Which gaming platform will top 2007 in terms of sales? That should be an easy one. The Nintendo DS is blazing the trail and is selling one unit every 5 seconds. With appealing games like New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64 and Pokemon Diamond, it's easy to see why. Read on and find out just how sweet this year was for Nintendo's handheld.

The Nintendo Wii and DS both have a solid fanbase in the U.S. In spite of this success, it doesn't seem that Nintendo has any plans of increasing video game development in the country.

Nintendo senior vice president George Harrison said that, "I'm not aware of any plans to push for more software development here in the U.S." Want to find out more? Head on over to the full article.

So the analysts were right on the money as Nintendo once again took first (and second) place in hardware sales in October. What's Nintendo's take on it? George Harrison - Nintendo of America Market Chief - talks about sales, shortages and the competition. Details in the full article.

Before rumors spread like wild fire, Nintendo of America responded to rumors of a new Nintendo DS model. It's all "rumour and speculation [sic]" according to Ninty. Marketing executive George Harrison also pitched in a few words, saying, "We don’t have any imminent plans for an upgrade for the Nintendo DS."

For more details, head over to the full article.

Nintendo of America, The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), and Nortel LearniT teamed up to bring cute creatures from the Nintendo DS titles Pokemon Diamond/Pearl to elementary and middle school students for them to learn science in a fun way. In the spirit of the Pokemon Learning League, Nintendo and its partners aim to teach students using familiar imagery.

Check out what Nintendo of America and its partners have in store for students at the full article.

In a staggering contrast with the commercial success of Wii and DS consoles, it seems that Nintendo of America (NoA) is having some problems on the corporate level. All of these began when the company announced its decision to move its headquarters either in San Francisco from Redmond.

A couple of months ago, we learned that NoA is looking for someone to replace VP Perrin Kaplan. Then a suspicious retirement leak for Harrison circulated around the Internet. Well, it turned out that the leak is not at all suspicious because George Harrison has just confirmed that he is indeed leaving the Nintendo family behind.

"I have confirmed to all employees that I will be leaving at the end of December and not making the move to California," Harrison told Reuters via phone. The VP first joined Nintendo back in 1992 as Director of Advertising and Promotions.

And we are sure, that he will be missed by Nintendo and its fans.

Nintendo of America Ltd. has come out with a press release stating that the strong sales of both the Wii and Nintendo DS have helped strengthen one of their major franchises, namely Pokemon. This isn't a one way thing though, as the popularity of the franchise also helped in the selling of consoles.

 

As a testament to the the franchise's popularity on both consoles, DS exclusives Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl have already sold three million copies in the U.S. while Pokemon Battle Revolution is currently the fifth best selling game on the Wii. Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications George Harrison commented on this symbiotic relationship:

These hard numbers show that the Pokemon franchise and Nintendo's systems are striking a chord with players of all ages and drawing in huge numbers of new players year after year. But anecdotally we're also seeing that these new Pokemon games are appealing to older players, the same ones who played the original Pokemon games when they debuted in the United States almost 10 years ago.

Historically speaking, Pokemon has always had a strong following ever since it debuted in Japan. The numbers have swelled since then as more countries have been invaded by the Pokemon craze. The number of fans are still climbing as of this article's writing so it's pretty safe to assume that we can expect to hear more good things from this franchise.

People whose brains are feeling a wee bit lethargic due to the recent summer vacation may want to check out Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day for the DS. This brain stimulator is now available in video game stores and should save save many a lazy gamer's brains from feeling too sluggish during classes.

"The point of the original Brain Age was to jolt users' brains out of complacency by challenging them with a variety of fun activities," Said George Harrison, senior vice president of Nintendo's marketing and corporate communications.

Brain Age 2 now features 15 modes including simple exercises such as repeated subtractions, unscrambling letters to form words, and playing on a virtual piano among many other activities (many of them not seen in the previous game). Sudoku puzzles are also packed in Brain Age 2, just enough to jump start lazy minds.

If you happen to notice that kids younger than your age are smarter than you, then it's a good idea to plonk down a few dollars for this title. If you can afford a few more, then get that snazzy yin-yang themed DS along with Brain Age 2 as well.

It looks like Nintendo of America is headed for a drastic change in management. First it was a suspicious job listing that hinted at a replacement for NoA VP Perrin Kaplan and now an informant has leaked to Game Daily Biz that Senior VP George Harrison will indeed be leaving NoA.

Harrison will continue to be Senior VP for a while longer, helping with Nintendo's transition to New York / San Francisco. No official announcement of the retirement has been made to the public as of yet. No official news also for fellow executives Kaplan and Beth Llewlyn.

Harrison joined Nintendo in 1992 as Director of Advertising and Promotions. It's not likely we'll find out where he intends to move to until an official announcement has been made if he is actually retiring. If rumors are true, it may be that the executives are leaving the company because of the company's decision to move its headquarters. 90% of the company's Sales and Marketing Staff have already decided not to make the move.

With Nintendo's track record of revising its handhelds multiple times, GameDaily couldn't help but ask Nintendo of America's George Harrison if they are also planning a hardware revision on the Wii. Harrison, Senior VP of Marketing, said that a new version of the Wii is possible, but something that they are not yet thinking about at the moment; the Wii still hasn't reached its second holiday yet.

When asked whether they still have plans for the Game Boy brand Harrison said that the Game Boy Advance still survives because of the available games, but since developers are now producing more games for the DS, fewer Game Boy titles come out. (The Nintendo DS, while being a handheld, didn't bear the Game Boy brand in its name.) He continued:

So this year in our marketing, you really won't see much push in against Game Boy itself, so it will seek its own level. It's hard to say whether in the future we would ever bring back the Game Boy trademark. It was a big risk for us to actually pass on it and call the new product Nintendo DS, but it was part of Mr. Iwata's philosophy that if we're going to make a radical difference and try to reach a new audience we have to change the name.

Names really do matter, at least for Harrison and Nintendo. He also believed that should the Nintendo DS be called "Game Boy DS", the handheld would not have sold well, as it put off people who already decided that the Game Boy is not for them. But still, the Game Boy name is not entirely ruled out, but Nintendo may have some plans for it once there's a good reason to use the name Game Boy again.

Check out the Full Article on Harrison's two cents regarding Microsoft!