Okay, so my best Dr. Evil and Soup Nazi impersonations do not translate well to the printed word.

First off, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Ron Bertram, VP and GM for Nintendo - Canada, while speaking to MacKenzie Financial said, "We're looking at a million for North America at launch. If we get what we're supposed to get, this will be our most plentiful launch in the 15 years I've been at Nintendo. All signs are extremely positive." Good news for Wii junkies who are dying to get their hands on the $249.99 console, when it launches, just two days after the PlayStation 3, on November 19, 2006.

Most likely in a response to abundant criticism over the cost of their forthcoming next-gen behemoth, Sony announced Friday that "PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3) with 20GB hard disk drive (HDD) will come equipped with HDMI(*) (Ver 1.3/supporting Deep Color) output as standard with the system. PS3 with 20GB HDD will become available in Japan at a new recommended retail price of 49,980 yen (tax included)."

There has been some discussion on the Internet regarding the "undocumented" player roles icons in Madden '07. For those of you that don't know, the icons show up while looking at the rosters in franchise mode, and while viewing the individual players you can see the names of the roles associated to that player in franchise mode. Roles can be gained or lost depending on what the requirements for those roles are.

I have seen quite a few forum posts on the subject, but this is the best one I have seen. Thanks to "SkyCaptain" and my brother for help on this one.

The folks at Bioware, makers of Jade Empire and Neverwinter Nights, have announced that they have created a new group specifically aimed at developing games for the DS.

It's about time!

After a leak in March (when a list containing unannounced titles and release dates as well as hints of a November PS3 launch) security around Ubisoft probably should have been a bit tighter.