Like to try before you buy? Hope 
to save a few bucks by purchasing your games used? Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D may not be the game for you.
Saved games in the Nintendo 3DS title, which hits shelves Tuesday, can’t be erased. In other words, when your progress is saved, it’s there forever — even if you loan it to a friend or sell it to someone else. If you manage to beat the game, there is no way to get rid of your save file and play it again from scratch.
It might not be as famous as the Boston 
Marathon, but a marathon taking place in the Mushroom Kingdom sounds like a lot more fun.
A group of civic-minded — and seriously dedicated — Nintendo fans have kicked off Mario Marathon 4, a fund-raising effort for the Child’s Play Charity, which provides hospitalized children with toys and games.
Between the Nintendo 3DS, Nvidia’s 
efforts to push 3D on the PC and Sony’s recently announced PlayStation 3-branded 3D display, stereoscopic 3D video- games are finally stepping into the spotlight.
But even as more and more games utilize the technology, there’s a debate among game- makers on how much of a draw it will be for consumers.
[In an interview with Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris 
Morris, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata says his company began thinking about the Wii U right after the Wii’s launch, and outlines the firm’s home console and software pricing strategies.]
Hindsight’s a funny thing.
Given the staggering out-of-the-gate success Nintendo saw with the Wii, you might have expected the company to push back its next generation planning for a year or two to focus on ensuring third-party partners understood how best to succeed on the Wii, ultimately extending its appeal in the market.
We certainly have no problem getting caught up in the fun
of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.
At this point, we’ve all heard a lot of talk about who and what “won the show” at E3 Expo 2011 earlier this month. It is, in fact, one of the most common questions attendees ask each other. But in the big picture, it’s a question that’s a little shortsighted.
The video game industry is undergoing such a seismic shift these days (in terms of its fundamental business model), that focusing on a single company or title doesn’t give anyone an adequate look into the future. A hit game is nice, but long-term, publishers need to have a broader plan — and they need to have that on display.
Nintendo’s Wii U saw plenty of 
excitement at E3. Lines at the company’s booth for a few moments of hand-on time were five hours long, as people jockeyed to be among the first to tinker with the next-generation system.
But outside of the Los Angeles Convention Center, the attitude towards Nintendo’s new machine was decidedly cooler — and in the days following the show, things haven’t warmed up at all.
After riding high from the thrill of 
E3 last week, the video game industry got a harsh slap in the face Monday.
As reported by the NPD Group, sales of video games in the month of May were down 19 percent compared to a year ago — the worst performance for the industry in nearly five years.
Everyone hates a copycat, but the cyber 
attack on Sony’s PlayStation Network has created more than a few. For hackers seeking notoriety or fame, there is no easier target these days than gaming companies.
The latest victim is Bethesda Software, makers of hit games like Fallout 3 and the Elder Scrolls titles. LulzSec, the group that has claimed responsibility for the Memorial Day weekend takeover of PBS Websites (posting false news stories that rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive and living in New Zealand), says it has breached the company’s servers and plans to release the data today.
After a surprisingly strong April, 
the video-game industry crashed and burned in May.
Software sales, the most closely tracked number by investors, were off 19 percent according to the NPD Group, the industry’s worst monthly performance since October 2006.
No one expected May to be a particularly 
stellar month for video game sales – but no one expected it to be a disaster either. Unfortunately, disaster doesn’t begin to describe the month.
Software sales nose dived 19 percent in May, the industry’s worst performance since Oct. 2006. Overall, brick and mortar sales were down 13 percent to $718.8 million. Year to date, the industry is 14 percent off of 2010’s retail sales pace, according to The NPD Group.
Chris Morris: Journalist 