News- 15/08/09- Pokemon Gold/Silver dates

Not many solid facts to report on this week- the majority of news stories consisted of rumour reports (most of which regarding Sony's Gamescon presentation next week).

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver have been given rough western release dates- the games, which are due out in Japan next month, are to be released in the USA and Europe next spring. Not entirely sure what's taking them so long since they could really copy and paste most of the dialogue from the GameBoy Colour titles and the majority of fans would be happy.

An unofficial Wii remote charging station has been recalled due to fire hazards. It's being listed under two names, depending on which territory you're in. If you have a 4-way docking station sold by a company called either "Psyclone" or "React", you can contact Psyclone to arrange for a re-designed replacement.

Swedish games developer GRIN has spewed its last bloody cough and finally shut its doors. Makers of the rather excellent Bionic Commando Rearmed and the rather shitty Terminator: Salvation, we can only hope that they're remembered for their accomplishments rather than their less-than-stellar recent releases. The company's founders have claimed the closure was due to publishers being too slow in paying the bills.

On a less depressing note, Nintendo has filed a patent for an inflatable cushion that can be sat on as if riding a horse, with slots in for the motion controller. What. The. Fuck. Oh Japan, how we adore you.

The DSi is proving that despite being a waste of time and money it's still a huge commercial success. The system, which has basically no exclusive games and offers few benefits for the upgrade, has sold 1.7 million units during its first 3 months in the US. This rate beats not only the DS Phat and Lite's rates of sales, but the Wii's aswell (the Wii sold 1.5 million in its first 3 months). In related news, Wii Sports Resort has sold well over half a million copis in a couple of weeks in Europe alone. I guess Nintendo still knows how to print that money.

A revelation that has left me feeling slightly sick Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, has revealed his personal earnings for 2008. This man, who refused to publish the successful Ghostbusters game because it "wasn't annualisable" and has been pushing for higher game retail prices (hence Modern Warfare 2 costing £55 in the UK at launch) earned nearly $15 million last year, $5 million of which were bonuses. Christ.