MediaFile

Back in June, everyone was talking about the Wii U, Nintendo’s first video game console with high-definition graphics unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.

Since then, no one’s heard much more about Wii U, which has a tablet screen for a controller and can be used in conjunction with Wii remotes. Nintendo must be hunkering down to put the finishing touches on it before it hits stores sometime next year.

But Peter Moore, the video game industry veteran who was promoted to be Electronic Arts’ chief operating officer in August, told Reuters this week that everything appears to be on track with the Wii U, at least from his perspective working for a publisher making games for it.

“There are no indications that there’s anything that feels like it’s off target,” Moore said. Nintendo’s stock has taken a beating in recent months and its share price is approaching its low for the year.

Moore said he will be visiting Nintendo’s hometown of Kyoto next week to check on how the console is shaping up.

The new Nintendo Wii

Nintendo just announced the successor to the Wii at the annual U.S. video game confab, E3 on Tuesday.

Here’s what we know so far:

The new console is the first Nintendo device to support HD graphics. Its controller features a 6.2-inch touch-screen that works as a second display showing the same images being played on TV. The screen can also provide gamers with additional information to give them an edge over competitors. It can run old Nintendo games, has motion-sensor capabilities and can be used in conjunction with Wii controllers, the company said. Additional hands not included!

plays 10 adp full HD graphics, can connect to HDMI will play proprietary high density discs and downloaded content hits stores between April 1 2012 and December 2012 no HD video on touchscreen, but the new console will deliver HD video on TV screens

That (above) was Nintendo President Satoru Iwata at last year’s E3. Cool idea, eh? So what happened to it?

The device — a pulse reader that fit on a fingertip and aided/monitored one’s ability to relax, I guess — was the kicker of the Wii-maker’s showcase a year ago, and it was only fair to expect that this year there would be some blossoming of the plan. But at this year’s event we got nothing. Many blogs noticed its absence. Read here, here, and here.

In essence, Iwata said Vitality Sensor lives. However, a fireworks show is no place to demonstrate a state-of-the-art pillow, and that Nintendo is searching for the right pillow show. Or something like that.

Day one of the 2010 E3 video game conference was dominated by news from Microsoft, who told us a little more about Xbox 360 with Kinect, the gesture/motion system that lets users do many things on screen without the need for a controller. The system, due in November, poses a threat to top dog console the Nintendo’s Wii, and Sony’s new add-on, called Move.

But I’ll tell you who should be worried: those Dance competition video game folks. Microsoft demonstrated a pad-less, controller-less dance game that looked like a lot more fun than stomping on a giant pad with arrows. Check out the video below…

Here is the unboxing of the new factor of the Xbox 360, which is smaller, and has built in Wi-Fi. (via giantbomb.com)

Check out the popularity of vampires and werewolves, Taylor Swift and caped superheros in the online trading world.

Swaptree.com,  an online company that allows consumers to trade books, CDs, DVDs and video games for free with others, provided its top swaps of 2009.

Topping the books lists among most traded were "The Host," which topped four offerings in the Twilight series.  Albums by Taylor Swift (pictured) claimed the top two spots on the most traded CDs list, while "The Dark Knight," the latest Batman movie, was No. 1 on the movies list. The most traded video game was Wii Fit.

Remember how you couldn’t get a Nintendo Wii? Remember the long lines at retailers, and “No WIIs” signs in store windows. The Wii is still very popular, but the momentum has slowed a bit, leading some to wonder if it has lost its mojo.

And even though games like “Wii Fit Plus” and “Wii Sports Resort” are top sellers, adult action titles like Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ and Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” have been getting all of the fanfare.

But Brian Farrell, long-time CEO of THQ, which publishes games on the Wii including “All Star Cheer Squad”  and “World of Zoo” said that its the short-sighted game publisher who thinks the Wii is dead, if only because, you know, those things are everywhere, Farrell said at the Reuters Media Summit.

Black Friday marks the beginning of the most critical time of the year for video game makers, as customers jam stores on the day after Thanksgiving to pick up games and consoles as gifts.

As a brutal 2009 winds to a close, the gaming industry is hoping that a strong six weeks of sales in the United States, the largest market, could help them salvage something from the year.

Nintendo said Monday its Wii home console — the long-time U.S. champ that has been struggling lately — sold more than 550,000 units in the U.S. during Thanksgiving week. To put that in perspective, the company sold around 500,000 Wiis in all of October, according to industry tracker NPD.

We caught up with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the movie rental company’s event where it awarded a $1 million prize after a contest aimed at improving the accuracy of movie recommendations. He spoke about his hopes of working with Apple on the iPhone, the possibility that YouTube will beef up its movie service, and the future of the DVD.

Reuters: What will Netflix subscribers gain from the improvements in the recommendation system?

Hastings: It’s doubling the quality of our movie recommendation and that helps our subscribers get more enjoyment from movies. Because more often they love the movie they watch. More often the movies recommended will will turn out to be movies that you love. If you watch a couple of movies and don’t like many, you start to watch (sports and other programming). If every movie is incredible, you start to watch more.

OnLive, the “cloud-based” gaming service that generated plenty of interest when it was announced in May, is opening itself up.

The company is aiming to challenge game console makers Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony with a bold and ambitious service: on-demand, lag-free access to graphically rich games, which can be played on any TV and nearly any PC, even budget netbooks.

Analysts say such a product could fundamentally change the economics of the multibillion dollar video game industry. The only question is how well OnLive works, and some have expressed skepticism. Since its splashy introduction, little has been heard from the company, which was busy testing its service internally and installing servers in its data centers to handle traffic. OnLive delivers games run on servers in the cloud, rather than locally on a PC or a console.

The long-anticipated price cut on Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console might have come just in the nick of time, as industry sales continue to wilt in the heat of summer. Both game hardware and software sales have been flagging, but console price cuts typically spur game sales.

Sony took the PS3′s price to $299 from $399, and the company sounded bullish on its prospects for the holiday selling season.

“With this price move, we’re extremely confident,” said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, in a interview. “I don’t think there’s anything more that we could realistically ask for in terms of putting us in a position to be successful this holiday, I really feel like everything’s lined up for us.”