Entertainment reviews aggregation site Metacritic has published its 2012 publisher rankings, ranking Electronic Arts at the top of the list, followed by Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Capcom. The rankings use each publisher's game scores to determine the order.

EA was helped by Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Mass Effect; Microsoft came in second with the help of Mark of the Ninja; followed by Sony with Journey; Nintendo with Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii; and Capcom with Okami HD and Dragon's Dogma - both for PS3.

It's Luigi's 30th anniversary this year but it seems like Mario's taller brother - like Rodney Dangerfield - can't get any respect. Luigi was introduced as an optional second player in the arcade version of Mario Bros. thirty years ago.

Here's a story I can get behind - and if I owned a Wii U - I likely would have thrown my .02 in the mix. For years North American gamers have been begging Nintendo to bring another Earthbound game to our shores. For no real reason Nintendo has refused to do so, despite releasing multiple titles (it's called Mother in Japan) in its home country - Mother on NES, Mother 3 on Game Boy Advance, and various sequels.

Earlier this week we reported that the Chinese government was considering lifting a 13-year ban on game consoles in the country. While there's plenty of black market devices and software for Chinese consumers, there's no way to legally buy a PS3, Xbox 360, or Nintendo device in the country. The story from a few days ago was based on a China Daily report that quoted an anonymous source inside the Ministry of Culture.

Nintendo has cut its hardware sales forecast after a less than stellar performance in the fourth quarter. Projections for the Wii U have been revised down to 4 million by the end of the fiscal year that ends on March 31 - from 5.5 million. Nintendo also says that it now expects to sell 15 million units during this fiscal year - down from 17.5. The Nintendo DS will sell 2.3 million units during this fiscal year, down from a previous forecast of 2.5 million.

According to a Nikkei report (as reported by The Verge) Nintendo plans to merge its home console and hand-held divisions into one single unit in a "month's time" and will spend 30 billion yen (about $340 million USD) on a new Kyoto, Japan development facility to be opened by the end of 2013. Some are speculating that the date for this to begin will be February 16.

Mutant Mudds and Dementium developer Jools Watsham is concerned about the potential of rampant software piracy on the Nintendo 3DS after a hacker claimed that he (or she?) was able to take full control of the hand-held system, according to Eurogamer.

The results are in, the votes have been tallied and the sole light in my mom's windowless, basement bathroom burnt out while I was taking a shower this morning.  It's time to reveal which of the current consoles GamePolitics poll participants think has the dumbest name!

A particularly light and fluffy question for this week's poll, GP faithful:

Which of the current crop of video game consoles do you think has the dumbest name?

Is it the Wii?  It's the Wii, isn't it?

Yeah, it's probably the Wii.

Seen anyone wandering around with 7,000 Wii consoles?

If you have, pick up the phone and give the SeaTac, Washington police a call because those units are probably stolen.

Sgt. Cindy West told ABC News that thieves pulled up two 53-foot semi-truck trailers and a large box-truck van to a Nintendo distribution warehouse in Seattle Air Cargo last Saturday evening and, using forklifts on site, loaded up the vehicles with approximately $2 million worth of Wii consoles.

Then they left.

According to new data from MediaCreate on sales in Japan for the week of Dec. 3 - 9, the Nintendo 3DS has sold more units to-date than the PlayStation 3. The 3-D enabled hand-held system managed to do this in the region in less than two years to boot.

Lifetime sales of the 3DS came in at 8,799,378, beating out the PS3 which came in at lifetime sales of 8,716,260 units in Japan. The PS3 has been on the market in Japan for six years. In terms of sales in Japan for the week, the Wii U came in on top at 308,142, followed by the 3DS at 211,499, and the PS3 at 36,994.

Well, the Wii U has been out in the States for a few weeks now and many of you have gone hands-on with it.  So, how do you think Nintendo’s new console stacks up to the competition from a graphics standpoint?

Nintendo of Europe has finally explained the odd restrictions on 18+ content (which includes reading information, looking at screenshots, and watching video) in place on the European Wii U eShop. It turns out that German law is affecting when everyone (adults and children) can look at mature content. Last week Eurogamer found that it could not look at information on the eShop during certain times (11pm to 3am). This included info on the 18+ rated games ZombieU and Assassin's Creed 3.

Apparently taking cues from 'Cinemax' or 'Showtime After Dark,' Eurogamer has discovered that the European Wii U eShop prohibits all consumers from accessing mature-rated games and content during the daytime hours.

