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The Wii is coming to...Sports Authority?

(Credit: Nintendo)

You might be used to buying your video game consoles only at an electronics store, but all that will soon change. National sports retailer Sports Authority announced Tuesday that it will start selling the Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit Plus in its stores.

Aside from being able to pick up a Wii and Wii Fit Plus, consumers will also find Sports Authority stores that boast a Wii "interactive fitness experience." The section of the store will have "knowledgeable fitness trainers allowing customers to try Wii and Wii Fit Plus before they buy."

While it's certainly interesting to see a Wii being used by a fitness instructor in a sports store, Sports Authority said it believes that it will help set it apart in the marketplace. According to the company, users will now be able to "satisfy their fitness- and sports-gaming needs under one roof."

But just how much of a benefit Wii Fit actually affords its users is up for debate. Sports Authority might claim that it helps users "achieve better health," but a recent study (PDF) from the American Council on Exercise found that the game offers a "very, very mild workout."

That could throw a wrench in Sports Authority's plans as it attempts to make the case that the Wii and the Wii Fit Plus make sense next to other products designed specifically to improve the health of its users. As appealing as it might be to some, Nintendo's game might not be able to stand up against fitness-focused products.

Regardless, Sports Authority has thrown its support behind Nintendo's console. The Wii and the Wii Fit Plus will be available in 102 stores starting on Thursday. It will be rolled out to remaining company stores by spring 2010.

(Credit: Smarty Pants)

Kids may gobble up junk food, but it seems they love playing with Nintendo devices even more.

Out of the 100 most loved brands for America's children and tweens, the Nintendo Wii and DS scored the first and second spots, according to a report by research firm Smarty Pants.

The survey "Young Love" found that even tempting snacks like Oreos and M&Ms trailed behind the Nintendo gear, taking the third and fifth spots in the list, respectively. Other techie items loved by 6- to 12-year-olds included the iPod at number 12, Sony's Playstation at 14, YouTube at 36, and Microsoft's Xbox at 42.

Kids participate in more than $500 billion in consumer spending each year, according to Smarty Pants, and their parents consider their favorites when buying everything from snacks to entertainment, both of which popped up heavily on the list.

"From Crayola to iPod, kids' most loved brands are familiar, iconic brands that delight kids and parents with variety, value, family-friendly content, and simple pleasures," Smarty Pants President Wynne Tyree said in a statement. "Interestingly, the top brands are not traditional 'for kids only' brands; in fact, many are not marketed directly to kids."

To compile the report, Smarty Pants questioned 4,700 American kids and their parents online over a period of nine months. Covered in the survey were more than 260 consumer brands across 20 different product categories.

The brands that kids liked most, said SmartyPants, were the ones that offered high-quality family time, age-appropriate content, parent-approved indulgence, variety/choice, "cool" accessibility, and chatter-worthy advertising.

It's all gone--thanks to Nintendo.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

The DS DoubleSys iPhone app, a Nintendo DS lookalike (and simulator) that we've been following since it was first made available on Apple's App Store, was removed from the store upon request from Nintendo, Nintendo said in an e-mail.

In response to a request for comment, Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta wrote that his company felt it needed to protect its intellectual property.

"Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies, and in turn expects others to respect ours as well," Scibetta wrote in an e-mail. "Nintendo did seek the removal of this application as we vigorously protect against infringement of our intellectual property rights."

But it didn't end there. Also taken down was the video the app's developer, ZM2 Dev, had posted to YouTube about how the DS DoubleSys app works. In the video's place, a YouTube notice is displayed that reads: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Nintendo of America."

ZM2 Dev did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There's currently no word on whether or not ZM2 Dev will release a similar, non-infringing app in the near future.

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Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime holds up the new DS-i handheld device.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Updated at 10:42 a.m. PDT with new information from the rest of the Nintendo press event.

SAN FRANCISCO--Nintendo on Thursday said it expects to ship a much higher number of Wii video game consoles to retailers this holiday season than it did last year.

At its annual fall media event here, the Japanese company's North American president, Reggie Fils-Aime, told the gathered media that the company intends to try to address the well-documented shortages of the Wii that occurred during the 2007 holiday season.

He didn't say exactly how many Wiis had been available last year, nor how many more would be making their way into consumers' hands this time around. And he didn't even commit to being able to satisfy all demand this year.

