A 28-acre plot of land owned by Nintendo of America has just been sold to Microsoft, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Both Redmond, Washington-based companies are located close to one another, actually separated by this land.

The deal will reportedly be finalized in the middle of this month, according to NOA's VP of marketing and corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan. The financial details have not been disclosed, but the land had previously been appraised for $23 million.

According to Kaplan, there is no relation to the sale of the land and the recent decision to move its sales, advertising and marketing departments to New York. (NOA Headquarters is staying in Redmond.) Her comments echo what she said back in May when they confirmed the company was taking bids on the land. The employee shift has also sparked rumors that key players Kaplan, George Harrison and Beth Llewelyn were leaving the company. Those murmurings, rather unsurprisingly, were not addressed in the Seattle P-I report.

[Via Gamespot, thanks hvnlysoldr]

Talking with Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime about WiiWare, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal used the opportunity to bring up Nintendo's stance on games rated Adults Only by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, first in relation to their "hands-off" approach to the download service and then with the recent Manhunt 2.

Fils-Aime makes the company's stance with the ESRB very clear: no AO-rated titles. "This is not an image issue, Wii welcomes games rated E, T and M," he said, adding that he doubts Nintendo will ever approve an AO-rated title.

Concerning Manhunt 2, Fils-aime said that, "What Rockstar has right now is a game rated outside our spectrum, outside any manufacturer's spectrum," and asserted that they are still interested in releasing the game if it receives a Mature rating.

Or rather, Nintendo of America is leaving them. According to Game Informer Online, which earlier this month broke news of the Redmond giant (no, not that one) relocating its sales, ad and marketing departments to either New York or San Francisco, approximately 90% of the employees in the affected areas have opted to remain stationary and accept a severance.

Included in those leaving Nintendo are senior director of public relations, Beth Llewelyn, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan (pictured), and senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, George Harrison.

The executive trio's time of departure is still unknown, though GI asserts that Perrin and her pals will likely stick around until after next month's Min-E3 event in Santa Monica.

NOA_Rufus assembled a code puzzle at Nintendo.com, dubbed "The Luigi Code," that promised to reveal the secrets of the "Secret Society of Plumbers" to those clever enough to break the code. What could it be? A new Mario game? More Wii secrets exposed? Oh boy, it reads like an international mass market crime-thriller!

Read on if you lack the inclination to break the code on your own, or read our title and realize that doing so would be a complete waste of your time.

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in]