Nintendo of Canada communications manager director Matt Ryan tells Polygon that the Wii Mini lacks important features such as GameCube backwards compatibility and online connectivity because the firm wanted to keep the cost low so that "families" and "non-core gamers" could afford the device. Nintendo announced the pared down Nintendo Wii recently as being only for Canada and set at a suggested retail price of $99 CAN.

Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime is pushing back against complaints aimed at the Wii U. Speaking to Gamasutra, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that the Wii U's launch hiccups - mostly tied to the system's mandatory day-one patch - was a requirement to ensure the "very best product" for consumers.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says that he is very sorry for the problems people had on launch day with the mandatory Wii U Day One firmware update. Speaking to IGN, he said that the length of time it took to download the update was not acceptable.

According to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, the Wii U has sold 400,000 units in the United States. Speaking to CNET, Fils-Aime said that 300,000 Wii consoles and 500,000 portable devices also sold during the same period, for a grand total of 1.2 million hardware units sold in the US.

Google is (finally) sounding the alarm bells that an upcoming United Nations-organized conference is a serious threat to the "free and open internet" we currently enjoy (well, in most countries in the world). Government representatives around the world will get together to try and hash out an agreement on a new information and communications treaty in December.

In an interview with NowGamer, chief technical officer at Metro: Last Light developer 4A Oles Shishkovtsov said probably the most disparaging thing you can say about a brand new console: it has no power. When asked if the new game would be on the Wii U, Shishkovtsov said that it was not possible because Wii U's processor was "horrible and slow." Not exactly what the folks at Nintendo headquarters want a developer to say...

All it will take for the Wii U to be profitable will be the sale of one game with the system, claims Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. Fils-Aime made the comments in a recent interview with Mercury News. Without having that one-game attach rate the Wii U is selling at a loss. Fils-Aime's comments would suggest that the console is very close to breaking even if all it takes is the sale of one game - we assume he means a first-party title developed and published by Nintendo...

While there has been a fair share of bad news related to the Wii U's North American launch on Sunday, today we offer a story that is good news for anyone that wants to play some of those older Wii titles on the system: they look better on Wii U. According to the video to your left - pointed out by this NeoGAF forum thread - the Wii U appears to upscale Wii games.

In Episode 29 of the Super Podcast Action Committee hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss the shaky launch of the Wii U console over the weekend, Sony perma-bans for PS3 'hackers,' and the good and bad side of Electronic Arts. It's a show to remember unless you stopped that Wii U firmware update - then it's a painful reminder that getting your brand new console 'bricked' kind of sucks! Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 29 (1 hour, 19 minutes) 73 MB.

The very last issue of Nintendo Power is complete, according to a tweet from Phil Theobald.

"The last issue of Nintendo Power should be on newsstands on December 11, everyone. Don't miss it--there's some amazing stuff in it," he said.

News of the magazine shutting down went public in August, much to the chagrin of fans who grew up reading the magazine during its 24 year lifespan.

With the Wii U launch less than a week away, many game publishers have strong opinions about Nintendo's newest platform. In an upcoming interview with GamesIndustry International, CEO Yves Guillemot offers his. While Ubisoft is one of the biggest third-party supporter of Wii U at launch, the company's CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledges that Nintendo may have to lower the price of the console.

Despite what those rascally anti-videogame folks would have you believe, all modern video game consoles have parental controls and Nintendo's Wii U is no exception.

Available for purchase in North America this Sunday, Nintendo's new console puts the parental controls right on the Wii U's main menu as opposed to burying it somewhere in system settings.  It's that pink icon in the second row.

Here's what the controls can do:

Looking forward to playing around with Wii U's online features?

Well, you're going to have to perform a system update first.

According to IGN (and confirmed in this morning's Nintendo Direct presentation), online features like Miiverse, Wii U Chat, Nintendo TVii and the system's eShop will be enabled with a Day 1 system update.

As is usually the case with new consoles, Nintendo's Wii U will initially be sold at a loss to the company when it releases in November. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed during the company's financial results briefing this week that the Wii U would be sold for far less than it cost to make, but the conventional wisdom is that the company will make most of its money on software.

Nintendo today lowered its full-year (fiscal year ending March 31, 2013) sales forecast, pointing to sluggish hardware and software sales and yen appreciation. the company also said that it expects to sell 5.5 million Wii U units by April of 2013. The Wii U is set to launch in November in Europe and North America. Previously the company expected to post profits of 20 billion yen ($250.7 million), but has lowered that number to 6 billion yen ($75.2 million).