If this is how Nintendo does before the predicted Wii Fit-exacerbated shortages, we're a little scared for what the future will hold. As predicted, Nintendo dominated the March NPD sales report, selling over 720,000 Wiis and 698,000 DS units. The DS and Wii represented 58 percent of hardware sales for March, leapfrogging over one another to swap positions from the February numbers.

Further down the list, the Xbox 360 regained an extremely slight sales lead over the PS3, mainly due to a slight dip in Sony's system sales. We predict the systems will likely continue trading slight leads like a couple of fading horses in the home stretch of a marathon-length race, until one inevitably dies just short of the finish line. And speaking of dead horses, the perpetual PS2 finally showed some signs of weakening this month, plummeting down nearly 63 percent from February's sales.

- Wii: 721K 289K (40%)
- DS: 698K 110.4K (15.8%) [Update: Fixed typo in growth number]
- PSP: 297K 53.9K (18.1%)
- Xbox 360: 262K 7.4K (2.8%)
- PS3: 257K 23.8K (9.3%)
- PS2: 216K 135.8K (62.9%)

First4Figures have done it again. First it was Zelda, then Metroid. Now, they've breathed life into the classic Sonic the Hedgehog series with a line of vinyl figures, depicting Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as they were before their "extreme" redesign for Sonic Adventure.

In fact, First4Figures has done a lot of great work since we last reported on them. Check out the group's site for a classy Sheik figurine, Altair from Assassin's Creed, and a gorgeous, LED-lit version of Samus's gunship from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

The Knuckles, Tails and Sonic figures will comprise the first wave of Sonic figures manufactured, and are due out around July 2008. No word yet on pricing, though expect a premium on these high-quality pieces of fan-cred.

No less an authority than the New York Times has weighed in on the sex appeal of video game collectibles. News flash: They tend to scare away potential mates.

About halfway through a story on scary bachelor pads, the Times comes to the case of 46-year-old Bob Strauss, who finds that, among other things, his Sonic the Hedgehog figurine display tends to put off the "tough, smart, aggressive, challenging type people" he likes to date. Strauss, for his part, thinks the collection is "provocative" and says he doesn't want to "blandify my apartment to make myself generically acceptable."

We know it can be hard to choose between finding romance and giving away your three-foot tall stuffed Mario doll, but we still recommend the collectibles go into storage for the first few in-home visits. It's best to ease the idea of your video game obsession into the relationship slowly, so by the time they see your candle-lit shrine to Lara Croft, it'll seem practically normal.

The NPD Group has released sales figures for 2005, estimating that the US spent $1.4 billion on games last year. An interesting and growing proportion of that income was from online games -- $344 million, about one quarter of the total spending, came from recurring subscription fees.

Breaking that down, NPD estimates about 85% of that recurring income is from specific games like World of Warcraft, whereas the rest -- a non-trivial $52 million -- comes from casual games portals. It's clear from the tremendous amount of money being generated by both games and gaming portals, as well as the popularity of MMOs and casual games, that online is a key area to watch in future.

While digital downloads are only a small part of the picture -- 3% of total market sales -- the area should grow, partly driven by the convenience of buying and delivering online. Of course, paying for a game through monthly subscriptions rather than a one-off box fee is appealing, though players of games like World of Warcraft don't seem to mind doing both.

Randall Bennett and I got a nice little sneak peak at Spore last night at Wired Magazine's presentation featuring Will Wright and guest starring Robin Williams. We shot some great video that will be up on the site as soon as it's ready. We also managed to get a private screening of the game thanks to the people at EA Games. Randall will be doing a full write-up of the game play experience later today, but I just wanted to share one little cool thing in the room where they hosted the preview: Figurines of creatures different Spore designers built in the game and then printed out as three dimensional models (like the guy pictured above). Check below the jump for more pics...

Mobile gaming research firm M:Metrics has published data showing March 2006 from a mobile gamer's perspective. The firm claims that the mobile market is stagnating; the number of mobile gamers is remaining constant month-on-month with only a tiny fraction of mobile phone users (0.5%) downloading their first game in March.

The percentage of phone users who use their handset for downloadable games is low, with the UK standing at 4.7% and the US at 2.7%. Given the millions of mobile phones in the market, that still represents a large number of consumers, many of whom are repeat customers. However, a lack of compelling reasons to buy new titles -- as well as high prices -- are putting consumers off. After all, already-downloaded and preinstalled games fit the interstitial nature of mobile gaming just as well as brand new releases.

The UK sales charts for last week are in, with Tomb Raider: Legend remaining calmly at the top. Movie tie-in Ice Age 2 has been boosted up to number two, but anyone avidly following the chart battle between Guitar Hero and Crazy Frog Racer will be disappointed to know that Guitar Hero has fallen to 35th while the Crazy Frog is ding-ding-dinging along at number 28, thanks to its budget price and better placement on the shelves.

The ten bestselling games in the UK for the week ending April 15:

1. Tomb Raider Legend
2. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
3. Fifa Street 2
4. The Godfather
5. Football Manager 2006
6. Animal Crossing: Wild World
7. Buzz! The Big Quiz
8. King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
9. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
10. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat