Speaking to Fast Company, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten revealed the launch date for the eagerly anticipated dashboard update, which brings console-tailored versions of Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM to Xbox 360 users. With the release day announcement, Whitten stresses that these aren't merely PC ports of the popular social networking sites, but entirely new entertainment experiences.

"We look at things like Facebook and Twitter as amazing social experiences, but also entertainment. We didn't want to copy and paste from the PC."

So who's excited? I'm actually looking forward to seeing how many of my Facebook friends get converted into Xbox Live contacts. I'll probably fiddle around with Facebook for a bit, and then turn on Last.FM and leave it running until the end of time.

Facebook and Twitter Come to Xbox Live This Tuesday [Fast Company]

In Assassin's Creed II gamers will take on the role of Ezio, a privileged young noble in Renaissance Italy who's been betrayed by the rival ruling families of Italy, in a quest for vengeance.

The press release promises a game set in an open world environment with more variety in missions,new gameplay elements, diverse weapons and character progression. The game has already been in development for more than two years by the original creative team behind the original title, Ubisoft says.

"Our creative team is working hard to top the experience of Assassin's Creed," said Patrice Desilets, creative director at Ubisoft. "We've made improvements to every aspect of the game. We've plunged ourselves into the stunning history of the Italian Renaissance so that we can offer fans a unique, varied and innovative Assassin's Creed experience."

We were pretty certain this was the case over the weekend, but you know how much we like to have solid facts to back up our solid rumors. Microsoft verified the date in a press alert today, which highlighted the three new Halo 3 maps along with the new Gears of War 2 maps due out on the 31st of this month.

Both sets of downloadable content will be available for 800 Microsoft fake money points.

This just in - you will be surprised to hear that the MMO/FPS game has had its Western PC release pushed back until "the first half of 2009". The promised Xbox 360 version is even deeper in the mire - no release date has yet been suggested.

The massively multiplayer shooter is loosely (extremely, I would have though) based on the visionary SciFi novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. The challenge now for Webzen is to ensure a release date before the novel's fictional timeline begins in 2540 AD. Not long now, chaps!

No Huxley US launch in 2008 [Big Download]

Ooh, they're throwing around a Mario ball. I just caught it from Robert Summa, who's sitting like three rows back. I threw it behind me, fire and forget style, sure hope I didn't break anyone's laptop.

We're sitting ina studio filled with tall-backed white chairs facing a faux brickwall and a huge digital screen showing a window's view of downtown NYC and the World Trade Center site. There are two Wii sitting on what looks like black pedestals on the stage. There's also a big long white couch and other fake living room furniture. The word Wii is being projected onto the wall above a smaller flat panel.

There's a huge area to the right of the stage filled with a bunch of Wii and flat panels, used for gameplay.

Ah Perrin is on the stage introducing the event. She just mentioned the Tokyo announcment, which she said went very well.

"Today we are going to share many of the exciting details of the Wii."

She said the NYT story was just the "tip of the iceberg" Presentation is expected to be about an hour, followed by an afternoon of gaming.

Reggie just took the stage.

"Welcome to a significant day. Not only for Nintendo and the Wii but the future of the video gaming industry."

"We will reveal all of the information about the Wii: Day, price, titles."

"Our strategy is based on one core belief, the next step in gaming is bring gaming back to the masses."

"Appealing to core gamers as well as broadening the audience for gaming."

Hit the jump for more. Brian Crecente

Reggie is walking through Nintendo's history of innovation.

First, he says, was the DS. Next was the Touch Generation of games.

He says Touch Generation games are different than most, rather than taking you away from your life it looks to connect you more to it.

"DS supplements your life."

Now he's talking about New Super Mario Bros. That game represents about 35 percent of all first part games sold. Touch Generation games, combined, make up 39 percent of all DS sales.

"Third important moment in our list of new products came with the debut of the Nintendo WiFi Connection."

"Fourth, about this time last year, the unveiling of the Wii."

"The fifth step is today."

On to the hard news.

Wii goes on sale Nov. 19, that means worldwide debut happens right here in the U.S.

That day, it will be available at more than 25,000 retails stores for $249.99.

"One price, one configuration, one color."

OOOh, that's a dig at Msoft and Sony, I believe.

He says the shipment goal worldwide is 4 million by the end of the year.

The "Americas will receive the largest share of that number."

He says the flow will be even, to minimize shortages.

Inside the box, you will get the console hardware, cables, the sensor bar, all of the accoutrements to get started, one Wii remote and one nunchuk controller. No mention of any included games.

Ah, he's just announced that Wii Bowling will be part of Wii Sports.

Eric is showing off Wii Sports Bowling.

You hold the Wii close to your chest, swing your arm back and then forward, just like real bowling.

By twisting the control in the swing down you can put a spin on the ball.

The game supports up to four players in a game.

Wii sports will also have boxing. So that's Wii Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling and Boxing.

