Editor's note: John Gaudiosi covers the videogame industry for Local Tech Wire and WRAL.com.

MORRISVILLE, N.C. — NASCAR fans won’t have a new simulation game this year, but EA Sports has shipped the new family-oriented NASCAR Kart Racing for Wii.

The game is the second title, and second consecutive NASCAR game, from EA’s Morrisville studio. So far, the 10-man team that has created "NASCAR 09" on PlayStation 2 and NASCAR’s answer to Mario Kart on Wii has been a great success. The new Wii game has garnered a MetaCritic.com rating of 70 from major game outlets. When it comes to NASCAR games, critics don’t matter, but it’s nice to have positive momentum.

I caught up recently with the head of the Morrisville Studio, Ryan Stradling, who told me his team wanted to make sure this Wii game really focused on the family. Although...

NASCAR fans won’t have a new simulation game this year, but EA Sports has shipped the new family-oriented NASCAR Kart Racing for Wii. The game is the second title, and second consecutive NASCAR game, from EA’s local Morrisville studio. So far, the 10-man team that has created NASCAR 09 on PlayStation 2 and NASCAR’s answer to Mario Kart on Wii has been a great success. The new Wii game has garnered a MetaCritic.com rating of 70 from major game outlets. When it comes to NASCAR games, critics don’t matter, but it’s nice to have positive momentum.

I caught up recently with the head of the Morrisville Studio, Ryan Stradling, who told me his team wanted to make sure this Wii game really focused on the family. Although the game offers a solid single-player experience, it’s really a lot of fun when you start playing four player races.

Although definitely an arcade title, the development team did incorporate some elements from its NASCAR...

Editor's note: John Gaudiosi covers the videogame industry for Local Tech Wire.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Sony Computer Entertainment America’s hosting its annual retail and publisher conference Destination PlayStation this week, which is taking place in Arizona. As a result, there’s been a lot of news emanating from the desert. There have also been rumors floating around that Sony could cut the price of its PlayStation 3 by $100. The PS3 currently retails for $400.

Sony announced that its free PlayStation Network online community has surpassed 20 million registered users across 55 countries. Sony has sold over 21.3 million PS3s worldwide, which means gamers are taking advantage of the free online gameplay, PlayStation Store, and other services. Sony has had 4 million gamers register for its PlayStation Home virtual world, which is also free. (Microsoft offers its Silver Xbox Live service for...

Sony Computer Entertainment America’s hosting its annual retail and publisher conference Destination PlayStation this week, which is taking place in Arizona. As a result, there’s been a lot of news emanating from the desert. There have also been rumors floating around that Sony could cut the price of its PlayStation 3 by $100. The PS3 currently retails for $400.

Sony announced that its free PlayStation Network online community has surpassed 20 million registered users across 55 countries. Sony has sold over 21.3 million PS3s worldwide, which means gamers are taking advantage of the free online gameplay, PlayStation Store, and other services. Sony has had 4 million gamers register for its PlayStation Home virtual world, which is also free. (Microsoft offers its Silver Xbox Live service for free, but requires gamers to pay $50 a year for the Gold membership, which is required to play online games.)

Sony’s PlayStation Store now has over 14,500 pieces of digital...

Nintendo has dominated the handheld gaming space since it launched its Game Boy black-and-white portable. With the Nintendo DS still selling like hotcakes in the U.S., the Japanese game-maker is bringing over its new advanced Nintendo DSi portable to North America on April 5. Already a smash success in Japan, where it launched last fall, the new gaming device will sell for $170 in the U.S. and will be available in black and blue colors.

In addition to a more streamlined look and feel, the Nintendo DSi comes with two built-in cameras, new sound capabilities and the ability to download media to an SD card. Having stepped into the digital distribution stream with WiiWare, Nintendo is offering a Nintendo DSi shop for portable downloads of games. Gamers can use points to purchase and download new content directly to the Nintendo DSi. Games will be sold for as little as 200 points and can be stored on SD cards.

The most noticeable feature of the slim Nintendo DSi system is its...