Good news for European space-mmo fans! With the launch of the recent German localisation of the Eve Online client, CCP have started shifting more resources onto the European marketing of their online massive-multiplayer, Eve Online. In a recent interview with CMO (?) Magnus Bergsson, he admitted that during the past 12 months, CCP’s focus was focused primarily on America (”80%” of their marketing efforts), with only 20% being split between Europe and presumably China). This is set to change, as CCP plans more localizations for the Eve client, new payment options (a real problem in Europe) as well as hotfixes and patches to address some of the numerous bugs that have popped up in the recent patch changes.

Read more: Eve Online returns marketing focus back onto Europe

Nintendo Wii in the US, November 19th, $249.99 at over 25,000 distribution points. Hardware, cables, sensor bar, 1 Wii remote and 1 nunchuck controller in the box.

Wii bowling, Wii Boxing, Wii Golf, Wii Baseball, Wii Tennis = Wii Sports which will be packed into the Wii box. Legend of Zelda and Excite Truck as part of the 30 planned Wii titles for Nintendo’s launch window (about half on launch day, rest following through 2006), software pricing to remain consistent with Gamecube ($49.99 for first-party titles).

Trauma Center, Madden 07, Need for Speed: Carbon, Elebits, Super Monkey Ball, Metal Slug Anthology, Red Steel, RRR all part of planned launch titles. Metroid Prime 3 coming in 2007.

Wii channels menu, news, weather, software shop, photo and others. 10 Virtual Console / Channel titles per month, including Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Super Mario 64, Super Mario World and more.

Wii points can be purchased online or at retailers, 2000 points = $20, purchased title available forever to re-download after purchase. Virtual Console / Channel games to cost $5-$10 each. No word on indie game developers actually getting a chance to develop VC titles.

Wii Photo channel the iPhoto of gaming? Take your SD card from your camera and plug it into your Wii. Scamble, doodle and more over your photos.

Messaging channel allows sending messages to PC users (chat?), cellphones (sms?) and to other Wii messaging users.

4 million Wii units by Dec 31st worldwide, 6 million by end of fiscal year (March 2007). US to get bulk of units, no word on if EU gets Wii this holiday season. :(

First online game in Japan at launch, Pokemon Battle Revolution, US version following shortly. Guaranteed million seller in japan.

WHEW!

Wii day is here! With the many Wii-related announcements that are popping out, Nintendo also put up a long(ish) video presentation in Japanese showing brief snippets from tons of upcoming Wii titles. I see bits of Resident Evil (!), Fire Emblem (!), Zelda (!), Metroid (!) and many others.

Watch more: Small video, higher quality | Large video, lower quality

A few days late but whatever, you don’t know me, you don’t know me. Last week, EA announced that they’ve signed an agreement with Microsoft subsidiary, Massive, to begin including dynamic in-game adveritising in future EA titles for the Xbox 360 and PC, starting with the upcoming “Need for Speed: Carbon”. The ads will be seamless and will not disrupt gameplay according to EA, unless you count the horrid eyesore that is the giant hamburger ad glowing and flickering in neon-pink, in such a way that it draws your attention off of the game and to the virtual sign next to the virtual lightpost that you’re about to hit. Additional titles utilizing Massive’s dynamic gaming adveritising network will be announced in the near future.

Read more: EA signs in-game adveritising deal with Massive

Legendary Japanese developer and publisher Square Enix will begin distributing four PopCap titles for the Japanese market, via Square’s online web portal. Bejeweled 2, Chuzzle, Insaniquarium, and Heavy Weapon all will be localized and made available to Japan’s large casual games market, providing a huge boost to PopCap and a possibly lucrative doorway into the much sought-after Japanese market. Additional titles will be coming in the future, at first starting as free trials through Square’s download service. Popcap is one of the largest and well-known casual games makers, with Bejeweled selling over 10 million copies, in addition to other hits in the casual, downloadable, mobile, online casino and console markets achieving successful sales numbers.

Read more: Square Enix to distribute PopCap titles in Japan | PopCap Games

Europe gets screwed again, this time with Sony delaying the EU launch of the PS3 due to manufacturing time constraints (screw Blu-Ray, seriously) and PAL conversion delays. The Sony PS3 will continue as planned with a November release in the US and Japan, following with a March 2007 release in Europe, Russia, Australia and everywhere else on Earth. Sony have also delayed their “This is Living” short-films for the EU territories, since naturally there’s no need to start the marketing so soon. We’re dead set on the Wii60 bundle personally, so it doesn’t quite effect us, but this is certainly more bad press for Sony, which has been stumbling all over the place with this launch and there are still rumours of 1st party devs not even having final dev-kits floating around.

Read more: Sony delays EU PS3 launch

Double Fine, the doubly good development studio started by games design god Tim Schafer and creator of one of the most under-rated titles in gaming, Psychonauts, is revealed to be working on an unannounced title for Vivendi Games subsidiary, Sierra. The revelation came from a recent investor presentation given by Vivendi Games, where it was buried (under all the World of Warcraft mess) that Doublefine is an external studio working on an unannounced project. No further information or timeframe were given, but you can be sure that we’ll be hearing about it as soon as Schafer is ready.

Read more: Double Fine working on unannounced title for Vivendi (Via Gamasutra)

Riding the wave of a reported turnaround in their latest financial results JoWooD has announced two upcoming titles for 2007 which may or may not improve their financial situation after intense restructuring and massive layoffs (reportedly close to 100 employees were let go), which went completely under the gaming press radar. Other than the much-anticipated Gothic III, JoWood has announced the first expansion for SpellForce 2, “Dragon Storm”, which is being completed by Phenomic, which was recently acquired by EA, and this coming year’s installment of Alpine Ski Racing, “Alpine Ski Racing 2007: Bode Miller Vs. Hermann Maier”.

Read more: JoWooD announces two upcoming releases | Alpine Ski Racing 2007 | SpellForce 2