Wedbush Morgan Securities videogame analyst Michael Pachter is always good for stirring up controversy with his opinions. Pachter was the keynote speaker for the fourth annual Ayzenberg A-List Summit in San Francisco, where he said Nintendo was in disarray and Electronic Arts is f*cked in social games. Watch the question and answer part of his speech in the exclusive video below.

SAN FRANCISCO – Michael Pachter, video game analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, delivered a keynote at the fourth annual Ayzenberg A-List Summit 2012, put on by the all-purpose game marketing, PR and publishing firm. With the conference focusing on “The Consumer Courtship,” Pachter focused his speech on how the social landscape is already affecting the gaming industry and how will it will trend.  

Rhythm music games continue to be a hot commodity these days.  How else can you explain the gangbuster sales of Just Dance 3 and the ongoing interest in the Dance Central 2 game library?  Over on the Wii, though, there’s only so much you can groove along to before you realize you’re doing the same thing over and over with a Wii remote.  Fortunately, Rhythm Heaven Fever, an adaptation of a previously released Nintendo DS game, takes a break from this norm.

While Nintendo remains a formidable force in the game industry, the company has seen better days, recently posting a net loss in its business and trying to figure out its next move with the Wii U, and whether a renaming of the system is necessary or not.  That said, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata remained confident in the future of the company business, and (finally) introduced a dedicated gaming network coming soon from the company, one that should offer simplicity to those picking up a Nintendo 3DS or, later this year, a Wii U.

LAS VEGAS -- Executives from business, government, entertainment, automotive, consumer electronics and every major industry converged on the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) to experience new ways of doing business at the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow. Games were everywhere as Sony showcased PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, Nintendo had its Wii U playable, Microsoft showed Kinect for Xbox 360 and PC, and game publishers had titles across all platforms, including tablets and smartphones. Owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), CES 2013 will return to Las Vegas January 8-11 2013.

Driven by fast-selling software Nintendo 3DS sells more in its first nine months than Wii did, capping a very good 2011 for the game maker. Whether they were on the go or at home, whether they played in 2D on the TV or in glasses-free 3D in their hands, gamers of all ages celebrated the holidays with Mario and Zelda. Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 for Nintendo 3DS not only became the fastest-selling titles in the history of their respective franchises when they launched, but they are now also the first Nintendo 3DS titles to sell 1 million units each in the United States. On the console side, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which also broke launch records, became the 45 Wii title to sell more than 1 million units in the U.S.

With 2011 coming to a close and CES 2012 just around the corner, opinion-based website SodaHead.com asked its community to vote on the top new gadgets of the year. Not surprisingly, Apple took the top two spots, as the iPhone 4S was the winner with 39% of the vote, followed by the iPad2 with 25%. Rounding out the top five were the Kindle Fire (17%), Nintendo 3DS (12%) and the Nook Table (7%). The full list can be seen below the video showcasing Nintendo’s hands-free 3D device.