It’s been an exciting week for Nintendo fans: not only has the company revealed its plans to release a special edition bundle for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (complete with golden Wii Remote Plus and soundtrack of highlights from the orchestra concert held in celebration of the series’ 25th anniversary), but it also distributed the first ten games in the 3DS Ambassador Program. These titles, all first-party offerings from the NES library, are available to anyone who purchased the console and connected to its eShop service before August 12, and they can be downloaded immediately by following the instructions outlined in the previous link.
Perhaps most exciting of all, Nintendo has also created an official website for the mysterious press conference it will be holding on September 13. Concrete details on the event are unsurprisingly scant, especially amid the sea of outlandish rumors currently circulating the internet, but it has been confirmed that the conference will indeed focus on the unveiling of a new “3DS product.” Whether said product is a brand new title in development for the system or in fact a new iteration of the console itself will remain a mystery until that fateful day, but a broadcast of the event will be streamed live on the aforementioned website for fans the world over to see (provided, of course, the time difference doesn’t significantly affect your ability to watch the show). The conference is set to begin at 12:00 PM in Japan, so make sure to do the appropriate time conversions and mark your calendars accordingly.
Of course, not every development this week was a joyous one: according to the latest issue of Nintendo Power, Namco has delayed its upcoming 3DS RPG, Tales of the Abyss, until early 2012. There has been no word on why the title was pushed back, but given how dense the holiday season is shaping up to be, the move was perhaps a wise one on Namco’s part– the handheld will begin receiving a wealth of new content come Thanksgiving, and the developer’s offering will likely be crowded out by all of the highly-anticipated first-party releases scheduled to hit the console in that time frame. Delaying the title puts less strain on gamers’ wallets and ensures 3DS will maintain its momentum going into the next year.
In other RPG-related news, Square-Enix has announced that it will be hosting a special Dragon Quest press conference on Monday, September 5. It has been confirmed that the publishing giant will give the world its first look at the enigmatic Dragon Quest X (last said to be in development for Wii) at the event, which can be streamed live at the following website. The conference is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM in Japan, and Nintendojo will be recapping any noteworthy information revealed during the event for those unable to witness it firsthand.
PLEASE BE GOOD, Dragon Quest X. IT WOULDN’T BE GOOD OF YOU TO BREAK MY HEART.
New “product”? Ouch. I’ll bet you anything, it’s just a new color. “The new Silver 3DS” or something like that.