Welcome back for another week here at News Pop!. This weekend was a big one for gamers everywhere. It's not too often that two different companies launch their new consoles in the same weekend. Nintendo's launch of the Wii on Sunday went extremely well, at least here in Ontario, where every system sold out (in the stores we checked, at the very least). Sony's release of the Playstation 3 went just as they planned it, which must mean that they planned for the launch to go poorly, because it did. Pre-order holders at many stores went home disappointed on Friday, and so did many others who braved the elements for, in some cases, two days to get their hands on the system. Many stores are receiving daily calls, both from pre-order holders and from people just interested in buying the Playstation 3, inquiring when the next shipment is coming in, only to be answered with “I'm sorry, but we don't know.”

In contrast to the Playstation 3s unknown shipping situation, many stores are already expecting more shipments of the Wii by the end of the week. With the original shipments of the Wii ranging from a mere fourteen units per store for places like Sam's Club to up to 300 units per store for places like Best Buy, there are a lot of Wiis going around, and there are many more to come. It really looks like Nintendo will be hitting that 4 million unit target. So now that we've got all of that behind us, let's start today's News Pop!.

Taco Bell is offering $12,500 to get a PS3

As if the eBay bidders, trying to get their hands on the Playstation 3 wasn't enough, this offer goes higher than any bidder has gone so far. Taco Bell is offering a “lifetime” of Taco Bell food ($12,500 USD in Taco Bell Bucks) to the first person to trade in their Playstation 3. Taco Bell will donate the exchanged system to the Stanton teen center of the Boys & Girls Club. The pre ss release reads, “ The tacos will be awarded in the form of $12,500 in TACO BELL® Bucks, redeemable at participating Taco Bell locations. The party exchanging the PlayStation 3 is solely responsible for payment of all taxes, income and otherwise, and should consult with his/her tax adviser. Interested PlayStation 3 owners should send their name, email and phone number to tacobellnews@tacobell.com . The first person to respond, based on the time the email is received, and then send their PlayStation 3 will be awarded the Taco Bell Bucks. Offer expires December 1, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. PST.” We're just wondering if anybody is actually going to do it.

Bam! Shut down!

The FBI and NCsoft have successfully shut down an illegal computer game “operation” which had been taking in profits by providing its users with a fraudulent service. The operation was closed down after multiple raids and interviews were conducted in various cities from California to Virginia. The owners of L2Extreme were served with warrants and their operations, which were providing its users unauthorized service and code for NCsoft's online game, Lineage II, were shut down. NCsoft estimates that the losses and damages from the operation were costing the company millions of dollars per year. “Operations like this essentially are defrauding customers by stealing from companies like NCsoft,” said Matt Esber, NCsoft North America general counsel. “In the end those losses impact our customer support, product development, operational areas and ultimately they impact our player communities, most of which are trying to play games legitimately...”. We can only hope that this is only the beginning of a series of raids on illegal operations, and as the investigation into L2Extreme's operation is ongoing, we're sure this isn't going to be the last we hear of this.

Superman Returns shipped today

No, not the movie, the game! EA began shipping Superman Returns: The Video Game today and, hopefully , it will be available in retail stores nationwide tomorrow. Superman Returns: The Video Game is the ultimate open-world super hero experience and is available on the Xbox 360, as well as PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. Players will be able to see, firsthand, what it's like to be Superman in an open-world, where they can go anywhere in the 80 square miles of Metropolis, from the street up into the clouds. The game features the voice and likeness of Brandon Routh (Superman/Clark Kent) as well as the voices of Kevin Spacey (Lex Luthor), Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane), Parker Posey (Kitty Kowalski) and Sam Huntington (Jimmy Olsen), all reprising their roles from the movie. Superman Returns: The Video Game will be available for Xbox 360 for $59.99 USD/$69.99 CAD, for Playstation 2 and Xbox for $39.99 USD/$49.99 CAD and is rated T for Teen. There is also a version of the game for Nintendo DS, which will cost $29.99 USD/$39.99 CAD and is rated E for Everyone, and a version for Game Boy Advance called Superman Returns: Fortress of Solitude, which will cost $29.99 USD and is rated E for Everyone. For more information on the game, you can check out the official Superman Returns: The Video Game website at www.besuperman.com.

Nintendo updates us on the Wii Channel Situation

For those of you who got, and starting using, a Wii already, you probably noticed that some of the Wii Channels which require an Internet connection don't work. The reason for that is, they haven't been put into operation yet. The Forecast Channel, News Channel and Internet Channel are the Wii Channels which are currently unavailable. While we didn't know when these Channels would be available at first, we got more information on the situation today. The Forecast Channel, which lets you access worldwide weather information by browsing a 3-D globe, will become available on December 20^th and the News Channel, which lets you check up to date news any time, will become available on January 27^th. Currently, there is no news on the release date for the Internet Channel download, but we'll keep you posted on it when we get information.

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