[Vic Viper]

Many sat in anticipation for today's press conference, well it happened. Details within.


Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, held a press conference today in Japan in order to discuss future plans for Nintendo. Within the news conference Iwata announced that Nintendo is planning on releasing a new game product which will give gamers a "fresh surprise". Nintendo is calling the new product "unconventional".

"We are preparing a new product which will give a fresh surprise to consumers," stated Satoru Iwata. "I want to release a very different product, and by next spring we'll be ready to announce the details."

Expect the announcement to come at E3 2004.

Nintendo also announced a program that will reward gamers with demo discs of upcoming games and limited edition controllers. The program is called Nintendo Club and will be available to gamers in Japan and North America. The club will reward consumers with "reward points" for buying certain products. The points can be used to purchase other product. Nintendo also plans on rewarding gamers with prizes for feedback on Nintendo products. "We'll begin the new program in Japan and the United States by the end of this year. We aim to have 300,000 - 500,000 users sign up for the program in the first year," said Iwata.

Finally two new GameCube games were announced, Donkey Kong GCN and WarioWare, Inc.GCN. Donkey Kong GCN is being jointly developed with Namco and promises to be released this year in Japan. WarioWare, Inc. will also be released in 2003. Iwata also pointed out that Nintendo will expand upon it's relationships with developers but has no plans for any major acquisitions.

On a side note, a new Zelda was reaffirmed to be released in 2004.

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