This news shouldn't surprise anyone, but Nintendo Australia have confirmed that there are no short term plans to release the DSi Down Under, and we're probably looking at a "late 2009" shipping date. And with the recent news that the DSi content will be region locked, it looks like the DS Lite is still the handheld of choice for Australian gamers this Christmas. Unless the PSP starts releasing some decent games, that is...

Nintendo has confirmed that both downloadable games and DSi-exclusive software will be region-locked, meaning Japanese games won't play on an American DSi and vice versa. Regular DS games, on the other hand, will continue to be universal, and you'll still be able to play Japanense imports of regular DS games on say, an American DSi. That sucks, because it means if you import a DSi from Japan to skip the longass wait for the US version, you're going to be stuck buying Japanese DSi games forever, not to mention killing the import market. Maybe there's hope yet lurking in that SD card slot though. [CVG]

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Sony's PSP is currently getting its butt handed to it by the Nintendo DS, but don't tell that to Sega. With its upcoming Sega Vision PMP, due out in the UK sometime in 2009, the former hardware company-turned-sub par software maker is hoping to take on the jack-of-all-trades portable market. The prognosis for such a device is OK, but then again how could it not be? After all, this is the company that brought us the 32X, Saturn, and the Dreamcast—the only direction any Sega hardware offering could go from this point forward is up.

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The recently-announced Nintendo DSi will not, as confirmed by a Nintendo spokesperson, replace the DS Lite in the U.S. Her reasoning? The DS Lite is in half of all Japanese households, but only a fifth of U.S. households. Apparently this kind of whirlwind success actually means there is "huge untapped potential" for the Lite, so Nintendo is going to let the two brothers sit side by side, at least for awhile. [Kotaku]

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With the upcoming XCM Rapid Fire Gear Lite kit, Xbox 360 gamers will be able to add machine-gun style turbo buttons to their controllers. Working across multiple games and easily toggled with a top-mounted switch, the kit will also nearly double the controller's D-pad range of motion to 6 degrees in each direction. It will essentially take the stock 360 pad and juice it like [fill in your favourite baseball player here who you are absolutely SURE never used steroids].

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It's tough to imagine the eureka moment when an engineer, equating the Microsoft Surface with a fat person with a penchant for curly fries dipped in ranch, decided to place the Surface on the Wii Balance Board. But the result, coupled with a custom-coded Surface app, creates a tilt screen of epic proportions. Pushing on one edge of the Surface works just like rotating an iPhone. And we can't wait to see the technology manifest to an insane 4-player co-op game of Monkey Ball. [Stimulant via ubergizmo]

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Pandora, the muscled-up Nintendo DS frankenmonster with Linux OS, will be finally available for the holidays shopping season. With only 3,000 units planned, the $US350 game console has no commercial games and is aimed at the homebrew market. Obviously, it's not going to be a hit but its final feature list looks impressive nonetheless.

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America will soon join Europe, Japan and some other lucky folks and have access to the elite Club Nintendo...club. Sure, it's a Nintendo marketing ploy to get users to register products and fill out surveys, but Club Nintendo is also the only outlet to buy the most sacred, extra limited edition Nintendo gear. We'll keep our ear to the ground and let you know when registration begins, but until then, check out this awesome SNES Virtual Console controller that was offered earlier this year by Club Nintendo Japan. Pretty great, right? [Kotaku and image]

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Nintendo has confirmed the existence of their rumoured pedometer with the release of a Wii Fit meets Brain Training meets Nike+ game. Your Life Rhythm, as it is called, uses the little pod to record your physical performance, and it looks a bit weird to me.

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So why is it that the stereotype for gamers is a lonely nerd? Apparently over a third of Australian gamers are members of the fairer sex, at least according to a study by Roy Morgan commissioned by Microsoft.

Unfortunately, the study didn't go into detail on where the best games to meet women were, but it did say that 44 percent of respondents were aged between 14 and 24. It also said that the majority of these female gamers play less than once a month, so don't expect to form an ongoing, meaningful relationship too easily.

The other important thing to note is that the average income for women gamers is $76,300. Which means, should you be lucky enough to find and woo one of these wonderful creatures, you'll be set for life.

[News.com.au]

In the wake of Nintendo's announcement of the DSi, Sony reached out and asked if we'd like to discuss the event and get their side of the story. Sony talking about Nintendo? How could we resist??

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We know, Rock Band 2 just hit shelves and we're already speculating about the instruments in Rock Band 3. But according to a posting on the Harmonix job board, the company is looking to hire a keyboard expert, which we can only assume means that a keyboard will be part of Rock Band 3. From the listing:

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For when fruits, veggies, exercise, plenty of sleep and the occasional colonic won't do, Gamer Grub promises to be the first "performance snack formulated especially for gamers." In flavours like Action Pizza, Racing Wasabi, Strategy Chocolate and Sports PB&J, the snacks are not only fortified with vitamins and minerals, but are specially engineered to be crumb and grease free, protecting your keyboard from its normal all-it-can-eat junk food buffet. We're not sure precisely which brick of the USDA food pyramid that videogame genre-flavoured morsels fall into, but we're willing to wave most (OK, some) judgment until we're able to test this stuff for ourselves.

