Hello again, Digesters, and welcome to another fun-packed weekly digest, where we squeeze the week's news, like sardines in a tin, for your reading pleasure.

Let's not beat about the bush here- the last week wasn't exactly the most exciting by some measure; but there's still plenty to talk about. Let's begin then, shall we?

Hard to know where to start, as there's no single news story dominating the headlines- but Donkey Konga seems as good a place as any. According to Dengeki Cube, Nintendo of Japan will be launching a new GameCube bundle in Japan. The bundle will be released alongside Donkey Konga. The bundle will retail for 19,800 Yen (around �11/�150) and will contain a GameCube, a copy of Donkey Konga, Donkey Konga Drums, a controller and a Memory Card 251. It will be available from 5th December in Japan. That's a very reasonably priced bundle- we had feared that the drums might push up the price a lot, � la the Dreamcast's wonderful Samba de Amigo, of which Shigeru Miyamoto is a big fan. Frankly, the more I hear about this game, the more I'm looking forward to it. Namco can be trusted to deliver a quality product- they've done this sort of thing before, you know. And with the guiding hand of Ninty watching them, they can hardly go wrong. Hopefully Nintendo will come up with a similar bundle for Europe- with a banana-yellow Cube to go with it. Lovely�

IBM has announced it will also be supplying the processor technology for Nintendo's next games system. This means that IBM is now involved in chip design for all three next-generation consoles. But will Nintendo be slipping the company any brown envelopes to get a bit of extra oomph for their own N5? Tis doubtful. But this is a fairly interesting development- while it doesn't mean that all three consoles will be equally powered (there are numerous other factors at work) it could mean that all three consoles will be similarly powered- more so than the current generation. We'll keep you up to date on this one.

A couple of good news stories for you next�in U.S sales. The price drop did Nintendo the world of good in October- the GameCube's figures soared above those of the Xbox. What matters though, is can it sustain it? Its unlikely, but its certainly a boost. The GBA is doing just fine without a price cut, thank you very much- leading the pack by some margin. Here are the full details:

Playstation 2 - 300,000
Xbox - 176,000
GameCube - 254,000
Game Boy Advance - 401,000

In Canada , things are looking even rosier. Consider this carefully-worded statement from Nintendo of Canada� "The September 25th price drop of Nintendo GameCube to an MSRP of $139.95 (CAN), continues to have a massive ripple effect throughout the Canadian video game industry. Nintendo of Canada has taken the lead heading into the holiday season. For the first time in almost 2 years, Sony PlayStation 2 has been knocked off the leadership throne in the Canadian video game hardware industry. Nintendo of Canada has the two top-selling systems for the month of October with the #1 selling Game Boy Advance and the #2 selling Nintendo GameCube.

Together, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube accounted for almost 60 per cent of all hardware systems sold in Canada. In the much publicized console wars, it was Nintendo GameCube that won the battle. Nintendo GameCube captured 43 per cent leadership share of the console market in October. Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft X-box trailed with 34 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively. Overall in 2003, Nintendo dollar sales are up 37 per cent versus 2002, compared to an industry increase of 14 per cent for the same period. In October, the industry declined 2 per cent versus last year, but Nintendo sales were up 48 per cent compared to a decline of 25 per cent for Sony and a 1 per cent increase for Microsoft."

Excellent news.

Cube-Europe have always been generous when it comes to competitions, but this is just getting ridiculous- now we've just launched two competitions at once! First up is the Broadband Adapter competition- with Mario Kart now online thanks to the wonders of the Warp-Pipe Project, there'll be a mad scramble for the devices. Check out the C-E homepage for more details.

We're also giving away tickets to the UK launch party of 1080 Avalanche. Again, the homepage has the details. You haven't much time to enter, so get going.

Vivendi Universal have revealed the European release date for their robot-shooter, Metal Arms: Glitch In The System- and that date is December 5th. It's a cracker, trust us- and it has far surpassed our expectations. If you're looking for something a little different, you won't go far wrong with it. Let's give it some recognition, folks.

Japanese gaming publication Nintendo Dream has revealed that a new Kirby game is under development- courtesy of HAL and Nintendo. More details inside. Nintendo Dream, a Nintendo magazine from the land of the rising sun, claim in their latest issue that a new Kirby title is being produced by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo. The publication explains that it is unknown whether the title will be a previously canned project revived for GameCube-or a completely new idea. The magazine also tells that the game is set to be unveiled soon- partly due to the fact that the two companies want to show that Kirby is in no way dead- despite the recent departure of the pink ball o' gum's father- Masahiro Sukurai- from HAL Laboratory.

Interestingly, the publication also states that The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords on GameCube is going well- and that we should expect more collaboration-induced titles- such as Pac-Man and Metal Gear Solid- in the near future.

Whether this will turn out be to true or not is unknown, but you can rest assured that Cube-Europe will have the scoop. Really we will.

Our Two Years On feature continues this week with a look at role-playing games on the GameCube- click here for that. Matt gives us another fascinating insight into gaming in Pause- here's the link.

ELSPA revealed today that London is set to host another video game-based festival, which goes by the name of London Interactive. The show is planned to sit alongside two other events- Game Stars Live and European Games Network- hopefully creating a bit more attention for the latter two celebrations. The fair will last a week- and starts next year from August 30th to September 5th. It is hoped that this event will put London on the gaming map, and place the city as the Gaming capital of Europe.

Well that's about all we've got time for. Check back, same time same place for next week's edition.

Sl�n
Mark Cullinane
[email protected]