West and Zampella, former heads of Call of Duty development studio (and Activision subsidiary) Infinity Ward, were fired early last month, according to Activision, for “breaches of contract and insubordination.” Activision subsequently spun the franchise into its own business unit, and created a second studio, Sledgehammer Games, to develop an action-adventure game based on the franchise. West and Zampella quickly followed up by filing suit against Activision for over $36 million in royalties and damages, alleging they were wrongfully terminated and their contacts breached.

In their complaint, filed on March 4, West and Zampella claim that Activision “refused to honor the terms of its agreements,” was “intentionally flouting the public policy of [California] that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned,” and that Activision hoped to either “[get] away with not having to pay them anything or maximiz[e] its leverage to reduce that pay.”

Activision’s response in a 23 page countersuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles calls West and Zampella “self-serving schemers” and states it fired the pair because of “an unlawful pattern and practice of conduct,” including an attempt to “steal” the Infinity Ward development studio.

In an email, Zampella and West’s attorney responded on Thursday, calling Activision’s claims “false and outrageous” and accusing the company of stalling to avoid paying the pair “the millions of dollars they all earned and that Activision owes them.”

Follow the bouncing decimal point? With millions (or more) on the line, the reputation of a multi-billions franchise interlinked, the next game due out this fall, and rhetoric like Activision’s already comfortably slinging, this could get uglier than it already reads in short order.

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Speaking to The Associate Press ahead of today’s London-based British Academy Video Games Awards, where he’ll receive a special award, Miyamoto admitted turning consoles into teaching tools is “maybe the area where I am devoting myself (the) most.”

Miyamoto can lay claim to some of video gaming’s greatest franchises. Donkey Kong. Mario Bros. Zelda. Kid Icarus. F-Zero. Pilotwings. Wave Race. Star Fox. Pikmin. Metroid Prime. If you’re one of the over 30 million Wii owners in the US, you also know him for recent hits like Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, and New Super Mario Bros.

Add education-related gaming to his resume, if he has his druthers, courtesy the Nintendo DS. Miyamoto says he wants to convert Nintendo’s bestselling portable gaming device into an educational aid, and pronto. The DS is already used in Japanese public venues like museums and aquariums, he says, adding that Nintendo will begin rolling out the DS in Japanese junior high and elementary schools in the coming school year.

It’ll be interesting to see where any of this goes, stateside. Video games theorist and Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost just typed up an op-ed decrying the lack of substantive connectors between government-endorsed gaming and the actual merits of said games. Nintendo isn’t the US government, but–rose-tinted love-glasses for Miyamoto and all he is and represents snatched off for a moment–it’s certainly just as susceptible to government influence.

After all, it’s already happened in the UK.

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Original Source: The Great Nintendo DS School Invasion

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Chatting with Wired, Nintendo America VP of marketing and sales Cammie Dunaway may have let the cat out of the bag. Wired apparently bet Nintendo wouldn’t release Mario, Metroid, and Zelda all in the same year.

During the interview Wired asked Dunaway if it owed her a steak dinner for betting incorrectly, to which Dunaway replied “I think you do.”

And then she more or less confirms Zelda’s in part of a 2010 triple-header here:

One of the things that’s true for Nintendo is that we’re not driven by a calendar for our release dates. When the games are ready to go, when the quality is perfect, that’s when we release. We all benefit if we can keep a pretty steady pace, so the development teams have worked hard to make sure that we’ve got a full lineup this year. If you compare the first half of 2010 with the first half of 2009, it’s night and day. And from some of the things that Mr. Iwata has talked about, and that we will talk about at E3, like Zelda, you know that we’re going to have a good back half of the year, as well.

Look for Zelda to feature prominently at E3, and release during the second half of 2010, in other words.

Assuming Mario Galaxy 2′s more challenging than its breezy predecessor, Metroid’s hybrid platform/shooter gameplay clicks, and Zelda’s more than just another Ocarina of Time riff, Nintendo might win more than sales accolades for a change. Still, it’s disappointing to see Nintendo power-marketing the same old franchises to the same old fans.

Where’s whatever comes after Mario or Metroid or Zelda, guys? I’ve been asking this for years now: What’s next?

Are so-called ‘hardcore’ Nintendo fans stuck playing Mario-Metroid-Zelda “rhapsodies on a theme from Miyamoto” indefinitely?

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How to Hack Your Wii For Homebrew Apps and Games

Looking to do more with your Wii? The Homebrew Channel provides a thriving community of developers and users looking to bring some amazing new features to the aging Wii console, including emulation, DVD and game playback from other regions, and the ability to run Linux. Mike Keller provides instructions for installing Homebrew on your Wii, which is easier than ever thanks to the mature Homebrew scene. Game on!

AMD Details Speed, Power Saving Features of Fusion

Code-named Llano, the new quad-core AMD Fusion processor running at speeds in excess of 3.0 GHz is due for release in 2011. A hybrid chip that combines a graphics processor and a CPU on a single piece of silicon, Fusion’s integrated graphics processor will natively support DirectX 11, allowing users to view Blu-ray movies or play 3D games. While the heat output from all four cores on a Fusion chip could be 100 watts, AMD’s new power management capabilities allow more efficient control of the chip’s energy draw, ensuring a cool processing and gaming experience.

