Pokemon Black and White continue to sell through at impressive levels, even though the hardware they were released on has been usurped by the Nintendo 3DS and, shortly, the PlayStation Vita. Of course, though, the formidable Nintendo franchise has kept its strength because of its continuous churning out of new titles, and it appears the next game announcement may be coming soon.

The director of the Pokemon Black and White titles, which are the most recent in the franchise’s storied RPG history, said in a recent interview that fans should keep a close eye on the weekly Japanese TV show Pokemon Smash. He reiterated this point in a post on his Twitter account. This was in direct response to a question about when the newest entry in the series would be revealed.

Since the launch of Pokemon Black and White on the Nintendo DS, there have been additional Pokemon games, but many fans, even the most hardcore, only care about games that are directly connected to the traditional RPG franchise. The number of spin-off games has increased in recent years, but the core of the franchise remains those RPG titles. The most recent episode of Pokemon Smash aired over the weekend, with no news about a new title. But it seems we should start going into “waiting with baited breath” mode. It should be noted that the next entry in the series is likely to be a new version of the Black/White titles, on the DS, as opposed to a brand new installment on the 3DS.

[via Siliconera]

There is apparently a growing trend for game developers to ditch Sony’s new portable platform and invest more of their efforts in Nintendo’s 3DS, which itself had been previously neglected. This is an odd turn of events from the usual market standard, where developers start with the platform that’s released first and then move onto the next big thing. The Vita hasn’t even launched in the US yet.

Nevertheless, Japanese newspaper Nikkei is reporting that game makers are already disappointed with it. The device had a very sluggish start in Japan, where it launched late last year. Low sales combined with a flurry of technical problems made the Vita’s entrance subpar to say the least. Sony, however, sees that as the period where it tested the waters and expects the US and Europe to be much more successful.

In a recent interview with Gamasutra about the Nikkei report, Sony SVP Scott Rhode explained it away by calling it part of the natural developer cycle. He noted there was a time when developers wanted “to go build games for Zynga and the Facebook platform. And there’s another time when you see everyone is going to do smaller iPad games, or iOS games in general. Then it was PS3, it was 360, it’s Vita, it’s 3DS. It’s always, constantly changing.” Hopefully for Sony it will start changing in reverse so developers will go back to being interested in the Vita.

[via Gamasutra]

The Nintendo Zone is a special gateway for your Nintendo 3DS if you happen to be in one of the thousands of special Wi-Fi hotspot locations that Nintendo has set up across the country. These hotspots are in Best Buy stores, airports, malls, and many other locations throughout the country and give gamers with a 3DS access to special content. Now, though, it’s possible to gain access to that same set of content without leaving your house.

And as anyone living in the US in the 2010s knows, being able to do something from your house is always better than going out to do it. Yes, perhaps it is sad that someone might not have the energe to go to the local McDonald’s to connect to Nintendo Zone, but we’re not judging. A user who goes by the online handle DarkWish found out that this hack is actually one of extreme ease. In fact, it’s so simple it almost boggles the mind. Anyone can do it, and here’s how:

“If you set your wireless network to be named attwifi and make it unsecured, then add that network on your 3DS… you can access the Nintendo Zone from home! So whatever demos (right now it’s just Mario & Sonic), Pokémon TV show episodes, and other content they have on there is now accessible from home.” So the Nintendo Zone is not exactly set up with proprietary restrictions. It’s kind of interesting that no one figured this out sooner. Here’s a video so you can see for yourself:

[via Escapist]

If, like me, you have a Nintendo 3DS just collecting dust, there’s a new push to take your handheld device out into the world and gain access to exclusive content. There are 29,000 so-called “Nintendo Zone” locations throughout the US and Canada. These special hotspots give dedicated content to anyone who pulls out their 3DS, ranging from videos to mini-games. These Zones haven’t gotten much traction, but Nintendo hopes they will now that they’ve evoked the magic word: Pokemon.

