretty fun prototype of kendama, a traditional Japanese toy, that just didn't fit the game's theme." So, a toy didn't fit the "resort" theme, but fighting with fake swords was completely appropriate? Working at Nintendo is complicated.

Nintendo's tropical minigame getaway, Wii Sports Resort, has managed to entice one million gamers in the US, the publisher has announced. Debuting July 26, it didn't take the game long to reach that number (it sold 508,000 in July), and we're sure that we'll be writing another post like this one in a month or so when the game reaches two million in sales. Anyone taking bets?

You know, we often wonder why we don't have a large, flammable recreation of Wii Sports Resort's Wuhu Island sitting on our desk, but then we remember most of our work is done while being chained to a laptop in some random dungeon in Philadelphia. While we may be starved for sunlight (not to mention just plain starving), seeing things like this piece of papercraft gives us hope. Hope that we can make cheap pieces of art when we're finally so malnourished that we can slip out of our shackles.

Hit up the gallery below for more Nintendo-inspired papercraft, including this awesome Wolf Link.

Having released a new (and popular) Wii Sports, it seems fairly obvious that Nintendo would start bundling that with Wii hardware, right? Well, Nintendo rarely does the obvious. In an interview with Toronto Thumbs, Nintendo of Canada's Matt Ryan dismissed the idea of a new bundle in the near future.

"The long-term plan is difficult to say, but I can tell you that there are no plans to make Wii Sports Resort what is packed in with the Wii purchase," Ryan said, adding "What is in the Wii box will remain the same." In case you couldn't pick up the subtext, he reiterated "Wii Sports Resort will not replace Wii Sports."

Why not? Ryan described Resort as "more full-on software that you're used to purchasing at retail at that price point," while the original Wii Sports is "designed to show off what the Wii Remote can do." Although Japanese consumers have had no issues with buying separate copies of Wii Sports.

Normally, we'd just assume that there is a plan for a bundle, but Nintendo doesn't want to talk about it -- except that there haven't been official bundles for Wii Fit or Mario Kart Wii. Like we said, Nintendo avoids the obvious.

In a supplement to Nintendo's earnings statement yesterday, the company released some sales numbers for top-selling games in the last quarter. Four Nintendo products sold over one million copies between April and July, only one of which was a new release anywhere in the world during that time.

Pokemon Platinum on DS, which came out in North America in March, right before the quarter started, moved 1.91 million copies in Q1, for a life-to-date total of 5.66 million worldwide.

It was an even better quarter for the Wii's evergreens. Wii Fit sold an additional 3.6 million copies, bringing its LTD to 21.82. Mario Kart Wii sold 2 million, making its total 17.39 million. And Wii Sports sold an additional 1.91 million copies, bringing its total sales number to a ridiculous 47.62 million, including copies sold in hardware bundles.

And that's why there's a sequel.

Source (PDF)