Bummer, no Duck Hunt.

Ahhh, now Reggie is saying that the game disc will be included in the console pack.

This is the first console pack since the SNES, he says.

OK, now he's talking about the launch titles.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck and Wii Sports are the first party titles, he says, all available on launch day.

Reggie's singing the praises of the Zelda game, he says it's the "best gotta have it title since the days of the NES and Super NES." Wow, high praise.

At the event in Tokyo there were 104 titles showcased. Wow.

Activision will have five here. Atari, Atlus, Electronic Arts, Konami, Midway, Sega, SNK, THQ, Ubisoft and Vivendi all have games here today. Sounds like I'm in for some fun.

Publishers and developers are on hand to talk to the media as well. Reggie is showing off some choice quotes about the Wii from people like Larry Probst from EA and Robert Kotick from Activision.

About 30 Wii games will be available this year, with about half of them available at launch. Wii games will be $49.99, for first party stuff.

Fifth bit of innovation is called Wii Channels.That's the official name for the Virtual Console and he's about to dish the details.

Reggie says they needed to come up with a sort of Touch Generations for the Wii.

They're showing the GUI now. Looks kinda cool. It shows the weather in a box, a box with a ton of little avatar faces,

Initially there will be 12 Wii channels.

The first channel lets you play a Wii game or one of 530 GameCube discs. Next is the Wii shopping channel where you can buy old games to play on the console.

At least three games will be online on launch day. By the end of the year there will be at least 30 legacy titles. Beginning in January that will grow 10 a month through the year. Price will be 500 Wii Points (or $5) for NES, 800 for SNES and 1,000 for N64.

You can buy a 2,000 Wii Points card at a store for $20. They will also be selling a Wii classic controller for playing the games.

Once a game is downloaded it shows up as a channel in the menu.

Bill Trinen is taking the stage to showing a weird Touch Generationish channel.

One is called the Mii channel. A Mii is a digital 3D avatar of whoever, including yourself.

You can create a Mii by finding a look-a-like or start from scratch. Bill is showing us how to do this, by creating a Mii Samuel L. Jackson. Oooooh, maybe he's in the mother-fucking building.

First you pick a head, then eyebrows, then the eyes, then the nose, the mouth and accessories. You basically scroll through pages of choices which can be tweaked.

Save and quit and enter the name and you're done. He just pops up on the screen. The Mii's sorta roam around on the screen.

Next you can transfer your Mii's to your Wii Remote and take them with you.

You can take them to a friend's house and let them populate your friend's Wii. You can also let them populate your Wii games. So you can put the little Mii's in your game like Wii Tennis. Kinda cool.

Now they're showing us the photo channel. The menu shows eight images at a time, in two rows of four images. You can scroll through them like a slot machine. The front of the Wii has a SD reader and once you pop in the card it quickly pulls up the images.

You can also zoom out to see all of the images in a bunch of super tiny thumbnails.

Now they're showing us a bunch of images from working at Nintendo. Very silly.

You can also view movies and alter them instantly with little fun games. Like turning it into a moving puzzle.

Reggie is back on the stage to talk about some other Wii Channels that will launch with the Wii.

There will be a news channel and the weather channel, as I mentioned earlier.

There's also a message board where users can send messages or photos to other Wii owners or to a PC or Cell phone. You can also send messages to other members of the family on a calendar like feature.

Now he's talking about Always-On 24 and how you can get updates while you sleep.

Oh, there's also an Internet channel. You will have to buy the Opera Browser separately, though he didn't mention a price.

Wii Channel system is available instantly, since the console remains on all of the time, so no boot-up.

The concept is that people will get used to using the console daily and often and begin to become gamers because it's so accessible.

"We our intent on changing the way players connect to their games and the way any TV owner can connect to their system."

To summarize:
Revolutionary Play
Best of the past
Biggest Launch library in history
Wii Channels
Affordable Price.

Now into Q&A time.

Q: How much are additional remotes.
A: Wii Remote is $39.99. Nunchuck attachment is $19.99.

Q: Can the Wii hold the images or does it stay on the SD.
A: The majority is for SD.

Q: What's up with Zelda for GameCube.
A: It launches Dec 11

Q: When are you specifying which are launch day and which are launch window.
A: We are going to leave that for third-party, but about half will be launch day.

Q: Cost of connecting to the Internet?
A: There is no cost through our system. You need an Internet Connection at your home. If you have a wireless router you are set to go. Or you can connect through a wire.

Q: Why charge Wii Points.
A: We think Wii Points is the most straight forward way for consumers.

Q: What about third Party game prices.
A: We encourage our third-party partners to price their games at a competitive price.

Q: 4 million world wide.
A: by Dec. 31

Q: How many will support wide-screen and how would you compare graphical power.
A: Most if not all are wide screen. In terms of graphical power, we have a different paradigm for what turns on the consumer.

Q: Integration between DS and the Wii
A: We are not announcing any details, but in the future you will hear much more details.

