At the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, Nintendo is expected to reveal details about its upcoming portable, the Nintendo 3DS.
Kotaku will be culling all the highlights and bringing them to you in real time. We're one-stop shopping!
And the press conference has begun. Satoru Iwata has taken the stage — he's decked out in his Japanese company president wear (a three-piece suit).
He is now talking about Pokémon: Black and White and how amazing the game did during its first two days on sale. The game sold 2.55 million in its first week.
Iwata has moved on to talking about the Super Mario Collection.
The Last Story will be released on January 27.
An image of the Wii Remote Plus has appeared on the screen. The peripheral, previously leaked by box art, is official.
"We have studied 3D in depth," Iwata says, "because we can offer more freedom by using 3D."
Resident Evil: Liberation and Metal Gear for the 3DS are being shown.
Iwata is talking about how the Nintendo 3DS's "always on" passive tag feature and how the portable is able to communicate with Miis on other Nintendo 3DS portables. The way is works is that the upper right of the Nintendo 3DS lights up with it has received data during the Tag Mode. Players can exchange data for games they are not playing as Tag Mode can handle data exchange for titles that are not currently being played.
The Nintendo 3DS is capable of AR games. Nintendo is releasing a title called "AR Games".
"Why a portable console?" Iwata asks. "Because every player can enjoy equally stable 3D."
On the screen, a video shows the Nintendo 3DS being used to take real photos and then having a Mii automatically made. "Mii Studio" is the feature that enables players to easily make Miis from Nintendo 3DS pictures. Mii Studio also supports QR codes, making data exchange super easy.
It is possible to save Mii images to an SD card. That's good because the Nintendo 3DS comes bundled with a 2GB SD card. The Nintendo 3DS has a feature that enables it to automatically merge two photos into a single image.
Love Plus, the popular Japanese love simulator, is heading to the Nintendo 3DS. The game will support Tag Mode so that characters can "gossip" when they pass each other.
Super Street Fighter IV will support WiFi fighting. Even when the Nintendo 3DS is in Sleep Mode, the portable can connect to WiFi and automatically download data like rankings, freeware and more.
The Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console supports Game Boy titles!
There is a new wireless LAN service for the Nintendo 3DS. It is called "Wifine". Even outdoors, it is possible to pick up a WiFi signal.
Nintendo is doing a test run of offering 3D television programming from Nihon Terebi and Fuji TV through the Nintendo 3DS.
Nintendo is running through Nintendo 3DS titles like Samurai Warriors Chronicle, Metal Gear, Dead or Alive, etc.
The Nintendo 3DS will launch in Japan on February 26, 2011 for ¥25,000 (US$298). The portable will launch in North America and Europe in March 2011. Nintendo did not provide pricing.
The two colors at launch in Japan are Aqua Blue and Cosmos Black.
Several game creators are now talking about why they wanted to make games for the Nintendo 3DS — like Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear fame, Tetsuya Nomura of Kingdom Hearts fame and Akihiro Hino of Professor Layton fame.
...And that's it! This conference is over.
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