Nintendo’s been on a roll for some time now: the company, following its “DS Lite is Big in Europe” announcement, today sent out word that it has sold – wait for it – 21 million Nintendo DS units worldwide. Just to show how popular it is, Nintendo equated the rate of DS sales to 23 systems per minute, which, in turn, equates to one unit sold every two seconds… non-stop since launch. CRAZY!

“We’re thrilled to be announcing this milestone today,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, “especially since Nintendo DS was North America’s top-selling video game system of any type in June. We attribute this success to Nintendo’s overall strategy of offering something for everyone – from five-year-olds caring for their Nintendogs to 65-year-olds tuning their mental agility with Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day.”

The DS has recently received a push in sales thanks to the release of DS Lite, a smaller, but better redesign of the dual-screen handheld. Additionally, the company, whose executives must now be swimming in pools of money, has announced that it will launching more new games for both the DS and GBA in the coming months.

Following the release of the Halo Graphic Novel, Bungie and Marvel have announced their intentions to collaborate even further at the San Diego Comic-Con. The two companies will be working jointly on a monthly Halo Ongoing comic.

No story details or arcs were revealed at the time, but details are expected soon. The monthly Halo comics will begin Summer 2007.

Funcom has announced that they have signed a co-publishing agreement with SCi/Eidos for Age of Conan, the upcoming MMOG based on Robert E. Howard’s universe. Eidos will be distributing the game in North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, with Funcom retaining the rights to digital distribution; Funcom will also be responsible for operating servers and providing customer service for the game.

The announcement also saw a delay to the game: it is now set for release sometime between March and May 2007. There are also plans on bringing the game to consoles.

Shocking everyone in the computer industry, AMD has announced that it has bought ATI, one of the two major players in the GPU market. Now a part of the processor-maker, ATI has been acquired for $5.4 billion in cash and stock to expand AMD’s market share against Intel, currently the most popular processor-producer.

Under terms of the deal, AMD will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of ATI for $4.2 billion in cash and 57 million shares of AMD common stock, based on the number of shares of ATI common stock outstanding on July 21.

AMD said it would pay $20.47 for each ATI share. That marks a 24 percent premium over ATI’s closing stock price of $16.56 on Nasdaq on Friday. The stock added another 7 percent to $17.68 in after-hours trading amid media reports of the expected deal.

What do Intel and Nvidia think about this? TechReport asked the very same question and the reactions are as expected: Nvidia is now boasting that it is the only true GPU maker in the industry and that its market share will increase; Intel, on the other hand, is very reserved with their judgment.

Now that the buyout has been done with, the rumors have started, and what better way to start one that to suggest a CPU-GPU integration? That’s being covered on Ars Technica which takes a technical look at the prospects of having a graphics card built into a processor.

Compared to the likes of Diablo and Prince of Persia (odd comparisons, I know) by the German PC Games magazine, ANACONDA has announced Legend: Hand of God, a new action RPG set for release during Q2 2007.

As with others in the genre, Hand of God has players fighting evil in a fantasy scenario using a “cinematic combat system”. Unlike its brethren, the game will have players fighting enemies according to the size: “it can happen that Legend’s hero jumps on the back of a giant troll to finally finish him.”

Legend: Hand of God is in development at Hamburg based studio Master Creating. It is also being worked on by US writer Susan O’Connor, Hollywood artist Paul Campion and creative director Andreas Adamek (one of the Gianna Sister’s creators).

According to the announcement, German players can read more about the game in the upcoming September issue of PC Games magazine, which, unlike the actual month stated, will be available from July 26.

Three new high-resolution sweet screenshots from Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars:

The PS3 won’t be getting any sweaty-men-in-spandex love this Holiday season, according to THQ. A post on the publisher’s forum indicated that the PS3 version of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 was canned; even though a later follow-up clarified the story, it is still depressing news for anyone looking forward to get some wrestling done on the PS3: the game will ship for Xbox 360, PSP and PS2 this November, but that the PS3 version has been postponed until the “holiday 2007 timeframe.”

Depressing news, indeed, for Sony fans. WWE fans looking forward to seeing sweat fly and bashing superstars in tights can get their next-gen fix on the Xbox 360.

With the release of The Burning Crusade drawing near, Blizzard unveiled some details on the Draenei and Blood Elves which will be available in the coming expansion. Here’s a bit:

One legend involves the noble leader of the Draenei, Velen, and his vision. Velen’s vision was given substance in the form of Nobundo, a one-time Draenei priest who had devolved while the orcs decimated his race and tore the planet apart. Like his fellow Broken, Nobundo had lost contact with the Light, and so he ventured far into the deserts of Outland to meditate and pray for guidance.

