When we said it was open to anyone in the Americas, we did mean anyone living in either North or South America.

So if you live in any of the many countries those two continents include, are at least 18 and love your Zelda, you better get to planning if you want to enter our contest by the Dec. 31 deadline.

Prizes for the contest include a signed DSi and $1,000 Nintendo World Store gift certificate. Check out the full breakdown of goodies we're giving away here and the full rules here.

At a BMO Capital Markets event for game companies and investors earlier this month, Reggie Fils-Aime presented two slides that, based on Nintendo of America research, put the population of female "primary players" of home consoles at roughly a third of the population of their male counterparts.

These "primary players" are the main users of consoles in their homes, he explained.

Of course, Fils-Aime brought this up in order to demonstrate how much of that market is dominated by female Nintendo console-owners: 80% or, roughly, nine million.

"This didn't happen by accident," he said during his presentation. "It's the result of a deliberate attempt to expand the market."

Despite the recent price drop that's sure to spur sales and the release of Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii prior to the gift-giving frenzy, Reg feels that Nintendo is well prepare for demand.

"We have a tremendous amount of product in inventory," Fils-Aime said in an MSNBC interview. "We've been flowing product into retail. We do not expect to have shortages on our products. Now, if we do experience them, I'd love to have that problem, but we're not seeing that happening this year." A good thing, by Reggie's other prediction, as "literally millions" of potential Wii owners have been waiting on the sidelines to pick up the console.

That confidence in stock applies to the Nintendo DS as well. Reggie says he's "feeling very good about the holiday," noting that Nintendo has sold 2.2 million DSis since launch.

Nintendo's Holiday Push [MSNBC]

You have until next Tuesday to rack up the required "coins" to ensure you're of Gold or Platinum membership caliber. Doing so will net you some cool, undisclosed Nintendo related thing that you can possess, look at, and have others covet. Those coins can be acquired by registering Nintendo games and answering surveys, a small price to pay for material ownership of some thing—which could very well be a cool thing.

Accumulated coins will still be available to spend on Nintendo-themed tchotchkes, but your status will be reset next week. Don't be left in the cold! Join me in being PLATINUM.

And thanks to everyone who reminded us to remind you.

Club Nintendo

According to the report, the follow up to the tremendously successful Nintendo DS Lite will land on U.S. shores on April 4 and for a premium price of $179.99. That's $50 more than the cost of the current model and in line with Japanese pricing.

With the Nintendo DS Lite still selling at an impressive rate in the United States — it moved over 1.5 million units in November — Nintendo may want to keep the price higher in an attempt to prevent cannibalization of its still popular handheld, as it doesn't consider the new model a replacement for the old.

The DSi, which was announced in October 2008 and launched a month later in Japan, features larger display screens, dual 0.3 megapixel digital cameras, SD card support and internal storage. It drops the original DS's Game Boy Advance port, making the device incompatible with some DS games.

IGN's independent sources don't appear to have revealed any details on the U.S. launch of the DSi Ware service, which kicked off in Japan at the end of 2008.

Rumor: DSi U.S. Launch Date, Price Revealed [IGN]

Fils-Aime said they wouldn't be bringing the DSi to North America until late 2009 because they want to continue selling the DS throughout the holiday season.

He said that the music and camera functions are not meant to rival the iphones, but rather supplement game play. The onboard imaging software is meant to be a "fully interactive camera for your everyday life."

The music songs are stored on the SD card in AAC so you can transfer between the PC. The DSi will have built in software that lets you speed up or slow down songs, change the pitch, and filter tracks. So you can do things like isolating the lyrics. You can also record your voice as a track and mess around with it.

The DSi actually has two cameras built into it, one on the outside and one inside, centered on the hinge.

Amanda Glasser

Then early this morning Nintendo of Japan responded with a glorified no comment, saying in part that they are "always developing new products."

Now, responding to a request for comment from Kotaku, Nintendo of America weighs in with a slightly chunkier no comment, pointing out that Nikkei did not talk to Nintendo for their story. Interesting:

"The Nikkei newspaper wrote a recent story about a DS solely based upon their own research and speculation, without interviewing Nintendo. While Nintendo is always working on new hardware, we have not made any announcement about a DS and we cannot comment on the Nikkei story."

What's strange is that the original story (I had Ash check) never quotes any sources or in anyway indicates that the story is essentially rumor. The newspaper essentially reports it as fact. So I'm not sure what to make of this.

Reuters reports that this weekend the fitness-meets-game Wii title will dominate the Walmart.com homepage and include a link to pre-order the game in time for it's May 19 launch. People who pre-order by May 11 will get a $10 online gift card for use on the site down the line.

"Initial response is extremely strong, and we're feeling really good about Nintendo Wii Fit dominating the home page," said Kelly Thompson, Walmart.com's chief merchant, of early shopper demand for the game. "... We really like the angle of marketing it to Mom."

Nintendo of America marketing maven Cammie Dunaway goes on to say that the upcoming game will be marketed not just to women, but to men as well.

Walmart.com using Wii Fit to boost Mom's Day sales [Reuters]

Different services do things differently. Nintendo's three goals for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection are to make the service free, easy and safe. These goals are there not just for young players, but also older ones and new players. Nintendo is bringing a lot of new people into the world of video games, and we want to reduce barriers while making the online experience as enjoyable as possible.

Nintendo of America seems to be getting their new Bay Area office up to staff. Today the company announced that they appointed two sales and marketing execs to their Redwood City offices.

Denise Kaigler will be Nintendo of America's new vice president of marketing and corporate affairs, a position formerly held by Perrin Kaplan, while Bill Van Zyll will be the new director and general manager of Latin America.

"Denise and Bill bring a wealth of branding and marketing experience to our team," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "Their expertise will help us keep Nintendo's momentum going strong throughout 2008 and beyond."

Hit the jump for the run down of Kaigler and Van Zyll's background.

Kaigler comes to Nintendo following a 16-year tenure at Reebok International, where she serves as head of Global Corporate Communications and Corporate Citizenship. She also serves as head of Corporate Communications in the United States for the adidas Group, the parent company of Reebok.

Van Zyll heads Nintendo of America's Latin America department, which is responsible for the creation, direction and implementation of short- and long-term sales, marketing, and operational strategies for Latin America. He comes to Nintendo of America after more than 15 years at the Whirlpool Corporation, where for the past four years he has served as Director of Finance for Sales for the company's North American region.

So washing machines and sports apparel, got it.

Correction: January 3, 2008
An article in Business Day on Monday about Nintendo's video game consoles misspelled the surname of the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, and a correction in this space on Tuesday gave another incorrect spelling. He is Reggie Fils-Aime — not Fils-Amie or Fils-Aimee.

Good thing they didn't have to pronounce it.

With Wii and DS, Nintendo Has 2 Hit Game Devices [NYT]

Remember that rumor that Beth Llewelyn, Perrin Kaplan and George Harrison, were among the 60 percent who decided to leave Nintendo of America rather than relocate to San Francisco or New York?

It isn't true, well not yet at least. All three of the execs were at E3. True, the rumor was they were sticking around until E3 and then packing up their offices, but I had a chance to talk to Llewelyn about the rumor during a Nintendo executive mixer.

She said they were still "working things out." I suspect, or at least hope, that's code for Nintendo realized that moving people all over the country, especially valued executives, isn't worth forcing them out of the company.

We just heard back from Nintendo today about rumors of a mass exodus at Nintendo of America, over the planned move to San Francisco or New York for company's sales and marketing staff.

Contrary to earlier reports, about 60 percent, not 90 percent, decided to quit the company rather than move.

Virtually all of the employees affected by the relocation plan have now responded with their decisions, and approximately four of every ten have agreed to make the move to either New York or the Bay Area, in keeping with our original expectations.

A transition task force of key executives has been formed to ensure the smoothest process possible, and continuous information and resources will be available to all employees. The rest of Nintendo's strong leadership talent will continue to drive our business objectives forward. It has always been the case that Nintendo employees are resilient and rise to any challenge, and there is no doubt in my mind that we will excel as we continue to tackle new challenges and business opportunities.

Nintendo itself can not discuss the relocation status of any individual involved, but for those who will be departing the company, we have every expectation that they will succeed to the highest degree in their future endeavors. We will miss the talent, energy and experience from those who have chosen not to relocate. Our sales and marketing teams have been key components in returning Nintendo to its current position of market leadership.

Reggie Fils-Aime
President, Nintendo of America

As you can see Fils-Aime doesn't really get into the rumor that many senior execs, including Beth Llewelyn, Perrin Kaplan and George Harrison, were among those who decided to leave.

I'd think if it weren't at least in part true, that they'd be denying it by now. But I'm sure we'll find out for sure when they land at their new jobs. Brian Crecente

About 90 percent of the Nintendo of America Sales and Marketing staff, including Beth Llewelyn, Perrin Kaplan and George Harrison, have decided to quit the company rather than move to either San Francisco or New York, Game Informer is reporting.

The decision comes in the wake of Nintendo of America's decision to relocate marketing staff to the two cities. It is not clear when or if their positions - Senior Director of Public Relations, Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Affairs and Senior Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Communications - or the positions of the rest of the staff will be filled.

Nintendo has not yet responded to requests for comment from Kotaku, but I'll make sure to update when and if they do. Brian Crecente

Harrison, Kaplan And Llewelyn All Departing Nintendo Of America [Game Informer]

Just in case there was still a hope fleeting through that last ounce of grey matter that Nintendo UK's David Yarnton was drunkenly ranting over a pint about the Wii not being region-free, you can officially dash it.

According to Nintendo of America — the same guys who told Wired last week that region-free Wii was a certainty — comes an official correction.

"Wii will be region encoded by territory."

Which I'm sure is excellent news for all the people who pre-ordered an Asiatic Wii via Lik Sang seconds after Perrin Kaplan randomly blurted out a complete lie. Florian Eckhardt