According to industry sources, the the R4DS card for the Nintendo DS may affect Macronix International, a Taiwan-based ROM manufacturer. Wondering just what sort of losses Macronix could stand to face? Visit the full article to find out!

It seems that the Taiwan market will not be seeing any Wiis before the Chinese New Year, so retailers are now increasing their orders for Nintendo's DS Lite handheld system in order to take advantage of upcoming holiday shopping demand. This according to DigiTimes.

Hakuyu, Nintendo's Taiwan sales agent, said that it "expects retailers' orders for NDS Lite consoles to top NT$ 100 million (US$ 3 million) for January, as they stock the game consoles ahead of the long Chinese New Year holiday, which comes in February this year." The company will import 20,000-30,000 units of NDS Lite from Japan this month, but Hakuyu says that the number will still be unable to meet strong demand.

Despite this, some retailers and online stores have already been offering privately imported Wiis at the end of last year. Even with these products' marked-up prices, market observers say that they have already sold out.

Cosplaying. It's weird, it's goofy, and in some cases, it's Narutard-extreme. Whatever the case, anime otaku and gamer alike love the idea of dressing up as their favorite characters come convention time; everyone wanna see how far they can push their luck impersonating their favorite manga/pixelated hero.

We found these vids over at TechEblog, which are all fan-made skits of all our all-time favorite games. Kinda shows you what a dedicated gamer can do when they've got a bit of money, creativity, and a helluva lot of time on their hands.

The first video up is a skit on Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. It was made by students over at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. Hmm, early concept for the Wiimote?


The video up next is a homage to everybody's favorite tactical espionage game (Not you, Sam...). This MGS skit was done way over in Taiwan, and we gotta admit, we like the way they adapted an abandoned building for the game's original Arctic setting. On a side note, their Meryl looks cuter than the original, in a Tifa sort of way.

Click on the jump to see the rest of these skits!

What do you do when the holidays are near? If you're a distributor you'd probably hoard a hot products so you can sell it for a profit come the right moment. And that is exactly what some sneaky Taiwanese businessmen are doing.

Hakuyu, the official DS Lite distributor in Taiwan, says that it planned to import 10,000 DS lites for the Taiwan market on October 30, following a consignment of 6,000 units last September. Hakyu also promises that it would evenly distribute all upcoming batches of DS Lites to all sales outlets. However, Hakyu says that supply from Nintendo is still unstable as distributors from other regions are all demanding more game consoles amid increasing sales (it's going to be a merry Christmas for Nintendo?).

But, Nintendo Taiwan observes that despite the high demand, some distributors are holding on to their inventory of DS Lites in order to make a killing come the holidays. With demand high enough, prices may end up sky-rocketing, and that's odd since DS Lite prices in Taiwan went down last month.

One of the Taiwan sales agents of Nintendo DS, Hakuyu, has just recently lowered the price of the Nintendo handheld. From NT$4,980 (around US$151), they have brought it down to NT$4,800 in order to match the prices that are being offered by other importers.

Hakuyu is reported to have sold as many as 24,000 NDS Lites since it was launched in Taiwan in late June. They have also announced plans to import around 6,000 new NDS Lites by September, including the recently-launched Pink and Black models, in order to keep up with the high demand for the Nintendo handheld.

So, if you know anyone who may be dropping by that area within the next month, perhaps now would be a good time to ask them to get you a new one, especially if you can't wait for the black and pink NDS Lites.