Q: There were rumblings about Metroid Prime as a launch title, any more details.
A: Metroid Prime is going to be a 2007 title.

Q: How will Wii points be converted for other countries?
A: 2000 Wii points will be about $24 Canadian. Similar strategy in Mexico and other markets.

Q: In-Gaming advertising and branded channels.
A: In terms of in-game advertising in terms of first-party it is something we are looking at. But our strategy is different. We see in game branding as a way of making the game more real, as opposed to a revenue stream.

Right now we don't have plans for branded channels, but that's right now. Who's to say what the future will bring.

And that's it for the Q&A. Time to play some games.

I had actually planned this vacation at the beginning of the year, and it just so happens that Nintendo decided to throw a major press conference there while I was in town.
So check in Thursday morning for the news on the Nintendo Wii. There's a meet and greet starting at 8:30 a.m. EST and then the press conference gets underway at 9 a.m. or so. Press conferences are never exactly on time so give or take a half hour on those times.

According to the press release from 10 a.m. on we'll be playing Wii games.

While there's no official word on what will be announced, I expect both the price and date will be unveiled at the event. I also suspect they might let us know some other stuff, be it more details on the Virtual Console, a new game announcement or maybe some other surprise.

You know Nintendo, they are always full of suprises.

After my day with the big N I'll be spending the rest of the week in the Big Apple with my wife and son vacating.

See you guys Thursday or, if not, next week. Brian Crecente

There's still a week to go until Nintendo officially announces the details of the Wii launch - but MCV can reveal that the new console will hit retail by November 24th, it will be priced at 149 and stock will be plentiful.

Wow, it sounds like MCV has the scoop, but two paragraphs in they use the choice word "believes" and in the next paragraph that sinks to "expects" and by the last paragraph they admit the only thing they really know is that Nintendo will have plenty of stock whenever it happens to ship in Europe.

Wii Date and Price [MCV UK]

So far we've got:

Chicago: October 13
Miami: September 29
Denver: ?

Just post the city, date and link to verification when you track it down. We'll do the same. Brian Crecente

North America is still getting the camera on Sept. 19, but the UK and Asia (except Japan) don't get it until Oct. 2. The release date for Japan, Australia and New Zealand are all still up in the air.

Sorry for any confusion. Brian Crecente

Xbox Live Vision Camera [Major Nelson]

A retail insider told us awhile back that the DS Lite would be hitting in June. I'm expecting a price somewhere in the $150 to $200 range, though I'd guess it would hit on the lower end of that.

Check back Thursday for the official skinny.

1Up Podcast

In DYNASTY WARRIORS 5 EMPIRES, the armies of the kingdom are at your command! The player s ultimate goal is to conquer the 25 regions of Ancient China and build an entire Empire using cunning diplomacy and uncompromising force. Before each battle, the player will meet with the war council to decide upon military and political policies for the kingdom; then it s time for war.

DYNASTY WARRIORS 5 EMPIRES gives armchair generals total control of their kingdom. Now, gamers can issue direct orders to each officer or signal general commands to officers on the field. Players will order when the army will take the offensive, defend their ground, or have all officers gather for an ambush. Gamers can also choose the officers for an attack force, entice captives into joining the kingdom s service and even expel officers from the kingdom. There s even greater authority over Government, Product Development, Diplomacy and Battle Tactics with the game s 25 new policies for a total of 75 in all.

The game s imperial-sized action includes 4 scenarios to unlock, 2-Player Co-Op play in Empire and Free modes, new items to unlock, and control of over 200 officers! Once the dust has settled, there s the real history of Ancient China to discover in the game s detailed Encyclopedia.

Nintendo announced today the release dates for two, not one, Brain Training games in the U.S.

Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day hits on April 17 and Big Brain Academy hits on May 30.

From the press release:

Brain Age presents players with a series of fun mental brain-training challenges that incorporate word memorization, counting and reading. It even includes sudoku number puzzles, which have become extremely popular features in newspapers around the country. The distinctive touch screen of Nintendo DS lets users write their responses, just as though they were using a PDA.

Players even turn the Nintendo DS sideways to make it feel more familiar, like a book. The more often users challenge themselves, the better they become at the tasks and the lower their estimated DS "brain age."

The second title in the series, Big Brain Academy (known as Brain Flex in Japan) offers players 15 fun activities that test their brain powers in areas like logic, memory, math and analysis. Up to eight people can play with a single game card, and each activity takes less than a minute to complete.

Nice. Put this up there with the PS2's PQ and you've got a regular Brain Gym going on.

Reuters reports that Microsoft will release the Xbox 360 in a staggered fashion to buyers worldwide. North American buyers will get it first. About ten days later the Europeans will get it and in another 10 days Japan. Microsoft said it's doing this way to keep up with the logistics of a worldwide launch.

Helpful information, I know. But I'd rather know an actual friggin' release date.