Nintendo's conference in Tokyo has begun, and some Japanese blogs are already there.
With little else to occupy my time tonight, I thought I'd try liveblogging the liveblogs -- finding the news stories in Japanese and posting them in this entry as sites like Gemaga and Famitsu update their blogs.
Update: The conference is now over. Nintendo announced its new DSi system and a veritable goldmine of new software for Wii and DS, including Punch-Out for Wii and Mario and Luigi 3 for Nintendo DS.
13:36: Gemaga says, "It hasn't started yet. But this blog has slowed to a crawl all of a sudden (；・∀・)"
13:38: "It's started!"
13:39: Iwata takes the stage and immediately announces the Nintendo DSi, the new version of DS.
13:43: Iwata says: At the pace the Nintendo DS has been selling, you might think that the market has been saturated. But we believe we can still expand it.
__13:46: __The size of the unit has been reduced by 12% and 2.6 millimeters -- and the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot is gone. Sad face.
13:58: Impress Watch has a photo of the DSi.
13:59: More from Gemaga. As the rumors indicated, the DSi has a larger screen, 3.25 inches. There's a camera, and an audio-playing function. The camera is... goodness. 300,000 pixels? Is that 3 megapixels? You can apparently edit pictures using the touch screen. When playing back sounds, you can adjust the pitch and the playback speed. Why's that important? Why, for studying languages or playing music by ear, of course.
14:00: There's an SD memory card slot so you can dump your pictures right to Wii's photo channel, for example
__14:04: __Whoa, there's onboard memory apparently, so you can load it up with software... like games. You can download games. With Wii Points. Holy cow. Wii Points will be renamed "Nintendo Points." This just went from "well, interesting" to "must buy."
14:05: Nintendo DS web browser is built in.
14:06: From the "Nintendo DS Shop," you can download "Nintendo DS Ware." Software will be split into four categories: Free, 200, 500, Premium (800). And until March 2010, you'll get a free 1000 points (1000 yen or $10) when you buy a DSi.
__14:10: __The "DS Station" download kiosks in Japanese stores will enter their "second phase." A new service called "Nintendo Zone" will be started, which you can also use at McDonald's. (This must be the "strengthened internet communication" that early reports from Nikkei discussed.)
14:11: Nintendo DSi will be released in white and sooty-grey-black color variations, and launch on November 1 for 18900 yen (about $180). Yes, they've just raised the price of Nintendo DS a second time. You knew it was coming.
14:15: Well. Moving right along.
14:19: Gemaga says that they've just shown a demo reel of DS games that will be out before the end of the year. Also, as I predicted, they're now going to do a demo of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, the new DS slash Wii game.
14:22: They skipped over that pretty quickly! Now they're showing an "image anime" trailer for* Dragon Quest IX*.
__14:25: __Hey, it's Nintendo's solution to the Wii's crappy internal storage! Let's see what Gemaga has to say: You'll be able to download software straight to an SD memory card, and be able to easily copy that software to the Wii. They're rolling this out in Spring 2009. Not quite sure what this all means!
__14:29: __They're going to start including a three-and-a-half minute demo movie called "Things You Can Do With Wii" with new Wii hardware, to get more people using the Internet features of Wii. They're releasing a (new?) Wii Wi-Fi Adapter. And if you, a Wii owner, help another Wii owner get connected with the Internet, they'll give you both a free 500 Wii Points in a new campaign.
14:32: Talking about Animal Crossing for Wii. You'll be able to transfer your data from the DS version and use Miis. We know this! We went to E3! The Wii Speak will also be released in Japan, of course, packaged with Animal Crossing for 7800 yen on November 20.
14:36: Talking about* Wii Sports Resort* and the MotionPlus.
14:38: Gamasutra's Simon Carless instant messages to tell me that the camera in the DSi must be 640x480 resolution, because 640 times 480 equals 300,000 pixels.
14:40: New Wii game that I am pretty sure is from Yuji Naka's new studio, called "Let's Tap." Nintendo is re-releasing a series of famous GameCube games like Pikmin under the banner "Wii de Asobu Selection" (Games You Can Play on Wii Selection). Economical!
__14:43: __Demo reel of new Wii games *oh my effing god they announced *Punch-Out.
14:44: And Another Code (aka Trace Memory, the DS adventure game). And Sin and Punishment 2. God damn. They couldn't have shown these at, oh, I don't know, E3?
14:46: A numbered "Musou" game is coming to Wii for the first time:* Sengoku Musou 3*. I can't for the life of me remember, but this is the one set in Japan, right?
14:49: A *Tales Of *series "mothership title" was announced, and now they're all watching a video of Monster Hunter 3.
14:52: Iwata leaves the stage, and Miyamoto comes up to talk about Wii Music.
14:56: Gemaga seems to have stopped updating; they may be asleep.
__15:02: __They awaken from their slumber. "I wanted to make a game that captures the fun of playing a musical performance or session, so I created Wii Music," says Miyamoto.
__15:06: __Oh, speaking of music games: a NeoGAF poster found a press release on Bandai Namco's site that says* Taiko no Tatsujin* will be released for Wii on December 11. It'll cost 7800 yen and include a drum controller.
__15:12: __Nintendo has posted the official pages from the conference, where you can check out videos of the new games that it has announced and explore the DSi's new features -- in Japanese, of course. I'll get to these once the liveblogging is over.
__15:18: __Gemaga says that people from the conference were invited up to have a musical session with Miyamoto. They show a video of people playing the game.
15:30: After a whole lot more Wii Music, that part of the presentation is over, and Miyamoto leaves the stage.
15:31: It's over! Thanks very much to the tireless people at Gemaga for liveblogging the event so that we the hapless foriegn press can have something to write about. Enjoy getting to go play all those games at the afterparty! Hopefully our U.S. media summit tomorrow is as awesome as yours. Ha ha: Of course it won't be.
Top image: Wired.com, lower image: Namco Bandai
