One of the smartest things Microsoft has done with Xbox LIVE Arcade is make demos a requirement for each and every game, and furthermore, made it so upgrading to the full version is a mere button press away. Really, it’s hard not to impulse buy because of the way everything is set up. At a Q&A session held during an earnings briefing for Nintendo, CEO Satoru Iwata spoke with investors about a newfound interest in providing WiiWare demos later this month....

Wii MotionPlus? I saw a silly demo of the three-dimension-sensing Wii accessory at E3 earlier this year, but not much else after that. It’s still coming, and apparently Nintendo has increased orders for the gyroscope, a part of this upcoming add-on. Digitimessays that they’ve sent along extra money to component maker InvenSense, asking for increased shipments. They say that this is an indication of growth for Nintendo, despite the weak economy....

Last week, Activision called us and were all like “Hey, we’re going to be in San Francisco showing off the latest build ofPrototype. Can you send someone out?” Unfortunately, all of our Bay Area writers were tied up. Ben said he had to wash his hair, which meant he had a hot date.Hamzasaid he had a hot date which meant he had to wash his hair. So we didn’t get a chance to see the latest and greatest fromPrototypelast week....

Here’s a look atLEGOS Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, and it looks positively whacky! Okay, so it looks like basically all of the otherLEGO (Insert Franchise Here)games, and I suppose that’s not the worst thing. Starting withLEGO Star Wars, TT Games has regularly released fun little cooperative LEGO action experiences with its own trademark LEGO humor. Looks likeLEGO Pirateswill follow that same path, and fans of Jack Sparrow should get a kick out of the blocky translation....

Fancy a game of Snake? Simply hit the down direction key on your keyboard when you see video buffering in an embedded YouTube video. Try it on the one above. Old? Who cares! It’s Snake! First, click play. When you see the ring of dots that come up to let you know the video is buffering, hit the down arrow and the ring will stretch out into a snake. Use the arrow keys to control your snake, moving it around the video to pick up dots to make it larger, just like the classic game....

I get all giddy and excited when I read things about Gamescom, and this is no exception, as advanced ticket sales for Gamescom 2011 have now started. Gamescom is the world’s biggest gaming trade fair and is open to public, press, and traders alike and held yearly in the beautiful Cologne, Germany — it is by far my favourite event to attend. Last year saw over a quarter of a million people attend over three days with over five hundred exhibitors, and Destructoid was there in full force putting out amazing previews, stories and videos for you guys to enjoy....

David Cage has said some rather pompous things in his time. This is, after all, the man thatgaveHeavy Rainsole creditfor making the videogame industry a more meaningful medium. This past week at GDC, however, I believe he topped himself with a statement that went beyond uppity and dove headfirst into the realm of the dismaying. “We need to forget about video game rules — bosses, missions, game over, etcetera … are very old words of a very old language....

[Update:Sony may have fudged its numbers up, as according toSCEJ’s website, the PS3 has shifted 47.9 million units, which is actually more than the original boast. Thanks, Nyktharas] Sony has announced that over 41.6 million PlayStation 3 units have been sold worldwide. In case you’re bad at math, rest assured that it’s a lot of sales. To accompany its sales figures, Sony also declared that 80% of all consoles are connected to the PlayStation Network with over 70 million PSN accounts....

Industry analyst Michael Pachter delights once more in thebillionth storyto come from Wedbush Morgan’s recent state-of-the-industry report. While most people believe that mobile games are the future and that we’ll see huge growth in the platform, Pachter and pals completely disagree, quite blatantly stating that “Mobile games are a fad.” Pachter focuses on the iPhone, stating that while the Apple products have seen 1 billion application downloads, “it is not evident that more than 20% of these downloads are games....

I’m so pumped thatPersona 4 The Goldenis coming. If you haven’t heard, it’s a PlayStation Vita port of the PS2 RPG. But there’s new stuff. There’s always new stuff, right? Famitsu lists out the new changes and additions, and producer Katsura Hashino tells them that the Vita version will remain faithful to the original while also adding many new elements. Remember the cuts made to fitPersona 3on the PSP? That won’t be an issue here....

Game makers really want to use the DSi cameras, it seems. Konami’s latest announcement uses them in a sort of RPG mechanic. Foto Showdownhas players snapping pictures with the DSi cameras. From these photos, monsters with the same primary colors are spawned. RememberMonster Rancher? It’s kind of like that, but instead of generating data (monsters) from CDs, it comes from images. Konami says that there are more than 100 levels to battle through, using your generated monsters against various opponents’ ones....

Here’s something fairly cute to fiddle with this weekend. It’s a text adventure version of World 1-1 inSuper Mario Bros. Well, I say “text adventure”, but it’s really more like aChoose Your Own Adventurebook. Instead of having a text parser, the brief amusement uses buttons with commands which vary depending on the situation. It’s fairly simple and there’s one part that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (spoiler: it’s when you get the star) but what the hell....

Episode 2 ofNinjas vs Mafiais now live and this timeyou’re taking on the mafia to find your lost friend. You can’t get through the city by yourself so you’ll need to recruit characters into your party, one of which is Mr. Destructoid. Contest is open worldwide and we’ll give you a different gift card for those of you that don’t have a Best Buy. You have until the end of the week to enter....