Virtual Console For The DSi: We were almost positive that Nintendo would be expanding the DSi store with downloadable classics for the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, but apparently Nintendo isn't quite ready to plumb that particular revenue stream.

Games That Take Advantage Of The DSi's Power: The Nintendo DSi is a bit more powerful than the Nintendo DS, but they've yet to present us with any DSi-specific cartridge-based titles that take full advantage of this.

Retro Studios: Nintendo's main studio in the United States has made some superbly well-reviewed Metroid games and is polishing a compilation disc of all three that they made. So maybe it was time, we thought, for Nintendo to tell us at E3 2009 what Retro is doing next? No dice.

Shigeru Miyamoto: We know Shiggy was at the conference; why didn't he show up for the press conference? Do we smell? Don't answer that.

Kind Code: Can we talk about Nintendo's new difficulty-shifting technology erroneously christened "Kind Code"? We can? We will! Oh wait, no we won't.

New Zelda: We were hoping for a big announcement of a new Zelda game for the Nintendo Wii, but we'll just have to settle for Miyamoto's assurances for now.

Kid Icarus: Long-rumored, desperately hoped for, and once again absent from any sort of announcement. Proof that a large group of people desperately wanting to believe in something doesn't make it true. I don't know how organized religion does it.

Pikmin 3: No new Pikmin? Miyamoto says he's sorry.

Did Nintendo omit anything you were expecting?
WiiWare: Where, oh where, was the WiiWare? While Nintendo didn't put a big emphasis on WiiWare at the conference, their official press release did list several games, many of which have been mentioned previously - Bit.Trip.Core, Swords and Soldiers, Cave Story - pretty exciting games that we suppose they just didn't have time to show off.

Ubisoft's invitation-only presser at the Los Angeles Theatre kicks off at 5pm on Monday, June 1st. There the company will be detailing their 2009 holiday lineup, complete with exclusive reveals of Red Steel 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and a demonstration of Rabbids Go Home, the raving ones' solo debut. There's also mention of other unannounced titles, so we can probably look forward to a couple new games dropping as well.

The event is being hosted by actor and comedian Joel McHale, the current host of E's Talk Soup, so expect many offbeat references to Ryan Seacrest, with whom the man seems obsessed. If that's not enough star power for you, Ubisoft also promises special guests that are certain to thrill attendees". I'm thrilled already!

For those of you unable to attend, Ubisoft will be broadcasting the entire event the following morning for public viewing at Ubi.com, which is certain to be almost as good as being there.

The business wire believes that Nintendo will be unveiling the apparently rumored new Nintendo DS as well as new accessories to avoid a price drop.

The news comes in a year when Nintendo shared have dropped 39 percent amid fears that credit-related losses in the U.S. will affect demand for consumer electronics. Despite the stock drop, Daiwa Institute of Research believes that Nintendo will sell 26.5 million Wii consoles in the year ending March 31, compared with 7 million Xbox 360s. Sony believes it will sell 10 million PS3. Last year, Nintendo's Wii outsold the PS3 and Xbox 360 by two to one, according to Daiwa.

I've been saying since before E3 that Nintendo is relying more on accessories than platform prices and games to sell their Wii, and now it looks like analysts are starting to think that too. But what accessories could Bloomberg be referring to?

Please don't tell me they're talking about that pedometer. Whatever they turn out to be I'm sure plastic injection molding companies everywhere will rejoice.

Stay tuned this evening, about 10:30 p.m. Mountain Time for details from Nintendo's press conference in Japan.

Nintendo May Introduce New DS Player, Wii Accessories (Update1) [Bloomberg]

The show opened with a quick trailer for Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry, a new DS game due out in 2009 throughout Europe that drops you in the middle of a magic school, tasking you to master spells, solve puzzles, all the while allowing you to perform more mundane tasks like making friends, joining clubs, and going on dates. It sounds a bit like Animal Crossing meets Harry Potter, though most of this information came from the press release rather than the trailer, which was merely shown and not really explained.

What followed afterwards was a series of creators coming up to the stage to show off their games. Koji Igarashi came out to show off Castlevania Judgment and the new DS version, repeating the same sort of comments he made last month at E3 - the whole using the Wii remote as a whip origin of the Judgment which I already touched on last month. I would later run into Igarashi in the restroom, hat, whip, and all, leading me to fear that I might step outside and realize Germany was a dream and I was really at a U.S. sci-fi fantasy convention instead. Happily not the case.

Next up was Tomm Hulett, associate producer on Silent Hill: Homecoming, who revealed that the game was coming to PC, which of course we already told you back in July.

Niais Taylor, the associate producer on Rock Revolution, has some amazingly kickass hair, and his drumming skills aren't bad either. He showed off said skills while performing a drum line from the upcoming bad-rhythm game, and while her certainly was good at what he was doing, it didn't make me the least bit excited about the title.

There was a live demonstration of PES 2009, always a treat for the European fans. This year's version features some rather nice animations and looks a lot nicer than what I saw of the last version, but my ignorance of European football is great than my ignorance of American football, so chances of me making some kind of informed statement about the gameplay and realism are extremely slim.

The show came to a close with Dave Cox, head of European product planning, taking the stage to show off two new titles: first, Gti Club, a PlayStation network remake of the 1996 arcade racing title with lightly updated graphics, as well as their big action adventure title, Lords of Shadow.

While a few new titles were announced, the Konami press conference was mainly made up of going over information we already know for the sake of the European market. The new stuff was too early to form an opinion on, especially Lords of Shadow, and the older stuff was just that. At least they didn't spend 20 minutes telling us how good Metal Gear Solid 4 was.

Granted day 2 is filled with press conferences from the likes of Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur Leipzig, which I know you are all dying to hear about, but it's still a pretty jam-packed show while I practice my German. Werden wir Litauen überfallen? I am so ready.

Press dates [Games Convention Website]

A gaggle of Wiimote pictures over at 1UP. Let's see if Crecente gets one at the end of today and if he'd be willing to part with it for a contest. Florian Eckhardt

I just received my invitiation to Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference. This year the big N is going to shoot for actually having enough seats for everyone. One of the ways they are doing this is by assigning people to sections. The sections are color-coded and have cool Nintendo-esque names. Mine, for instance, places me somewhere in the green land of Hyrule.

I wonder where that is and what the other zones are called?

Final Fantasy's creator Hironobu Sakaguchi announced that the much-touted RPG Blue Dragon will be launched this winter in Japan and that a demo of Mistwalker Studio's next title, Lost Odyssey, hits this autumn.

Other announcements at the event included an unnamed Final Fantasy game in 2007, an unnamed RPG exclusive to the Xbox 360 by Tri-Ace and a shooter called Project Sylph from Square-Enix.

Xbox Japan lead Takashi Sensui also touted the popularity of Xbox Live Marketplace in Japan, where there have been 520,000 downloads, the highest rate per a unit in the world.

Sensui announced that Konami, Hudson, SNK, Namco, DS Publisher and Bandai will all be supporting the Xbox Live Arcade. Some of the specific games announced include Galaga and Pac-Man.

Xbox 360 Conference in Japan: First Online Full Report [Xbox 360 Conference in Japan ]