(AF) Tokyo – In a move sure to cause turmoil across the console gaming industry, Nintendo announced a multi-billion dollar deal to acquire Sony’s troubled PlayStation division. Nintendo officials indicated the move would help cement the company’s place at the top of the industry while providing greater options for gamers who prefer the edgier, more mature games that the PlayStation has typically done better than the Nintendo Wii.

“We believe this will provide gamers the best of both worlds,” said Nintendo special spokesperson Charles Carmichael at a press conference. “The Wii will still focus on family-friendly, party-oriented games, while the PlayStation platform, which we will re-brand as the Yuu, will provide the more graphic- and action-intensive experience the more hardcore gamers seek.”

Carmichael also spoke of an eventual marriage of the two technologies, phasing out the PlayStation move, designed to emulate the Wii’s motion-capture technology, in order to replace it with the more popular Nintendo technology. “We envision a time when you will be able to use the Wii Motion Plus and nunchuck or the PlayStation dual-shock controllers interchangeably between systems,” he added.

Sony officials had little to add about the deal, saying only that the success of the Nintendo Wii, along with pressure from Microsoft’s Xbox system, had forced the company out of its traditional role of innovator and into a more reactive mode, which has hurt sales over-all. Rather than continue the fight the company decided to exit the industry and focus on core competencies.

Nintendo will pay $17 billion for the PlayStation division. They anticipate the deal concluding by this summer, with complete integration of the two companies targeted for April 1, 2012.

(In case you have a) read this far, and b) still aren’t sure we’re full of crap, APRIL FOOLS!)