Beginning on February 6, Nintendo Zone locations will offer full-length episodes of the animated Pokemon TV series. Of course, you have to be in the connected zone area to watch them. In addition to the TV episodes, Nintendo is doling out a dedicated section where gamers can see the latest Pokemon news and watch videos about the latest games and trading cards. Every Nintendo product or service always gets a bump when Pokemon come on board, so perhaps Nintendo Zone will start to gain a little more name recognition.

If you haven’t heard of Nintendo Zone before, it is trying to become a social app haven of sorts for the 3DS. For example, going to a Best Buy that has a Nintendo Zone area will let customers download special coupons that can be redeemed in-store. In addition to Best Buy, they are deployed around coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, and airports. To find the nearest Nintendo Zone to you, you can check out http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/nintendozone.

[via Gaming Age]

Nintendo is gearing up for Black Friday with a couple new 3DS bundles that it hopes will lure the shoppers in for Christmas giving. Two new bundles will be offered starting November 24. The first bundle is a red 3DS that comes with the Super Mario 3D Land game in the box. The red color is called flame red.

The second bundle is a Cosmo black console that has the Hyrule emblem on the top in gold. The bundle comes with the Ocarina of time 3D video game, which is the latest in the Legend of Zelda series. Each of the bundles will be offered for $ 199.99 in the US.

Nintendo will also have displays set up in malls in some areas. The displays will be in one of two dozen different malls around the country and Nintendo will have the 3DS and the most popular games for the holidays on display from November 21 to December 18.

Nintendo has come under fire from animal rights activists, livid that iconic character Mario wears a fur Tanooki suit in Super Mario 3D Land. PETA has launched a minisite titled “Mario Kills Tanooki” – complete with a playable game – to highlight the similarity between the Tanooki suit and the tanuki raccoon dogs who, in real life, are skinned alive.

“Tanooki may be just a “suit” in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur” PETA argues. “By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it’s OK to wear fur.” The organization’s mini game involves a retro 2D chase by a skinned tanuki after a floating Tanooki-clad Mario.

Nintendo is yet to comment publicly on the allegations, though we imagine the company probably won’t point out that Mario has been bouncing on Koopa for many years without a peep from PETA. We’ve reached out to the company for official word, and will update when we hear back.

[via Blast Magazine]

This week its appearing quite possible that regardless of doubts in its success and the whole price slash situation, the Nintendo 3DS may well surpass its DS predecessor’s first year sales. It is important to note first of all that even though the price cut didn’t make everyone on the streets happy, sales did rise significantly. Sales started to soar come August of this year, and now according to the NPD Group the system has passed the 1.65 million units sold mark in the USA putting the device right on track to beat out the original in the same span.

Have a peek at the 50 million DS units sold since launch and note again that this isn’t a race between final totals, (or it isn’t yet,) instead it’s a comparison between the first year’s sales for both the DS and the 3DS, the newer handheld model. This will be quite the feat and a gigantic win for Nintendo as the original DS is still the best-selling game platform in US history. The DS’s first-year sales in the USA were 2.37 million units with 50 percent of those sales happening inside the holiday season. Nintendo America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing Scott Moffitt seemed rather ready to hit the mark again with the 3DS:

“With a massive lineup of software on the way and the first-year sales record of Nintendo DS in its sights, Nintendo 3DS enters its first holiday season with a full head of steam.” – Moffitt

In addition to the apparent jet engine rocketing the 3DS to victory here, Nintendo let known a few more impressive statistics on its recent sales, including 675,000 combined hardware units sold in October. A whole 250,000 of these were the 3DS, while 180,000 of the rest are also in the Nintendo DS family of systems. Of course this is nothing compared to the 7 million hardware units sold this year alongside more than 55 million units of software for those systems.

And don’t forget the Wii, up 8 percent in sales this month compared to last year at this same time, while the original DS has increased 23 percent this month compared to just last month. These two units are heading in to their sixth and eighth holiday seasons and are set to continue their wave of sales event though the 3DS is the new handheld and the Wii is up against the wall with the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Note also that we won’t see the next Wii until at least late inside 2012 while the 3DS is still set to be Nintendo’s great handheld hope. What do you think, is Nintendo in a good place with you, the consumer?

Have a nice refresher on the 3DS while you think of it courtesy of Chris Davies: