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There used to be a time where you could easily find hard data on exactly how many units video game consoles manufacturers managed to get out the door, but the NPD Group has all that locked up tight these days. That said, they do release some numbers still, and a little extrapolation goes a long way. For this past January, it looks like Nintendo's really taking a beating. Not only has their Wii U software not been selling, but the Wii U console itself is said to have only moved around 50,000 units. That's worse than any of the other current generation consoles ever did, for a little perspective.

Yesterday we learned that Nintendo cut their sales projections for the Wii U by 1.5 million units, because it was not performing as well as expected. Rumors began to fly that this meant Nintendo would lower the price of the Wii U to sell more systems, because president Satoru Iwata addressed those rumors and said that the company has no such plans.

The Wii U sold 3.06 million units between its November launch and the end of the 2012. Those numbers are stronger than we would have guessed considering how underwhelmed we were with the system, but it looks like Nintendo is even more disappointed by the Wii U than we were. Because of the slower-than-expected performance, Nintendo is cutting their sales projections through March by 1.5 million units. Bummer.

Good news for Chinese gamers! China is thinking about lifting its ban on game consoles. The news is just speculation right now, and it's based on the Playstation 3 receiving a quality certification from the Chinese government, but even that speculation has been enough to bump up stock prices for Sony and Nintendo, both of which are champing at the bit to enter the Chinese market. Obviously, a lifting of the ban would help those companies greatly. It might also destroy the mental and physical development of Chinese children, since that's what the ban was trying to protect.

Nintendo's apparently abandoned making major announcements at, you know, trade conventions and the like. Who needs E3 when you can drop a whole mess of news at the end of January? Whatever the case, we're still pretty excited that they've decided to drop all of this for whatever reason. It's also probably a sign of the Wii U not exactly meeting expectations, but any day where Nintendo announces that Atlus and Intelligent Systems are developing a game based on Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem is a good day.

We've been accused of being too hard on Nintendo since the Wii U launched last year, but I think it's just a case of tough love. That's why I was so glad to see them doing something we can all get really excited about -- new Zelda games! In a Nintendo Direct video released today, Nintendo president Satoru Iawata outlined some big things coming for the Wii U like new games, software updates, and most importantly -- new Zelda!

Regardless of sales, Nintendo's latest console entry, the Wii U, has been met mostly with a tepid reception from the gaming community and hasn't gotten much market traction since last year. With a library of titles ranging from the mundane to recycled material seen months ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Nintendo didn't exactly make as much of a presence as they needed this past holiday season. The company's PR may dwindle further going into 2013 since it's been announced to the chagrin of all that highly anticipated titles such as Pikmin 3 and Game & Wario would experience delays, though it was promised they'd hit shelves no later than this spring. While it's common for one game to be held back until a later date, so many at one time is just an egregious bungle.

Next to demolition derbies and monstrously sized hamburgers unfit for human consumption, America can't seem to get enough of the innumerable, money-gauging critters from Japan known across the globe as Pokémon. Demonstrating that there's a clear difference between being a devoted fan and a lunatic who lacks a firm grasp on reality, one overzealous devotee of Pikachu and company felt that it was their patriotic duty to post a petition on the White House's We the People website advocating that the nation stop sitting idly on its hands and have each of the 50 states select their own Pokémon to represent them. With a demand as bizarre as this, it's no wonder that the petition was pulled. Guess the President is more partial to Digimon.

A week or two ago, video game aficionados were caught off guard when IGN reported that EarthBound creator Shigesato Itoi hinted at a potential re-release -- or a "republication" as he put it -- of the highly lauded and equally obscure Nintendo RPG franchise on Twitter. Nintendo is no stranger to repackaging some of their more classic titles either as anthologies or revised updates featuring new graphics and additional bonus features never before seen in the original. From Super Mario Bros. to Pokémon, nearly every franchise has at least seen one re-release in some form or another within U.S. markets, but, despite the fervent pleas of the devoted and nostalgic, the company has always looked over giving the Super Nintendo's EarthBound its proper due with a second lease on life in America, not to mention two games from the series that never reached the West. Even if Itoi's words ring true, this history of neglect on Nintendo's part  is something that cannot be ignored any longer.

It's been a little over two weeks, but the filmmakers over at Beat Down Boogie have finally released the second highly anticipated episode of Mario Warfare -- a gritty and action-packed take on everyone's favorite pair of fictional Italian plumbers from the Mushroom Kingdom. In the second part of this epic web series, Mario and Luigi take up arms to combat Bowser and his army of Shy Guy troops, only to find themselves wielding plungers and declaring war on clogged toilets instead. But this relative peace is shattered when sudden disaster decides to go on a quick bathroom break, with the brothers Mario ending up hammered... literally.

It goes without saying that the Wii U is one of the hottest must-have gifts this holiday season with plenty of people at toy stores looking to get their hands on a console, though whether they do isn't a guarantee. Last time we checked, abiding by the honor system doesn't get you a game system. In fact, if you want it bad enough, you're going to have to break man's law to get one, and that's what a group of ambitious thieves did when they absconded with 7,000 Wii U systems from Seattle's SeaTac airport, because those 7,000 copies of Super Mario Bros. U aren't going to play themselves.

Way back in August we showed you a trailer for Mario Warfare -- a gritty, action-packed fan film by the good people of Beat Down Boogie. At the time, the producers behind the project never gave us a confirmed release date, so we were all left wondering if the film went down the green pipe never to be seen again. The project's finally resurfaced, and the premiere of Mario Warfare is already here. There's even a second episode not too far behind! Also, yes, it really is all that a bag of 1-Up mushrooms.

Before we begin, no, this isn't Nintendo calling the quits on console development and becoming a third party publisher. Nor should this be taken as a sign of the impending 2012 apocalypse. Now, with that messy business out of the way, Nintendo has just released a fully functional and interactive Pokédex app designed for iOS devices. Yes, we know Nintendo would sooner die than let their money-making intellectual properties fall into the grubby hands of non-affiliated peasants, but to emphasize: This is more a superfluous portable Pokémon encyclopedia than it is an actual game, so the company, we guess, gets to maintain its integrity as a first party publisher/developer while making a few quick bucks on the side.

Part of the current video game landscape is the ubiquitous day-one patch required for nearly every game that comes to market. Regardless of whether they actually have some kind of online connectivity, developers and publishers are increasingly pushing patches to fix eleventh hour problems as soon as consumers press start. The Wii U is no exception. As frustrating as it is, this won't be changing at any point soon as the current day-one patch won't be built into the system's firmware until at least next year.

Nintendo may not be what it once was back in its heyday, but you have to admit that in an industry where game publishers and developers can be here today and gone tomorrow, the company's longevity says plenty. To honor their storied legacy, one group uploaded this fast-paced motion design video taking us down Nintendo memory lane.