Top 20 Games of December 2008:
01. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo) - 1460k
02. [360] Call of Duty: World at War* (Activision Blizzard) - 1330k
03. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 999k
04. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 878k
05. [WII] Guitar Hero World Tour* (Activision Blizzard) - 859k
06. [360] Gears of War 2* (Microsoft) - 745k
07. [360] Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts) - 629k
08. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo) - 540k
09. [PS3] Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard) - 533k
10. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk* (Nintendo) - 497k
11. [WII] Wii Music (Nintendo) - ~480k
12. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
13. [NDS] Personal Trainer: Cooking (Nintendo)
14. [360] Fallout 3* (Bethesda Softworks)
15. [NDS] Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (Disney Interactive Studios)
16. [WII] Link's Crossbow Training (Nintendo)
17. [PS2] Guitar Hero World Tour* (Activision Blizzard)
18. [360] Madden NFL 09* (Electronic Arts)
19. [WII] Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard)
20. [WII] Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Ubisoft)
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Nintendo is expecting the nation's post-Christmas health push to drive sales of Wii Fit in January – but has told MCV that there may be stock shortages during the month.

The title, which comes with the Wii Balance Board, secured the No. 10 spot in the ChartTrack/ELSPA Christmas top ten chart last month, but slipped to No. 20 in this week's All Formats list. It currently sits at No. 3 in the dedicated UK Wii chart.
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Engadget writes: "Ah, yes. Nothing like some robotics to shake all that pesky quaintness out of a well-loved, time-tested game. In this case, some folks from the Cowtown Computer Congress used a couple of servos and the ever so useful Arduino to connect a wooden Labyrinth game to a Wii Fit, which appears to up the difficulty of the game while still requiring as little exertion as possible. At just $60 total (not including the Wii Fit), the project is also relatively inexpensive, and it seems that it's a fairly simple process to swap out the Wii Fit for the controller of your choice."
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Blood Assurance, a non-profit, full-service blood center, is trying to tempt potential donors by offering them a chance at taking home a Nintendo Wii with Wii Fit.
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LiveWii : "Shigeru Miyamoto must surely enjoy his gaming vision. Why? His triptych on the Wii gets at the beginning of this year in unexpected Wii Fit, which now totalizes more than three millions units sold, 3,039,233 to be precise.

And at a time when serious studies tend to demonstrate the effectiveness of such a product, the home bodytrainer joins Wii Sports, another game out of the iconoclastic imagination Miyamoto, a man who has been nominated in a ranking of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.

Nevertheless, just admit that it is unusual to see that kind of 'game' dedicated to taking care of his body and especially to lose weight is now in the heavyweight category."
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The Orlando Science Center is hosting the fourth annual Otronicon event January 16-20, 2009, featuring video games, simulators, art displays, workshops, film festivals, weddings and more.

What: Video Game Competition & Tournaments | Otronicon
When: January 16th to 20th
Where: Orlando Science Center
Website: http://www.otronicon.org

There is more info on the website: http://www.otronicon.org
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With the Wii ushering in a new era of gaming for people who aren't adolescent and college kids, gamers may be surprised to see a sudden increase of real girls at their local Gamestop. The retailer is teaming up with feminine magazines for its "Sharpen the Mind, Shape the Body" promotion.
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Games Are Evil writes, "This holiday season Wii Fit has been selling like hotcakes. It has been impossible to find them anywhere, as every housewife on the planet longs for the chance to have Mario call them a fat ass. Ironically, though the game is named Wii Fit, there has been little or no scientific evidence to support the Fit portion of the product's name..."
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Apparently Victoria Beckham got a Wii from her husband, David Beckham, for Christmas. She sheds pounds with Wii Fit and Boogie Superstar.

God help us all.
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Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers: the mega retailer is currently doing massive reductions on women's self-esteem, moving the Wii Fit advertising kiosks from the electronics department to women's clothing. A diabolical tactic!
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Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide.

This week's charts, with data taken from December 18th, 2008, find Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit leading multiplatform sales in North America as suppliers struggle to keep up with holiday demand.

Nintendo Wii
North America: 1. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 2. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 3. Wii Music (Nintendo), 4. Active Life Outdoor Challenge (Namco Bandai), 5. Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Ubisoft).

Xbox 360
North America: 1. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision), 2. Gears of War 2 (Microsoft), 3. Prince of Persia (Ubisoft), 4. Fallout 3 (Bethesda), 5. Left 4 Dead (EA Games).

PlayStation 3
North America: 1. MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (SCEA), 2. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (Ubisoft), 3. Prince of Persia (Ubisoft), 4. LittleBigPlanet (SCEA), 5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Ubisoft).
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ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) today announced the list of videogames vying for the number one spot this Christmas. And leading bookmaker Ladbrokes makes Call of Duty: World at War its 1/3 favourite for the festive accolade...
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Despite a widely-reported slowdown in consumer spending on the High Street, the majority of specialist games retailers are enjoying a more lucrative Christmas than they did last year. This is according to the findings of a new nationwide study – the MCV Retail Survey 2008 – which shows that 58 per cent of UK retailers believe their Christmas takings are up on 2007...
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Siliconera: "Without getting into the "games are art" debate too much, each year Japan's Media Arts Festival acknowledges video games that are pioneers in "media arts". Winners of the award are considered to have created something that unifies advances in technology and media. Before we get to the big winner in the video game category let's look at what the jury recommended as excellent in 2008."
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Nintendo's Wii Fit game and Apple's iPhone 3G are among the top 20 products Japanese consumers confessed to buying on impulse in 2008.
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It's not really surprising that game sequels sell better than new intellectual properties. Didn't expect it to be this lopsided, though: seven of the eight best-selling games in the past twelve months have been sequels.
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dailygamesnews.com - Australia's big enough to warrant its own multiformat charts so here you go. Massively different to the US and UK sales charts with a PS2 game taking the top spot. Mental.
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Edge writes: "Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit have each sold over one million units in the UK, according to ELSPA, putting both titles in the company of a select group of games which have achieved the milestone.

Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit join a handful of other UK 'diamond-sellers' such as Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Brain Training, The Simpsons Hit and Run, as well as Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Nintendo has now published four Wii games (and three DS games) which have sold over a million units alone."
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Independent market research organization GfK Australia has confirmed that the Wii has reached the milestone of 750,000 units sell through in 102 weeks, making Wii the fastest selling console to hit that mark in Australian history.
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Contradicting earlier reports from Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime and GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo about an expected Holiday Wii shortage, Target says starting this Sunday they will have plenty of Wii and Wii Fit balance boards in stock--with no intentions of running out.
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