EA Sports Active 2.0: for iPhone, Wii, and PS3 (along with centralized online hub). That's a really, really interesting lineup of products - especially considering that there's going to be peripherals for all of them - and slices through a casual-games/casual-exercise market.

"And so, day one of my Wii Sports Resort visit sees me unceremoniously carried limp and dazed from its courts, now forever slightly gun-shy about losing myself so completely to its instinctively direct-mapped movements, in lieu of remaining hyper-aware of my immediate surroundings: a victim to and of the virtual." Brandon gets a Wii Sports Resort injury, and this tale passes into legend.

"...the Wii’s software stack is designed with little to no future proofing. There are basically zero provisions for any future updates; even obvious things like new storage devices or game patches. What’s worse is that this will affect the compatibility mode of any future Wii successor." Interesting analysis of what's going on inside a Wii, even if the architecture is a little limited.

"KNiiTTiiNG uses the Nintendo Wii to knit. KNiiTTiiNG was created by an artist and an engineer turned behavioral scientist." Says coming soon; presumably some kind of homebrew - Wii or Wii controllers, I ask? - but worth a link for the delicious pun in the title.

Satoru Iwata interviews the product designer and producer behind the Wii Fit balance board. There's some interesting stuff on the prototyping process on the second and third page of the interview.

"...while almost all of the game’s residents are free to go as they please, heading off to new towns and lives on a whim, once you step off the bus and choose a house in which to settle, you’re here for good.... you are the local constant, the hick who’s never left its borders and there is some comfort in the knowledge that the places the other animals leave for can never be known by you." Simon's original version of his Wii Animal Crossing review; some lovely analysis of the series to date.

Wonderful.

"...Nintendo understands that while play does involve competition, territoriality and rehearsal for war, it also involves silliness, laughter and fun." Oh, god, can I just marry Stephen Fry now? Oh, there's a queue. Never mind.

"Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone, which may be a superior business model." What, making profit on units rather than selling them at colossal loss is a *superior* business model? Who would have thought it!

"A simple pocket knife can be more appealing and usable than a bristling Victorinox, and a dedicated little games machine like the DS can engage us far more than the sleek power of the PSP. You can feel admiration and even awe for the big power boxes, but for the DS you feel affection - and that, in marketing terms, is worth a whole heap more." I love Stephen Fry.

"MadWorld will "spoil the family fun image" of the console, according to Mediawatch-UK, a British organisation hat campaigns for decency in television, games and films... "It seems a shame that the game's manufacturer have decided to exclusively release this game on the Wii," said Beyer. "I believe it will spoil the family fun image of the Wii."" And this has *what*, precisely, to do with banning the game? The fact it differs from other titles on the machine? Once again, pressure-groups jump the shark.

Using the Wiimote with Processing, Max/MSP, and a whole load of other things (via OSC) on Mac OS. Fun!

"The classic controller was something [...] gamers had become comfortable with. It had many important elements. But it also had come to dictate a lot of what went into games... Creativity was being stifled, and the range of games was narrowing."