Further details can be found just after the jump. Some screenshots showing the new classes have also been released and can be found below:

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Serbia and Montenegro has sent off a press release announcing Pompolic: Call for Heroes, a 3D action-RPG set for release in Q4 2006. Scoop:

Many years ago, a dimensional portal to the Outer Worlds was suddenly opened, and an enemy from the darkness encroached upon our world. Led by Pompolic, these armies of demonic hordes quickly overran most (but not all) of the planet. The origin of Pompolic is not known, but it is sure that this malevolent spiritual being possesses supernatural power, and his desire is obvious, possess the people and turn them into fellows of his dark army. The evil is spreading its power via his servants; the Dark Souls. These Dark Souls – protected by a horde of monsters – are poisoning the minds of his victims and making them slaves of evil. The denizens of this world are on the edge of total annihilation. However, a little hope still exists in the heart of the remaining citizens. They believe that there are brave hearts who can save the world from the source of the evil power. If the Dark Souls were to be captured, the onslaught would stop, and Pompolic would be defeated; the call for heroes is made…

The game will let players choose between 2 characters to go through 12 maps and 18 types of monsters. Graphically, the title will use the ”latest lighting and shadowing techniques, including real-time shadows, DOT3 bump mapping, water reflections, particle systems and more.”

As mentioned above, Pompolic is set for release during the fourth quarter of this year.

Those of you looking forward to Saint’s Row, Volition’s upcoming next-gen stab at the GTA formula, now have an incentive for pre-ordering the title. Gamers who pre-order the Xbox 360 game will receive a bonus DVD featuring exclusive content: a demo of the single player game, a making-of documentary, a game trailer, four original in-game music tracks, as well as other stuff.

Saint’s Row will be busting stores later next month.

EuroGamer has posted a lengthy, but very interesting, interview with EA corporate communications VP Jeff Brown who talks about the next-gen console race, his company’s stance on the upcoming consoles, and future titles from the publisher. However, most interesting is his view on Sony’s price point and how it’s not really “relevant”. Sony has been under heavy criticism for the hefty price tag on the PS3, but Brown puts things in perspective:

Eurogamer: There seems to be a feeling amongst gamers that Sony’s been very arrogant, not just with the price point, but by suggesting that it’s cheap since consumers are getting a lot of hardware for their money – and that this is actually damaging Sony and the PlayStation brand. Do you think that kind of criticism is fair?

Jeff Brown: I don’t think it’s fair. And at the risk of sounding arrogant myself, I don’t think it’s relevant. I’ve been in this business for seven years, which is not a long time, but it’s long enough to have seen a couple of cycles of hardware, and I know that there are always trips and stumbles at the start of these things.

Everybody writes these big stories like ‘Oh my God, what will this mean? Will they stumble for the next for years, can they recover?’ When Sony first put out the PlayStation 2 there were hardware shortages, and some manufacturing glitches, and everybody was like ‘Can they recover?’ If you watch that cycle, then certainly you know that whatever people are saying now – could it be a stumbling block – remains to be seen. I give Sony a lot of credit and would never ever underestimate them.

On the Horizons website is word that the MMORPG has been acquired by El Interactive, publisher of Savage Eden. Originally published in 2003 by Atari, all matters of Horizons: Empire of Istaria will now be handled by El Interactive from its Pheonix, Arizona office.

“The magic of Horizons is not only in its uniquely supportive community, but also in the deep potential this game has for a player’s participation in building the environment and growing the storyline”, said EI Chairman Edward C. Andercheck, “the success EI has had in building the Savage Eden community is a great testimony to our in-game event team’s efforts, we look forward to the same experience in Horizons.”

Codemasters has announced the next installment in its popular Brian Lara Cricket series – dubbed Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 and due for release next March, the game will officially feature the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Scoop:

Thanks to the official ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 content, Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 will feature licensed players, including world cricket stars Andrew Flintoff, Ricky Ponting, Mahendra Dhoni, Muttiah Muralitharan and of course, Brian Lara himself.

In addition to players, the game will lead with a dedicated ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 mode featuring all the official teams, stadia, kits and equipment of the tournament. Further modes include a fully licensed ICC Champions’ Trophy competition and exhibition matches including One Day Games, Test Matches and exciting 20-over run fests.

When you want to get competitive for real, Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 will deliver with online competitive play on PC (LAN and online) and Xbox Live.

Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 will add extra depth to the series’ complete batting, bowling and fielding experience whilst retaining its trademark accessible playability. The acclaimed batting play will see the introduction of subtle edges, sweepshots and the ability to use your feet to dance down wicket and smash the ball over the boundary for six.

Bowling will see a much improved set of delivery types, thanks to changes in the way the ball swings in the air and reacts off the pitch, showcasing Shane Warne’s huge variation of spinning deliveries and Steve Harmison’s raw pace and even reverse swing as the ball degrades. In Fielding, there’s a new reflex-testing slip catch system and players can now be run out at both ends and be stumped by alert wicket keepers.

A striking advancement is the photo-realistic visuals being created for the title. Hundreds of real player likenesses are being modeled in high detail, complete with animated facial expressions to capture the intensity and emotion of international cricket.

Stadia, including all eight official World Cup venues, are also being created with a new level of textured detail and will make use of proprietary shader technology for realistic, subtle and changing lighting effects, such as time of day and weather.

The game will be hitting the pitch on PS2, PC and Xbox 360. Further information, including screenshots, can be found on the game’s official website.