"Will there be enough (Wiis) to meet demand?" Fils-Aime said. "Talk to me in January."

Still, it's important for the company to at least try to address the shortages that resulted in long lines at retailers that happened to have a few Wiis available.

But Fils-Aime added that the company is in uncharted territory with the Wii, and he suggested that the company doesn't have the ability to judge exactly how many units would be required to satisfy all consumers this holiday season.

He did say, however, that Nintendo expects to increase supplies of the Wii by about 50 percent in the fourth quarter of this year.

Asked how much more demand there had been for the Wii during last year's holiday season than available units, he said there was no way to quantify that.

"All we know," Fils-Aime told me, "is that as soon as units were available at retailers, they were gone in seconds."

Fils-Aime opened his remarks by unveiling Nintendo's new DS-i handheld console. However, because Nintendo also had a media event in Japan last night, that news had already made its way around the world.

A publicity photograph of the new Nintendo DS-i.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

He said the DS-i will not be available in North America until well into 2009 because there is still strong demand here for the existing DS Lite. He explained that the DS Lite is still selling better here than any device ever has and that there is still a large amount of penetration to be had.

In fact, he said that while one in every two Japanese households already has a DS or DS Lite, that number is just one in five in North America. Nintendo said it won't release the DS-i, which is expected to cost the equivalent of $180 in Japan, in North America until that penetration rate is higher.

Whether there are warehouses full of DS Lites that still need to be sold is not clear, and Nintendo isn't saying what its specific game plan is regarding the North American transition from DS Lite to DS-i.

Sega's Super Monkey Ball will be ported to the iPhone

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)

One of the more intriguing outcomes from the iPhone SDK and the upcoming App Store is the notion of the iPhone as a mobile gaming platform. When the SDK was announced, game developers leaped on the chance to develop games for the iPhone, which seemed like an exciting new playground for mobile games. But frankly, I was skeptical. I have both a Sony PSP and a Nintendo DS; would gaming on a cell phone really be good enough to compete? We've all witnessed the debacle that was the Nokia N-Gage, and how terrible that turned out to be. It's one of the many reasons the majority of cell phone games are still really simple, like puzzles and card games, with the occasional retro game like Pac-Man thrown in for good measure.

But the iPhone's luscious touch-screen display and internal accelerometer seem to promise something more. I was first intrigued by the Touch Fighter game Apple developers whipped up to show off the iPhone SDK way back in March, and even more so by the scaled-down mobile version of Electronic Arts' hotly anticipated Spore. Still, these were just demos, and I wasn't sure if they would pan out to anything substantial. However, after the keynote at WWDC, I find myself suddenly excited about the future of the iPhone as a genuine gaming platform. Out of the 12 or so applications that were demonstrated, 4 of them were games. And these weren't just simple Tetris-like games either (The one exception was Enigmo by Pangea Software, which is a 3D puzzle game). Sega's Super Monkey Ball was especially a highlight, fully utilizing the iPhone's accelerometer as a way to tilt the ball through various mazelike structures. Pangea Software's Cro-Mag Rally also uses the accelerometer so you can drive simply by "steering" the iPhone left or right. Not to be outdone, Digital Legends Entertainment even promised a full-blown RPG in the form of Krull, a caveman adventure where you can fight off bad guys, swing from rope bridges, and more. Of course, you not only get all these games, you also get a cell phone, a media player, and a GPS unit, all in one device. Suddenly, my Sony PSP (which I haven't touched in months) doesn't seem so hot.

The true genius behind the iPhone's gaming potential lies in the low introductory cost. Sure you have to cough up $200 or so for the device, but each game will sell for $10 while most DS games are $30 to $40. Now I'm not saying the iPhone should be seen as primarily a gaming device--it is first and foremost a cell phone no matter how you look at it. Also, the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS have dedicated controls and tactile buttons, which are very important for certain kinds of games--I certainly don't think Tekken or Zelda will translate very well to the iPhone. That said, for those who are tired of carrying around multiple devices, or those who just want a casual handheld to play games on the train or on the bus, the iPhone could definitely be a serious contender in the mobile gaming space.

And man, if they ever introduce Mario Kart to the iPhone, it's all over.