New Games: Preorders for coming Nintendo DS games Pokemon Diamon...

top-selling games for all of 2007,” it said. With 4 days to go until they arrive, 533,000-plus preorders were taken for the games, NOA said. That means the games already “more than doubled the presale numbers” of Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen, shipped in 2004, the company said. Those titles “went on to sell more than 3.4 million combined in North America,” and “consistently ranked among the top-selling videogame products on Amazon.com,” it said. The Official Nintendo Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Player’s Guide will be available April 22… NFL Rookie of the Year Vince Young will be on the cover of Madden NFL 08, the latest version of the #1 EA Sports football series, Electronic Arts said. The Tennessee Titan quarterback’s appearance on the cover “makes him the youngest NFL star to grace the cover” of the game franchise, EA said. Last year’s Madden NFL 07 sold 7 million-plus units and was the #1-selling game in N. America for 2006, the publisher said, citing NPD Funworld data. The franchise is in its 18th year, with 60 million-plus copies of games in the series sold to date, generating more than $2 billion at retail, EA said. Madden NFL 08, developed by EA Tiburon in Orlando, will ship Aug. 14 for Xbox 360, Xbox, PS3, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Wii and PC… Eidos Interactive will distribute various new Majesco Entertainment games to PAL territories as part of a deal the companies signed, terms not disclosed. The deal will “predominantly focus” on Nintendo DS titles including Cake Mania, The New York Times Crosswords, MechAssault: Phantom War and Nancy Drew: The Deadly Secret of Olde World Park, plus unannounced Wii and DS titles, the companies said. “There is an obvious synergy between Eidos’ focus on the casual games market and Majesco’s expertise in this field,” said Ian Livingstone, product acquisition dir. at Eidos. The companies will launch 8 new titles by this summer and have “more than 15 other titles in the pipeline,” they said… Marvel Entertainment and Sega expanded their ties to include the rights for the Japanese game maker to develop and distribute games inspired by Marvel “Hall-of-Fame” franchises: Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor. Terms weren’t disclosed. But the companies said as part of the exclusive, multi-year global licensing deal, Sega will create titles for console, handheld and PC platforms based on the comics and feature film adaptations. The deal follows a Marvel-Sega pact to create titles based on Iron Man. That game and film are to debut in May 2008. Under the expanded deal, Sega will develop a title based on Marvel’s coming The Incredible Hulk feature film, hitting theaters June 13… Zoo Digital Publishing will ship Premier Manager 08 for PS2 and PC Aug. 17. The title “will mark the 13th game in the established football management series,” improving on earlier editions by including new character and facilities systems, as well as a new set of analytical tools… THQ will ship Worms: Open Warfare 2 for PSP, Nintendo DS and wireless handsets this summer… In its 5th week available, Sony Computer Entertainment’s PS2 sequel God of War II was again the #1-rented videogame in the U.S., according to preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended April 15. The only new game in the top 10 was Nintendo’s Super Paper Mario for Wii at #7.