Factor 5 announced today that San Rafael-based studio has been closed. Factor 5 has been rumored for many months now to have been working on Kid Icarus for the Wii and/or a Pilotwings title. A rumor has popped up regarding a “Flight Project” that the company was working on. Players would be allowed to fly all over the world with a number of airplanes and spacecrafts. It’s possible that the title was built around the foundation of the Wii Lair Engine. For now, it’s up in the air if this project is truly something that Factor 5 was/is working on. But it’ll be interesting to see how the next few months unfold, especially with E3 right around the corner.

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Nintendo DS Product Line Sells More Than 1.04 Million, Sets Industry Record for April Hardware Sales

Powered by the launch of the new Nintendo DSi™ hand-held system, the Nintendo DS franchise set a new all-time U.S. record for April hardware sales for any video game platform, according to the independent NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. Nintendo sold more than 827,000 Nintendo DSi systems in April and an additional 215,000 Nintendo DS™ Lite systems, for a combined total of more than 1.04 million. This brings life-to-date sales of the Nintendo DS franchise in the United States alone to more than 30 million.

At the same time, Nintendo’s Wii™ console remained the No. 1 home system in the United States, selling more than 340,000 in April, more than the other current-generation home console systems combined. Wii has sold through nearly 20 million in the United States since its launch in November 2006.

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Thanks to _Contra_ for the news tip!

Update 2: Someone over at NeoGAF was able to remove the filters (see below):

Small update: Check out this interesting tidbit from IGN’s Mark Bozon:

“You and I (and now everyone, since I’m typing this) know there are more than one of these hardcore-centric games out there. Await my response just as soon as I get the “ok” from one of the devs…”

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These past few days have been full of “secrets” on the Nintendo front, with the Big N themselves showcasing an unannounced game to a few members of the press. Now there is more teasing going on, with an exclusive Wii title, built ground up for the system. Apparently this game is pretty mature – there’s lots of blood in the image above, as IGN’s Matt Casamassina notes. The picture has gone through a filter process so that the game cannot be easily guessed, but considering all of the blood involved, there’s a good chance that this game isn’t being developed by Nintendo. Some believe that this title may be some sort of barbarian game, with the outline of a character in the middle left with a sword pointing to the right.

PlayStation 2 172K
PlayStation 3 127K
PSP 116K
Xbox 360 175K
Wii 340K
Nintendo DS 1.04M

WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 1 471K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 2 433K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 3 210K
PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 4 170K
THE GODFATHER II ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 5 155K
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA 360 6 122K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 7 119K
MARIO KART DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 8 112K
GUITAR HERO AEROSMITH* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD (CORP) 360 9 110K
THE GODFATHER II ELECTRONIC ARTS PS3 10 91K

– Items have unique sounds when pointed at
– Sometimes need to use waggle controls
– Wiimote used to take control of Chibi’s tools
– Move controller in back and forth motions for toothbrush mop, toss Wiimote like a ball to throw objects in trashcan
– Pointer used for camera movement
– D-pad bring up icons in normal play, used to rotate camera for full view

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – May 14, 2009 – Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced Science Papa™ is coming to Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ this July. Using fundamentals from a wide variety of sciences as a basis for fun skill-based experiments, Science Papa will turn living rooms into virtual laboratories that will fuel kids’ curiosity.

“With Science Papa, we’re taking real-world elements of science and giving players the chance to interact with them in safe and creative ways,” said David Oxford, Activision Publishing. “While the focus here is clearly family fun, the game can stimulate interest and discussion about science.”

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Game developer to donate a share of its proceeds from game sales to the Firefighter Cancer Support Network

May 14, 2009 – Looking to give back to those who risk it all to keep us safe, game developer Epicenter Studios announced today that they will be donating a share of their proceeds from “Real Heroes: Firefighter” for the Nintendo Wii™ to the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.

“We wanted to try to give back to these brave women and men who put their lives on the line every day to keep the public safe,” said Nathaniel McClure, CEO of Epicenter Studios. “This is our attempt to bring recognition and support to a wonderful organization that not only supports firefighters battling cancer but also aggressively promotes prevention and early detection.”

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EA Sports president Peter Moore recently had a chance to speak about third parties on the Wii, explaining that it’s up to them to “crack the code” on the system. According to Moore, achieving success on the Wii isn’t rocket science.

“I think the emphasis is on the third parties to crack the code on the Wii, and there are some games that have done well from third parties, and figure out what we need to do when we’re playing on the Wii to make that game successful. Nintendo clearly has it figured out – they’re the platform holders, so you’ve think they would.

But at the same time, it’s not rocket science, and we in the publishing community have got to go and figure that out. I think we’ve done it with Tennis and Tiger, EA Sports Active really feels like it’s going to be a success, and the unique way that we’re utilising the Wii Remote is going to be the secret source to that.

But you can’t blame Nintendo because third party publishers have yet, in real mass, to find success on the platform. They get the same dev kits as everybody else, and it’s our job to figure it out.”