Ahh, mis-information galore, updates below.

Last night Nintendo had its fall press conference in Japan. It was obviously for Japan but most of the announcements will make  their way stateside eventually so of course I was eager to see what was announced. Of course it was a Japanese press only event meaning the only way to “see” it was to follow blogs that were actively translating Japanese “live” blogs written by people at the event. Meaning there’s at least 3 layers of interpretation between everything I read and what was actually said. But enough about the amazing accuracy of the blogosphere (is that a word now?) and on with the good stuff.

Nintendo’s first order of business was to unveiled their newest license to print money which they call the DSi. As the name implies the DSi is a new version of the DS, with the “i” apparently representing its connection with the Wii. Nintendo is calling it their third platform which is a nice way of saying they’re not retiring the DS Lite quite yet. Although I they said the same thing about the GBA when the original DS was released.

Introducing the DSi

Overall it looks pretty much the same. It’s slightly thinner and no longer has a GBA slot.  It now sports Dual touch screens both of which are The dreams of a dual touch screen device have been dashed as there is only a single touch screen on the DSi but they have had their size increased to 3.25 inches which is a whopping 17% bigger. There are two built-in cameras. One appears to be on the on the cover and the other is located on the hinge in between the screens. One of the cameras, presumably the outside one is 3 mega pixels with VGA resolution (640×480). An SD card slot has been added for storage as well as more internal memory how much exactly wasn’t said. I’m somewhat surprised there’s not an accelerometer in there too.

Along with the hardware updates are several new multimedia features. The DSi can now play back music and supports the ACC format. although I’m unsure what formats are supported. It also allows the adjustment of pitch and playback speed which will help for language study but is only likely to be used to make everyone’s songs sound like they’re being sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks. Similar to the Wii the DS will also support channels.

Along with the DSi, Nintendo will also be launching the DSi Shop which will allow users to buy DS Ware (games and other content) via a Wi-Fi connection.  DS Ware is bought with Nintendo Points which are the new Wii Points and will cost 0, 200, 500 or 800 points. Anyone who buys a DSi before March 2010 will also get 1000 points for free. Nintendo Zone hotspots which are the successor to the DS Download stations, will allow for free Wi-Fi connections at Japanese McDonald’s. Part of the DS Ware content is a free web browser application. The browser will be Opera based and supposedly runs faster than the previously released DS Browser. The first two DS Shop games will be revamped version of Brain Age 1 and 2.

The DSi will be available November 1st in Japan for $178 in either Black or White and is will be available sometime in 2009 for everyone else.

Also announced was the ability to download games directly to SD cards on the Wii starting in Spring of 2009. (Hooray!) After the american conference I’m still not sure if you’ll be required to copy games over to the Wii’s system memory in order to play them. It was mentioned that copying speeds between the SD card and Wii System memory has been dramtically increased. A new Wi-Fi adapter that was previously announced was re-announced. Also WiiSpeak and presumably Animal Crossing City Folk will be released November 20th in Japan for $79 and support both Miis and the swapping of data from the DS version of the game.

As for Wii games there were a few different. Certain Gamecube games including Pikmin are going to be re-released for the Wii as a sort of best seller series. Hopefully they won’t just be direct port and include at least wide screen and 480p support. A few new games were also announced for the Wii including Punch Out, Sengoku Musou 3, Sin and Punishment 2, Taiko no Tatsujin, and Another Code. The only one that interests me is a fully motion controlled Punch Out which has the potential to be amazing. After seeing a short video of the game it looks like it might have a chance of living up to my expectations. Miyamoto also demoed Wii Music (again) and it still sucks. They sure are putting a lot of effort into promoting a game that nobody really seems interested in.

As for the US release day it’s “well into” 2009. There’s also a picture editor included.

Some news from the American Press conference.

The Conduit which I had a chance to demo at PAX is now a first party Wii game. *Update* Turns out The Conduit isn’t going to be a first-party game. The presenter simply confused the terms first-party and first person shooter. It was recently announced that the Conduit is actually going to be published by Sega.*/Update* I’m seriously excited about this game. After playing it and talking with some of the developers I’m positive it’ll be huge. A Halo 3 for the Wii if you will.

There is going to be a WiiSpeak channel that will allow up to 4 people to chat with each other and can be downloaded off of the Shopping Channel. A coupon to download the channel will be included with the WiiSpeak Mic, hopefully this also means non-WiiSpeak microphones can also be used with the channel.

Most of this information was shamelessly stolen from the following sites:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/02/nintendo-announces-the-dsi/
http://www.destructoid.com/sort-of-but-not-really-a-liveblog-nintendo-announces-a-new-ds-model-the-dsi-105937.phtml
http://kotaku.com/5057867/liveblogging-the-nintendo-press-conference-liveblog

Last week was the E3 Media and Business Summit, formerly known as Electronic Entertainment Expo also known as E3. I thought I’d post my take on the show this year and give an overview of the major announcements.

MS definitely won E3 this year. Hands down. First they announces a refresh for the Xbox 360 dashboard interface. The new look is similar to that of Vista’s Flip3d and the new Media Center. I can’t wait to play with the interface when it is released. Along with they new interface they’re also allowing 8 person voice chat and the ability to copy game discs to the HD to speed up load times. Microsoft is also adding avatars, which are basically Miis for the 360, and along with them a casual games section for XBL called Primetime. Not extremely exciting but kind of neat. Two other things that don’t really interest me are Lips and Netflix. Lips is a karaoke game and Netflix is partnering with MS to allow movie downloads. The big reveal for MS was Final Fantasy 13 was going to be available for the 360 (everywhere but Japan). That’s a pretty big blow for Sony since the Final Fantasy series has always been a huge exclusive for Sony.

Harmonix also announced the entire set list for Rock Band 2 and it is chock full of awesome. One of the coolest parts of the announcement was that for $5 you can unlock get most of the RB1 content as DLC for RB2 which will go nicely with the ability to use any RB1 DLC in RB2. Activision also annouced that the Rock Band guitars and drum set will work with Guitar Hero 4 which means there is actually a chance of me buying GH4 now, depending on the set list.

The Nintendo conference was just weak. Wii Music was announced and looks pretty useless, basically it amounts to a video game version of the toy instrument they make for kids. Other than a generic statement about more Mario and Zelda coming they didn’t really say anything about any games I actually care about. They did announce Animal Crossing: City folk and eventually Pikmin 3. Neither of which I’ve play or have much interest in right now (although I did order Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS). I was hoping for a new Kirby, Kid Icarus, or a new IP. Of course they did announce two new periperals for the Wii, WiiSpeak and the Wiimotion+. Wiimotion plus comes bundles with WiiSport: Resort looks and interesting but it would have been nice if it was built in to the Wiimotes to begin with. Apparently WiiSpeak, which comes with Animal Crossing, works pretty well but I think I’d just prefer a headset.

OK, So there was some good news for Nintendo on the DS side. Chrono Trigger (aka the best RPG ever) and Kirby Superstar are being remade for the DS.

As for Sony, they didn’t have much that interested me. probably since I don’t own a PS3. They some new PSN games and a video download service. They also showed a trailer for a game called MAG which is supposed to feature 256 players at once.

Some other stuff worth mentioning:

• PC/360: Left 4 Dead
• PC/360/PS3: Return to Castle Wolfenstein 2
• 360: Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
• 360: No Bungie announcement
• Wii: Dead Rising is coming to the Wii
• Wii: Mad World
• Wii/360/PS3: MegaMan 9
• DS: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• DS: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

In the end, I think this sums it up the entire conference pretty well.