Early yesterday morning, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gave his keynote speech to a packed room of press at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Fransisco. While it wasn't a massively memorable conference, it did have a few interesting tidbits, namely the Wii Storage solution and the announcement of a new Zelda game for the DS.

As comes part and parcel with most Nintendo press conferences nowadays, Iwata showed off Nintendo sales figures, making it out like the Wii and DS were the greatest things since sliced bread. He also mentioned consumer statistics, stating that 47% of DS owners are female and that third party software sales on Wii were higher than any other console. Surprisingly, the Wii Balance Board was stated as having almost outsold the Playstation 3.

Iwata spoke about rushed games and the influence the financial crisis has had on game developers, forcing many to rush games out. He mentioned an "upward spiral" model in which Nintendo was incorporating, stating Shigeru Miyamoto follows this mentality, taking as much time as he needs to make a game, without time or creative restrictions.

He showed off a new music-based title called Rhythm Heaven for the DS, which looks great. It uses the touch-screen and looked like a lot of fun.

Rock and Roll Climber for WiiWare was given a demonstration, showing nunchuck-controlled gameplay with incorporation of the balance board. For retro fans, Iwata announced that My Life as a Dark Lord Crystal Chronicle and early Final Fantasy games will be appearing on VC soon.

Iwata invited Bill Trinen of Nintendo of American on stage, who revealed the Wii Menu System 4.0. Not much was shown, however, an SD Card support option which allows the support of high capacity SD cards was displayed. Great news!

With the launch of DSi approaching for the Western World, DSiWare was next on the agenda, which is the DSi-equivalent of WiiWare. Moving Memo, a title which allows you to create animated pictures, and WarioWare Snapped, a mini-game title, were shown off as early DSi DSiWare titles.

Iwata then came back on stage to announce Virtual Console Arcade. Star Force, The Tower of Druaga and Galaga 3 are the first games to be included and will be made available for 500 points each.

The biggest part of the conference occurred next, with the announcement of an all-new Zelda game - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS. The footage shown looked similiar to Phantom Hourglass and the title is set for release later this year.

Iwata then said his thank you's and goodbye's and walked off stage as the keynote ended.

Submitted by Gaetano 1 days ago 67 33

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