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The Week in Review news piece summarizes and highlights the most important gaming related news and rumors over the past week. This weekly article will keep you plugged in and in-tune. Hopefully you’ve all been enjoying the holidays as much as the gaming industry has. Unfortunately, extended breaks mean meager gaming goodies. Other than a bunch of cutbacks at companies like Sony, Microsoft, Midway, EA, Free Radical, and more , there actually were a few stories that were far more upbeat. For starters, the Nintendo DS’s latest incarnation, the Nintendo DSi, has sold over one million units in the six weeks since the new model’s release in Japan. According to Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, the DSi “has, as of December 21, sold a total of 1,062,416 units.” Total DS sales now sit at 24,859,874 units. Blizzard keeps printing money with their World of Warcraft MMO. The Wrath of the Lich King expansion fueled growth this month with record sales of more than four million. In fact, the expansion sold 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours, making it the fastest selling PC game of all time. Accordingly, Blizzard has revealed this week that there are now 11.5 million active subscribers to the MMO. According to Nikkei Business Daily via Reuters, Nintendo will team up with ad agency Dentsu Inc to launch a video distribution service on the Wii. The service is supposed to be an official channel for Wii rather than added on Wiiware. The two companies will create original cartoons and “other entertainment programs created for the new service to differentiate it from other online content delivery operations.” Of course, the original video content will include classic Nintendo IPs, but it will also likely include anime and more. The service will hit first in Japan in early 2009 with a worldwide launch later in the year. Finally, on the rumor front, according to Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian, the next entry in The Legend of Zelda series may release in 2009 along as well as an all-new Princess Peach title to boot. Also, it was hinted that the next Grand Theft Auto could be available as early as 2010 . Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week! |