Shacknews reports that Insomniac have announced a new addition to the Ratchet and Clank series on the PS3, entitled “A Crack in Time”. The title will pick up where Quest for Booty left off. There are no further details at the moment, but assume that it will launch on the PSN for about $15 in the US, and that it will answer some questions you might have been left with at the end of the previous game.

Likely to be another outstanding game, but if it follows the PS3 original closely enough, it might be ruined for me by a spawn-point famine. It’s increasingly frustrating getting three-quarters of the way through a level, only to die, and have to do the whole thing again. It might have been acceptable back in the day, but it’s just archaic now. Let’s hope they fix it, eh?

Nintendo has claimed that they now rule seven seas, working with law enforcement agencies in a number of countries to squash piracy in the form of the R4 memory card. The R4 card allows for unofficial programs to be played on the Nintendo DS, including emulators and pirated games.

According to Nintendo, they’ve now seized 30,000 copyright-infringing piracy devices. Now that’s a lot of booty! Check out the full statement from Nintendo after the jump.

Nintendo told Gamesindustry.biz:

“Nintendo takes a global approach to piracy and has pursued the illegal game copying devices in 11 countries this past year,” said the company in a statement.

“Nintendo has worked with enforcement officials in Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, UK, and the US, seizing close to 30,000 infringing game copying products, as well as taking actions against those distributors and manufacturers.”

“Nintendo and software manufacturers are suffering tremendous loss caused by the import and distribution of such devices. Nintendo and software manufacturers have determined that the spread of such devices in the market would hinder sound growth and development of the entire computer game industry and will therefore continue to take strict legal measures against any game copying devices that operate like the R4.”

It will be interesting to see the way that game companies continue to deal with the threat of internet piracy. Sony, for example, has repeatedly upgraded the PSP with new firmware to try to thwart the homebrew scene.

The Big 3 console manufacturers don’t seem to have the same pull as the RIAA quite yet, but expect lawmakers to be lobbied even more heavily in lots of countries as the gaming industry grows and pirated games become more readily available.

Source: gamesindustry.biz

The Wii Balance Board covers shown above are the work of Amr Racing, and have been in the spotlight as of late, due to their racey nature — which clashes with the overall “family” brand of Nintendo — the company their product is made to skin.

Gameindustry.biz obtained a comment from Nintendo regarding the skins, and the response they recieved was one most of us could have predicted:

“These are not officially licensed products, we always recommend the use of official first or third party Nintendo products to ensure 100 per cent compatibility and reliability with our hardware … We always closely monitor new products entering the market to ensure that they do not infringe on any of our IP.”

Apple has been dealing with third party content on for their iPod (and most recently their iPhone) for some time now. Cell phones in general have been the target of third party skins for as long as I can remember.

Generally speaking, most manufactures seem to take the hands-off, “we can only recommend products stamped with our official approval” approach regarding their existence. However, those products still remain on the market, and many of them do very well. Why is that?

Having the means to reach consumers without directly tarnishing their brand is a benefit to a  large corporation. For example, corporations often ask customers to comment on their products, because they know that they will likely say things they never could as a company. Hearing an individual who is not affiliated with a company say “wow this is the greatest thing ever made”, may influence you as a consumer, and at the same time does not legally put the manufacturer of the product at risk by directly over-promising.

The reality is that third party content (be it a consumer testimonial or a visual product enhancement) helps to heighten awareness, and as demonstrated by the skins above, presents an opportunity for the company to connect with an audience in a way they never could/would attempt to do directly.

The major difference between the Balance Board skins and those applied to cell phones and laptops for example, is that you actually place the full weight of your body on the Wii Balance Board. Therefore, the moment someone slips off one of these things, and attempts to file a suit against Nintendo (it will happen), Amr Racing better pray to whatever Gods they worship that their skin is not involved.

Source: gamesindustry.biz