‘Wii Party’ is a minigame collection, much like Mario Party but without the Mario and with your Miis instead. The game will be 1-4 players and have 3 different game modes, currently called Teiban Party, Pair Party, and Living Party. Teiban Party, also called ‘Standard Party’, contains a collection of luck-based games like Bingo, Roulette and Mii-jan. Pair Party is, you guessed it, for pairs of players, enforcing teamwork and collaboration. Living Party mode is playable only with two or more players. Nintendo says that the game will be released in the current fiscal year, which means sometime before March 2011.

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Before you scoff and predict the item’s failure, know that the exact opposite is happening. The unofficial World of Warcraft blog has claimed that the purchasing queue for the steed hit at least 80,000 users deep, with the wait time breaching the seven hour mark. Do the math on this, and we’re looking at a new horse that is pulling in $2.5 million in revenue every hour.

Let us know in the comments – are you a World of Warcraft player that has purchased the steed? Will you in the future? Or, better yet, would you ever pay that much for a single item in a game? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

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Now, thanks to an announcement on the Official Playstation Blog (as reported by Inside Social Games), the console’s first in-game Facebook integration has been created, and it’s found in Buzz: Quiz World.

To share any in-game information with Facebook, you’ll first have to sync your two accounts by heading to the Account Management portion of the Playstation 3′s menu, and follow the directions therein. Afterward, as stated on the blog post, you’ll be able to post information like “what place you finished in and what buzzer noises your friends used,” after you complete a game, with all of the information being presented as news posts on your wall and news feed.

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Also of note is that apparently 85% of Home users have at least returned twice and that the majority of users spend several hours romping in the virtual environment. I’m assuming a good amount of this has to do with the promotional content it provides for games and the strategy for Sony that is involved.

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The program allows these independent musicians the chance to create and sell their own tracks through the network. The network itself has been in beta for several months, allowing artists and players alike to test out the system before today. Artists that sign up for it are allowed multiple pricing tiers and 30% commission on each track sold.

Already more than 100 tracks are for sale and much more are on the way as more bands see the potential of the service. Not only are independent bands and labels allowed to sell on the new Network but commercial bands as well that are not already available.

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The move proved successful when earlier this week, Jordan completed this task. Now that would be pretty difficult for Jordan to complete on his own, as the magic ingredient in this story is social media. Jordan used the power of Skype to communicate with his friends from all over the world. Using their extensive knowledge and willingness to help, plus the power of interacting over the internet with social media services, Jason chose to complete this task with a little help from his friends.

Isn’t that social gaming in it’s truest form?

Of course, this story also has a larger message about how disabilities can be  a hindrance when playing games, but not completely debilitating from completion. I could certainly see how social media could help further enhance how people play games and even allow those previously thought not able to as well.

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“Congratulations to all of the LittleBigPlanet community, as we hit another big user-generated milestone with over two million levels created and posted on the Share Planet,”

LittleBigPlanet hit one million levels in July of last year, which was only about 9 months after launch. 9 months or so later, we have another million. The community of this cute and funny platformer remains extremely active bringing out around 100,000 new levels per month. Of course, Sony has been supportive of the game as well, with its platform for players to easily share their levels but also because of the frequent DLC updates in order for players to enhance their levels.

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If you’re not hip to the Netflix jive, here’s how it works:  On Netflix, internet video streaming, notated as “Watch Instantly” on the site, is available free with regular subscription service. This functionality enables viewers to watch movies directly on a PC or TV. Videos can also be viewed on Blu-ray players, Roku set-top boxes, and gaming consoles.  Wii, the gaming industry’s most popular console, will be the third console to offer the service.

To utilize the service with no extra fees, Wii owners need to have a broadband Internet connection and an unlimited Netflix subscription plan. These plans start at $8.99 per month. There is a free software disc that Wii owners must pop into their console when they want to watch a movie. These discs can easily be requested on the Netflix website now for free shipment when they become available this spring.

Two competing consoles, the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, already offer the Netflix service. Netflix’s streaming catalog can also be accessed by LG and Samsung Blu-ray players, TiVo, a set-top box from Roku, and even some TVs. In order to compete with the PS3 and Xbox’s high-definition streaming video power, it might behoove Nintendo to develop an HD version for the Wii.  Although there had been some speculation about it, Nintendo confirmed that they will not be releasing Wii in HD. The company maintains that their focus is on the gameplay experience, not visuals.

Currently, Netflix’s streaming service features more than 17,000 movies and recorded television shows. At a time when Americans are forced trim down expenses, Netflix’s choice to capitalize on the streaming media is improving their staying power. The service is cost effective and provides the viewer with a greater depth of service. This value has the potential to encourage subscribers to keep Netflix in queue, if you will.

This article was originally posted by Chelsea Nenni on the TriplePoint blog.

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The Xbox Game Room will offer two payment options: buy a game for 240-400 Microsoft points, or pay 40 MS points a pop (per play) like the old days. A token idea for non-committal players, rainy days and Microsoft microtransaction revenues.

Xbox 360 users will be able to troll the virtual video arcade using their XBL avatars, create customizable (& upgradable) arcade areas, and invite friends to visit, play and compete.

Here’s the nifty Game Room trailer released at CES last week:

If you want to see more, Kotaku snuck a sneak peek in this CES video overview. And in a leaked interview last week, Microsoft’s President of the Entertainment & Devices Division, Robbie Bach said:

“Well, Game Room in some ways is sort of a retro approach. And it’s interesting, there’s a generation of people — sort of my advanced, mature age [laughs] — who grew up with a set of games like Centipede. They look almost like casual, fun games today — at the time they were high-end, edgy games — and so Game Room is the idea of bringing that back to the market. And bringing that to a very broad audience. And I think what we’re gonna find is that when people can get 30 or more of these games, they’re gonna love it for the experience. And it’s not just you and I who are gonna love it, even the people who would call themselves “hardcore gamers” are gonna say “Oh wow this is fun!” In a retro way. It’s sort of like my daughter going to watch Journey. I’m like, this is a band that was playing when I was growing up. And she thinks it’s a cool band and I like the music. And I think you’re gonna have the same phenomenon with Game Room. We’re gonna enjoy the games and they’re gonna think it’s cool. I think that’s very powerful.”

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On the casual game note, 2 puzzle games – Diner Dash and Gyromancer – hit Xbox LIVE in November, and both saw a decent amount of success.  Diner Dash brought in over 10,000 players in its first 2 weeks on the market and Gyromancer had over 8,200, even at a higher price point ($5 more than Diner Dash). You can read all the November XBLA details in Gamasutra’s full feature here.

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