Geeks and otaku and nunchucks… oh my.

It’s been quite an eventful week for Nintendo. First on the docket is an exciting piece of litigation: Nintendo of America Inc. v. Nyko Technologies Inc. Apparently, Nintendo is none too happy with Nyko’s release of their wireless nunchuck apparatus. They are so displeased, in fact, that they are asking a judge to order that the device stop being sold immediately. Oh, and they also want any profits generated from its sale.

But why? After all, third parties have been making controller knock-offs forever. So what makes this different? Perhaps they have their own wireless nunchuck in the works. Perhaps this is meant to be a warning shot for Sony and Microsoft, both of whom have been rumored to have input devices similar to the Wiimote in development. Or perhaps it’s none of the above. Either way, it will be most interesting to see how this pans out.

Now let’s move to some lighter fare.

Laurent Fischer, managing director at Nintendo of Europe, made a little public relations boo-boo this week. When speaking on the issue of internal storage space for the Wii (or a lack thereof), Fischer dismissed the problem as something that would only be of concern to “geeks and otaku.” For those who don’t know what “otaku” means (because I didn’t), Wikipedia says it is “a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime and manga.” Zing!

Of course, the people that need storage space are the same people that are downloading a lot of software. You know, the kind of software that costs money. Apparently, someone in the Nintendo hierarchy put two and two together and decided that you probably shouldn’t belittle your most loyal customers, even slightly. Fischer subsequently apologized. Still no word on a reasonable storage solution, though.

So yeah, quite a bit of drama from the Big N this week. For your further reading pleasure, check out David Jaffe’s take on the matter. As usual, the always-outspoken, always-entertaining game designer isn’t at a loss for words.

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext’s official position on the subject.