In probably the biggest Nintendo update since E3, Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata announced some major new details about the Wii and the games available for it. Quickly summarized, the main points of interest are:

• The Wii launch date will be revealed in September
• Unsurprisingly, Nintendo won’t lose much on Wii hardware sales. They hope to have 6 million units ready by April ‘07
• Game pricing for the Virtual Console is suggested to be around $5 and $10 a game (implying this won’t be subscription-based)
• The Wii will be able to recognize touch-screen input, meaning the DS can be used as a controller in some instances
• DS sales are expected to be around 2 million / month for the coming year, with production to meet this level of demand
• Pokemon for the Wii will be released and available in Winter ‘06

It’s good to see more concrete details filtering in. Also, announcing Pokemon during this conference instead of during E3 may have been a great strategic decision, as Nintendo appears to be trying to shed its “kiddy” image with titles like Project H.A.M.M.E.R. and Disaster: Day of Crisis that were announced at E3.

Read More | Famitsu (Japanese) via Spong.com (English summary)