What a difference 
a price cut makes.
Sales of Nintendo’s beleaguered 3DS handheld were up a whopping 260 percent in August (compared to July) after the system’s $70 price cut went into effect. Even more impressive, that price cut was only in effect for part of the month.
Electronic Arts is still 
struggling to perfect Madden on iDevices — and this year’s installment of the game shows the company has a way to go before it does so. Madden NFL 12 By EA Sports for iPad is sluggish and choppy and the constant stuttering completely removes players from the sense of realism the rest of the game tries to create. The graphics are certainly good enough (though still pale to the console version) and the controls are fine. And the plenitude of in-depth options will keep the most die-hard fan busy, but it’s not the most welcoming of apps to beginners and the lack of a multiplayer mode continues to be a baffling omission.
The fight between 
the creators of the Call of Duty franchise and their former publisher Activision has a court date.
Jason West and Vince Zampella’s case against the company will be heard before a judge on May 7, 2012. Both parties are suing each other over a variety of charges in a soap opera-like tale of betrayal, cash and skullduggery – but the money at stake – hundreds of millions of dollars – is very real.
Everyone wants to knock 
the wedding proposal out of the park by doing something truly special. Hire a skywriter to scrawl a message at 10,000 feet, perhaps? Or maybe you’ll just carve out a note in the sand during a romantic island vacation?
Fine ideas, for sure, but if you want to really go big with your wedding plans, look to the gamers. Often eschewing the standard sunset-on-the-beach locale for something more…original, the more romantic geeks out there have gone to great lengths to make that special moment all kinds of fun. When it comes to romantic gestures, they’re a hard bunch to top.
iBlast Moki 2 picks up 
right where its predecessor left off, but rather than being just a continuation of an older game, it offers new twists and improves upon the past. It’s familiar to veteran players, but newcomers are likely to struggle somewhat at first, since the in-game tutorials don’t really offer easy-to-understand instructions on how to work the game. Once you figure it out, though, you’ll have fun. We could do without the in-app purchases, especially those that show how others have solved the puzzles. Offering user-generated content like that is helpful for people who are stuck, but charging to show videos of other people’s gameplay seems cheap. It’s not an easy game, but by the time the difficulty ramps up, you’ll have a good grasp of the controls and how to play. From there, your success all depends on how strong your puzzle-solving skills are.
Gamasutra editor-at-large 
Chris Morris looks at two traditional publishers — Activision and EA — examining how the packaged game giants will square off in the emerging social media space.
EA and Activision, despite their ongoing war of words, tend to swim in the same waters. Both like the military shooter genre. Both used to like the music genre. And both want to own the MMO market.
To date, that rivalry hasn’t extended to the social gaming and mobile space. While EA has substantially expanded into both fields, Activision has been content to sit back and view the fray from a distance. That could be changing before too long, though.
Zwirlz tries hard to 
bring Wii sensibilities to iDevices, but it ultimately falls a little short of that lofty goal. It’s laudable for encouraging kids to get off the couch and move — and tweens may have a blast with it — but it doesn’t do a great job of easing people into the performance. The app features over 20 simple dance moves that players have to memorize, but instead of introducing those at a steady pace, it asks players to learn them all before playing the meat of the game, which requires more memorization — this time of a song. That’s asking a lot of an iDevice user. The message of the app (girl power) is a good one, though, and the dance moves are fun. It’s a good app for sleepovers or when you’ve got a house full of young kids and it’s raining. Just be sure to make sure no one steps on the iPhone!
August, traditionally, 
is when game sales start to rev up for the holiday season. This year, though, they sputtered and died.
With the release date of Electronic Arts annual Madden football franchise moved to the end of the month, retail sales plummeted in August, falling 37 percent as compared to last year. Overall, year over year sales were down 23 percent.
Everyone was expecting 
bad news from video game retailers in August.
And everyone was right.
The NPD Group reports that year over year sales were down 23 percent, with software sales tumbling 37 percent. August, historically, has been a rebound month for the industry, but EA’s decision to move the release of the annual Madden entry to the end of the month torpedoed any chance of that happening this year.
2011 really hasn’t 
been Nintendo’s year.
The company’s stock has plunged 40 percent. The 3DS fell on its face after its launch. And despite a price cut to $150 in May, the Wii is still dead in the water.
Chris Morris: Journalist 