Electronic Arts recently announced that Need for Speed NITRO will be available exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS worldwide on November 17th. Gamers must battle through relentless cops, master the art of drifting to gain boost at 200 mph, and prove themselves across five exotic cities at extreme speeds.

According to Joe Booth, Senior Producer, EA Montreal, “Need for Speed NITRO offers fun and intense competition for every type of gamer.” The inclusion of varied track designs, deep controls, and intuitive drift and nitro mechanics gives players something to come back for months on end. The company wanted to fuse together attitude with car culture and the best arcade racing in order to create a new and unique racing experience for the Wii and Nintendo DS.

Need for Speed NITRO boasts support for the Wii Remote, Nunchuk, racing wheel, classic controller, GameCube controller, and DS stylus, thereby letting the player decide exactly how they want to dominate the competition. There is a nearly limitless visual customisation system which allows gamers to design a unique art style to attach to their ride. Also included are fresh modes, tracks and exotic real world locations that will make Need for Speed NITRO one of the most exciting arcade racers for the Wii and Nintendo DS.

Legendo Entertainment recently announced a North American release date for The Three Musketeers: One for All! for WiiWare. The game is priced at 900 Wii Points and is available in English, Spanish and French language editions. Until recently, the much-loved sword-swinging platform adventure had only been available on the PC.

The Three Musketeers: One for All! has been specially revamped for the Wii to provide players with more fun and interaction as they launch sword attacks and control the game’s hero with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. According to Legendo Entertainment’s CEO, they are honored to be the first Swedish company ever to publish a console game in North America and hope that Wii owners will enjoy their platform adventure and its visual style. Players control legendary musketeer Porthos during a daring mission to save his kidnapped comrades.

This adventure is packed with frenetic combat, heroic leaps and fun puzzles, as well as featuring three different endings. The game immerses players in a platform adventure, duel countless enemies, solve fun puzzles and avoid traps. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls allow players to interact directly with the game. Swing the Wii Remote to launch sword attacks on your foes, run and leap over rooftops and discover hidden collectables.

The video game industry has blamed tough year-over-year comparisons on several straight months of worse-than-expected NPD declines, but there are concerns that it may be more than that. The industry is taking a hit from revenue comparisons to the period which, last year, saw the release of record-breaking blockbusters Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Smash Bros.

The industry may be finally starting to see the repercussions of a belt-tightening consumer. Overall, 2009 is down only 12% from the same time in 2008. June saw the biggest gap to date with software down 29% year-over-year for a total 31% decline to $1.17 billion, including hardware. Take-Two recently lowered its estimates, not to reflect its delay of BioShock 2 into fiscal 2010, but made notes of worries about the economy, pointing out uncertain initial sell-in from retailers and lagging catalogue sales.

Electronic Arts’ autumn portfolio is full and likely to perform well but analysts call the publisher’s strategic, increasing focus on the Wii platform, “particularly concerning,” making them less confident about the company’s next year than about the present one. Analysts see Wii software growth hitting a downturn with sales of the hardware “collapsing.” The packed holiday release slate could damage EA in the same fashion it did last year when its portfolio for the period could not compete with the stiff competition.

At the Casual Games panel in Seattle, Kongregate’s CEO Greg McClanahan spoke about some of the design decisions regarding Flash games. They are the executives responsible for the popular free-to-play Flash game portal and gave an overview of some of the top tips they have learnt on what to and what not to do in Flash game design.

For many jobs, if you produce something of high quality, then it will do well. The game should also be fun and developers should start with this particular aspect first. You should make a fun little mechanic that works and build on that, not the other way around and start top down with the structure of the same and hope to make it fun later. Art does not have to conflict with fun either.

Games can be arty and often are, but a lot of developers use this as a free ticket to their game not having to be fun. Developers are surprised when they produce a game that they have been working on for four months only to get a $1,000 or $2,000 sponsorship offer on it. It does not matter how long you spent on the game, it is the final product that matters.

The “death of PC gaming” has become reliable column and blog fodder for tech journalists and perhaps it comes from lingering bitterness over time wasted editing Warcraft batch files in DOS 6.0. Proof comes from examples like the 12 million-strong World of Warcraft monthly subscription-paying player base.

According to a report from Britain’s Develop 09 conference, the entire PC games market in 2008 is $13 billion. In terms of the split, 24% is retail, 46% online revenue services, 22% is digital distribution, and 8% is ad-revenue. This compares to $32 billion from all console sales. PC games have a smaller share of the global gaming market than consoles but applying these figures into rough estimates and one can draw the conclusion that PC gaming will grow in 2009. The outlook for 2010 is even more promising.

By the end of 2009, projections for North American sales for Value Software’s Steam online distribution service were up from $600 million to $1.07 billion, an increase of 78%. It is estimated that digital distribution makes up 22% of the 13 billion global PC market, which comes down to $2.86 billion. Globally, PC retail sales represent 24% of the $13 billion pie, or $3.12 billion, representing approximately 23% of the worldwide retail market in 2008.

The most popular and successful games on the market today are Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs or MMOs). The main source of this significant boom is companionship. The earliest forms of games were more entertaining when one could test your skill against another.

In 1987, a company called Kesmai created the first notion of an MMO called Air Warrior, which sported wire frame graphics and involved online dogfights. The game introduced the concept of Pay-to-Play at $10 an hour. This seems like an extreme price considering the now standard $13 per month most MMOs charge. However, this high fee did nothing to discourage players who felt like they were on the cutting edge of gaming technology. The next step came when Wizards of the Coast and AOL introduced Neverwinter Nights, the first MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game).

This game was based heavily on Dungeons and Dragons and implemented a turn-based system that allowed a large amount of strategy to enter into the game. In 1999, the MMOG market exploded when Verant Interactive released Everquest, which broke subscription records. The next breakthrough came in 2004 from Blizzard with the launch of World of Warcraft, which surpassed Everquest in terms of popularity, exceeding 10 million subscribers worldwide.