ATI Introduces Radeon HD 5570, Targets Small Desktop PCs

Right after announcing the affordable Radeon HD 5450 line of GPUs, ATI introduced the energy-efficient, high-performance Radeon HD 5570, which is geared toward small form factor PCs. The new card supports both Direct X 11 and OpenGL 3.2, can drive up to three monitors, and only draws 45 watts when under a full processing load. Newegg is selling the HD 5570s for around $85.

Rumor: Core i7 Coming Soon to MacBook Pro?

The Apple rumor mill is at it again, but this time it has nothing to do with mythical tablets: Instead, reports are circulating that Apple will release an updated MacBook Pro featuring Intel’s newest Core i7 chips. What leads credence to this rumor? A recent benchmark test spotted on the Geekbench Web site lists a system that identifies itself as a MacBookPro 6,1. Current MacBook Pros identify themselves with “5,x” codes.

Details include a 2.66GHz Core i7 processor and an unreleased build of Mas OS X (10.6.2 Build 10C3067; the current release is 10.6.2 build 10C540). However, the track record of the site that announced this rumor is spotty at best, so your guess is as good as ours as to the validity of this leak.

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Dear Nintendo, while I respect your president Reggie Fils-Aime’s decision to shrug off the Wii’s inability to do high-definition video as “no loss” in an interview with CNBC, I’m not sure you’re taking the long view.

And if recent HD usage survey results are accurate, you probably should be.

According to a November 2009 Knowledge Networks survey, 43 percent of people “watch HD programs every day,” up from just 26 percent in 2007. That’s a 65 percent increase in two years, significant enough to lead Knowledge Networks’ president to note “This sends a message to advertisers that HD is becoming the new norm for those with HD access across all program types.”

People apparently–and increasingly–want high-definition content. And you know what? Yes, only part of Netflix’s total catalog may be HD-ready today, but what…you think Netflix plans to wait for the Wii to catch up with an HD part? Care to wager how much Netflix’s HD library is going to grow in 2010 alone?

Think about your competition. Microsoft and Sony offer HD streaming content today. Both have deals with Netflix (Microsoft’s is integrated, but even Sony’s disc-based program includes the HD option). Yes, you need a fast connection to qualify for a high-def feed, and no, it still doesn’t look as immaculate as full-on Blu-ray (or for those of you who haven’t switched, HD-DVD–requiescat in pace). But it’s clearly a superior option, and for people slowly (or does that survey now imply ‘quickly’?) awakening to the perquisites of HD video, possibly even a deal-breaker.

Which means:

If you already have a 360 or a PS3, Netflix on the Wii isn’t a reason to buy one. If you have a 360 or a PS3 as well as a Wii, it’s not a reason to use the Wii (unless you want to service another room somewhere). And if you have none of the above but want to buy a Netflix compatible, HD-ready console that complements your existing high-def TV setup, your options are Microsoft or Sony, not Nintendo.

Reggie Fils-Aime’s response in that CNBC interview:

The vast majority of content that’s available for streaming on Netflix is not HD content, so there really is no loss for the Wii consumer, the fact that they can’t get any HD content through our system.

Accurate but shortsighted. As noted, Netflix’s HD development plans are hardly in stasis. But what’s worse, Fil-Aime has to go and conflate two spectacularly different forms of entertainment:

The consumer has voted, over 26 million consumers have bought a Wii. So the consumer is saying that the quality of the visual is not nearly as important as the overall entertainment, the overall value of that experience.

Earth to Nintendo: Movies aren’t games (last I checked, Netflix wasn’t streaming Mario or Donkey Kong). You don’t interact with a movie or TV show the way you do New Super Mario Bros or Wii Fit Plus. Video’s value is its visual content. And in that particular game, speaking as an unabashed videophile, HD matters–more each day.

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In the grainy, jerky video noticed by Gossip Gamer, a player gesticulates not unlike Tom Cruise in Minority Report, signaling with his arms and flexing his digits to pan his view around the rebel research lab visited toward the beginning of the dystopian sci-fi shooter. He holds his right arm rigid, almost like a breakdancer about to do the robot, swinging it left or right and slightly up or down to maneuver the camera in turn. His index and middle fingers appear extended, gun-like, while the other fingers curl under. The motion capture device itself–presumably (though not verifiably) the Natal camera–rests on a tripod below the screen just a few feet in front of him.

At about the 0:30 mark, his left hand makes an appearance (it’s hidden by his body, interposed between it and whoever’s filming) and illustrates fine-motion control. His right arm aims the camera, while the left “grabs” the view and shifts it in smaller increments, allowing him to “feel around” the table and explore more carefully. It’s not apparent how he’s moving forward or backward, but I’m assuming that’s done with the (hidden) left hand too.

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