GAMES

Nintendo reaches A$1.5 million ($1.3 million) out-of-court settlement with New Super Mario Bros. Wii pirate; case could affect release timing in Australia of future Nintendo titles. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was a massive hit for Nintendo last year, with reports stating the re-imagining of the classic platformer sold nearly 10.5 million units globally in its first two months of sale. The game seemed to be a popular one for illegal downloaders, too, with Nintendo saying copies of the game were available on the web as early as November 6, 2009, days before its official release. ..read more

Developer BioWare has a busy 2011 ahead of them, with a new Dragon Age title, Star Wars: The Old Republic and, according to EA execs “something far-reaching coming from Mass Effect” in early 2011. Electronic Arts COO John Schappert added that “something far-reaching” from the Mass Effect franchise to the list of upcoming titles due in the fourth quarter of the company’s 2011 fiscal year. That means something Mass Effect related arriving between January 1 and March 31 of next calendar year. Could BioWare have Mass Effect 3 wrapped up by then? The developer’s project manager Casey Hudson noted that they “definitely ..read more

If you’re pacing out your Dragon Age playing to ensure that you have a steady drip of elfin lovemaking and epic dragon fighting, here’s a bit of new info to consider in your tactical strategy: EA is planning to launch a new Dragon Age title in Q4 of its fiscal 2011, which, in real-world time, falls between January 1 and March 31, 2011. Intriguingly, EA currently lists “Dragon Age Title TBA” (that’s what it’s called at the moment) for consoles, PC and handhelds — which could mean either handheld game devices, cell phones, or both. Whatever platforms it appears on, expect ..read more

To: Luke From: Owen What the headline said. Though I will add that Jim McMahon’s appearance in the Super Bowl Shuffle spoof ad for Boost Mobile got the first big laugh out of me for this year’s ad slate. This weekend’s highlights: Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Proto-Natal Edition Unsurprisingly, Dante’s Inferno Not Available in Middle East DLC Removal Threatens Halo 2 Farewell Stick Jockey’s Super Sim Spectacular Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Will Feature WWII Level BioWare Responds to Self-Censorship Charge on Mass Effect 2 Sex Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.

It looks like that entire game’s worth of removed content might be making it into Final Fantasy XIII after all. GameStop has posted the box art for the Xbox 360 version of the game and, more importantly, it has also posted the art for the back of the box. As you can see above, the box mentions that Final Fantasy XIII will support downloadable content after all, though there is no mention of what the DLC actually is. It’s worth noting that the content could be something as simple as Avatar outfits or accessories, though it would certainly make sense ..read more

Hit a little snag this week. There were some strong entries in week three of Week three of Kotaku’s ‘Shop Contest but I need to lay down some resizing restrictions, due to technical difficulties I have grabbing the images. So if you didn’t see your pic in here but felt you had a strong entry: You are probably right. The problem on my end is pretty lame, but it involves how I access the submissions, which are comments. Anyway, here are this week’s top 20, in no particular order, who gave an alternate take what Project Runway’s Tim Gunn was playing a ..read more

Much like the rest of the nation, Weekly Webcomic Wrapup HQ is currently buried beneath roughly a half-mile of fresh snow. Despite our encasing, we’ve somehow managed to hold onto our internet connection. We know, that doesn’t make a lick of sense — we’re guessing that somewhere out in the arctic wilderness, a router is still powered on, fueled by an unseen, tenacious modem. We’ve used this inexplicable internet access to bring you our seven favorite webcomics, listed below. Check them out, and vote for your favorite after the jump! If we missed out on any good ones, leave a link ..read more

Like some other 360 titles like Dead Rising, Mass Effect 2 has tiny text, which users on small TVs and with poor eyesight are having trouble reading. Is BioWare going to fix the problem? Nope. Just like Dead Rising, it’s no easy fix, and since BioWare feel it affects only “a small portion of SDTV owners”, they “are unable to resolve it for Mass Effect 2 through a title update”. If it makes those straining at the screen feel any better, the developer promises that the issue will be taken into consideration for future Mass Effect games, where HDTV owners can then ..read more

It was an awfully close week for the Webcomic Wrapup, with the top three finishing almost neck-and-neck; but a winner has been declared: Shyeah’s “Love in the Age of Dragons.” We certainly appreciate the humor presented in Shyeah’s strip, but we’re afraid we’re putting a moratorium on Dragon Age comics from here on out. See, Mass Effect 2 is out now. That stuff is old hat. Second and third place went to Penny Arcade’s “Here’s Your Reality Program” and Brawl in the Family’s “Hoy, Small Fry,” respectively. If you’ve got a favorite strip from this past week that you’d like to ..read more

Market research firm FADE says Microsoft’s online platform sales grew 34 percent last year, thanks to rising average sales prices, top-performing games. As part of its most recent financial report, Microsoft said that Xbox Live surged in popularity by 35 percent in 2009, with 23 million gamers having now signed up for the service. And according to a new independent study by Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, those gamers spent an estimated $103.4 million on the service’s wares during the year, up 34 percent from 2008. ..read more