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Here at the Ninendo Media Summit in San Francisco, NOA President Reginald Fils-Aime stated that the Nintendo DSi would not make an appearance in the US until "well into calendar year 2009." He cited the popularity of the current DS Lite as the primary reason for the prolonged release of the new system. For those (like me) still clunking away on the original DS, the wait just got a little more tortuous.

AU: Great. That pretty much means 2010 for Australia. (Not really, but it will feel like that).

Bad news, folks. We totally missed it in the wake of poor battery life specs, but Nintendo's new DSi will completely ditch support for GBA titles. That not only means no more playing GBA backups (they only loaded from the now extinct GBA slot), but even if you were to load some sort of GBA emulation through the DS slot, chances are that the DS's processor wouldn't be fast enough to handle it (integrated GBA hardware processed these games before). Also, no GBA slot means that the lightly supported but excellent DS rumble pack and similar accessories are dead too. I can't speak for everyone here, but the DSi is becoming a bigger disappointment by the second. [Kotaku]

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The fine gents over at Kotaku have listed all of the DS Lite and newly announced DSi specs in a one-on-one showdown. We see all of the expected small upgrades—the screens are a tiny bit bigger, the case ever so slightly longer and thinner. But the big surprise? Battery life bites it big time.

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More from the Nintendo Press Conference: the company will let you download games onto SD cards on the Wii, starting Spring 2009. Yes, you'll have to wait another four or five months before you get to unclog the Wii's paltry HD, but at least it's something right? Nintendo president Satoru Iwata also talked about an initiative to get more people using the Internet features of the Wii. The company will release a new Wi-Fi adaptor (possibly with mesh networking capabilities) and offer you 500 free Wii Points if you help a friend get connected. [Kotaku]

As expected, Nintendo has announced a new version of its DS, called the Nintendo DSi. While the machine no longer has a GBA slot, it's added a 640x480 camera, "audio enhancements" (like the ability to adjust pitch and playback), a 17% bigger screen (measuring in at 3.25 inches), and an SD memory card slot for storing games and easy picture uploading.

The DSi will also feature built-in browsers and a DSi shop. Pricing categories at the shop for DsiWare include Free, 200 points, 500 points, and a "Premium" 800 points. New DSi owners will get 1000 points to spend at the DSi Shop before March 2010. I. Want. It. Now. Get the rest of the story from our brother-in-arms, Kotaku (and click their digg badge above)! [Kotaku]

Ah, video games and casual drug use. They go together like World of Warcraft and loneliness, don't they? That's why we saw a water pipe made out of an N64 controller last year, and that's why Giz reader James dedicated this past weekend into converting an old NES controller into a bong. It doesn't work, unfortunately, but I'm sure you'd be bad enough at playing after using this thing without having to try to smoke while also controlling Mega Man. Nice work, James. We like to see young people using their time constructively. Hit the jump for another picture of this masterpiece of ingenuity.

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MCV, a respected gaming news publication out of the UK, has stated "according to [an] impeccable source in Japan" that "Nintendo will announce a new, updated version of its DS console at a press conference tomorrow morning." They cite the exact time of the conference to run at 5AM UK, or late tonight/early morning for Americans. Given the short timetable on this rumour, we'll know either way soon enough. But it's possibly that Nintendo wants to announce the products before any more leaks occur. [MCV]

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Why Akihabara's Refresh Club doesn't have a New York outlet, I don't know, but on the wake of this groundbreaking news, they better open it soon. For $US25 you will be able to play Wii Fit with Japanese girls in French maid dresses. Yes, Wii Fit, that game with the balance board that often requires you to lean forward and backward. Because, you know, as the owner says, exercise is all about your playmates:

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A true "next generation" Nintendo console, tentatively referred to as the Wii HD, will hit the market in 2011, according to the folks at What They Play. The site claimed that Nintendo is currently showing early presentations of Wii 2.0 to the game development community, and that Miyamoto's new device will be based on completely new hardware and will contain HD visuals, digitally distributed content and expanded storage.

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Let's do a little word association game, shall we? You know - I'll say a word or a phrase, and you say the first thing that pops into your head. Okay, let's go:
Red Xbox controller...

...

Did you say Red Ring Of Death? So did I. Which is weird, because the two have very little to do with eachother. In reality, Microsoft's new red Xbox 360 controller is exactly the same as all the other (official) Xbox 360 controllers on the market, except it's red. Oh, and it comes with a Play and Charge cable and a red rechargeable battery, which gives about 25 hours worth of gameplay per charge.

The red controller hits stores November 7, which is the same day as Gears of War 2. I wonder if they wanted it to remind you of blood? In any case, it'll set you back $99.95 RRP.

[Xbox]

At E3 this year, all the games journalists and hardcore gamers seemed a little bit disappointed by Nintendo's offering. Sure they had the MotionPlus peripheral, but outside of that, the only game of any note was Wii Music.

Well, Nintendo are launching Wii Music next week at the Opera House, and although many of you couldn't care less about waving your Wiimote around like a musical instrument, your mums and dads might. That's why I'll be there, subjecting myself to the rigours of Wiimote jamming, or something similar.

Expect a full report after the event...

While Namco jumped headfirst into the Android Market by giving away Pac-Man, EA Games is going to sit out for the time being, at least until there's a billing system in place for apps in the Android Market: "EA will support the Android platform...but has elected to wait for the launch of a content billing solution to bring their premier IP to market."

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