1. Regionalism... In some regions, it just pays to switch!

Regionalism is the bane of many gamers - and some of us think that in the long run, region-locking and other regionalist activities may spell doom for the companies that practice regionalism. Consider these small examples:
What happens when you move to a new place where the console doesn't have a service area? This is why we keep saying in our articles that customer service is important for a game company.What happens if you move to a place where the launches always happen last? You might get tempted to switch to another console that treats your region better.What happens when you move to a new place with different technology (e.g., TV format) that your old system isn't compatible with?
2. Regionalism... Who do we blame?

It is probably true that many times regionalism is not the direct fault of a manufacturer (recent examples include Nintendo with its Wii region locking and Sony with its delayed Europe...

1. The social contract.
The core, the center, the key to a gamer's loyalty is the social contract. The customer tells the business "I will buy this console if this company works really hard for me and gives me additional benefits." In return, the company has to tell the customer "I will work really hard to give you additional benefits if you buy my console and continue to buy games and services from me."

It's like a the preservation of matter or the "principle of equivalent exchange" in alchemy. Quid pro quo. This for that.

What happens if the console company turns out to be a collection of jerks? The contract falls apart. In extreme situations, the gamer might switch to another console.

2. Things to think about before switching to another console.

Switching to another console is not free. There's a switching cost or substitution cost. Many people think this just means you have to pay for another console, but there are sacrifices to make when goi...

According to VG Charts, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has already broken the 2 million mark in terms of units shipped. The numbers per country showed that U.S. gamers really got into the title with 1.08 million units shipped.

In Japan, however, only a measly 290,000 copies were sold. The mysterious country of "Others" posted 650,000 units shipped.

Wii Sports, on the other hand, posted a total of 2.78 million units shipped compared to Twilight Princess's 2.02 million. Not exactly surprising, since the former is bundled with the Wii console (and was the focus of nearly all of Nintendo's Wii promotional ads).

Of course, VG Charts data is unofficial ("and in some cases incomplete," says the VG Chart home page). Unofficial as the numbers may be, Twilight Princess hitting 2 million in less than two months is still an impressive achievement.

The Wiimote strap fiasco did not spare Wii players in Spain. Looks like they've been playing the Wiimote on the vigorous side as well. We don't have any stats as to how many "Ai, caramba" were uttered as a result of the problematic Wiimote strap in Spain but if you're in that part of the world you can swap your old strap with a new one starting January 15, 2007.

According to Go Nintendo, Nintendo of Spain has officially announced, via email, details of the Wii strap swap scheme. The new straps can be acquired free of charge from any store that sells Nintendo products. Most Wii consoles sold after the first week of December probably have the new straps. Otherwise, play gently for now.

Firaxis Games Designer/Lead Programmer Soren Johnson was a former EA designer. His game credits include Knockout Kings 2000 and 2001; Sid Meier's Civilization III; Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World, Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests; Sid Meier's Pirates!; Sid Meier's Pirates! for Xbox; and Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

In an interview with CVG, Johnson shares his views on Nintendo, PC gaming, and more.

Biggest Success Story of the Year: Nintendo
"The one-two punch of the DS and the Wii is making Microsoft and Sony look like dinosaurs. "

Biggest Challenge to PC Gaming: Consoles
"PC game developmentt has suffered because most publishers are putting their energy and money into console development...the industry's best studios are primarily focusing on consoles...the quality of console games will go up while the quantity of good PC games will go down."

Biggest PC Gaming Hype: DirectX 10
"I suppose the better graphics are nice...

Here's something for Nintendo fans hoping for more good news before the end of the year. A new FF title for the Wii? We'll...get back to you on that. Nintendo announced that it's formed a partnership with Korean game publisher Nexon for the Wii.

As Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in a recently held press conference:

We plan to actively support Korean game software developers who have great expertise in developing online games and support their advances into foreign markets, Nintendo has started a game development partnership with NEXON, creator of the online racing game Crazyracing Kartrider and Korean publisher of the popular MMORPG Maple Story.
The speech was made in front of Korean media, as an announcement of Nintendo's subsidiary plans in the area. Iwata also discussed plans for a Korean language version DS Lite for January 18, with a planned Asian Wii launch late in the year, after language localization is completed.

For one, we're happy th...

Let's assume that you don't have enough money to pick up Elebits. Then, let's go a step further and suppose that you didn't get a Wii for Christmas. It's almost 2007, and all you have with you is your underpowered old laptop. You're a sad left-out gamer in poverty.

Well, if you don't mind the fact that Elebits Shuffle, the flash game, is nothing like Elebits for the Wii, then you can perhaps fool yourself for a bit and make the last few hours of the holidays feel a bit better.

To play the puzzle solving, Elebits-inspired, hopefully ad-free flash-game click the read-link below.

Animal Crossing was originally mentioned at the Game Developers Conference early this March as being ported to the then-Nintendo Revolution. Since then, the name's been changed to Wii, and not much has been heard about the probable importation of the title to Nintendo's next-gen.

But like everything else that seems to be doing some last-minute sprints before 2006 officially comes to a close, the rumor mill has been turning once again, resurrecting the buzz that the game will definitely cross over to the Wii, and soon. Posted on the electronic version of Kyoto Shinbun below the credits on the new Animal Crossing, the sentence "Let's meet in Wii" suddenly pops up.

Well, if that doesn't spark up the speculations that it'll be coming soon, then we don't know what will! Certainly, our interest has been piqued. And although we haven't heard anything official on the matter for now, we can't help but look forward to all the wondrous possibilities this game could provide with ...

Gamasutra has an in-depth feature on Alain Tascan, the EA Montreal General Manager who is most famous for having said that Gears of War brought "nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero,"

Yes, comments about innovation from an executive of EA, a huge company known for annual sports titles. It's very much an understatement to say that some people got a bit miffed about what Tascan said. Judging from the Gamasutra feature, it's probably safe to say that he knows it. Here's Tascan's words:

We are around 300 people now including EA mobile upstairs, and there is space to grow. We are working right now on three things: Army of Two, the new IP which better be good, otherwise people are going to kill me after my comments about Gears of War; SSX on the Wii, which is due in March; and another new IP which I m not able to talk about.
The feature goes on to emphasize that EA has heard the complaints, and that it has realized that in order to say on top th...

Before we end this year, we might as well have a bit of a recap of console units sold by the Wii. After just one month in the market, the numbers are already staggering.

As Layla Kayleigh from G4TV reports, 3.19 million sales worldwide - half of which were units sold in North America alone.

Based on our previous reports, it seems that Nintendo could hold true to their "4-million units distributed by the end of the year" promise. The 3.19-million figure doesn't come much as a surprise. Japan raked in a little less than 300,000 unit sales, while the UK had their "1 unit sold per second" during the first few hours of console launch.

You can watch the rest of the report via the "Read" link below.